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mb10
n00b
Joined: 28 Nov 2002
Posts: 8
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 Posted: Thu Nov 28, 2002 4:35 am Post subject: Old hardware make problems? |
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I've basically followed the installation guide as far as I could 3 times now, and I still do not have internet access to continue on with installation.
I'm working with 6, almost 7 year hardware right now, so I'm thinking that perhaps that could be the problem.
In any event, the reason why I'm trying to build completely from scratch is so that I can hopefully learn new stuff about the unix environment, how it works, how to administrate better, etc etc. This distro has been highly recommended to me by many people because of my goals.
To cut to the chase, this is the kind of hardware I'm running:
Pentium 133
48 meg ram
2 gig hard drive
3com 590c -- pci
smc ether ez 4069 -- isa
It's an AST mini-tower, but i dunno if the motherboard is made by them or not. Has integrated audio and video.
And I've yet to get either of my ethernet cards to work along with my dsl (yes, run net-setup and adsl-setup and adsl-start).
Dunno if it matters or not, but my ISP is bellsouth 
any insight on how to move forward would be appreciated. I'd really like to not have to take the approach of installing stage 3 and then starting over at stage 1. But if that's what I got to do, then that's what I got to do.
Thanks,
--mb10
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Woland
Apprentice
Joined: 02 Aug 2002
Posts: 248
Location: Russian Jack, Alaska
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| Posted: Thu Nov 28, 2002 9:44 pm Post subject: |
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Tell you the truth, I am impressed you got as far as you did. When I was installing Gentoo I got kernel panicks untill I upgraded to 126MB of RAM. I think the minimum is 64MB, for the install, so you flew in under that radar.
As for your spesific problems, I am afraid your post should be a little more specific. You are getting a prompt, right? Are you inserting the correct kernel modules for your NIC? What kind of errors are you getting.
A bit off topic, & I hope I do not start a flamewar here, but I am not sure that Gentoo is best for your needs. From what I understand, you are basically new to Unix and just want to mess around? Well, Gentoo is great to get into the guts of the system, and for a more modern machne it works great, but it is very hardware intensive. You compile everything, right on your machene, and on a P133, that will leave you enough compile time to start and finish War and Peace.
A binary distribution might work better. Check out Debian at www.debian.org If you want to try Red Hat, I would recommend using version 6.2---I run that on a P90 with 32MB of RAM, and it makes a great router. (You might want to upgrade to the latest 2.4.x kernel though.) |
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chatgris
Guru
Joined: 14 Oct 2002
Posts: 383
Location: Canada
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| Posted: Thu Nov 28, 2002 9:52 pm Post subject: |
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Not to flame but rather to discuss =).
Firstly I think that's a bit wrong about gentoo and the guts of the system.. I actually wish I had started out with gentoo instead of redhat.. It's MUCH easier to install software in gentoo, and once installed it's actually gota pretty gentle learning curve IMHO.
However, given that hardware I'd definately aim for a binary distro too =).
Josh. |
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eryvile
Apprentice
Joined: 14 Aug 2002
Posts: 234
Location: europe
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| Posted: Thu Nov 28, 2002 11:06 pm Post subject: |
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| chatgris wrote: |
However, given that hardware I'd definately aim for a binary distro too =).
Josh. |
That's a little bit like the discussion they're having here. I have one of my servers running a stage 1 build Gentoo. It's a P200. Yes, it took several days to get everything running, but as I was working long those days, it was a pretty flawless install:
first evening: start bootstrap
second evening: trigger emerge system
third evening: building kernel (about half an hour compile time, maybe longer), getting the needed services (samba, nfs, yp, etc.) to work
I don't know how long the different stages really needed, but the times of the install process were definitely different to those of my athlon 1800+  But then, it's always a question about whether it really gives you any benefit. For me, that install was just some playing around, this server was running FreeBSD before and I could have left it the way it was... "curiosity killed the cat" |
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dufeu
l33t
Joined: 30 Aug 2002
Posts: 924
Location: US-FL-EST
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| Posted: Fri Nov 29, 2002 12:26 am Post subject: Re: Old hardware make problems? |
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| mb10 wrote: |
To cut to the chase, this is the kind of hardware I'm running:
Pentium 133
48 meg ram
2 gig hard drive
3com 590c -- pci
smc ether ez 4069 -- isa
It's an AST mini-tower, but i dunno if the motherboard is made by them or not. Has integrated audio and video.
Dunno if it matters or not, but my ISP is bellsouth
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Several tips:
Amount of ram for installation is not a problem per se. What counts is the total amount of memory between ram and swap. I've installed Gentoo running fluxbox, etc on a 32 meg K6 system. You're total memory (ram+swap) should be 384 megs. 512megs is better.
Patience is a virtue on an 'old' hardware system. But I actually enjoy them and will be doing more of them myself.
I don't have your nic (I usually use realtek 8139s myself), but if you do 'ifconfig -a' and eth0 appears, the problem might not be where you think it is.
You don't say, but are you using ADSL? This requires further steps before you get a connection. There is a specific document on the site which explains how to set up ADSL for installation.
I hang out sometimes on irc.openprojects.net #ATU (all things unix). If I have the time, I can probably walk you past some of your pain.
Speaking of disk space, you'll probably want to slap another 2 gig hard drive if you have one laying around. Trust me on this.
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People whom think M$ is mediocre, don't know the half of it. |
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dufeu
l33t
Joined: 30 Aug 2002
Posts: 924
Location: US-FL-EST
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| Posted: Fri Nov 29, 2002 12:26 am Post subject: Re: Old hardware make problems? |
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| mb10 wrote: |
To cut to the chase, this is the kind of hardware I'm running:
Pentium 133
48 meg ram
2 gig hard drive
3com 590c -- pci
smc ether ez 4069 -- isa
It's an AST mini-tower, but i dunno if the motherboard is made by them or not. Has integrated audio and video.
Dunno if it matters or not, but my ISP is bellsouth
|
Several tips:
Amount of ram for installation is not a problem per se. What counts is the total amount of memory between ram and swap. I've installed Gentoo running fluxbox, etc on a 32 meg K6 system. You're total memory (ram+swap) should be 384 megs. 512megs is better.
Patience is a virtue on an 'old' hardware system. But I actually enjoy them and will be doing more of them myself.
I don't have your nic (I usually use realtek 8139s myself), but if you do 'ifconfig -a' and eth0 appears, the problem might not be where you think it is.
You don't say, but are you using ADSL? This requires further steps before you get a connection. There is a specific document on the site which explains how to set up ADSL for installation.
I hang out sometimes on irc.openprojects.net #ATU (all things unix). If I have the time, I can probably walk you past some of your pain.
Speaking of disk space, you'll probably want to slap another 2 gig hard drive if you have one laying around. Trust me on this.
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People whom think M$ is mediocre, don't know the half of it. |
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Installing Gentoo
