Re: [TCLUG:1041] Official InstallFest Announcement

[Carl Patten <cpatte@trimodalinc.com>]

Scot Jenkins wrote:
> 
> Mark wrote:
> >
> > My two questions:
> >
> > Could my old Toshiba 486-33 with 120 meg hard drive really run with X on
> > its 4 megs of RAM?  I could bring this along also.
> 
> This is the config I started out with (was Gateway but basically same
> hardware).  I was able to run X, be it slow with heavy swapping with
> only 4M of RAM.  Memory is dirt cheap for those older machines; go with
> no less then 16M real & 32M virtual; 32M real if you have the room for
> it.  I used old slackware (1.2 I think) distribution; redhat requires 8M
> real RAM at a minimum.  486-33 will take close to 1 hr to install though
> and about as long to compile kernel.  If you're game, I'm sure we are...

Beware of running out of hard-drive space, though.  120 will just barely
fit a minimal Red Hat installation with X.  You won't be able to load
the X development kit, for example.  Maybe someone has another old
120-meg drive you can use for a separate /usr partition.  The local
Budget Computers in Columbia Heights is selling 528 meg IDE hard drives
for $89.

> 
> > Are external modems much more suggested than internal modems for Linux?
> 
> The nice part about externals is, if they lock up you can reset them
> without having to
> reboot.  They usually cost more too.  I have USR 33.6 internal with no
> problems under RH 4.2.  WARNING:  SAY NO TO WINMODEMS!!!
> 

Ditto, I just bought a Newcom external V90 modem from Office Depot
because (1) it was $20 off and (2) it was just about the only
non-winmodem on the shelf.  It's running great!

--
Carl Patten
Systems Administrator
Trimodal Inc.