Gentoo on HPPA 712/60 Gecko?

bassai · Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 10:51 pm Post subject: Gentoo on HPPA 712/60 Gecko?

Hello,

I have an old HP PA-RISC workstation (712/60 Gecko) with 60 Mhz CPU and 2 GB SCSI hard disk around there.
This machine has no CD drive.
Is it possible to get a gentoo linux running on it or is this machine too slow and how to do it without a CD drive to boot from?
As a second computer I have only a laptop (Pentium4), running gentoo of course

, so I can't put the harddisk of the Gecko in it.

Thank you for your help

Nick C · Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 10:56 pm Post subject:

is trying to compile everything on a 60mhz cpu really such a wise idea? While i dont want to discourage anyone from using gentoo, trying to install it on ancient computers is rarely a wise decision unless your happy to wait days/weeks (months for something like kde/gnome????) to compile, pity the fool who makes an error and has to restart the build :roll:

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bassai · Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 11:05 pm Post subject:

I don't need stuff like gnome or kde, I would be happy with a working terminal

Perhaps I could compile things on my laptop.
If not gentoo, is there another linux which is better suited on old hardware?

Nick C · Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 11:17 pm Post subject:

something like damn small linux, or any distro aimed more at embedded installs might be more useful for you, as a comparison, my router us almost 4 times faster than your box you intend to put gentoo on :p
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NathanZachary · Moderator Joined: 30 Jan 2007 Posts: 2605

I tried putting Gentoo on a 233 MHz laptop with 64MB of RAM, and it was horridly slow to compile even things like syslog-ng. You can put it on that computer if you would like, but I think DSL might be a better route for you to take.
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mark_alec · Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 1:16 am Post subject:

Moved from Installing Gentoo to Gentoo on Alternative Architectures.
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Simba7 · Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 1:25 am Post subject:

Hey.. My systems are older than this and they work fine (P200MMX w/128MB RAM). Sheesh. I've installed Gentoo on a P133 before and it works fine after the week of compiling. Just requires patience.

That system should handle Gentoo just fine. How much memory does it have?

I would *suggest* getting a second HDD or a bigger one, though.

bassai · Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 8:06 am Post subject:

This system has just 64 MB RAM.
Perhaps I will try DSL to put on it.
But how to boot with no CD drive?

Simba7 · Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 6:56 pm Post subject:

Might need to boot over the network.

This is NOT an x86 CPU. This is a RISC CPU. You might want to google the system and it will probably pop up with some answers.

ksp7498 · Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2008 1:09 am Post subject:

honestly, the biggest problem you're gonna run into is hard drive space. You could just wait out the long compiles, but nothing is gonna change the fact that fitting everything into a 2g partition is gonna be very very close (especially considering you're gonna need some decent swap space with only 64mb of ram).
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Simba7 · Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2008 7:42 pm Post subject:

If it's a SCSI drive (probably), go find a 36 or 74 gigger.

Either that or, if it has PCI slots, grab an IDE controller and slap in a 40+ gigger. Just use the 2Gb as your /boot.

ksp7498 · Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2008 10:10 pm Post subject:

Simba7 · Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2008 2:59 am Post subject:

HPRichard · Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2008 6:06 pm Post subject:

In theory any Single ended or Ultra<something>-SCSI drive should work with that machine. But keep in mind that the thermal conditions in that machine are designed for SCSI drives of a similar age than the machine itself. The internal harddisk bay might get somewhat hot with a recent 15k drive. If in doubt, you could use the external SCSI connector, it should be possible to connect nearly anything, even some big business RAIDs, to it.

The netbooting feature of the Geckos is part of the system board and the firmware, so you could set up a BOOTP/TFTP server somewhere in your network an let it boot. (BOOTP can be emulated by DHCP). If you have no idea how to boot a Gentoo installation medium via TFTP, you might even first boot a Debian installation image (at least in the past, this was very well documented), install a minimal Debian system and then install Gentoo following the alternative Installation Guide.

ddc · Guru Joined: 29 Aug 2006 Posts: 525

hi,
I've got a 712-100 with 192Mb ram. Emerging X11&C takes 3 weeks.
I don't remember exactly what i did, but i installed using the network

openbsd runs very well and has got an image ready to be tftp booted from a tftp server to you 712. You have to do the same for gentoo: i don't remember how i made this netboot image of linux (it was 2 years ago), but i did, so it is possible.

In case you have problem, you can replace the internal scsi cable with a dual device cable:
i mean motherboard.[scsi50pin]------- [hd]----[cd]

X11 has an issue in the xorg.conf, it may be fixed.

have fun

martianpenguin · n00b Joined: 08 Apr 2005 Posts: 6

I suggest you put openbsd on it. I have the exact same machine with only 1gb drive and 32mb of ram. It runs fine, but it gets low on memory if too many things are running. Since you have double the ram you should be fine. You have to boot it over the network, but it's easy. Just download like 2 files from openbsd.org and put them in a tftp server on your gentoo box. Then boot from lan and install the system directly from the openbsd mirrors.

If you do want to go with gentoo, I suggest finding a way to offload the compiling to another computer, otherwise it just won't be worth it.

ddc · Guru Joined: 29 Aug 2006 Posts: 525

any news about it ?

here I am updating my gentoo hppa1.1/hp712 .... so, would you like a backup CD ? write me a MP =P

ddc · Guru Joined: 29 Aug 2006 Posts: 525

i am rebuild the world in my spare time: gentoo 2008.0 on hp 712 with a good user land & X11 pretty configured

are you interested ?