> I'm trying to install 5.4 on an old ThinkPad 760EL and running into some > trouble, probably due to how little RAM it has - 16 MB. [...] > I have read INSTALL.i386 and > it says that I need at least 32 MB of RAM for 5.4. [...] > Apologies if there is something obvious I should be doing.
The obvious thing you should do is to add more memory to this system. The 5.4 i386 GENERIC kernel is huge and eats more than half the physical memory, and then the data structures it creates aren't free. There is basically no free memory for userland to run, and your system is swap-bound, hence horribly slow, as you have noticed. Your available options are: - run an old release, which fits in 16MB. I doubt anything >= 4.5 will fit in 16MB, so you'd use a 5+ years old, unsupported, release. - build a stripped-down kernel on another 5.4 system and run it on your ThinkPad. This ought to work, but your kernel will not be supported, so if it breaks, you get to keep both pieces. - add more memory to your system. Really. It will help. Can't you see your laptop looking at you with puppy dog eyes? - get a beefier laptop. Anything with more memory will do. Miod
