Date: Thu, 30 Dec 1999 04:43:05 +0100 (CET) From: Marc Schneiders <marc@oldserver.demon.nl> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: 4 MB RAM? (long) Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.10.9912300402570.56346-100000@propro.oldserver.demon.nl>
next in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
"All versions of FreeBSD, including 3.0, will RUN in 4MB of ram, they just can't run the installation program in 4MB. You can add extra memory for the install process, if you like, and then after the system is up and running, go back to 4MB. Or you could always just swap your disk into a system which has >4MB, install onto it and then swap it back." Thus the FAQ. I was planning to do this (put drive in other system) for an old 486 laptop with 4MB, which isn't really worth the plus $50-100 they charge for a RAM-card to upgrade. I tried whether it worked on a desktop first. I installed a 4.0 snapshot on a 486DX66 with 8MB, which went fine, and then took 4 MB out. No go with the generic kernel, but well that's in the FAQ also. It does run with a custom kernel... for a while. The machine sort of stops responding when the daily checks are being done. Drives keep running and running. It spits out one message: sendmail[889]: CAA00843: SYSERR(root): timeout writing message to local. This is at 02:51 hours, 51 minutes after the checks start. I waited for another couple of hours. No change. So I did a cold reboot, even though the machine wasn't completely dead: the screensaver was still moving. And it started moving again after stopping it by hitting a key. Moving from one virtual console to another also still worked. But that's it. To test the thing I let the box run rc5des, which runs at nice 20 by default and does take only 800K RAM. I also tried running without sendmail. Questions I have: 1. Anyone with more success? What is the secret? Kill the daily's? 2. Will an older version do better on 4 MB? I do know about 2.1.7.1. But I do need PCMCIA-support for a ed0 card. I managed to install 2.1.7 through plip some time ago without taking the harddisk out. But couldn't find a way to get the network card running. Thanks for any pointers! Marc Schneiders marc@venster.nl marc@oldserver.demon.nl propro 4:02am up 17 days, 4:14, load average: 8.58 7.23 6.52 (make buildworld -j12 :-) To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?Pine.BSF.4.10.9912300402570.56346-100000>