Mailinglist Archive: opensuse (3959 mails)

["Carlos E. R." <robin1.listas@xxxxxxxxxx>]

The 02.12.29 at 20:09, Mike wrote:

> > Don't worry, I'm not really using that machine. I only wanted to prove
> > to myself that linux could be installed on it, and I have even managed
> > to compile the kernel O:-)
>
> How long did that take you?

Well, I had to cheat O:-)

I started the compile, and at some point, when I came back 12 hours later,
it had segfaulted (on make -C drivers). The funny thing was that most
programs segfaulted after that, even halt, so I had to power off. I tried
again, and it halted with "parse error at null character" on file
"include/linux/sched.h:502".

So I took the hard disk to another PC (a pentium 120) and finished the
compile there (make clean dep bzImage modules and make modules_install);
then I went back to the 386, and did there a "make install" which took
about 5 hours. After reboot, the compressed kernel was about 200 Kb
smaller. I still have to check the amount of available memory, but it will
be larger.

> I managed to put Slack with the 1.59 kernel on a 385 and it took weeks to
> recomplie the kernel.  I killed it after 3 weeks and more RAM in it to
> give it 8 meg and then it runs ok.  I think the kernels after 2 require 4
> meg of RAM, and even more for the installers.

As I said, I cheated ;-)

Had to, that machine has only 5 megs ram. Now that the kernel is smaller,
perhaps I could try again without cheating.

> > The only real use will be to retrieve my old backups (pctools), and
> > move them over to CDs. Then, it will remain at part of my museum... er,
> > junk pile ;-)
>
> I also have a 286 running minux in my collection.

I had to study the Tanenboum book (Operating Systems), translated to
spanish, that included the minix source, printed. But I could never get
the floppies: the book was printed in Mexico, and I live in Spain: I
couldn't get them (I still remember the face of the bokkseller when I
asked!), so I never could try minix.

Pity...

> > > Don't know why Linux doesn't recognise your CDROM, I've used a
> > > variety of CDROMs ranging from old 8x drives to modern 56x units
> > > without any problems.
> > > Enybody else any suggestions?
>
> Old CDroms didn't follow standards the NEC 250 was OK but the 260 was
> not.  I had a 260.  I had to copy the files to a DOS partition and load
> linux from there.

Yes, that is what I think. In fact, linux reports it as an ide-tape
device. But the install from the dos partition did not work either, I had
to cheat there as well, using the other PC. Now that linux is installed, I
can install packages from the dos partition, it recognises the same
directory that it rejected during the install.

-- 
Cheers,
       Carlos Robinson