What Linux Flavor For 166MHz System

Hey guys, first of all I'm very new to Linux, I've only been playing around with it for about a week (Red Hat 9), which is why I wanted to come on here and ask people who would know better then myself. I'm getting an old computer (its free) but it's only a 166MHz system. I'm guessing 32-64MB RAM and about 5gigs of hard drive space. At first I told them to donate it to some group, but then I figured i'll take it and see about running a Linux server on it and connecting to it from my normal computer (running WinXP and Red Hat). I want to do it simply for myself b/c I don't know anything about networking and hopefully I can learn some of the very basics of networking by doing something as simple as this.

Well my question is, what flavor of Linux can I run on a 166MHz machine? I don't mind if there's no real GUI, hell not having a GUI will help me learn how ot use the shell better. So what would you all recommend I pick up?

Thanks for your help, sicko

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Originally posted by sicko
Well my question is, what flavor of Linux can I run on a 166MHz machine? I don't mind if there's no real GUI, hell not having a GUI will help me learn how ot use the shell better. So what would you all recommend I pick up?

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The short answer is that nearly any distro will run on that machine. If you don't start X at boot, you'll be facing a command line interface, but that's fine for many purposes.

Personally, I know RedHat 7.2 will run fine on that box (since I've run it on a similar machine, but with 128MB RAM). Depending on what it'll be used for, a lot of RAM may not be necessary.

run it w/o x

or if you must, install slackware. install the least number of packages possible, and run fluxbox for you window manager.

Or do the same with debian or gentoo. with gentoo on that box I would set it up to merge binary packages rather than compile from source.

like everyone else said dont run any xwindow i would run slackware 8.

OH REMEBER TO OVERCLOCK YOUR CPU to 200mhz 3.0x 66 OK!!!!:D

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Originally posted by pudad
with gentoo on that box I would set it up to merge binary packages rather than compile from source.

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This will provide a faster install, but a system that slow could use all the optimation it could get. Compiling with some performance oriented flags could be a very good option in obtaining a useable system.

i'd agree with slackware (as i got it running [slowly] with x on a p133 with 16mb of ram). Only thing, i'd say use BlackBox as the window manager, just because it looks sooooo much nicer than fluxbox (sorry pudad :) )

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Originally posted by Nick_B
This will provide a faster install, but a system that slow could use all the optimation it could get. Compiling with some performance oriented flags could be a very good option in obtaining a useable system.

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yes that is true, but the question is if he has the patients for it.

Yeah I know, it is kind of a catch 22. :(

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Originally posted by Jo-Jo_Fine
i'd agree with slackware (as i got it running [slowly] with x on a p133 with 16mb of ram). Only thing, i'd say use BlackBox as the window manager, just because it looks sooooo much nicer than fluxbox (sorry pudad :) )

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?? they look the same.. guess that was a joke :p


I prefer flux because the icons do right into the slit, and ti has tabs.

Well I finally got the box last night, turns out it's a 200MHz Pentium, with 32mb of RAM and a 4 gig hard drive. I tried installing RH9 but for some reason it kept giving me a problem and wouldn't go past a certain point during installtion. So I dropped in the CDs for RH8 and it worked without any problems. I didn't even bother to install any GUIs for it b/c I'm only going to be using the box to set up the server and connect to it (just so I can learn how to, I don't plan on regularly using the server), and I figure without a GUI it would force me to get comfortable working strictly in shell and as a result it would help force me to remember all the different commands.

Well thanks for all your help guys, I ended up sticking it out with Red Hat b/c I had the CDs and b/c I'm on a dial up connection downloading a new ISO at home isn't about to happen and since I didn't feel like waiting till I could download the iso at work and bring it home I went a head and used the CDs I had (RH8 & 9).

Thanks again, sicko

If you enable telnet, you can unhook the keyboard, mouse, and monitor and just let it sit in the corner. Alternatively, you could install X and let it start on boot. Then you could use something like Xwin32 or Exceed to log into it and run X applications remotely. Believe me, xterm is much nicer than telnet. Again, you might need a little more ram to do that, but it would be a nicer environment.

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Originally posted by rock
If you enable telnet, you can unhook the keyboard, mouse, and monitor and just let it sit in the corner. Alternatively, you could install X and let it start on boot. Then you could use something like Xwin32 or Exceed to log into it and run X applications remotely. Believe me, xterm is much nicer than telnet. Again, you might need a little more ram to do that, but it would be a nicer environment.

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um, this isn't 1995, use ssh


yeah dude, get the sshd server running. You might have to keep keyboard on it just in case anyways.

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Originally posted by pudad
um, this isn't 1995, use ssh


yeah dude, get the sshd server running. You might have to keep keyboard on it just in case anyways.

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Putty works good as a ssh client.

Eric

I would run RH 5.2 on it.

Jim

Slackware is awesome! It can be tweaked down to the bare minimal :)

I see you are running a 166Mhz too.. Like me!!!! Its a killer Processor!!!