2

I have a friend who wants to learn unix-like CLI (linux or anything, doesn't care) for some web admin tasks (installing apache and so on)

He only has very old hardware to spare:

  • AMD P6 II 300MHz
  • 64MB RAM
  • HD is more recent: 60GB

I tried the latest Debian & Ubuntu server- to no avail, or I would not have slept all night because of the sheer noise of the computer fan- but I digress...

Do you know any modern linux distrib that supports such an old hardware? Or should I use a very old distrib? (Debian Potato comes to mind)

Or is the hardware definitely too old?

UPDATE:

The problem I have with both Ubuntu and Debian is that the installer stalls at 74% (languages, locales). The requested language is Swiss French with a Swiss keyboard (QWERTZ). I don't know if it is relevant...

Also note that (although it will change later, of course) the box did not have any network connection. It may look strange for a would-be server, but it's only for learning at home.

Improve this question
7
  • I started running Linux on 386 computers with 4M of RAM. It is not too old.
    – Michael Dillon
    Nov 5, 2009 at 8:56
  • 2
    Debian Lenny should run on such hardware easily. Maybe you should describe what your problems are with your install. I've got it running on a machine with similar specs.
    – sybreon
    Nov 5, 2009 at 10:08
  • @sybreon: thanks for your comment, I updated the question accordingly.
    – cadrian
    Nov 5, 2009 at 10:16
  • Incidentally you should be able to pick up some dirt cheap second hand RAM. Which would boost what is currently the weakest element of the system.
    – Dan Carley
    Nov 5, 2009 at 11:14
  • 3
    You say he has spare hardware. Does that imply he has proper hardware, on which he could run linux virtualized?
    – Posipiet
    Nov 5, 2009 at 11:58

8 Answers 8

Reset to default
4

OpenBSD will run fine on that spec.

It was the first sans-GUI operating system that I sank my teeth into many years ago.

Indeed I still ran some of those same machines, at much lower specs than you give, until recently. When I got tired of the clutter, noise and power consumption.

Improve this answer
4

According to the Damn Small Linux wiki, the minimum requirement for Damn Small Linux with X-Windows is 64 Mb. Also, according to this Pupply Linux Forum, you can run Puppy Linux on a machine with 64Mb of RAM.

Improve this answer
1
  • And another for DSL. Simply amazing to get that functionality out of what, 50MB?
    – pboin
    Nov 5, 2009 at 20:10
3

I suggest to you to install Debian by netinst and setup only what you need (apache, etc). Debian NetInst

Improve this answer
1

If the aim is to learn the Linux/UNIX CLI, does he have a relatively recent PC/Laptop that can run VirtualBox and just install Linux/BSD in a VM?

Improve this answer
1
  • +1 It's clearly a better solution than installing Linux on an old harware...
    – sebthebert
    Nov 5, 2009 at 18:08
1

On that hardware, I'd really be going for NetBSD, FreeBSD, or OpenBSD. Linux is a bit heavy on 64MB of RAM of late without going to uLibc and other stripped/non-standard/embedded solutions. Debian netinstall or Slackware would work also. Unfortunately, they don't hold a candle to the BSD documentation (and if he wants to learn the CLI, the FreeBSD/NetBSD/OpenBSD handbooks are priceless).

Improve this answer
0

I have Centos 5.3 (no GUI) on a 400MHz PIII with 512MB of RAM running Hylafax, Nagios, MRTG and Apache as a proxy server. As that isn't much better than what your friend has, Centos may be worth a try, especially if you leave off the gui. I've tried to find the minimum hardware requirements for Centos but can't find them.

Improve this answer
0

i started with freebsd and til this day, the mail server at my old job (5 yrs ago) is still running it. Now I manage a RH network and they have pros and cons to both.

Improve this answer
-1

http://linuxfreedom.com/ above link has so many distro you try from them.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .