Baslinux mailing list

[Sindi Keesan <keesan AT iamjlamb.com>]

On Sun, 25 Jan 2004 3aoo-cvfd AT dea.spamcon.org wrote:

> Sindi Keesan wrote:
> >
> > how much space BL2 with the five files needed for 
> ? compiling will require (leaving some space to work 
> > in if that is needed).  
> 
> As it says at the BL2 site:
> ------------------------------------------------------
> Adding a C compiler to BasicLinux                                           
> ------------------------------------------------------
> This requires a minimum of five packages (which fill 
> 120mb of HD space).  Most of this space is filled by 
> the glibc2 library, which is much larger than the old 
> libc5 library (used in BasicLinux 1.8).                        
> ------------------------------------------------------                      
>                                                          

Hm, this sounds like a good opportunity to put BL1 on a laptop, almost any 
laptop with enough RAM to run it (8M?).  None of the programs Jim will be 
compiling are anything he wants to keep as they are just homework.  
(Things like computing calories in your breakfast for the benefit of 
people who do not bike to school and are trying to lose weight).  So they 
don't need to run in BL2.

Thanks for this suggestion, BEFORE we put BL2 on the computer.
I sort of doubt he will be accessing the more infrequently used parts of 
glibc6.  And we actually even have the CD for SW3.5 in a book.

> In contrast the same packages from Slackware 3.5 (BL1)
> total only 15mb.  That's an eight-fold difference!
> glibc2 is a bloated monster (and getting more bloated
> at every revision).  I'm quite happy going back to the
> relatively tiny libc5.
> 
> > The computer is his second-best, with 24M RAM, 300MB 
> > hard drive, 486DX75.  
 
> With only 24mb RAM, he's going to need a swap partition
> (say 48mb).  Add to that a smallish DOS partion (say 20mb),
> base installation (10mb) and the compiling stuff (120mb)
> and the HD is already 3/4 full.  Keep in mind that the
> whole 300mb will not be useable.  As soon a you mke2fs,
> a chunk of space is reserved for inodes.  

Why is 24M not enough to compile with?  I was doing fine compiling lynx 
with 32M and BL2.

DJGPP takes up 30M by itself so I suggested 100M for DOS and 200M for 
linux.  120+10 = 130 leaving 70M for inodes and his programs which will be 
little.  
 
> Does Jim really have to use glibc2 (libc 6) for his course?
> Wouldn't the much smaller libc 5 do?
> 
> > I suggested 100M for DOS (30M for DGJPP alone) and 200M 
> > for linux.
> 
> If you want that much for DOS, then glibc2 is a non-starter.
> You really do need that swap.  Except for the smallest jobs, 
> compiling is very memory hungry.  

But he is only compiling some very small programs, half a page each at the 
moment.  Somehow DJGPP made them into 600K programs but gcc did better.
DOS would include BL2 RAMDISK version.  He could also put any saved source 
code in DOS since he edits it in DOS with his own editor.  And use DOS to 
copy over the .tgz files from another computer that has a CD-ROM drive so 
he can install to the linux partition.  

It sounds like we might have room for both BL1 and BL2.  25MB BL1 and 
130MB BL2 with compilers, leaving 45M for inodes and other things.  
But it is probably best to use only one of these.

Swap space could be carved out of the DOS partition later if needed.  His 
programs compiled using 32M RAM in only a few seconds.

We discovered that PI cannot be used in DOS source code unless you do not 
define it.  It is a constant for DJGPP.  It works fine as Pi, and PI is 
okay with gcc and Windows compiler.  Also DJGPP will not ignore an extra ( 
and the other programs will do so.  
 
> Cheers,
> Steven
> 
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