Baslinux mailing list

[James Miller <jamtat AT mailsnare.net>]

On Sat, 17 Apr 2004 3aoo-cvfd AT dea.spamcon.org wrote:

> James Miller wrote:
> >
> > Unfortunately, the thing has no floppy drive nor any
> > current network connection, so the only way I can load
> > anything onto it is by removing the HD and sticking it
> > in another machine (ugh).
>
> What about a null modem cable?  DOS interlnk/intersvr has
> worked on every machine I've tried it on.

Last time I had it out for loading stuff onto it I installed Freedos.
After loading the drive back in the laptop I discovered Freedos doesn't
like the processor or something (Cyrix) and won't boot :(.  A continuing
saga . . .

> > I really would like to see what a correctly configured
> > 2.6 kernel would do on a 486 or older machine.  If it
> > gives the same effect I notice on my 1Ghz Celeron, it
> > will really be worth the upgrade.
>
> I think size will be the key factor.  On old PCs where RAM
> is limited, a large kernel occupies RAM that is crucial for
> system performance.  For example, I've done some rough testing
> on systems with 8mb RAM (or less) and found a significant
> deterioration in performance when available RAM is reduced.
>
> > If I can be of any help in compiling such a kernel for
> > testing on BL, please let me know, Steven. I've got some
> > decent system resources on which to do it
>
> I would be very happy for you to try to build a small 2.6
> kernel (but I think you will be surprised how big it turns
> out).  It might be useful to look at the configs for some
> of the Slackware lowram.i kernels (the config files are with
> the kernels).

>From the tiny kernel website:

The Linux-Tiny Tree

The -tiny tree is a series of patches against the 2.6 mainline Linux
kernel to reduce its memory and disk footprint, as well as to add features
to aid working on small systems. Target users are developers of embedded
system and users of small or legacy machines such as 386s and handhelds.

At this writing (Mar '04), the -tiny tree contains over 150 patches,
almost all of which are configurable. Some highlights include:

* configurable removal of printk, BUG, panic(), etc.
* configurable HZ, swap partition, IDE interfaces, line disciplines...
* SLOB: a simple and space-efficient replacement for the SLAB allocator
* optional support for aio, sysfs, sysenter, ptrace, dnotify, vm86, core
dumps
* /proc/kmalloc for detailed tracking of memory usage
* choice between 4k or 8k kernel stacks
* a tool for finding largest stack users
* a tool for counting uses of inline functions
* a tool for comparing function sizes between kernel builds
* netconsole for logging kernel messages via network
* kgdb for full symbolic kernel debugging
* kgdb-over-ethernet for debugging without serial ports

Just about all features are option via the kernel configuration system and
are available as separate patches. Linux-tiny by default will build a
kernel practically identical to mainline, but custom configurations with
full console, disk, and network support can be booted on standard hardware
with as little as 2MB of RAM.

James