RE: Linux on older laptop

[awilliam@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

> I just acquired a Toshiba laptop, the specs of which are (as best as I 
can
> determine) P75, 8MB RAM, 500 MB HD. There's no CDROM. It currently has 
DOS
> 6.22 and WFW3.11 on it. I picked up a Linksys PCMCIA 10/100 NIC, which
> Linux seems to recognize fine. I'm trying to install RH 6.2 (BSWare).
> I've tried ftp install and nfs install, but to no avail. (BTW, where 
did
> the install over Samba go?). By ftp, I enter the IP address for the 
laptop,
> then the IP address and directory for the ftp server. It seems to find 
it
> but freezes on "second stage install" into RAM disk. I let it set for 
20
> minutes, and there was no network activity. I could get to ther VC's
> though. By nfs, it seems to go a little further, then it says 
something to
> the effect of an unexpected error occurred and runs an orderly 
shutdown
> very quickly.
> Given the "RAM disk" hangup, my gut feeling is I don't have enough RAM 
to
> continue. Any thoughts? Can I create a swap partition just for

I think you probably identified the problem correctly.  You need the 
RAM disk to start the second phase install,  and the system doesn't 
activate swap space until a couple of steps into the second phase (at 
least that is my understanding).  Especially since you probably need 
networking and PCMCIA loaded, etc...  have you though of pulling the 
hard drive and installing on a different machine and then putting it 
back.  Thats almost become my default method of installing Linux.

> installation? Will the install find it and use it? And is 8 MB enough 
to
> run a minimal gui (XFCE) and perhaps Star Office? TIA.

You could run (start) X in 8 megs, and maybe a window manager, but no 
way on Star Office.  I've run it in as little as 24M on a stripped box 
and once it was loaded it worked,  but even on a 16Mb box it thrashed 
hopelessly.