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James Miller wrote:
>
> I forgot about the libraries problem.  That could, 
> indeed, be the show-stopper for this xvesa experiment.  

Don't worry, the show hasn't stopped yet.  I had 
a fiendish idea yesterday that I've been working 
on.  I've now got a 1.5mb filesystem that includes 
ifconfig and Xvesa.  A few minutes ago, I was able 
to send icewm to it from another computer on the 
network. It successfully ran programs from the icewm 
menu (although there were several warning messages 
about wrong fonts).  Xvesa only as a limited number 
of fonts built-in, but it does work.

The key to this working on your 386 is for you to
find a kernel that activates your network card
(without the need for modules).  I suggest you
start with the net.i kernel from Slackware 3.5
(or an older Slackware if you can find it).
Boot it on your computer and scan the kernel
output on the screen for some mention of eth0.
If it finds your card, we are in business.

Let me know if you find a suitable kernel.  Make
a note of the amount of memory used by the kernel.  
Hopefully there will be room for a 1.5mb ramdisk
and 1mb of working RAM.  If not, we can try running 
it from a live floppy.

In the meantime, I'm going to rejig the ramdisk.
It currently occupies 2.5mb (although it is only 
half full).  I'm going to make a fresh ramdisk 
(1.5mb) and transfer everything into it.  There
should be no problem (but there's always the
possibility of an unexpected fishhook).

Cheers,
Steven