Re: Small Unix install
Erik Cederstrand wrote: DAve wrote: Good morning, I am looking for a small install for an old laptop. I have an old but quite reliable Toshiba 330CDT that used to be my personal laptop. I ran FBSD 3.x/4.x on it for years but it has been wiped and in a closet for years. I want to use it again just to access a few web forums and read my email. I don't do POV RAY or 3D, I don't need Open Office, I don't watch any Tubes. Mutt, Fluxbox and a minimal browser would make me happy. I don't have the time or inclination to roll my own again. PCBSD can't finish the install due to only having 96mb of memory. Desktop BSD wants more than 4gb of drive space just to complete the install. I currently have 98SE on it only consuming 300mb and it runs fine, but it's 98SE ;^) Does anyone know of anything ready to install? BSD, Linux, I don't care. You could try Damn Small Linux. The main problem with using old laptops is finding a browser that doesn't hog memory. The only on I've found (apart from Lynx) is Dillo, but it doesn't support CSS. Yep, Dillo fails on most of the web forums I want to read. As I responded to another reply, I am a ASCII kinda guy in a Multimedia world. Another option if you really want FreeBSD is to search the FTP archives for a FreeBSD 3/4 install CD and go from there. They'll have the packages ready to install. Just beware of the security implications of using old releases. I still have a full four disk set of FreeBSD 3.2 ;^) Security implications! Ha! A bit of tuning here, a firewall there, kill some daemons off, I wouldn't worry. Safer than Windows. I spent (wasted IMO) the better part of 8 hours this weekend installing FreeBSD and Slackware on the laptop with disappointing results. X was incredibly slow with all browsers, my pcmcia card isn't working, my wireless card is unsupported. But I work from home, I have VMWare on my work laptop, I installed PCBSD in VMWare. I was downloading mail and reading a forum in under 15 minutes. I am happy. I will keep an eye out for a cheap/used replacement laptop for personal use. Thanks everyone who responded, and have a happy New Year. DAve -- Google finally, after 7 years, provided a logo for veterans. Thank you Google. What to do with my signature now? ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Small Unix install
Good morning, I am looking for a small install for an old laptop. I have an old but quite reliable Toshiba 330CDT that used to be my personal laptop. I ran FBSD 3.x/4.x on it for years but it has been wiped and in a closet for years. I want to use it again just to access a few web forums and read my email. I don't do POV RAY or 3D, I don't need Open Office, I don't watch any Tubes. Mutt, Fluxbox and a minimal browser would make me happy. I don't have the time or inclination to roll my own again. PCBSD can't finish the install due to only having 96mb of memory. Desktop BSD wants more than 4gb of drive space just to complete the install. I currently have 98SE on it only consuming 300mb and it runs fine, but it's 98SE ;^) Does anyone know of anything ready to install? BSD, Linux, I don't care. Thanks, DAve -- Google finally, after 7 years, provided a logo for veterans. Thank you Google. What to do with my signature now? ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Small Unix install
Quoting DAve [EMAIL PROTECTED]: I am looking for a small install for an old laptop. I have an old but quite reliable Toshiba 330CDT that used to be my personal laptop. I ran FBSD 3.x/4.x on it for years but it has been wiped and in a closet for years. I want to use it again just to access a few web forums and read my email. I don't do POV RAY or 3D, I don't need Open Office, I don't watch any Tubes. Mutt, Fluxbox and a minimal browser would make me happy. I don't have the time or inclination to roll my own again. PCBSD can't finish the install due to only having 96mb of memory. Desktop BSD wants more than 4gb of drive space just to complete the install. I currently have 98SE on it only consuming 300mb and it runs fine, but it's 98SE ;^) Does anyone know of anything ready to install? BSD, Linux, I don't care. Is there a reason a standard installation of FreeBSD 4/6/7 won't work for you? Just do a minimal install of the OS from CD or network then install [parts of] X, fluxbox, and your other apps from ports or packages and away you go. You could weigh the benefits [possible memory savings] of compiling your own kernel against the time and disk space required, but you shouldn't ever have to build world or ports unless you feel so inclined, especially now that freebsd-update is part of the base system. JN ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Small Unix install
On Dec 28, 2007 10:56 AM, DAve [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Good morning, I am looking for a small install for an old laptop. I have an old but quite reliable Toshiba 330CDT that used to be my personal laptop. I ran FBSD 3.x/4.x on it for years but it has been wiped and in a closet for years. I want to use it again just to access a few web forums and read my email. I don't do POV RAY or 3D, I don't need Open Office, I don't watch any Tubes. Mutt, Fluxbox and a minimal browser would make me happy. I don't have the time or inclination to roll my own again. PCBSD can't finish the install due to only having 96mb of memory. Desktop BSD wants more than 4gb of drive space just to complete the install. I currently have 98SE on it only consuming 300mb and it runs fine, but it's 98SE ;^) Does anyone know of anything ready to install? BSD, Linux, I don't care. Yes, there's plenty of options for very small Unix installs. Those you've tried have been the modern desktop-oriented distributions of FreeBSD and they of course don't shoot for the older class of systems. Unix has resisted bloat For example, I've put a smaller OpenBSD build on my Soekris that I run for a firewall on my cable connection. Fits in 22 MB: # df -h Filesystem SizeUsed Avail Capacity Mounted on /dev/wd0a 236M 22.1M202M10%/ Granted your desktop build will be plenty larger, but 300 MB is certainly achievable. Follow the advice for a minimal installation of the vanilla FreeBSD 6.x or 7 + whatever packages you need and you'll be rolling. You can find similar options in any of the BSDs and GNU/Linux. DS ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Small Unix install
John Nielsen wrote: Is there a reason a standard installation of FreeBSD 4/6/7 won't work for you? Just do a minimal install of the OS from CD or network then install [parts of] X, fluxbox, and your other apps from ports or packages and away you go. You could weigh the benefits [possible memory savings] of compiling your own kernel against the time and disk space required, but you shouldn't ever have to build world or ports unless you feel so inclined, especially now that freebsd-update is part of the base system. Time and effort. I barely use the internet personally and I didn't want to spend the time to setup a new install, ports, kernel, etc. I do that 60 hours a week for a living, it ceased being fun for me a long time ago. Darren Spruell wrote: Yes, there's plenty of options for very small Unix installs. Those you've tried have been the modern desktop-oriented distributions of FreeBSD and they of course don't shoot for the older class of systems. Unix has resisted bloat It was the off chance I could install them and just not use the parts I didn't need. I figured it was a long shot but it only took 30 minutes during lunch to find out if they would work. All of my machines are servers, web/radius/SQL/ftp/email/bacula/streaming/etc. I spend all day in terminal sessions, my experience with X in the last 7 years is minimal ;^) I may just have to spend the time to do an install, install some ports, configure X, configure the wireless card, and configure printing. I appreciate the responses, thanks. DAve -- Google finally, after 7 years, provided a logo for veterans. Thank you Google. What to do with my signature now? ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
