![]() The problem is it took over an hour to boot with a year 2000 generic kernel and when it finally did it refused to move past the package installer. Originally version 2.2 as it was the newest version that machine could run, and yes in fact it did. Well of course I am not a super Linux guru, and can really only futz around without running off to a forum or a book, so I went with Debian. NetBSD says it should work on all 386’s but I never made it that far. Slackware stopped around the same time in release 9.įreeBSD states that it requires a 386DX, but then says most 386 laptops are ok via math emulation, but in a more current readme it states that you need a 486 (confused?) I looked at some of my favorites, Debian, Slackware, FreeBSD, and NetBSD (which I know are not Linux but hey.) Here is what I found out:ĭebian stopped support with 3 so anything earlier is ok. Everyone still has a distribution called i386, but support for the 386 was dropped a while ago. Next we need a distribution that will actually work with a 386 CPU. It also needs an IDE disk up to 2G, sorry MFM drives. ![]() If you can swing it, a 386DX CPU or a 386S(X/L) with a 387 math co-processor is recommended, no it doesn’t really matter if its an Intel, AMD, etc. It also has 256K video memory and 640×480 color VGA display. It is a DEC PC325SL, which translates out to intel386SL (which is a 386SX CPU in a highly integrated package where much of the support hardware is also inside the chip) running at 25Mhz with 4MB of ram and 120MB of hard disk space. Join me after the break for the parts and steps needed to get you started.įirst we need a target machine, here is mine. Linux on a 386 in about an hour? Madness you might think, it probably takes Linux longer to boot on a 386 (and in some cases you are correct)! Want to know the trick? Simple, cheat! Have a 486? Pentium? Faster? Never fear I will be covering that in a part II later this week. This tutorial will be strictly for installing a basic bare bones Linux on a 386. All of the modern distributions I have looked at require at least a 486 CPU. Unfortunately a 386 requires some special moves as the actual chip was dropped from almost all distributions long ago. While it wont be able to do much, it will give you a basic system to kick around and “get to know” the insides of Linux without a million things installed and the worry of breaking it. Okay, why a Intel 386? Well number one I own a 386, but more importantly its the absolute bottom Intel CPU you can run Linux on. The “cheap” and “easy” way in about an hour! A question that pop’s up from time to time is “I somehow ended up with an archaic old laptop / computer, can it run Linux?” Well of course it can, but that totally depends! On what? Well machine CPU, CPU speed, hard disk space, RAM and most importantly what you are expecting it to do.
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