> My test-bed for the 1.1 install is a slow 386 with 4MB + 640K . This > machine has Linux installed on it several times a week :-) . The RAM > disk implementation in the new kernels uses less memory (it used to > have a RAM cache of the RAM disk). The installation tools on 1.1 also > use less RAM than before. If you are concerned about low memory, make > your swap partition and activate it right away. That's why this step is > first in the 1.1 installation menu.
Now that's funny. At first I understood it was possible to install Debian on a 4 MB system, and when a classmate here asked me to help him installing Debian on his 4 MB Cyrex (sp?) 486-80 I said "sure, no problem", but the installation didn't complete. When asked to swap disks (boot->root), I prints "Running sh" or something like that, and hangs. It complains about a "low memory condition" and I thought that was the problem, but know I have doubts. We tried several times... my classmate gave up, I gave up... Here are some details about the situation: o 486-80 by Cyrex (again, sp?) o AMI Windows BIOS (no date) o 4 MB RAM... actually, at boot up, it counts 38??, I think because of a shadow BIOS or something like that. I checked everything I could, but I didn't find a way to disable it. I see four 1 MB SIMMs installed. o Quantum Hardisk using a Quantum driver to translate geometry (yes, the BIOS has LBA support, but the disk doesn't seem to care) o Something very important I cann't quite remember now. o I used several installation disks... the one's that put 0.93R6 as version, the one's that put 1.1 as version, the one's with the network fix. I haven't tried the one's with the security problem fix yet. -Marcelo
