[Gllug] Linux on 486s

[Paul Brazier]

I've got an old 486 33MHz machine 20MB RAM, 100MB HD.
I'm trying to set up Linux on it, mainly just to play around with
networking, firewalls etc.
Will this be possible or am I wasting my time?

I can boot from a tomsrtbt floppy OK.
The CD is an old-style one that connects to a Soundblaster Pro card
instead of the motherboard. (I can't boot from the CD).
A RedHat 6.0 distro recognises this but a minimal installation seems to
be about 120MB.
Mandrake 8.0 doesn't recognise the CD. I tried supplying it with a
sbpcd.o or sbpcd.0.gz file on a floppy from my other machine but it
didn't seems to work.

What's the minimal stuff I need on the hard drive to boot Linux? Then I
can install other stuff by hand.
e.g. on DOS, SYS.COM would copy over boot files from a floppy.
is the /boot directory all that's needed for booting the machine?
Is there a distribution I can download that would fit on a floppy AND
install itself on the hard drive?

Also, for networking would ethernet cards be the way to go, or would a
serial port connection work?

--
Paul Brazier
Cosmos UK 


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