Linux on 4mb ram

[darkchild]

Hi all.

I have bought an old notebook running dos + windows 3.11 from an sd card (32Gbyte IDE adapter) . This computer only has 4mb of ram (SIPP ram. hard to upgrade). I would like to install linux on this machine.

What I want from the system.
-> no gui
-> c compiler
-> vi or vim as editor

Thank you in advance for any help.

 

[kc1di]

Hi all.

I have bought an old notebook running dos + windows 3.11 from an sd card (32Gbyte IDE adapter) . This computer only has 4mb of ram (SIPP ram. hard to upgrade). I would like to install linux on this machine.

What I want from the system.
-> no gui
-> c compiler
-> vi or vim as editor

Thank you in advance for any help.

4 MB ram should be plenty. but what is the other hardware on that machine?
is it 32 or 64 bit processor?

 

[darkchild]

All information can be retrieved from my blog.

Second retro pc

I've got a cheap notebook with a 486DX processor from Ebay Kleinanzeigen. It seems like this notebook has no brand on it. Some details ...

fachher.blogspot.com

 

[darkchild]

I found this article. Describing the installation of Slackware 7.0. Current version of slackware requires 64mb of ram.

4mb Laptop HOWTO

 

[darkchild]

CPU: Intel 486DX/2 66 Mhz
Ram: 4 MB Sipp
Bios: Award Modular BIOS v4.50
Board name: Notebook 3500A
Chipset: ETEQ ET6000 (Codename: Cheetah)
Peripherals:
- 1,44 Floppy Disk
- Conner CCA3B23 Hard disk with 210 Mbytes

 

[kc1di]

I'm sorry I missed that I was thinking 4 Gbs ram with 4 MB today it will be hard pressed to run linux.
With those specs I'm not sure any modern linux will run on that machine. You may be able to get tiny core going on that machine. Worth a try.

 

[Brickwizard]

Ah the old 486, great in their day, but as a 32 bit low resource machine with ancient hardware , the only current linux I think may run on it is Emabuntis

 

[f33dm3bits]

You could try Alpine Linux.

about | Alpine Linux

Alpine Linux

www.alpinelinux.org

 

[Linuxembourg]

This nearly 7 year old questions suggests it was quite difficult back then. I suppose an obvious solution would be to get some ancient version of linux (maybe on archive.org if not on the official sites) and try that.

SIDE NOTE: I couldn't help but be impressed that Windows 3.11 runs on 4MB of RAM. But just looking it up Windows95 only required 4 (8MB recommended). Windows 98 uses 8-16 but XP required 128 but recommended 512! What was so special about XP? I don't remember it making my dinner, or even more seriously being that different.

 

[Brickwizard]

What was so special about XP?

XP was the first general release of windows based on win NT which required a bit more ram than W98, it was also a much bigger distribution and the start of the windows with bangs and whistles,
[on a different note, I still have a full set of cassette discs for win Dos+win3, a cd for win95 and a disc with the final updates, the same for w97, and xp with service pack 3, I wont get rid of them as along with my set of 5"floppies for 16 bit ibm compatible machines are part of my history]

 

[NORD]

Win xp was the Super Nintendo of windows lol!

 

[NORD]

You know if your looking for something that will run flawless in command line I would look into the PI Zero 2 w
They only require 5v to run and they are super tiny.
And the cost about 15$ .

 

[Vrai]

Hi all.

I have bought an old notebook running dos + windows 3.11 from an sd card (32Gbyte IDE adapter) . This computer only has 4mb of ram (SIPP ram. hard to upgrade). I would like to install linux on this machine.

What I want from the system.
-> no gui
-> c compiler
-> vi or vim as editor

Thank you in advance for any help.

Have you looked at Kolibri?

DistroWatch.com: KolibriOS

News and feature lists of Linux and BSD distributions.

distrowatch.com

 

[darkchild]

@Vrai
Kolibri OS requires 8 MB of Ram

 

[BoringZombie]

@Vrai
Kolibri OS requires 8 MB of Ram

BasicLinux

 

[Brickwizard]

The only distribution that can almost be guaranteed to work on a 486 is Emabuntis, it is a comprehensive distribution designed to resurrect old computers for third world charity school projects, it is a very big download as it contains drivers for almost everything made from the mid 1980s [but it only installs what is needed to run your box. ]

 

[darkchild]

Do you mean Emmabuntüs? I can not find something called Emabuntis. Could you please provide me a link.

 

[darkchild]

Here are the Emmabuntüs system requirements.

Configuration matérielle – Emmabuntüs

emmabuntus.org

RAM: 256 MB minimum, 512 MB recommended

:-(

 

[Brickwizard]

Yes that's the one, well in that case It doesn't look like you will get it working in Linux, even with DSM [dam small Linux] you need 16mb ram, you may be stuck with W3.1, W95, W97,[ XP won't run correctly on it]

 

[TheBearAK]

doubt anything current will work, but debian sarge would work.