Date: Sat, 5 May 2001 15:18:13 +0200 (CEST) From: Andrzej Bialecki <abial@webgiro.com> To: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com> Cc: User Ipt Ian Patrick Thomas <ipthomas_77@yahoo.com>, freebsd-small@freebsd.org Subject: Re: IBM Laptop 4MB RAM 486 CPU Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.20.0105051511310.86812-100000@mx.webgiro.com> In-Reply-To: <20010503135719.U72846@wantadilla.lemis.com>
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On Thu, 3 May 2001, Greg Lehey wrote: > On Thursday, 3 May 2001 at 0:22:54 -0400, User Ipt Ian Patrick Thomas wrote: > > Operating System: FreeBSD > > X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL54 (25)] > > MIME-Version: 1.0 > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII > > Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit > > > > I have an old IBM thinkpad with about 4MB of RAM(actually it says 3096KB > > on bootup) with a 486 CPU that I would like to use with PicoBSD. It has two > > serial ports and a monitor port with a floppy drive and a HardDrive with > > about 120 MB. Unfortunately there is no PCMCIA slots for a NIC. I have come > > close to getting NetBSD on this laptop but have failed right at the end. I > > figured that I should try a BSD that is made for small spaces. The FAQ > > suggests 8MB but claims 4MB has been done. I figure if I can get a swap The claim is based on my personal tests of the stock 2.2.5 ROUTER version - still available from the PicoBSD antiquated web pages... > > space on their early in the install I should be set because the HD is plenty > > big enough. I have had a version of Linux(small linux I think) on this > > laptop and it worked, but I would rather have a BSD(I'm more comfortable with > > it). I this even possible or should I go and find another 4MB of RAM(this > > thing maxes out at 8MB and the RAM is very hard to find)? > > You're probably out of luck. PicoBSD certainly won't work; it stores > data in a RAMdisk which is by default 4 MB. That's in addition to > normal system memory, so you don't have a hope there. > > Current versions of FreeBSD may or may not run in 8 MB; they certainly > won't run in 4. Your best bet is to get an old version (for example > 2.2.8, the last FreeBSD-2 version). This should function in 4 MB, but > don't expect a ball of fire. Although I haven't actually tested it on the recent releases, I would say it should still "work" - depending on how you define "work" :-). I.e. I agree that there is no chance to run GENERIC and sysinstall, but a heavily cut down kernel + sash instead if init... might just cut it. The root would have to be mounted from the floppy (no MD_ROOT). Then, if you're lucky you would still have some RAM left to execute swapon. Andrzej // ---------------------------------------------------------------- // Andrzej Bialecki <abial@webgiro.com>, Chief System Architect // WebGiro AB, Sweden (http://www.webgiro.com) // ---------------------------------------------------------------- // <abial@freebsd.org> FreeBSD developer (http://www.freebsd.org) To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-small" in the body of the message
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