Very Computer

by **Blake Thompso** » Fri, 05 Mar 1999 04:00:00

Hey guys, I thought I'd run this one through the group and see if anyone
had any ideas. I've got this old Compaq portable which I believe to be an
8088 (but it could be a 286). Anyway, my question is what micro
distribution to put on it. I've checked out LOAF, Tom's, muLinux,
DOSLinux, etc, etc. They all seem to require a 386 w/ 4MB RAM.
I've got a 20 MB Hard Drive to work with, so it doesn't _necessarily_ have
to fit on a floppy, but the micro-distributions seem to have the least
stringent system requirements.

Anyone have any ideas on a compatible release?

Blake

(Do not reply directly to the above address, remove non-lowercase letters
for valid address)

by **Richard Payn** » Fri, 05 Mar 1999 04:00:00

You may want to have a look at ELKS

http://www.linux.org.uk/ELKS-Home/index.html

--
Rich Payne
(Speaking for myself, not my employer)
payner at timken dot com

Looking for Alpha-Linux info?
http://www.alphalinux.org

>Hey guys, I thought I'd run this one through the group and see if anyone
>had any ideas. I've got this old Compaq portable which I believe to be an
>8088 (but it could be a 286). Anyway, my question is what micro
>distribution to put on it. I've checked out LOAF, Tom's, muLinux,
>DOSLinux, etc, etc. They all seem to require a 386 w/ 4MB RAM.
>I've got a 20 MB Hard Drive to work with, so it doesn't _necessarily_ have
>to fit on a floppy, but the micro-distributions seem to have the least
>stringent system requirements.

>Anyone have any ideas on a compatible release?

>Blake

>(Do not reply directly to the above address, remove non-lowercase letters
>for valid address)

by **Frank Ha** » Mon, 08 Mar 1999 04:00:00

[Snipped]

Quote:>: I have heard that some people are working on a possible solution
>: to get it to work on a 286. Right off hand, I can't think what
>: it is called.

>???

I think the project is called ELKS. Someone mentioned this previously
in this thread.

>: I have also seen people mention "minix" but I don't know anything
>: about it or what its requirements are.

>Minix is a more or less experimental Unix-like operating system
>especially for educational purposes. It was written by Prof. Andrew

>about operating systems.

>On the web, the official Minix home page is
>http://www.cs.vu.nl/~ast/minix.html .
>You can also download the complete system from there.

>The hardware requirements are very liberal. Even an 8088 with 640 kBytes
>of RAM is enough. A hard disk is not necessarily required, but if you want
>to recompile the whole system, a 30 MByte hard drive is enough.

Thanks for the info.

--
Frank Hahn

by **GBP** » Mon, 08 Mar 1999 04:00:00

Linux uses the 386 or higher, thats just the way it is. The 386 was a
gaint leap over the 286 and has instructions that make linuxs multi
tasking work as well as it does.
Linux has been ported to several chips like PowerPC but not to 286... a
286 port would be difficult and pointless...

IF you look im sure you can get a nice 386 or 486 mainboard and cpu and
ram for like $15-$40... not so bad is it?

> Hey guys, I thought I'd run this one through the group and see if anyone
> had any ideas. I've got this old Compaq portable which I believe to be an
> 8088 (but it could be a 286). Anyway, my question is what micro
> distribution to put on it. I've checked out LOAF, Tom's, muLinux,
> DOSLinux, etc, etc. They all seem to require a 386 w/ 4MB RAM.
> I've got a 20 MB Hard Drive to work with, so it doesn't _necessarily_ have
> to fit on a floppy, but the micro-distributions seem to have the least
> stringent system requirements.

> Anyone have any ideas on a compatible release?

> Blake

> (Do not reply directly to the above address, remove non-lowercase letters
> for valid address)

by **Paul Hovnania** » Wed, 10 Mar 1999 04:00:00

> > Hey guys, I thought I'd run this one through the group and see if anyone
> > had any ideas. I've got this old Compaq portable which I believe to be an
> > 8088 (but it could be a 286). Anyway, my question is what micro
> > distribution to put on it. I've checked out LOAF, Tom's, muLinux,
> > DOSLinux, etc, etc. They all seem to require a 386 w/ 4MB RAM.
> > I've got a 20 MB Hard Drive to work with, so it doesn't _necessarily_ have
> > to fit on a floppy, but the micro-distributions seem to have the least
> > stringent system requirements.

Well, if you have too much time on your hands, anything is possible:

http://www.seanet.com/~paulh/8088.jpg

--

------------------------------------------------------------------
Matter can not be created or destroyed, nor can it be returned
without a receipt.

by **Lew Pitch** » Fri, 12 Mar 1999 04:00:00

>> > Hey guys, I thought I'd run this one through the group and see if anyone
>> > had any ideas. I've got this old Compaq portable which I believe to be an
>> > 8088 (but it could be a 286). Anyway, my question is what micro
>> > distribution to put on it. I've checked out LOAF, Tom's, muLinux,
>> > DOSLinux, etc, etc. They all seem to require a 386 w/ 4MB RAM.
>> > I've got a 20 MB Hard Drive to work with, so it doesn't _necessarily_ have
>> > to fit on a floppy, but the micro-distributions seem to have the least
>> > stringent system requirements.

>Well, if you have too much time on your hands, anything is possible:

IIRC, Linux can't be run natively on anything less than an 80386.

If you really want a unix clone on an 8088 or 80286, and you can't hack

support.

Lew Pitcher
Joat-in-training

by **Lew Pitch** » Fri, 12 Mar 1999 04:00:00

>> > Hey guys, I thought I'd run this one through the group and see if anyone
>> > had any ideas. I've got this old Compaq portable which I believe to be an
>> > 8088 (but it could be a 286). Anyway, my question is what micro
>> > distribution to put on it. I've checked out LOAF, Tom's, muLinux,
>> > DOSLinux, etc, etc. They all seem to require a 386 w/ 4MB RAM.
>> > I've got a 20 MB Hard Drive to work with, so it doesn't _necessarily_ have
>> > to fit on a floppy, but the micro-distributions seem to have the least
>> > stringent system requirements.

>Well, if you have too much time on your hands, anything is possible:

IIRC, Linux can't be run natively on anything less than an 80386.

If you really want a unix clone on an 8088 or 80286, and you can't hack

support.

Lew Pitcher
Joat-in-training

by **rob..** » Fri, 12 Mar 1999 04:00:00

> IIRC, Linux can't be run natively on anything less than an 80386.

Thats not true... you can run linux on a palmpilot, for example.. :)
Check out ELKS[1] if you want to run on an 8088.

robert

[1] http://www.linux.org.uk/ELKS-Home/index.html

--

by **Norm Dresne** » Sat, 13 Mar 1999 04:00:00

> IIRC, Linux can't be run natively on anything less than an 80386.

> If you really want a unix clone on an 8088 or 80286, and you can't hack

> support.

> Lew Pitcher
> Joat-in-training

IIRC, there was something called the "Embedded Linux Kernel" whose goal
was to run on an IBM XT. Look at
http://www.uk.linux.org/ELKS-Home/index.html

Norm

Very Computer

Linux and a 8088

Linux and a 8088

Linux and a 8088

Linux and a 8088

Linux and a 8088

Linux and a 8088

Linux and a 8088

Linux and a 8088

Linux and a 8088

Linux and a 8088