"Alvin B. Marcelo" wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> We've decided to reformat our old PC's and install Linux (mixes of 386's
> and 486's and some PI's)...
>
> Question:
>
> What are the minimum packages to install
>
> - to make it a part of a network
1) If you want them connected to the networking using ethernet and
tcp/ip you would need to compile (or compile a module) for the
kernel to support the type of ehternet card you are using.
2) Then you will also need to add networking support in the kernel
for tcp/ip (I don't think you can make this into a module)
3) After than you can add the networking programs you will be using
on a daily basic, some of these would also be good to have when
setting them up, for debugging purposes. (like ping, telnet, ftp,
etc.)
1) If you are using them though a modem dial up, add modem. compile
(or compile module) for ppp support, referer to set 2 above.
1) If you are using them as dumb terminals, add serial cable, install
minicom, login.
> - to make it run Netscape 4.x
Networking support, see above.
An X Windows System, the most popular one for Linux
is the XFree86 Project {http://www.xfree86.org/}
Don't know the size, but I would guess around
25-250 megs?
Netscape Communicator {ftp://ftp.netscape.com}
typically about 15-30 megs for stand alone
to proffessinal package.
That's about it.
>
> How "small" can a hard drive be for this purpose?
0 megs or less. Seriously you can, if money is tight,
boot from floppy or NFS and use everything over the
network, it does put a strain on bandwidth and the
performance of the work station will be degraded, but
it can be done.
You could fit an entire workstation w/swap, w/X Windows
System for under 500 Megs.
I have a tight little slackware box that weights in at
about 130 megs with no Windows System, but it is packed
with alot of console programs.
Another options you may look into is giving each workstation
it's hard drive to boot from, to swap from, to run a X windows
System and also Netscape. Then seutp an NFS server on one
of the more "high" power systems with a decent amount of
drive space. Put commonly used programs on there, and have
users run them from there.
This way it could save a decent about of more, admin maintainces,
and not put to much performance staight on the workstations
and network. NFS, NIS are good :)
>
> Thank you.
>
> alvin
Here are some tight little "distro's" that run where hardware
is tight. I got "small linux" up and running on a 386 w/ 8 megs
of ram and a 1.44 floppy drive. :) I haven't tried the other
ones listed here, yet.
Try one of these
Linux Router Project - {http://www.linuxrouter.org/}
Small Linux - {http://http://smalllinux.netpedia.net/}
Micro Linux - {http://mulinux.nevalabs.org/}
Pico BSD - {http://http://www.freebsd.org/~picobsd/}
Jack
