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Subjectsuccess on 386 (was: Re: Does anybody try to compile...)
On Mon, 14 Feb 2000, Alan Cox wrote:

> folks I trust. And 2.2.14 is still the first kernel that is likely to work
> vaguely reliable with gcc 2.9.5. Fundamental things like FPU emulation don't
> build right in earlier kernels

Well, FPU-emu with 2.2.14 and egcs 1.1.2 definitely works for casual use.

First I wasn't going to report my success at all but since it fits
somewhat to the topic and is anyway (IMHO) interesting, here we go...

My father -- for some strange reason -- wanted to learn Unix/Linux. He has
been using Windoze/Word on an old 386sx/20 MHz computer (4 MiB main
memory). Years ago I had installed Slackware linux (kernel 2.0.0, libc
5) to the machine, on a 20 MiB filesystem (plus 6 MiB swap).

I decided to upgrade the system, mostly that I can simply copy
glibc 2.0.6 binaries from my pentium to the 386. I also decided to try
compiling newest stable kernel, 2.2.14.

And it works completely well! Now I have most basic utilities, man pages,
and even XFree86 3.3.6 installed, and everything is working!

X really isn't usable since it's so slow, but it works with patience.

And for those who think current "top" with /proc are just fine: with only
10 processes, top takes over 14% CPU time. I think that is a lot. With 100
processes, top couldn't update the display fast enough. And this is in
textmode, without swapping. (this 14%+ comes from top; maybe it's not
quite the right but I believe near).

I'm using this system myself for listening SID tunes with sidplay (the
system has old sb soundcard). It works as long as I don't run top...

The only shame is that Windoze 3.1 is working really fast and well on the
system, much much better than X. It takes both a lot less memory and is a
lot faster. Yes, X+Linux is more complex but I think that the real reason
is that X is portable and written in C: windoze has probably
assembly-optimized VGA drivers.


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