🚀 go-pugleaf

In <yGyU7.287193$ez.40013554@news1.rdc1.nj.home.com>, shadow-DAZ wrote:

> hi, all
> i have the following problem:
> i have an old comp (Pentium 90 MHz, about 40 Megs of RAM) i want to
> install Linux on that.. from the CD (which is bootable) the problem is
> it's an old comp, and the only devices this comp can boot up from are
> either hard drive or floppy... as OS on the comp i have Linux Caldera
> Lite, but i wasn't able to mount CD-rom on there... have no idea why
> though.
> 
> any solutions? ideas? e-mail me or reply to newsgroup
> 
> thanx a lot in advance
> 
> shadow-DAZ

The CDROM is bootable, but it won't boot? I don't get it. Are you saying
the DRIVE isn't capable of booting, but the MEDIA is? Or that the DRIVE is
a bootable drive but it isn't booting?

The CDROM won't mount. What errors do you get when you try? Does it show
up in the logs as being seen? What kind of drive is it (might help explain
any errors you're getting)? What command(s) have you tried?

Older versions of RH would work just fine. Newer versions might possibly
work (though I have this "thing" against 7.2 since it fails almost every
test [other than install] for me: stability, reliability, etc). If you
can't boot from the bootable CD, if you have harddrive space you can
download the ISOs and put them on the drive. You can make bootdisks to
allow the install to start and continue with the CD. If there's another
machine available and you have NICs, you can install over a network. If
your connection is fast enough, you can do an ftp install.

Similar for other distros, though Debian has failed on 3 releases, and
over 10 attempts on said releases, to install anything on any of the
machines I've tried. I can vouch for several others that worked (though I
didn't like them for varying reasons). Even Debian is probably fine, but I
couldn't get it to install.

Possible limiting factors will be harddrive space and video capabilities.
If you're on the low end with those, I wouldn't expect too awful much on
the performance end. Some of the desktops will really eat up resources
and make you think you have locked-up, even though it may be doing the
best it can do. Unfortunately, the most problematic desktops are the
default in many distributions.

So, a P90 is OK (some still use 486s and even a smattering of 386s) and
40MB memory should work with almost all of them as long as you don't
expect it to run memory hogs like KDE or Gnome, and if you don't try
doing too many things at once on the desktop.

-- 
Therapy is expensive, popping bubble wrap is cheap. You choose.