Messages in this thread | | | Date | Tue, 15 Feb 2000 10:50:05 +0200 | From | Tuukka Toivonen <> | Subject | success on 386 (was: Re: Does anybody try to compile...) |
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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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