RE: v2.8 on a 486/33 with 8mb - at all possible?

["Eric Kuhnke" <erickuhnke_(_at_)_home_(_dot_)_com>]

As I don't have a third system I can install OpenBSD on around here, I'll
try recompiling a custom kernel in VMWare and moving it over via floppy.
It'll be slow, but should work...  Now the question is, how to replace the
kernel in single-user mode?  I've never messed around in single-user much,
but it seems that the whole hard drive is read-only when you boot -s.

Eric

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-misc_(_at_)_openbsd_(_dot_)_org [mailto:owner-misc_(_at_)_openbsd_(_dot_)_org]On Behalf Of
josh
Sent: Wednesday, May 23, 2001 10:02 AM
To: misc_(_at_)_openbsd_(_dot_)_org
Subject: Re: v2.8 on a 486/33 with 8mb - at all possible?


Eric Kuhnke wrote...
> Before anyone asks, the answer is no, I can't get more RAM for it :(.
> This particular system uses some very odd proprietary RAM that is
similar
> to 72-pin ECC Parity 100ns, but not industry standard.  So i'm stuck at
> 8mb.

You may be able to get more RAM for it, it just may not be
cost effective. :)

> Now, when booting, it goes okay (albeit slowly), until it reaches
> "Building ps databases: kvm dev" and then starts swapping.  After about
45
> minutes of swap I've given up rebooted it into single user mode.

I installed OpenBSD onto a co-workers older very slow Thinkpad (don't
remember the model, but it's a 486 something with like 12mb RAM)

> In single user, it boots okay, and I have access to a shell.  Is there
any
> way I can recompile a smaller stripped down kernel from single-user?
All
> it needs is NE2000 + 3C509 network support, one serial port, no
parallel,
> or any other devices.

COmpiled a new kernel on another box, put it on a floppy and install
that kernel as the default one (thats what we did and it worked just
fine)

I also have 2.7 running on a AT&T Globalyst laptop (also very little
ram) which is acting as my Wavelan access point box.

> www.embsd.org looks like the other option, they've recently released
.tgzs
> for v1.0, and I may try that if I can't get this working.

1.1pre2 is out.  The kernel is still 2.1mb, and base11.tgz is around
9mb.  It takes up around 26mb of diskspace installed, a little more
if you install dhcp/ipsec/named/or ppp.

--
josh
       "Unix is very simple, but it takes a genius to understand the
		       simplicity." - Dennis Ritchie