Gentoo on a limited system.

browny · n00b Joined: 03 Sep 2002 Posts: 22 Location: Manchester

Right I'm going to install Gentoo onto a Cyrix, no jokes about how slow the compilation process will be please.
Firstly the Cyrix will only have a 2GB HDD, I'll be setting 100mb as boot, and 256mb as swap, the rest will be /.
This will be acting as a webserver. I'll want Apache, with php, SQL, and perl running, now while these may not be big modules in them selves to compile, I know very little about the Linux Command Prompt (though I am slowly learning), so I'll want some sort of GUI installed. Will Gentoo, Apache, PHP, SQL and some sort of X windowing system all fit onto a 2GB drive.
Also can anyone reccomend a small GUI which I could compile, one of my friends said it took him 12 hours to compile KDE on a 1.33GHz T'Bird, so I worked out using the 900MHz system in the manual as a reference that KDE will take 4.8 days to compile.
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nempo · Posted: Sun Sep 08, 2002 7:13 pm Post subject:

Im running gentoo on a 166Mhz pentium classic, 64mb ram and 2.5gb hdd. I dont have X installed but everything else worked out fine. The compile process took about 24h. I have about 800mb free on the hdd so I dont know about fitting X on you 2gb hdd but you can always give it a shot.

slais-sysweb · Apprentice Joined: 14 Jun 2002 Posts: 221 Location: London

2gb is plenty. Allow 2xRAM for swap, 32MB for /boot and the rest for /
If its a web server you really dont need X everthing you need to do for configuration will be command line anyway. If you must have X then a lightweight window manager is best I recomend ICEwm but take a look at http://www.plig.org/xwinman/ for a selection.
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gsfgf · Veteran Joined: 08 May 2002 Posts: 1266

On such a pos system you may want to use freebsd. Its smaller and faster even than gentoo. With either OS there is no reason to install X. All configurations will be done on a command line, so why bother w/ X at all. I have a very similar sys (p200/64mb/2gb) and it is pretty full w/ just apache, modPHP, and mySQL. I tried to install X (remote access, long story) , but lacked room.

klieber · Posted: Sun Sep 08, 2002 7:53 pm Post subject:

Did you post this in Off The Wall for a reason? Seems like it's a better topic for Installing Gentoo...

Moving it there for now. If you really wanted it in OTW for some reason, let me know and I'll move it back.

--kurt
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browny · n00b Joined: 03 Sep 2002 Posts: 22 Location: Manchester

RagManX · Posted: Sun Sep 08, 2002 10:05 pm Post subject:

Might I suggest you install some of the programs mentioned in this article? I used that to set up a low memory system that runs very well. Everything mentioned in the article has a portage package available for in in Gentoo. Instead of emerge kde-base once you have finished the basic install, use emerge icewm. That installs the necessary X packages and a lightweight window manager. Using this, I can get up and running in X, with a web browser and 2 rxvt terminal windows in under 30 Meg of memory. Just make sure to read the comments on the article for additional tips on lightweight tools. Use rxvt instead of xterm, and you should be good to go.

RagManX
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browny · n00b Joined: 03 Sep 2002 Posts: 22 Location: Manchester

I'll try some of the stuff from that cookign with Linux article, tomorrow, I've been too busy over the past few days, to do anythign with it yet, and I gotta go to the girlfriends this afternoon.
I have one question though, if he got a multi tasking running 6 tasks, in under 32mb, why can;t other people do it, do we really need 512MB's of ram in the average desktop machine. I know its needed for video, and graphsics manipulation etc, but how may of us need it. I'm using 80mb, atm and all I have running is IE5, and msn messenger.
rant over.....
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aki · n00b Joined: 08 Sep 2002 Posts: 13

Gentoo is great.
There is a tool for everything.
For your purpose I would install OpenBSD, will take you 20 min to have system up and running with Fluxbox, Blackbox (your pick).
Secure by default. Easier to set up as a server for a novice than anything else.

aki

rac · Posted: Wed Sep 11, 2002 6:25 pm Post subject:

OK, please no "BSD v. Linux" arguments. There are plenty of them in the archives, and if this thread turns into another one, it will get locked.
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eivinn · Apprentice Joined: 10 Jul 2002 Posts: 219 Location: Norway

First I have to state that I don't know what you will be using that GUI for. If it's for setting up your webserver X certainly isn't needed.

I will just give you a hint: