PI 100MHz run Linux?

Hey, Mark. How much RAM do you have in that computer.

I have a Linux box that I run that is a Pentium 200 with 64MB RAM. I use it to develop Web sites. It runs Apache, MYSQL and that general gamut.

X-windows, the gui interface probably won't run all that well but who needs it. The easiest to install is probably Mandrake 7.1. RedHat 7.0 is not too bad either. I am running Slackware 7.1 on mine. It is not too hard to set up but you will have to figure out how to use Linux fdisk with it. Another option is one called E-Smith Linux. It is a small distro based on RedHat 6.2. It will only run in server mode. You will have very few options when installing it but it is a nice distro.

Here are the most popular versions of Linux:
-RedHat - the largest that there is. Not as well liked by Linux nerds.
-Mandrake - One of the most popular distros. It has the best looking desktop and the easiest install of any. Based on RedHat.
-Debian - people rave about Debian. I personally have never used it.
-Slackware - one of the first and still the best install out of the box as far as security is concerned.
-Corel - based on Debian but being discontinued.
-E-smith
-TurboLinux - mostly trying to crack the server market. Based on RedHat.
-SUSE - german made, with the default language being German. They have a version that runs off of a CD.

You can download any iso version at http://www.linuxiso.org or send me an email. I have about every version there is and can mail you a copy.

Partitioning can be a problem especially if you are new to Linux. Here is how I have mine partitioned on a 8GB HD.
-Swap - 127M
-Root (/)- 500M
-Var (/var) - 600M
-Usr (/usr) - 2000M
-home (/home) - the rest

Please let me know if you need any help once you get a copy installing it or figuring out something.

Thanks for the info!

I'm not quite sure how much RAM there is in there. I think the is 48MB. Is that enough?

I currently have a 1GB drive in that PC. I have a 6GB that I was going to put in my bro's machine, but will the Linux box need it?

I'm not to worried about GUI. I'm more interested in learning the command prompt. I wouldn't mind if it didn't have any GUI.

My goal here... learn enough to configure a web server, and set up a dedicated Half Life server . Then when I get a respectable machine with Linux on it, I'll know what I'm doing.

What flavor do you think would be best for me?

The 1 GB drive will work but it will fill up fast if you are going to store anything on it. The average install is about 600MB but you can taylor this to suite you. Also with no gui installed that will save you some space.

I would probably go with either Slackware Linux 7.1 or Esmith. Esmith would be the best to use on a smaller hard drive. I think the full install on it is about 160MB but you will have to add some stuff like MYSQL & PHP as you go.

Here is some notes that I took while installing Esmith.

E-Smith Linux 4.0, Installation - 25 minutes
ISO Download - 140MB

• Boot prompt with warning: This process will completely erase all information from this computer. You don't start set-up until you type Accept at the boot prompt.
• Another warning with the same message, you must type in Proceed here.
• Make an emergency boot disk. Skip this step.
• Formatting File system. No options on partitioning.
• Installing 169 packages with 160MB. No options on packages being installed.
• LILO Boot:, defaults to a few seconds
• Screen says RED HAT LINUX
• Choose a password for system, can be up to 64 characters. Choose password as password. Password accepted.
• Configuration options
• Select Ethernet drivers automatically. Detected eepro100
  Operate in Normal or Swapped mode. Normal - eth0 is local, eth1 is external. Select Normal.
• Configuration Part 2; Operation mode - (1.) Server and Gateway - dedicated (2.) Server and gateway - dialup (3.) Server-only - dedicated (4.) Server-only - no Internet access. Select Option 1
• Select DHCP mode - (1.) Use DHCP (send system name as client identifier) (2.) Use DHCP (send ethernet address as client identifier) (3.) Use static IP address (do not use DHCP). Select Option 2
• Select Dymamic DNS service - (1.) Do not use dynamic DNS server (2.) yi.org (free service) (3.) dydns.com (commercial service) (4.) Custom (e-smith tech support required). Select Option 1
• Local Networking parameters - Select IP address
• Select Local subnet mask - 255.255.255.0 is default.
• Select DHCP server configuration. Options are on or off. Select Off
• Primary domain name - use my own
• Select system name - use hostname
• Select primary DNS address. Leave blank.
• Select proxy server - Yes and No. Select No
• Send status report to E-smith NO
• Select console mode - (1.)Auto display console automatically. (2.) login Log in as "admin" to access console. Select auto
• Contact email address, leave blank.
• Save changes
• Do you wish to reboot? For the second time. Yes
  System reboots
• Boots to console. 6 options - (1.) Check status of server. (2.) Configure server. (3.) Review configuration. (4.) Test Internet access. (5.) Reboot. (6.) View support and licensing information. Select Option 4
• Test fails. Can't get out of console. Have to change configuration and reboot (what were they thinking?).

Thanks for the precise notws, I'm going to print them out!
I'll try to download the Esmith ISO and burn a copy tonight. But I don't think I'll have time to anything else tonight. I'll probably have enough time to have a go at it tomorrow.

Thanks a bunch!

Thanks a billion!
I have an old 1997 Toshiba with 2.1 GB HD and less than 200 MHZ.
I had RedHat Linux 7.0 but that didn't work at all.
This should work a bit better.
Just a few questions though,
How do I find my internal IP on a linux machine? on a windows machine?
How do I configure my machines to allow modem sharing so I don't need 2 IPs on Comcast @home?
Thanks a lot! Real Livesaver here

Nikeguy,

(Q) How do you find your IP?
(A)Most of the times you actually have to assign it an IP. If you are connecting to a DHCP server, then it assigns you an IP.
To find your IP address:
Linux- at the command line type in ipconfig.
Windows 95/98/ME - go Start/Run/winipcfg
Windows 2000 Pro - Several ways here. Probably the easiest is to open a DOS prompt and type in ping (your computer name)

(Q)How do I configure my machines to allow modem sharing so I don't need 2 IP's on Comcast@home?
(A) Didn't you tell me that you are using a Linksys DSL/Cable router. If so you might have a bit of a problem using Esmith because it wants to be the server. If you are not using the router, then you would set up your Linux machine to use IPMasq. This way you would connect to @home through your Linux machine. I did this for quite awhile but it got to be a pain because since this machine was the server, I couldn't take it offline. So I use a router instead.

Make sure that if you do connect to the Internet via the Linux box with no router that you set up a firewall first. If you don't, you will have someone else using your box in less than 24hrs.

So... what distro should I use for my Linksys 4 port cable/dsl router?
I have e-smith but I got way lost there.
I must be configuring something wrong...
If you have ICQ it would be great if you could help me there... 44907087 unless already have me
Thank you!

I am also using a router (Linksys BEFSR41 Cable/DSL router). Will this be a problem? I planned to put the Linux box on the network using the router.

Does Slackware 7.1 have the same problem?

No, I am using Slack on mine with the same setup. The Linksys router acts as a DHCP server. During setup it will usually ask if you use a DHCP server. If you say yes, it will find the router.

The difference is that E-smith is a pretty small install. Slackware is quite a bit bigger although you can tell it what you want to install but that can sometimes be a tedious process. You do have certain levels that you can install though. I would just play around with that. There are certain differences between the distros but they are all Linux. The differences are where and how system files are placed and built-in security.

Mark, I would advise you to get a good book on Linux. One of the O'Reilly books maybe like Running Linux. Learn the commands or the major ones like ls, cd, mkdir, rm, rmdir,cp, mv, vi. You can also obtain Howto's on most things in Linux. Unfortunately, most of them appear to be written in a foreign language. Understand as much as you can and if you get stumped post back here. A couple of things can really help like typing in a command like ls --help to bring up a help screen or man ls to bring up a full help page. Also if you wanted to change directories to a folder called mynewlinuxcomputer, you can type in cd myn press tab and it will keep you from having to type in the full name. Also pressing the up error will bring up the last commands that you typed in. Pretty helpful. Slackware will work for you just be careful not to install the full install or you won't have any space left.

Nikeguy, I am not sure what kind of problems that you had with your Redhat install. Maybe tomorrow, I will try to make some time to help you. Email me at [email protected] and let me know when you will be around.

I'm running a Pentium 120 MHz with 80 MBs of RAM with Red Hat Linux 6.1, and it runs just fine. Sure, it could be a little faster, but for linux it's great.

I've run into a wall, and can't seem to find my way around it.

I found out after about an hour of pounding on the keyboard, that my machine does not support booting to the CDROM.

I decided on using Slackware, and have already downloaded it (E-Smith is D/Led too), and burned a copy on a CD (not for E-Smith yet). I've read through some of the Docs on installing and the boot prompt, and making boot disks and root disks. I made the boot disk with base.i and the root disk with color.gz (Is that right? does it need extracted first)

I don't know where I'm going... I've booted the machine off the boot disk, and I get LILO with the Boot prompt, but I can't progress any further. I don't know how to get to my CDROM to install Slackeware Linux.

My machine is a Compaq Presario currently running Win98, if that makes a difference (possible proprietary hardware). I don't want duel boot, just a plain linux box.

Any notes you have, or other resources would be greatly appreciated! (especially walk thorughs! )

Mark, you have a couple of options.

(1.) You could try to find a newer BIOS for your system. One that supports booting off of the CD. That is what I would try first. The main problem would be trying to find it on Compaq's website.
(2.) Find out the model of your CD-ROM. You can usually see this upon booting. You will need to make a bootdisk like this:
C:\>RAWRITE [image file name] A:

Here are your choices:

IDE bootdisks (.i suffix)

• aztech.i Support for the Aztech CDA268-01A, Orchid CD-3110, Okano/Wearnes CDD110, Conrad TXC, CyCDROM CD520, and the CD540 CD-ROM drives.
• cdu31a.i Sony CDU31/33a CD-ROM support.
• cdu535.i Sony CDU531/535 CD-ROM support.
• cm206.i Support for the Philips/LMS cm206 CD-ROM with the cm260 adapter card.
• goldstar.i GoldStar R420 CD-ROM (also called the "Reveal Multimedia Kit").
• isp16.i ISP16/MAD16/Mozart CD-ROM drive support.
• mcd.i NON-IDE Mitsumi CD-ROM support.
• mcdx.i Improved NON-IDE Mitsumi CD-ROM support.
• sanyo.i Sanyo CDR-H94A CD-ROM support.
• sbpcd.i Matsushita, Kotobuki, Panasonic, Creative Labs, Longshine, and Teac NON-IDE CD-ROM support.

I read that in the docs, I'll try to find out about the CDROM.
But how do I access the CDROM from the Boot> prompt?

You have two options for accessing the CD-ROM. If you use the boot disk, it will boot off of the floppy and ask where you want to install form and then start the install for Slackware for you. If you are able to boot off of the CD, then it will start the install for you.

Hi
I downloaded and burned Slakware 7.1, but every time i create and run a boot disk the computer beeps repeatedly and gets stuck
What do i do?
Thanks
I did rawrite bare.i to drive a:\
Whats wrong?

Is there anything on the screen when it beeps? Like an error message.
At what stage does it beep? after the BIOS has loaded or before?

Here is a link that may help.

Nope that didn't help but that will help in the future.
It runs the BIOS, and it says "OS load in progress"
then it says "LI_" and then it starts to beep and click... wierd

I took the machine to my cousin's and we played with it for a while, then he took his Red Hat 6.0 and we put that on the machine. That when in very easy with his boot disk. I guess the Slackware bootdisk I made didn't have the right CDROM drivers (base.i).

Now I have a linux box to play with.... yeah! Thanks for the help!

Well I just reinstalled linux, and went to expertcity
A guy there spent over 2 hours helping me set it up, and now it works great
Thanks for trying to help anyway
NOw I just have one more question:
How do I set up an FTP server on this computer(windows ME) so I can transfer my webserver files to the linux?
I have managed to connect, but I can't log in because I don't know what my login name/password is.
Thank you

Nikeguy,

If these machines are on a local network, you don't need ftp. What you need to do is setup up a samba share. With the Samba share, you can share files and map this share as a network drive to share files.

Go here and download the latest version or you can use version that comes with your distro. Do download the documentation on it though.

You should have a file called /etc/smb.conf. This is your main config file for samba.

Edit this file so that it contains the following entries:

• [global]

  # workgroup = NT-Domain-Name or Workgroup-Name, eg: LINUX2
  workgroup = name of your workgroup (should be the same as your windows machine)

  hosts allow = IP address of Windows machine

  # You may wish to use password encryption. Please read
  # ENCRYPTION.txt, Win95.txt and WinNT.txt in the Samba documentation.
  # Do not enable this option unless you have read those documents
  encrypt passwords = yes

• Share definitions

  [homes]
  comment = Home Directories
  browseable = no
  writable = yes

  [the computer name of the windows machine]
  comment = Shared Files
  path = /home/computer name of machine(make sure that this share exists in Linux and the user is the same.
  browseable = yes
  writable = yes
  valid users = a valid user setup on the Linux system

Once you have edited and saved this file, start the server daemons like this:
smbd -D
nmbd -D

You can test it like this testparm

You should now be able to see this share in the Network Neighborhood of your windows machine. Click on that share and give it the user name & password that you setup on your Linux system. You can then map this share to a drive letter, so that it will appear as a local drive by right-clicking network neighborhood on the windows sytem.

If you have problems, first check in the log files. They are usually called /var/logs/log.smb log.nmb or /var/logs/samba/log.nmb log.nmb.. The logs are usually good for figuring out problems.

If you can see the share from windows but can't access it make sure that the use encrypted passwords is checked in smb.conf. Also any time you edit smb.conf, you have to get Linux to reread the file. The easiest way is to give it a signal hangup like so smbd SIGHUP.

Post back if you are having any problems.

If you would go ahead and start a new thread.