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255 lines
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<TITLE>The Answer Guy 37: Low Memory Installation</TITLE>
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<H4>"The Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"</H4>
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<H1><A NAME="answer">
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border="0" align="middle">
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<font color="#B03060">The Answer Guy</font>
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</A></H1>
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<BR>
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<H4>By James T. Dennis,
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<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com">linux-questions-only@ssc.com</a><BR>
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Starshine Technical Services,
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<A HREF="http://www.starshine.org/">http://www.starshine.org/</A>
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</H4>
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</center>
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<H3 align="left"><img src="../../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif"
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height="50" width="60" alt="(?) " border="0"
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>Low Memory Installation</H3>
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<p><strong>From Martin Skj\vldebrand on Sun, 17 Jan 1999
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</strong></p>
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<!-- ::
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Low Memory Installation
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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:: -->
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<P><STRONG>
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Hi,
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</STRONG></P>
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<P><STRONG>
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I'm trying to install <A HREF="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</A> from floppies on my spare lap-top.
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</STRONG></P>
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<P><STRONG>
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It's an old machine, an Compaq Contura 486/ 25 with 4 MB RAM and 80 MB
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HDD.
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</STRONG></P>
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<P><STRONG>
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The installation goes well (mostly - it complains that the swap space
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cannot be initialized but it still is used, swapon during startup
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later on goes well). But after rebooting I get various memory errors.
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</STRONG></P>
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<P><STRONG>
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The latest being 'bash fork: Cannot allocate memory'
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when trying to do anything on the machine.
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</STRONG></P>
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<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
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HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
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>
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This sounds more like there is a disk error (bad block
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or some such) that's somewhere in the area where you're
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trying to create your swap partition.
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</BLOCKQUOTE>
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<BLOCKQUOTE>
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That would explain both the initialization failure (which
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I presume is an error message from the installation
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script's 'mkswap' routine) and the bash errors.
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</BLOCKQUOTE>
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<P><STRONG><IMG SRC="../../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
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HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
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>
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I've read and re-read the floppy install on low-memory systems. I've
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expanded the swap space to about 20 MB (should be enough) but it still
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complains about the memory problem.
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</STRONG></P>
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<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
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HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
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>
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If the error is near the beginning of the swap
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file/partition --- then you'll keep getting it now matter
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how much disk space you <EM>add</EM> to the partition.
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</BLOCKQUOTE>
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<BLOCKQUOTE>
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Try invoking the mkswap command (which should be somewhere
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in your startup files) with the -c option (to check for
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bad blocks).
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</BLOCKQUOTE>
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<P><STRONG><IMG SRC="../../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
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HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
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>
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Any ideas? Is it possible to run Debian on a 4 MB RAM machine?
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</STRONG></P>
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<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
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HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
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>
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I don't know. That's cutting it pretty thin. I
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certainly wouldn't use 'bash' on a 4Mb system --- 'bash'
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is hardly a lightweight shell. Try 'ash' --- which is a
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simpler and smaller shell that's designed for use on
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rescue floppies, etc.
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</BLOCKQUOTE>
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<BLOCKQUOTE>
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You'll certainly want to compile a custom trimmed kernel
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(on another system) for use in such a constrained
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setting. I wouldn't think that the Contura's were so
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old that you can't find additional memory for them.
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Bumping that up to 8 or 16 Mb will make a huge
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difference in what you can do with that laptop. Otherwise
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I'd really just use it with a few DOS programs (there are
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DOS versions many Unix utilities). The biggest disadvantage
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of DOS is that you don't get any TCP/IP networking (or
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when you load up a TCP/IP stack --- and a few drivers for
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mice, CD drives etc. it eats up so much "conventional"
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--- MS-DOS "special" memory that you can't run anything that
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you care about). If you really prefer a Unix-like
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environment you might find a copy of Minix --- which can
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run on PC/XTs and can certainly fit on a Compaq.
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</BLOCKQUOTE>
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<BLOCKQUOTE>
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(Of course, a Linux kernel with TCP/IP networking and
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all other extraneous bits removed can boot in a little
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over 1Mb. This wouldn't be any normal distribution
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--- you'd want to use one of the micro distributions that's
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tailored specifically for low memory machines. For example
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on the "major-linux-archive-formerly-known-as-sunsite":
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</BLOCKQUOTE>
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<BLOCKQUOTE><BlockQuote>
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(Now known as metalab.unc.edu): we have
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</BlockQuote></BLOCKQUOTE>
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<BLOCKQUOTE>
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<A HREF="http://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/distributions"
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>http://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/distributions</A>
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</BLOCKQUOTE>
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<BLOCKQUOTE>
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... which lists:
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</BLOCKQUOTE>
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<BLOCKQUOTE><BlockQuote><code>
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smalllinux-0.4.0.src.tar.gz
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</code></BlockQuote></BLOCKQUOTE>
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<BLOCKQUOTE>
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... as one of its holdings. That's a 1.2.11 kernel with
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patches to support ELF binaries. There was also a 1.09
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based kernel with similar patches that was called
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"Linux-Lite" or something like that. These are
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likely to be better suited to use on a laptop with less
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than 8Mb.
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</BLOCKQUOTE>
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<BLOCKQUOTE>
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In alot of cases it depends on what you're planning on
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running. For example for some sorts of routers you'd want
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to use a newer kernel --- since it only has to run the
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kernel, the shell script to set up your routes and packet
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filtering rules and maybe a copy of syslogd (if you want to
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remotely log some sorts of traffic). For that you'd want
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a more recent kernel with a better TCP/IP stack and
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preferably with the more powerful IPChains packet filtering
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features (standard for the upcoming 2.2 kernel, available
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as patches to 2.0).
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</BLOCKQUOTE>
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<BLOCKQUOTE>
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Anyway, good luck. Check out for-sale news groups
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to see if you can find a good deal on used Contura
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memory modules.
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</BLOCKQUOTE>
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<P><STRONG><IMG SRC="../../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
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HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
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>
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M.
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</STRONG></P>
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<!-- sig -->
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<!-- end 33 -->
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<P> <hr> <P>
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<H5 align="center"><a href="http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html"
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>Copyright ©</a> 1999, James T. Dennis
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<BR>Published in <I>The Linux Gazette</I> Issue 37 February 1999</H5>
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