Good *nix distribution for 133mhz

[chuck]

I recently managed to get a my 133mhz acer aspire out of storage, and am wondering what *nix i should use on it. I tryed Debian, it works, but i want X11, but debian doesnt seem to be working well with it...

I just want to run a decent web browser and instant messenger on it, so nothing too fancy.

I'll list its hardware here, and I'll boot it up and get a dmesg outta it in a few minutes (5-10 minutes to boot :[ )

Hardware info:

133mhz processor
SMC network card
36x CD-ROM drive
90mb's of RAM
800mb hard drive
PS2 mouse and keyboard
17" macintosh monitor with an adapter to make it work with PC's (Always works fine on them)

The machine doesn't like to boot from CD's, but floppys are OK.

I tryed NetBSD with pkgsrc, but i ran outta room very quickly.

[iago]

You're going to have big problems no matter which distro you pick. 

I'd go with Slackware, but you'll have to be very, very choosy which packages you install.  I doubt you'll be able to run X in any useful way, it's slow enough for me on 266mhz..

[chuck]

You're going to have big problems no matter which distro you pick. 

I'd go with Slackware, but you'll have to be very, very choosy which packages you install.  I doubt you'll be able to run X in any useful way, it's slow enough for me on 266mhz..

Blahh... i used to use fvwm on my 33mhz Quadra650. It ran... and well... it ran... The only reason i installed it was i had a 4.2GB external scsi hard drive (Its INSANELY noisy)

Actuly, it wasnt that bad, but I'm kinda new to x86 type computers. I'm spoiled by PPC computers...

[chuck]

dmesg output:

Code: [Select]

Linux version 2.6.8-3-386 (root@lart) (gcc version 3.3.5 (Debian 1:3.3.5-13)) #1 Sat Jul 15 09:26:40 UTC 2006
BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
 BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009fc00 (usable)
 BIOS-e820: 000000000009fc00 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved)
 BIOS-e820: 00000000000f0000 - 0000000000100000 (reserved)
 BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 0000000005000000 (usable)
80MB LOWMEM available.
On node 0 totalpages: 20480
  DMA zone: 4096 pages, LIFO batch:1
  Normal zone: 16384 pages, LIFO batch:4
  HighMem zone: 0 pages, LIFO batch:1
DMI not present.
ACPI: Unable to locate RSDP
Built 1 zonelists
Kernel command line: root=/dev/hda1 ro
No local APIC present or hardware disabled
Initializing CPU#0
PID hash table entries: 512 (order 9: 4096 bytes)
Using pit for high-res timesource
Console: colour VGA+ 80x25
Dentry cache hash table entries: 16384 (order: 4, 65536 bytes)
Inode-cache hash table entries: 8192 (order: 3, 32768 bytes)
Memory: 73904k/81920k available (1337k kernel code, 7508k reserved, 731k data, 204k init, 0k highmem)
Checking if this processor honours the WP bit even in supervisor mode... Ok.
Calibrating delay loop... 14.17 BogoMIPS
Security Scaffold v1.0.0 initialized
Mount-cache hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
CPU: After generic identify, caps: 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
CPU: After all inits, caps:        00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
CPU: 486
Checking 'hlt' instruction... OK.
Checking for popad bug... OK.
checking if image is initramfs...it isn't (ungzip failed); looks like an initrd
Freeing initrd memory: 4188k freed
NET: Registered protocol family 16
EISA bus registered
PCI: PCI BIOS revision 2.10 entry at 0xf0200, last bus=0
PCI: Using configuration type 1
mtrr: v2.0 (20020519)
ACPI: Subsystem revision 20040326
ACPI: Interpreter disabled.
Linux Plug and Play Support v0.97 (c) Adam Belay
PnPBIOS: Scanning system for PnP BIOS support...
PnPBIOS: Found PnP BIOS installation structure at 0xc00f9270
PnPBIOS: PnP BIOS version 1.0, entry 0xf2300:0x0, dseg 0xf0000
PnPBIOS: 14 nodes reported by PnP BIOS; 14 recorded by driver
PCI: Probing PCI hardware
PCI: Probing PCI hardware (bus 00)
VFS: Disk quotas dquot_6.5.1
Dquot-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order 0, 4096 bytes)
devfs: 2004-01-31 Richard Gooch (rgooch@atnf.csiro.au)
devfs: boot_options: 0x0
Initializing Cryptographic API
isapnp: Scanning for PnP cards...
isapnp: No Plug & Play device found
Serial: 8250/16550 driver $Revision: 1.90 $ 54 ports, IRQ sharing enabled
ttyS1 at I/O 0x2f8 (irq = 3) is a 16550A
pnp: Device 00:0c activated.
ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
RAMDISK driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 8192K size 1024 blocksize
serio: i8042 AUX port at 0x60,0x64 irq 12
serio: i8042 KBD port at 0x60,0x64 irq 1
input: AT Translated Set 2 keyboard on isa0060/serio0
EISA: Probing bus 0 at eisa0
Cannot allocate resource for EISA slot 7
EISA: Detected 0 cards.
NET: Registered protocol family 2
IP: routing cache hash table of 512 buckets, 4Kbytes
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 8192 bind 16384)
NET: Registered protocol family 8
NET: Registered protocol family 20
RAMDISK: cramfs filesystem found at block 0
RAMDISK: Loading 4188 blocks [1 disk] into ram disk... done.
VFS: Mounted root (cramfs filesystem) readonly.
Freeing unused kernel memory: 204k freed
spurious 8259A interrupt: IRQ7.
vesafb: probe of vesafb0 failed with error -6
NET: Registered protocol family 1
SCSI subsystem initialized
libata version 1.02 loaded.
Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00alpha2
ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
CMD646: IDE controller at PCI slot 0000:00:05.0
CMD646: chipset revision 1
CMD646: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
CMD646: chipset revision 0x01, MultiWord DMA Limited, IRQ workaround enabled
    ide0: BM-DMA at 0x7c00-0x7c07, BIOS settings: hda:pio, hdb:pio
    ide1: BM-DMA at 0x7c08-0x7c0f, BIOS settings: hdc:pio, hdd:pio
hda: Conner Peripherals 850MB - CFA850A, ATA DISK drive
hdb: CD-ROM 36X/AKW, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
Using anticipatory io scheduler
ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
hda: max request size: 128KiB
hda: 1666020 sectors (853 MB) w/256KiB Cache, CHS=1652/16/63, DMA
 /dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0: p1 p2 < p5 >
kjournald starting.  Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
Adding 72252k swap on /dev/hda5.  Priority:-1 extents:1
EXT3 FS on hda1, internal journal
Generic RTC Driver v1.07
hdb: ATAPI 36X CD-ROM drive, 128kB Cache, (U)DMA
Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20
input: PS/2 Generic Mouse on isa0060/serio1
Capability LSM initialized
mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice
ts: Compaq touchscreen protocol output
8139too Fast Ethernet driver 0.9.27
eth0: RealTek RTL8139 at 0x7400, 00:50:ba:42:77:69, IRQ 5
eth0:  Identified 8139 chip type 'RTL-8139B'
Linux agpgart interface v0.100 (c) Dave Jones
8139cp: 10/100 PCI Ethernet driver v1.2 (Mar 22, 2004)
usbcore: registered new driver usbfs
usbcore: registered new driver hub
ohci_hcd: 2004 Feb 02 USB 1.1 'Open' Host Controller (OHCI) Driver (PCI)
ohci_hcd: block sizes: ed 64 td 64
USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver v2.2
input: PC Speaker
parport: PnPBIOS parport detected.
parport0: PC-style at 0x378, irq 7 [PCSPP,TRISTATE,EPP]
inserting floppy driver for 2.6.8-3-386
Floppy drive(s): fd0 is 1.44M
FDC 0 is a post-1991 82077
eth0: link up, 10Mbps, half-duplex, lpa 0x0000
NET: Registered protocol family 17
NET: Registered protocol family 10
Disabled Privacy Extensions on device c02cc960(lo)
IPv6 over IPv4 tunneling driver
eth0: no IPv6 routers present


[Joe]

You're going to have big problems no matter which distro you pick. 

I'd go with Slackware, but you'll have to be very, very choosy which packages you install.  I doubt you'll be able to run X in any useful way, it's slow enough for me on 266mhz..

Blahh... i used to use fvwm on my 33mhz Quadra650. It ran... and well... it ran... The only reason i installed it was i had a 4.2GB external scsi hard drive (Its INSANELY noisy)

Actuly, it wasnt that bad, but I'm kinda new to x86 type computers. I'm spoiled by PPC computers...

Remember that PPC instructions are insanely complex compared to x86, and comparing clock speeds is like apples to oranges. I believe that PPC processors are around twice as fast as an x86 (although the SSE instruction sets added some pretty complex mathmatic instructions), if you want to compare. Still, even 66MHz isn't as fast as 133MHz, but it's a lot closer when you realize how much more complex PPC is (was).

[chuck]

You're going to have big problems no matter which distro you pick. 

I'd go with Slackware, but you'll have to be very, very choosy which packages you install.  I doubt you'll be able to run X in any useful way, it's slow enough for me on 266mhz..

Blahh... i used to use fvwm on my 33mhz Quadra650. It ran... and well... it ran... The only reason i installed it was i had a 4.2GB external scsi hard drive (Its INSANELY noisy)

Actuly, it wasnt that bad, but I'm kinda new to x86 type computers. I'm spoiled by PPC computers...

Remember that PPC instructions are insanely complex compared to x86, and comparing clock speeds is like apples to oranges. I believe that PPC processors are around twice as fast as an x86 (although the SSE instruction sets added some pretty complex mathmatic instructions), if you want to compare. Still, even 66MHz isn't as fast as 133MHz, but it's a lot closer when you realize how much more complex PPC is (was).

My 200mhz PPC computer outperformed my dads 700mhz computer with half the RAM and HD space.

PPC vs. x86 I've found that the PPC computer is 3.5x faster

[Chavo]

Its really not even close to that simple.  If you really want to know how it works you need to understand more about how a microprocessor works.

Suffice it to say, when comparing clock speeds to determine how 'fast' a processor is, only compare it to other processors of the same architecture if you want to be accurate.

[Newby]

Give one of the BSD distributions a try. FreeBSD is really nice.

That computer blows goats, by the way.

[iago]

Its really not even close to that simple.  If you really want to know how it works you need to understand more about how a microprocessor works.

Suffice it to say, when comparing clock speeds to determine how 'fast' a processor is, only compare it to other processors of the same architecture if you want to be accurate.

That's what Joe was saying.  Because PPC has complexer instructions, a lower clock speed can be equivalent to an Intel with a higher clock speed. 

Give one of the BSD distributions a try. FreeBSD is really nice.

That computer blows goats, by the way.

I'm not sure what kind of package support FreeBSD has, but ports are useless if you have that slow of a CPU.  You'll spend days compiling each program.  Believe me, I tried it on a 266mhz

[Sidoh]

That's what Joe was saying.  Because PPC has complexer instructions, a lower clock speed can be equivalent to an Intel with a higher clock speed. 

No, he said they're "twice as fast."  He was comparing the frequencies, which I'm pretty sure is exactly what uT was saying should be avoided.

[Chavo]

That's what Joe was saying.  Because PPC has complexer instructions, a lower clock speed can be equivalent to an Intel with a higher clock speed. 

No, he said they're "twice as fast."  He was comparing the frequencies, which I'm pretty sure is exactly what uT was saying should be avoided.

Yes.  Drawing any conclusion based on frequency when comparing processors of different architectures is a bad idea.  In practice, the easiest, reliable way is benchmarking which obviously has its flaws.

[iago]

That's what Joe was saying.  Because PPC has complexer instructions, a lower clock speed can be equivalent to an Intel with a higher clock speed. 

No, he said they're "twice as fast."  He was comparing the frequencies, which I'm pretty sure is exactly what uT was saying should be avoided.

Yes.  Drawing any conclusion based on frequency when comparing processors of different architectures is a bad idea.  In practice, the easiest, reliable way is benchmarking which obviously has its flaws.

You're right, there's no number you can multiply by.  But I think you're allowed to compare them non-numerically, "A PPC is faster than an equivalently-clocked x86".  But you're right, you can't go much farther. 

[Chavo]

You're right, there's no number you can multiply by.  But I think you're allowed to compare them non-numerically, "A PPC is faster than an equivalently-clocked x86".  But you're right, you can't go much farther. 

That's not even accurate unless you append about 20 ifs.

[chuck]

http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=3997

I'll try FreeBSD soon, but I was running out of space compiling on NetBSD's pkgsrc, which I assume is very much like FreeBSD's ports.

[nslay]

http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=3997

I'll try FreeBSD soon, but I was running out of space compiling on NetBSD's pkgsrc, which I assume is very much like FreeBSD's ports.

Don't compile large 3rd party software on a slow machine
In FreeBSD...I would just use pkg_add, instead of installing via ports (or portinstall command).
If you compile world and/or kernel on FreeBSD, be sure you customize make.conf ... there are all kinds of flags that make compilation take less time and use less space.

Here's mine as an example:

Code: [Select]

CPUTYPE=pentium-m
KERNCONF=LIGHTBULB
# KERNCONF=GENERIC

MODULES_OVERRIDE=linux wlan_tkip wlan_ccmp wlan_wep sound acpi iwi syscons if_tap
PORTS_MODULES=emulators/kqemu-kmod

NO_ATM=1
NO_I4B=1
NO_IPFILTER=1
NO_LPR=1
NO_MAILWRAPPER=1

PPP_NO_NAT=1
PPP_NO_NETGRAPH=1
PPP_NO_RADIUS=1

SUP_UPDATE=1
SUP=/usr/local/bin/cvsup
SUPFLAGS=-g -L 2
SUPFILE=/root/cvsup/standard-supfile
PORTSSUPFILE=/root/cvsup/ports-supfile
DOCSUPFILE=/root/cvsup/doc-supfile

DOC_LANG=en_US.ISO8859-1

WITHOUT_MOZILLA=1
CUPS_OVERWRITE_BASE=1
WITH_CUPS=1
#WITHOUT_WEB=1
WITH_KQEMU=1

You can see more examples in /usr/share/examples/etc/make.conf or in the make.conf man page.

I have been successful compiling FreeBSD world and kernel on an old 166MHz AMD k6 with a ~3GB drive.
But be sure you choose the label sizes wisely.
e.g. Don't make var 1GB (as the default sets it)...make it like 256MB

[Wart]

http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/
I used to run this on a Pentium 166.. Worked well for that machine.. Did the harddrive install though, not the live cd boot each time