[H-GEN] [non-member bounce] small memory install

[Ben Fowler]

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>Hi,

[snip]

>Unfortunately, I'm having trouble finding a way to 
install. The confounding 
>factor is that the box only has 2Mb of RAM, which I 
think makes most boot 
>disk images unfeasible. (I don't think the fact that 
its a laptop is a 
>problem, at least not yet). Its 80Mb hard drive should 
be fine for a minimal 
>install with perhaps an 8Mb swap partition, I figure.

>So, some questions. Firstly, will any of the linux 
distributions (redhat, 
>debian, slackware, other in order of preference) work 
here, and how? If not, 
>will I have any more luck with one of the BSDs and, if 
so, which one and, 
>again, how? I guess, finally, is this something that 
will be most 
>practically done at a meeting?

You could do this, albeit with great difficulty.  About
three years ago, I tried (and just managed to do each
of a Debian and Slackware install on a system with
4 megs of RAM and 200 megs of disk space).  As for
now, if you want Red Hat or Debian, you may well
be out of luck (on both memory _and_ disk space).

An old version of Slackware _might_ work.  Ditto one
of the free BSDs.  However, for a system of such 
configuration, I would suggest installing Minix and
then compiling the software you need.  

Another approach that may or may not work (depending
on availability of needed hardware) would be to get
your hard drive plugged into someone else's box 
(you can get drive connector adapters...) and doing
the install off that.  No guarantees of success though.

Good luck :)

-warmest regards,

Ben Fowler.


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