On 22 December 2013 14:45, Chris Bee <anommin...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sun, Dec 22, 2013 at 06:40:28PM +0000, Miod Vallat wrote:
>> > 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
>
> I have installed 4.0 and while it does work, even such an old release is
> barely usable. I'm not too keen on the idea of using such unsupported,
> possibly unstable software on my laptop, anyway. I suppose the only
> option is to buy a newer laptop, like you said. There are plenty of good
> suggestions floating around, most of which can be had for tens of
> dollars on eBay. OpenBSD is getting so bloated these days, it requires
> so much RAM.... :)
There's an old tool called `dmassage` (in ports since 3.9) that may
offer some help in building a smaller kernel for your situation.
http://ports.su/sysutils/dmassage
Cheers,
Constantine.
