Text 4577, 69 rader
Skriven 2005-11-26 01:48:16 av Maurice Kinal (1:261/38.9)
   Kommentar till text 4574 av Jan Wagemakers (2:292/100.19)
Ärende: while : ; do ...... break ; done
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Hey Jan!

Nov 26 00:01 05, Jan Wagemakers wrote to Maurice Kinal:

 JW> We all know your opinion about that, you keep repeating it every 
 JW> time, like you are in an endless loop.

That is simply because I keep hearing the same problems over and over and
respond to them knowing what is at the heart of these problems.

Get them to fix it and I will stop repeating it.  ;-)

 JW> But maybe it is a good idea to 
 JW> move on and talk about other things too.

For sure!  I'll second that motion but I doubt it'll fly if the rest cannot get
beyond the intial problem they are having with Linux.

 JW> Ok, let's try to bring up another subject. I have 'installed(*)' 
 JW> Linux on a 80386sx 16Mhz 5MB RAM, a floppy drive, CD-ROM drive and a 
 JW> ethernet-card, but without a HD.

Interesting.  I assume the floppy drive is there to boot seeing as the CD-ROM
probably can't on a 386 due to bios limitations.  For my part I would have gone
with an ide-cfdisk adapter instead of the floppy drive but your way is cheaper
as long as you can find a suitable floppy drive for it.  All I know is none of
the stores/suppliers around here even sell or have these anymore other then for
usb so floppy drives aren't readily doable anymore for older systems.  Thus I'd
modernize the 386 and forgo the floppy drive.  The CD-ROM is a good idea if it
can be made to work but often they require a pci controller these days which is
also lacking on a standard 386.

Thus I can already see problems with the above setup as far as replicating it
here.  All is not lost though as I can find alternative boot strategies without
needing to change anything else, such as RAM requirements.  Tough to find
suitable RAM for a 386 these days.

 JW> The software used is a Linux 2.4.31 
 JW> kernel patched with squashfs <http://squashfs.sourceforge.net/>

Cool.  Quite a bit of the firmware I see these days uses squashfs.

 JW> some tools (including a webserver) of asmutils 
 JW> <http://asm.sourceforge.net/asmutils.html>. The CD-ROM-drive is only 
 JW> used to store a webpage.

Also interesting if a suitable CD-ROM can be obtained.  Is this a newer one or
an older one that got liberated for this purpose?

 JW> People who are interested can access this 386 at 
 JW> <http://janw.dyndns.org:386/index.html>. There is not much to see at 
 JW> the moment, because it is more a proof of concept ;-)

A great idea methinks.  That is all it needs and I wouldn't jump through any
additional hoops if I were you.  I think I get the point as you intended.

 JW> (*) 'installed' is not really the right word because everything fits 
 JW> on a floppy which is loaded in a 'RAM'- disk.

Also a good idea except I'd go with a flash disk solution instead given the
floppy drive situation these days.  However if you got it and it works then
you'll be alright until it doesn't and then you won't because they won't be
available.

Life is good,
Maurice

--- Msged/LNX 6.1.2
 * Origin: The Pointy Stick Society XV - Linux Point (1:261/38.9)