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  • From: "M.L." <m.l AT compaqnet.fr>
  • To: sm-discuss <sm-discuss AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [SM-Discuss] Smallest Source Mage
  • Date: Sun, 28 Jul 2002 16:30:06 +0200

On Dimanche 28 Juillet 2002 15:05, Jon Svendsen wrote:
> On Sun, 2002-07-28 at 12:27, M.L. wrote:
> > what's so impossible about getting SMGL on a 486 ?
>
> The CPU class is not the (main) problem. The problem is that his box had
> very little memory and disk space. Compilation and subsequent
> installation of software requires an amount of memory and disk space. If
> you at some point during the process of attempting to compile and
> install software _run out_ of memory and/or disk space, the compilation
> will fail and your box is likely to crash.
>

Ok John, I see your point.
So there is a need for a network share to enlarge disk space... yes ;)

> > - 2.4 kernel may be compiled for i386 (and even ugly cyrix cpus....).
>
> Yes, but first of all, it will take a Very Long Time (tm). Second, the
> uncompressed kernel sources require a large portion of the total
> available disk space he had. It's also fairly certain that compilation
> of several of the files will require more memory than the 8mb he had
> available, (included headers, parsing trees, generated assembly language
> code. ls -lah /tmp during a compilation sometime) further increasing the
> need for diskspace (swap and intermediate storage). Again, the class of
> CPU used is not what will cause it to break, that will just make it take
> incredibly long. Lack of RAM and disk space might, though.
>
> > - glib is c...
>
> And large. See above.
>
> > - Even if the iso is compiled with pentium "instructions" it should be
> > usable on any x86 compatible cpu... should'nt it ?
>
> No. Each new family of CPUs introduce new instructions that weren't
> present in older familys. If you compile binaries using these
> instructions, and then try to run them on a system with a lower class
> CPU, they will fail. Very few instructions were added between the 486
> and the origial pentium though, which is probably why the ISO binaries
> are runnable on a 486. Cast nasm and read it's docs for a (much) more
> detailed reference on the x86 instruction set and which are available on
> which family.

Fine... I'm a bit surprised here, since I tought that this kind of things
should not happen.

Bye,
Mat.

>
> Jon

--
//
// M.L.
// Linux User #36502 ; ICQ #23832402
//





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