> The problem is compiling the damn kernel.  The post 2.0 kernel
> source has become so bloated that it nearly overflows the free
> space on my HD and takes forever to compile (on my 486).

Heh.  I remember when building 1.4.x was pushing the limits on my drive,
couldn't move to a 2.0 kernel until we got a huge 1.6GB disk.  Then I just
upgraded to the version of Slackware that came in the back of 'Linux Kernel
Internals', which was a 2.0-based distro; the upgrade to 2.2 required me to
put the old 240MB drive back in (resting on the soundcard and front panel)
to build since I'd run out of space *again*.

Now the machine's getting rebuilt completely with a 2.4 kernel (need to be
current, it's a router/server box).  It's a P133 with 40MB RAM; I'll let you
know how long the 2.4 build takes if you're interested?

> It's not unusual for me to recompile something 7-8 times to get
> it just right.  But this process becomes absolute tortue when
> the compilation you begin at breakfast is not finished until lunch.

D'you want a compute/compile server account to speed the process?  I can get
you an account on my dual PIII-800 workstation from the end of next month...
'Course, you may find your P166 is plenty fast enough :)

I was actually thinking of offering shell accounts on my server box to
anyone here who wants one, if there was any interest.  *shrug*

> It just depends on how big the packages have become
> in Slackware 8.1.  BasicLinux will still use Slackware
> packages for X, GCC, etc.  I'm hoping they haven't become
> too bloated.

I installed 8.0 in a VM a couple of days ago; nothing seemed to be
alarmingly larger than it was when I installed '97 on my other box.  There a
a few new package sets (KDE and GNOME are now in their own sets), but the
basic install seems pretty similar.  The X server setup has changed
completely though; by default, it uses the VESA Framebuffer support in 2.2+
kernels (the one that puts it into graphics mode at boot), so you have to
install another X server package from the pasture directory (I think) if you
don't want the nasty 60Hz VESA-only stuff.  GCC might be a bit bigger now
though...

Regards,
Ben A L Jemmett.
(http://web.ukonline.co.uk/ben.jemmett/, http://www.deltasoft.com/)

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