On Thu, 28 Dec 2000, ZER0 FREQUENCY wrote:
> ok, 4MB and a 386DX processor was the minimum to run linux on
> console and not much goodies, right?
you could get away with a 386SX with math processor emulation in the
kernel, but it would be really crawling and you'd be thrashing your swap a
lot even on bash scripts. note that bash isn't exactly a small shell as
far as memory footprint is concerned, so you could get away with using a
leaner shell like ash(?). as for goodies, you could have lots on your hdd,
but having a lot of processes running at startup will only be a painful
experience.
i don't recall if i even attempted to recompile the kernel with just 4MB
RAM. it just thrashed way too much. i really had to get 8MB to get a
decent compile.
however, if you set up a really lean boot disk, with a small shell as your
initial process (the default is /sbin/init) and have a prepared swap
partition, you could manage to run linux without all the overhead. it'd
basically be like DOS sort of. you'd miss out on all the environment
features we've become accustomed to in full linux setups.
--
eric pareja ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) ~-=[O]=-~ Here, have a clue. Get the picture.
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