routing, mailing etc. on old 486 with gentoo ?

josimitsu · n00b Joined: 10 Jun 2002 Posts: 22

i'm gonna build a little routing (maybe mail and jabber also) box for small network of 5 boxes, with 486 DX/2 66 and 16MB ram and 1,2 GB hdd and isa network cards and deciding to put the gentoo on it. i like the phylosophy of gentoo's hands on everything so this is a pros for me, but i think there are a lot of specialized distribution to provide such thinks to me. Any suggestions ?
One more question. Is it posible to build gentoo on stronger computer, with 486 flags or so and then simpy put that in 486 box ? Are there any performance improvements in building everything from scratch for such a processor ? If there are, any suggestions for flags settings ?

lamer · n00b Joined: 16 May 2002 Posts: 16 Location: St. Paul, Mn

It's gonna take FOREVER to bootstrap etc. Use a stage3 tarball or skip it entirely and use BBIagent firewall floppy and call it a day.

klieber · Posted: Sat Jun 22, 2002 4:24 pm Post subject:

I agree with lamer. It will take forever to build. Look at something purpose-built like, Devil Linux or any of the other appliance-type linux distros. Those are designed to run on older hardware and you'll probably have a much easier time getting them set up and operating.

Now, if you're looking for a challenge/opportunity to learn/etc, then by all means, go for it. However, if you want something that Just Works, I think you'll be happier with something else.

--kurt
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josimitsu · n00b Joined: 10 Jun 2002 Posts: 22

thx guys for suggestions.
Yes you're right. it's challenge for me so if it's possible to build gentoo in way a described (or see below) i'm gonna play with it.

only one point. i don't want to build everything on that old machine, therefore i was asking if it's possible to build everything on my regular machine whitch is of course a lot of faster. I now there is now problem build gentoo on one partition while running gentoo on another partition. Question is, if it's possible to build gentoo-486 (with flags for 486) procesor on my duron and after that it will run on 486 processor ?

CowboyNeal · Posted: Sat Jun 22, 2002 4:51 pm Post subject:

I also have a 486 and a duron.

I build everything on a duron [running gentoo, ofcouse]. Just unpack the stage1 tar on your gentoo system and follow install instructions.

Next I created a 400 MB file with dd, mkfs.ext2, mount file with loopback, drop gentoobuild on loopback. Finally netcat it to hda1 of the 486 [with a bootfloppy and nc].

Then make a grub bootdisk as described in info grub and boot your new sys!

josimitsu · n00b Joined: 10 Jun 2002 Posts: 22

that's it man

is there are points about performance or optimalization ? i mean with which flags did you build it ?

mksoft · l33t Joined: 28 May 2002 Posts: 844

You should look into IPCop which is a firewall/router/intruder detection.

I wouldn't recommend running a mail server on a router/firewall for security reasons, but placing it in a DMZ behind the firewall.
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CowboyNeal · Posted: Sat Jun 22, 2002 5:41 pm Post subject:

josimitsu · n00b Joined: 10 Jun 2002 Posts: 22

hey, i'm bootstraping now and got a question. did you built your kernel for that 486, say feature less ? Do you have some tips for kernel configuration ?