Baslinux mailing list

[James Miller <jamtat AT mailsnare.net>]

On Thu, 15 Jan 2004, Anthony J. Albert wrote:

> On 14 Jan 2004 at 15:59, James Miller wrote:
> >On Wed, 14 Jan 2004 3aoo-cvfd AT dea.spamcon.org wrote:
> >> How much RAM?  I saw an account of somebody who ran Slackware
> >> with Xvesa in 4mb RAM.  He moved the HD to different system,
> >> installed everything there and then moved the HD back into
> >> the laptop.
> >>
> >Ok, here's a challenge (I'm supposed to be spending less time on computer
> >stuff and more on school work, so don't tell my wife . . .).  I've got a
> >really neat little 386 SX 25 with 4MB RAM that I'd really like to put to
> >some use.  It's got an old onboard 256 KB video (Trident?).  Technically,
> >I should not be able to run BL2 on it, since it has no math coprocessor.
> >But let's say I installed BL1 there, then the xvesa binary.  Could I then
> >use it to get an xsession from my more up to date machine that runs
> >Debian?  Shall I give it a whirl?  Pointers on how?
>
> Yep, BasicLinux 1.x will run fine on this machine in CLI mode.  You'll
> really want to put some more memory in it if at all possible, to bring
> it up to at least 8MB-20MB if you're going to do anything involving X.

I did get ahold of some 4MB 30 pin simms a while back and tried sticking
them in this machine, but it would only detect them as 1MB.  I've heard
there are major compatibility problems with 30 pin simms and varying
boards, so I assumed I had run up against one such.  In any case, barring
getting some more of a different brand of 30 pin simmms, I'm sort of stuck
at 4MB RAM with this machine.

> I've got a similar machine, and I was able to get it to start X, using
> BL1.7, and the X packages, but with only 4MB of RAM, doing anything
> more than using "xcalc" makes it swap.  It'll help to turn off a few of
> the virtual consoles, as well.

Steven's information may be at odds with yours.  First, he is speaking of
using xvesa rather than traditional xwindows.  Apparently, its
requirements aren't as great as traditional xwindows.  And he did cite a
source that spoke of running xvesa in 4MB RAM.  I don't know if that
person was using a 386 SX, though.  If they were running a 486 DX, running
xvesa on the machine I'm talking about may still be out of the question.

> However, 640x480x16 or 320x200x256 will probably be all that you can
> get it to do for a display, with that little video RAM.  It would be
> nice if you can replace the on-board video with a 512KB or 1MB video
> card.

I do have other such cards laying around, if it comes to that.  I think
I'll try and continue with what's in there for the time being, and try out
the lower resolutions you mention.

> With those caveats, you can set this machine up as an X terminal.
> You'll probably want to check out the low-memory Linux documentation,
> the X-terminal documentation, as well as the LTSP (Linux Terminal
> Server Project) documentation, too.

I've looked at some of the low memory documentation, but will probably
consult it again.  I've also read a fair amount on setting up xterminals,
ltsp and so forth.  I have already successfully set up some xterminals
using BL2, btw.  So this is not totally new to me.  Using xvesa in place
of traditional xwindows would be the new part.

James