which distro for 486 unisys

[StarKnight83]

I have aquired an old unisys 486 system and was gonna just do some shell stuff on it. But my problem is installation. the specs are 486 processor, 8mb ram, 320mb hdd it does have a ethernet connection, but no modem or cdrom. and taking the harddrive out of the case is not really an option-its a pain to do (one of those really small cases) Im wondering if anyone knows a good floppy based distro that can r/w to the hdd (most ive found dont/cant) i tried both debian and slackware. it doesnt have enough ram for a debian install and the slackware install locks up on the 1st root disk (have to use the low-mem kernel to even get that far). Ive checked the disk (1st root) no bad sectors and ive tried other disks that check out ok as well.

[bosox79]

StarKnight83,

Just to clarify do you or do you not have a net connection? I did a Quick G4L search and found this site floppy based distro for a 486 (http://www.linuxlinks.com/Distributions/Floppy/) They have a Debian varient listed.

HTH

bosox

[Sgood1971]

With a little effort, you can install DamnSmall Linux (http://www.damnsmalllinux.org) on a 486 via floppy, I did on a 50mhz w/8MB Ram and a 75MB HD and it runs fairly decent using Fluxbox. If you search the boards there, they have a floppy install instruction page under the "How To" section. It is a little time consuming to do, but worth the effort. You will not have lightning fast performance, but you can have a usable system.

<edit> Expect to use approx. 36 floppies</edit>

[Loki3]

If you have a parallel port and an old external parallel port zip drive hanging around you could try installing zipslack. 100mb install of slackware. I installed it on an old 66mhz/8MB/450mb laptop without to many issues.

If you have a network connection you could always do a netinstall of debian. This would probably work the best, I'm guessing. You would probably have to make some swap space first thing in order to get the installer working. Maybe debian has instructions on doing a floppy only netinstall somewhere on their site?

[bosox79]

not to take this thread to far off topic but have you guys been receiving notifications of replies? I ask because I have not received any for the last 2 days and I do have Use 'Email Notification' by default set to yes in my user cp.

Sgood1971,

I noticed you posted a thread about this yesterday I wonder what is going on with the forum software:confused:

[Alex Cavnar, aka alc6379]

If it's got Ethernet, can you find out what kind of ethernet? Once you figure that out, your options really open up-- you could pretty much pick and choose what to install. I've installed both Debian and Slackware on 486 boxes using Ethernet connections that were supported by the kernels both Debian and Slackware use for their installers.

[Sgood1971]

Originally posted by bosox79
not to take this thread to far off topic but have you guys been receiving notifications of replies? I ask because I have not received any for the last 2 days and I do have Use 'Email Notification' by default set to yes in my user cp.

Sgood1971,

I noticed you posted a thread about this yesterday I wonder what is going on with the forum software:confused:

Just found this, didn't get the notify, sorry bosox79.
:D
Glad they got it fixed though.

[bosox79]

I am too, it was kind of a pain not reciving replies:)