DeLi Linux -- a distro for aging Pentiums and your doorstop 486

[psi42]

I ran across this little jewel a little while ago.

http://delilinux.berlios.de/



It's designed for 486s up through Pentium 166s.

Based on Slackware 7.1, with XFree86 3.3.6

A full install is < 300 MB, and that includes a lot of stuff.

The test machine for that distro is a 486 with 16 MB of RAM. If a program doesn't run well on that thing it gets thrown out.....

I don't have a 486 to test it on, but it does scream on my P133..... a few tweaks in IceWM and it looks a lot better too.

Now if only I could take 20 years off the looks of Pathetic Writer.

~psi42

[EDIT]

I have posted a screenshot and some other good stuff later in this thread (page 2).

--------------------------------
Rudimentary DeLi Install Guide:

Note: Installing DeLi requires you to be reasonably familiar with Linux (not afraid of the command line).

1) Boot from your DeLi CD. If you can't boot from a CD-ROM, you'll have to create floppies from the images available with DeLi, and then access the files from those floppies.

2) Log in. Run cfdisk and create your partitions.

3) Run deliinstall
OR
Mount your partition, uncompress delibase.tgz onto it, chroot to the new partition, and run delisetup

While running delisetup, you will be asked what partition you will want to use as /. You have already been asked this question in deliinstall or implicitly answered it when you untarred files onto it. This is OK, just answer the same as before.

4) Boot into your new DeLi install. You can now run delisetup again, and be able to select from many more options. Run delihelp and soak up some good information

5) Edit /etc/fstab and add entries for your other devices and drives

5) Mount the deli cdrom, and install the packages you want from inside the deli directory on the disc. You can also install them from within delisetup.

6) Load any necessary modules. Utilize /etc/rc.d/rc.modules. If you have a proprietary CD-ROM, be sure to set up rc.modules to load the proper module at boot time.

7) chmod -x scripts in /etc/rc.d that you do not want to run on bootup

8) Set up the X Window system. There are multiple ways to do this. Delisetup has options to set up a framebuffer X or run XF86Setup. You can also run xf86config, which is text mode but asks the same questions as XF86Setup and IMHO is much more straightforward.

9) Run xwmconfig and select your windowmanager.

10) If you find that delete, home, and end are all producing tildes in X and not working, edit $HOME/.inputrc and remove the following lines surrounding the block at the bottom

$ if term=linux
$endif

which will tell bash to ALWAYS map the escape sequences produced by del, home, and end to the right actions. ( $TERM is only linux on a "real" virtual terminal. )


That will get you up and running. Tweak the system and enjoy the speed.


End Rudimentary DeLi Install Guide
--------------------------------

[/EDIT]

[gehidore]

why thank you ive been looking for somethin like this for me old laptop only a p1 233 but its slower than my compaq 75mhz 486

[DSwain]

Thank you for sharing your good find it looks like. I tried old copies of Red Hat, Mandrake, etc on my 166mhz laptop, so i'm hoping this comes as a nice change for it. the mainstream distro's, even the older versions (i tried Red Hat 6.2, sheesh) ran poorly so we'll see how this one does. Downloading it now, along with Linspire 4.5 and Gentoo install. Oh yeah, how did you get the 2.6.5 kernel from Portage btw gehidore?

As for DeLi looks, the default screens don't look too bad at all. For some reason I kinda like the old feel of things a bit more than the newer ones. Also, the package selection is pretty impressive looking for a 300mb installation. I hope I'll be satisfied. And if it autodetects my Linksys 10/100 CardBus PC Card, well then we've struck gold.

[gehidore]

no i didnt i got it from kernel.org but it works without a hitch (if you read my post error emerge alsa-driver)

if you follow this guide its easy to do it...

gentoo handbook <kernel chapter>

BTW it only took 7 minutes to download that from their local ftp im gonna burn it and put it on the laptop

ill report back like a good little Luser and tell you how it worked

[DSwain]

well i know how to emerge a kernel and configure it and those things, but what did you type to emerge the 2.6.5 kernel? i do emerge development-sources and i get the 2.6.4 kernel.

also sounds good, i'm hoping this distro runs well on my laptop also.

[gehidore]

i just went over to kernel.org and downloaded the 2.6.5 kernel

untared it in /usr/src
did rm /usr/src/linux && ln -s /usr/src/linux-2.6.5 /usr/src/linux
cd'd into linux
typed make xconfig (with fluxbox and aterm)
configured the kernel for my system
saved the .config file
typed make && make modules_install
cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/kernel-2.6.5-**
cp System.map /boot/System.map-2.6.5-**

and changed the kernel name in my /boot/grub/grub.conf file

its not that hard if you think about it the hardest part is figuring out what the kernel needs and what it doesnt.

if you want sound you need to got to ic2 in the kernel and hardware and choose the module for your sound card.

enjoy

[DSwain]

oh okay you manually built it. I can do that too (lol) i just thought you emerged it for some reason, but i gotcha. any updates on the distro?

as an update to the distro, I am installing it on my laptop right now. Deliinstall is a bit rough, definitly not beginnger stuff, and it took me a bit to get it going but it seems to be working now. i'll update more later

[o0zi]

Perhaps we need a "Distros for Older Computers" thread...

There's DeLi, Feather, Damn Small, Flonix, Puppy, Vector, muLinux, Slax, Morphix LightGUI - each has its advantages and disadvantages.

[psi42]

I'm glad I was able to be of help. DeLi can certainly transform an old pentium......... I stumbled on it by chance, even though I had been looking for something of the sort for a long time.

Originally posted by o0zi
Perhaps we need a "Distros for Older Computers" thread...

I'll second that. As long as it is kept organized, it could be a good reference. If it becomes too large and cluttered, it will be next to useless...... perhaps it would be best to have one sticky thread that has just links to threads about individual distros, to stop any one thread from becoming too cluttered to be of any use.



Speak of the devil.
http://www.justlinux.com/forum/showt...hreadid=126008


~psi42

[IsaacKuo]

Well, I was trying to start exactly that "Distros for Older Computers" thread, but someone please start a new one. My thread has already been completely wrecked by a slew of naysayers saying there's no such thing and that all distros are the same.

I tried, but failed. Sorry, guys. Hopefully someone else will have better luck.

[psi42]

Originally posted by IsaacKuo
Well, I was trying to start exactly that "Distros for Older Computers" thread, but someone please start a new one. My thread has already been completely wrecked by a slew of naysayers saying there's no such thing and that all distros are the same.

I tried, but failed. Sorry, guys. Hopefully someone else will have better luck.

It was a good attempt...

I might give it a try, once I think of a way to organize it.......

[psi42]

Okay...

I've done a little thinking about a "Distro for Older Computers" thread.

What I hope to create is a thread that has concise, non-cluttered information that can be reached very quickly by any viewer. Debates and comments are good, but they must needs be posted in different threads to maintain a non-cluttered masterthread.

A look at the "which distro" thread will show you what I fear. That thread has become so cluttered that one would have to spend literally hours searching to find specific information.




Here is what I was thinking:

-------------------------------------------

Each entry should contain:

* Distro name and concise description.
* Link to distro home page.
* (Optional) Link to a JL thread that discusses the distro in more detail. This is where debates and comments should go, to keep the main thread as clutter-free as possible.


This is not to debate which distro is better, or to state the truism that only you can decide which distro is right for you. It's just an information trove for distros specialized for so-called doorstops.

An "Old Computer" is defined as a 386 up to a Pentium II or equivalent.

-------------------------------------------

What do you think? Good? Bad? Worthless? I'm especially interested in what you think of the organization scheme -- will it work?
If I get enough positive comments I will post it and see what happens.


~psi42

[gehidore]

perfect but it should be pentium 2 and lower not 386 up to...

and this is another thread that i will catalogue into an html page and make regular updates. to the thread.

[DSwain]

that sounds like a great idea to me. Honestly, I really do love some older machines (PII's specfically) I believe that though there times have "passed" they're can still be good done with them, but it is a bit tricky to find a good distro which will work well with older machines (using an older mainstream distro like RedHat isn't really much of an option) so I say go with it.

But seriously, any updates on DeLi? i've been having troubles myself, but I believe its my cdrom drive, not anything else. I wanna know how it does on some machines.

[gehidore]

im gonna load it on my barton 2800+ on a 20gb5400 drive for its test run(waiting for openoffice to finish compiling), if i like it ill put it on my laptop.