AMD K6-2 166Mhz, 512MB ram, desktop - TC11.1 runs fine TC12 fails.

[Rich]

Hi gadget42

the TL;DR version might read:
TinyCoreLinux-current-version aspires to successfully boot any-where/any-time/any-machine/within-reason
(using cd/dvd/usb/hdd/ssd/etc - as always your mileage may vary - not responsible for roadkill/magic-smoke)

+1 for the parkytowers website reference!

Yeah, I can be overly chatty at times.

[CNK]

"nozswap" makes no difference for my 486 with 20MB RAM. Also tried "initramfs_async=0" but it doesn't help either. I looked around the internet to find out how to boot an uncompressed initramfs image, but surprisingly that really doesn't seem to be supported.

Ever determined, next I'll try doing a "HDD install" of core.gz's contents to a CF card and try booting it in an IDE adapter. Not the Tiny Core way, but it should do for testing whether the binaries run on a 486 at least (and could run the "proper" way on one with more RAM).

That may not be until next weekend...

[gadget42]

still messing around with this old amd k6-2 166mhz, 512mb, 360kb 5.25 floppy, cd-rom, no hdd, running dsl-4.4.10 from a livecd, using bon-echo(firefox 2.0) for this forum post. if this was all i had...i'd start a fire and use smoke signals...lol. [insert smoke-signal emoji here]

[CNK]

Ever determined, next I'll try doing a "HDD install" of core.gz's contents to a CF card and try booting it in an IDE adapter. Not the Tiny Core way, but it should do for testing whether the binaries run on a 486 at least (and could run the "proper" way on one with more RAM).

I finally got one of my 486 laptops to boot TC12 (with the i486-rebuilt rootfs.gz from earlier in the thread). Plenty of problems with running out of RAM (16MB in that case, using a laptop with an easily accessible HDD bay), but no "illegal instruction" type errors. The exact CPU model is a 486DX4 100MHz. So TC12 now gets my tick of 486-compatibility.

The details are that I did a HDD install (on a real HDD because the CF adapter proved physically difficult to accomodate), along with a 60MB swap partition. I still had lots of trouble with running out of RAM while the tc-config script was running at boot, so I ended up making lots of modifications to that script. The most important changes were probably commenting out the line "/sbin/udevadm trigger --action=add 2>&1 >/dev/null &" to disable "hotplug" support, and moving the enabling of swap partitions directly after fstab creation (compressed swap in RAM was disabled with the nozswap bootcode). Starting udevadm doesn't really work even after swap is enabled (though with swap it doesn't crash the whole system at least).

Once booted, "free" shows only 6MB of RAM available, so I guess the Linux kernel must claim 10MB for itself. It's possible to boot without the swap space enabled and use the shell, but swap is required if you load extensions otherwise it runs out of RAM when loading the required kernel modules (I commented out the pre-loading of the "loop" and "squashfs" modules in tc-config).

If it had around 80MB of RAM (I believe some 486 motherboards allowed for this, probably designed for server applications) it might be practical for some tasks, as RAM seems to be much more of a limit than the CPU (this being among the fastest models of the 486).

PS. @gadget42: I'm posting this from DSL on a Pentium 1 (Dillo web browser) - it ain't all that bad!

[curaga]

The Vortex86 models have 486/586/686 with gigs of RAM.

[CNK]

The Vortex86 models have 486/586/686 with gigs of RAM.

Good point. There's also the Frix project that implements a 486SX PC architecture in an FPGA, and uses TC5 for Linux.

That project page notes that the Linux kernel in TC requires the i486DX CPU models which have an FPU. They actually replace the kernel with a custom-built one.

[curaga]

Yes, we don't think supporting 486sx is worth it. FPU emulation code just for that one cpu.

[PDP-8]

Don't get rid of that machine.  It would make a wonderful demo at the VCF vintage computer faire - especially since the cdrom works, and even better if the floppy works too.

The start of the busybox concept was well introduced with Tom's Root-Boot floppy:

http://www.toms.net/rb/

I used it as a concept demo to prove to myself that I could put things like early Slackware on a similar box back in the day feeding it 15 to 16 floppies.  But Tom's root-boot was a mindblower just to see something other than ms-dos.

Heh, so that box isn't your daily-driver, but it is so old and parts so un-obtainium, that it might serve another purpose as a historical trip back into time.

That is, assuming you can find Toms root-boot and floppy media.  Although the cdrom might not be as impressive at the faire, still you can show the tie-in to the early busybox concept to how well it has worked to this day.

[gadget42]

thanks. will try experimenting with tomsrtbt again. seem to recall having trouble figuring out how to create a working cd.

[PDP-8]

Well, on a more serious note, perhaps the latest 32-bit Slitaz would keep it functional somewhat.  Still at kernel 3.9 something I believe, yet has a reasonably up to date busybox and desktop utils.

But the distro is totally bloated at 50mb or so.   Give Slitaz a try, or one of the low-mem options they have.  But, just like a TC iso, that is only the initial live part of it.  You'll want to use tazpkg utils to create a daily driver with your specific needs on it.

[gadget42]

just now took the time to test TC13 on the amd k6-2 166mhz 500mb...runs fine.
(included pic that should have been with the first post in this thread...better late than never)

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[attachment deleted by admin]

[gadget42]

stumbled into this thread accidentally but decided to add one more note.

circa apr/may-2022:
this mobo and approx. 50 other machines of varying completeness(as well as around 10 boxes of parts/peripherals/etc) were donated/gifted to another regional enthusiast/mad-scientist and crew/family/etc.

speaking/thinking regarding "mad-scientists" reminded of:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mad_Scientists%27_Club

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[gadget42]

just noticed that this thread has been read 9972 times in the year-ish since it was first posted.

wonder what keyword/subject/topic drove that traffic?

things-that-make-you-go-hmmm

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[gadget42]

arstechnica reports:
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/08/anandtech-mainstay-of-computer-hardware-reviews-closes-after-27-years/

interestingly, anandtech's first review was the AMD K6 back in 1997:
https://www.anandtech.com/show/42/amd-k6-review