[SunRescue] IPC 24/200

[BSDBobtheoldgreybeardBSDfreakbobkeys at weedcon1.cropsci.ncsu.edu]

> > Just managed to get hold of an ancient IPC with 24MB of RAM (4 x 4 + 8 x 1)
> > and a tiny 200MB HDD in it... Anyone have any suggestion on what OS is good
> > to run on it?
> 
> That's going to be a tight squeeze for almost anything.  Probably the
> easiest thing to get use would be Debian's GNU/Linux.  OpenBSD doesn't
> let you customize anything durring install, and I think that their
> install is more than 200MB (not sure though).  NetBSD might be
> different, I haven't gotten there yet.

Debian installs the minimal base set from somewhere around 10 floppies
if memory is not too far off, today.

NetBSD allows a minimal install of the base, etc, and kern trees that
should fit in around 75-100mb.  It boots off one or two floppies (forget
whether or not it now requires 2).  A fresh ALPHA was done a couple of
days ago, and it might have a CD boot image (yes it seems to).

For a minimal install, I would pull the ram down to 12mb then do a
base/etc/kern/man/text install (can't function without manpages and
groff).  That way it would calculate the minimal file system sizes,
probably 32mb for root, 32mb for swap, and the rest for usr which
ought to come in at around 125mb.  Then add in the rest of the ram,
and have fun.  If you take care to work up the partitioning manually
you could do it without pulling any ram, but I think it will try to use
3x ram for swap.  Add comp.tgz manually for compiling things (from root
do a tar -xpzf /wherever/comp.tgz to unroll it, then a rehash), and X
probably won't fit.  A 400mb drive should be big enough to add in X
with some play space.

Good Luck

Bob