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Author Topic: OS for a 286 laptop?  (Read 2019 times)

Evanchild

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OS for a 286 laptop?
« on: September 06, 2003, 07:37:12 pm »
What OS would work on a i486 laptop?  it needs to be 100% bootable from floppies. and preferably free because why would i pay to fix up a 286?


editi 486 not a 286
« Last Edit: September 07, 2003, 01:34:59 am by Evanchild »
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teenmethod
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hook

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« Reply #1 on: September 07, 2003, 08:12:17 am »
:( ...and was sooo happy that there\'s another person somewhere who also has a portable 286 :(

well, my suggestion would be qnx. it can run either from a single \"demofloppy\" and has only basic stuff like the GUI and the web-browser ...or you get the whole version, which is 30MB ...pretty nice gui still :]

another idea would be linux ...but which floppy-based distro to choose heavily depends on what you want to do with that 486. ...some guy i know from gentoo forums, said he\'s going to make a floppy-based linux distro that\'s going to be used just for playing mp3/ogg from the hard-disc on his 486 (or was it 386) ...i think that\'s a nice idea :]
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Xandria

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« Reply #2 on: September 07, 2003, 08:43:18 pm »
Gentoo is way cool!  I\'m still in the process of working on the configuration of XFree86  X( but the reason I tried it is because it seems to be very scalable.  Once I get it figure out, I think I\'m going to try installing it on this old 50Mhz SparcStation we have lying around in the garage gathering dust.  If I can get it to run on that, then it must be possible to run it on anything  :D
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hook

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« Reply #3 on: September 08, 2003, 06:30:03 am »
Quote
Originally posted by Xandria
Gentoo is way cool!  I\'m still in the process of working on the configuration of XFree86  X( but the reason I tried it is because it seems to be very scalable.  Once I get it figure out, I think I\'m going to try installing it on this old 50Mhz SparcStation we have lying around in the garage gathering dust.  If I can get it to run on that, then it must be possible to run it on anything  :D


mmmmmmmm, gentoo linux :]
yup, gentoo\'s great - my favourite linux blend (=distro). but portage takes up too much space for old disks ...i\'ve got a problem installing it on a pentium1 with 2GB disk (from stage1), but if you have enough space, it\'s worth it. also gentoo\'s great because it runs on literrary everything you can throw at it (with a few tweaks)

but i presume you don\'t have on a 486 laptop diskspace listed in GB ...so, i\'d go for either a simpler blend of linux (slackware worked great on my old 486!!!) or really try qnx

[off-topic]
what troubles you with X?
[/off-topic]
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zaphar

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« Reply #4 on: September 08, 2003, 03:26:22 pm »
slackware is a great solution for small footprint machines. I would recommend Slackware myself I don\'t know anything about qnx but a lot of others seem to think its pretty good so there are probably your best two choices.
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Xandria

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« Reply #5 on: September 08, 2003, 04:59:47 pm »
Quote
Originally posted by hook

[off-topic]
what troubles you with X?
[/off-topic]


lol, getting my graphics device set up properly.  I have an ATI Radeon 8500, and apparently all ati cards have a difficulty getting set up correctly.  Mine simply refuses to work easily, so I have to spend hours trying different keywords and such to make it work properly.  That\'s all  :D
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Kluger

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« Reply #6 on: September 09, 2003, 12:24:38 am »
Radeon 8500?  that\'s the R200 chip, and that\'s fully supported by X...  in fact, DRI supports the others, like the infamous 7500, but it takes a bit of work to install DRI...

are you currently having troubles with it?  if so, you might need an AGP patch...

and yes, Slackware is good.  be sure to check out Vector, which is based on Slackware.  it\'s actually a bit more compatible, and at a CD size of 225MB and something like 16MB minimum required for internet usage, it\'s a very speedy Linux.

but don\'t forget FreeDOS!  SEAL is supposedly getting good.  it\'s still tiny, but I\'ve heard of people browsing the \'net in FreeDOS.  there\'s Arachne, too, which is a DOS-based internet browser and dialer.  I had to use that for a while when I was reduced to a 386-16 with 1MB RAM...browsed at 56K, too.  ;-)
« Last Edit: September 09, 2003, 12:27:48 am by Kluger »
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Evanchild

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« Reply #7 on: September 09, 2003, 02:27:18 am »
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teenmethod
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Kluger

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« Reply #8 on: September 09, 2003, 02:38:02 am »
on that problem, occasionally you can reset the BIOS by holding one of the following keys during boot: insert, F1, F2, F10, F12, escape, delete, scroll lock, or alt-F2.  however, that\'s almost guaranteed to leave the password in, since it\'s, frankly, a security thing...  you\'re pretty much stuck with having to take the laptop apart and find the battery...

you *might* be able to get around it by flashing the BIOS.  this is slightly risky, but if you follow the directions, you usually end up with a better system anyway, and sometimes it will clear the CMOS settings...

good luck...

-Benjamin Vander Jagt
-Proprietor, Vander Jagt Computers
-Now opening a new location!
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Read my Say\'s Law paper on my homepage!
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BlueScreenJunky

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« Reply #9 on: September 13, 2003, 12:03:51 am »
http://www.menuetos.org/

Not really usable right now because there aren\'t many programs designed for this OS, but it\'s still very interesting, a full OS on a bootable 1.44 Mo floppy  o_O
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