Booting Knoppix on oldder hardware?

[Bill]

Well I must say I continue to enjoy Knoppix, and find it useful!

One thing I've noticed though since I've been using it both to access the
compute cycles on new machines that I can use, but cannot reconfigure, and on
older machines to either use them as a terminal, or for data recover, it that
it will not boot on older machines.

From what I can gather the kernel has been built for 686, not 586, so I get

something about 'Pentium+ tcs instruction required' then a kernel fault.
Would it be possible to supply supplying a second kernel for older machines
on the CD? I've had good luck running 'lnx-bbc' on the same machines, but
I've not tried replacing the kernel since I didn't want to build a custom CD.

Of course I'm planning to run without X since the machines I'm recovering
don't have the resources (typically P1 100-233 with 32-64mb), but are
certainly enough to run the basics and even things like emacs etc.

Thanks for your help, and a great product Klaus.

/bill

[Achim Unger]

Hallo Bill,

Post by Bill
Well I must say I continue to enjoy Knoppix, and find it useful!

I agree! It is great!

Post by Bill
One thing I've noticed though since I've been using it both to access the
compute cycles on new machines that I can use, but cannot reconfigure, and on
older machines to either use them as a terminal, or for data recover, it that
it will not boot on older machines.
From what I can gather the kernel has been built for 686, not 586, so I get
something about 'Pentium+ tcs instruction required' then a kernel fault.
Would it be possible to supply supplying a second kernel for older machines
on the CD? I've had good luck running 'lnx-bbc' on the same machines, but
I've not tried replacing the kernel since I didn't want to build a custom CD.

AFAIK Linux does not work on a 486sx, a 486 without coprocessor. It definatly
runs on any Pentium with more than 100 MHz! But it should be knx-hdinstalled on
harddisk when using X11

Post by Bill
Of course I'm planning to run without X since the machines I'm recovering
don't have the resources (typically P1 100-233 with 32-64mb), but are
certainly enough to run the basics and even things like emacs etc.

I am using Knoppix and Debian on many P100 and P133 Systems WITH X, but no KDE,
no staroffice, no mozilla!

I am using icwm, rxvt, gnumeric, abiword, dillo, opera 6 and sylpheed. Dillo is ok,
Opera is slower, but it supports frames etc. (Pentium 133 Laptop with 80MB RAM).
Not to forgett xmms for mp3!

[Shawn McMahon]

Post by Achim Unger
AFAIK Linux does not work on a 486sx, a 486 without coprocessor. It definatly
runs on any Pentium with more than 100 MHz! But it should be knx-hdinstalled on
harddisk when using X11

Sure it does. Works on 386, too. On each, it must do coprocessor
emulation. We've already had this discussion here recently.

[knopper-MC8LlOuzQ+ (Klaus Knopper)]

From what I can gather the kernel has been built for 686, not 586, so I get

The Kernel on the download version of KNoppix has been compiled in 368
compatibility mode.

something about 'Pentium+ tcs instruction required' then a kernel fault.

When/where do you get this error?

Would it be possible to supply supplying a second kernel for older machines
on the CD?

The kernel on the CD is compiled to support the VERY OLD machines
starting from i386.

I may remove the FPU emulation support, though, to save some bytes on
the el torito bootfloppy. So, it won't run anymore on a plain i386
without an additional FPU (i486 and up should be OK).

Regards
-Klaus Knopper

[Bill]

Klaus,

Thanks for the quick reply, I had no idea Knoppix came with support :-)

I went to duplicate the problem so I could give a better error report only to
find it boots now! I've no idea what happened. I messed about with it
trying various things and even got KDE to start ok (although it was very
slow). I thought this might be the problem since I've noticed a couple of
times if you type several cheatcodes on the bootline they don't all work (but
I haven't been able to reproduce this with any regularity either).

Anyhow, the only explanation I have is that since my first boot of Knoppix on
this machine (at Cyrix P150+ with 48mb) I've installed RH6.2 on the harddisk,
so now there is a swap partition and Knoppix is making use of it. If I can
get the problem to occur again I will give a more complete report.

Thanks to everyone for their help and suggestions. I found the other ideas
of using ICEWM very nice too, I didn't think I could get a window manager
working so nicely on such an old machine, but it looks and works great.

/bill

Post by knopper-MC8LlOuzQ+ (Klaus Knopper)

From what I can gather the kernel has been built for 686, not 586, so I get

The Kernel on the download version of KNoppix has been compiled in 368
compatibility mode.

something about 'Pentium+ tcs instruction required' then a kernel fault.

When/where do you get this error?

Would it be possible to supply supplying a second kernel for older
machines on the CD?

The kernel on the CD is compiled to support the VERY OLD machines
starting from i386.
I may remove the FPU emulation support, though, to save some bytes on
the el torito bootfloppy. So, it won't run anymore on a plain i386
without an additional FPU (i486 and up should be OK).
Regards
-Klaus Knopper

[Achim Unger]

Hallo Bill,

Post by Bill
Klaus,
Thanks for the quick reply, I had no idea Knoppix came with support :-)
I went to duplicate the problem so I could give a better error report only to
find it boots now! I've no idea what happened. I messed about with it
trying various things and even got KDE to start ok (although it was very
slow). I thought this might be the problem since I've noticed a couple of
times if you type several cheatcodes on the bootline they don't all work (but
I haven't been able to reproduce this with any regularity either).
Anyhow, the only explanation I have is that since my first boot of Knoppix on
this machine (at Cyrix P150+ with 48mb)

free on my Pentium, 133 MHz, 80MB RAM shows, it uses only 38 MB RAM with gnumeric
and sylpheed running:
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 77576 75124 2452 0 11228 25784
-/+ buffers/cache: *38112* 39464
Swap: 50396 228 50168

Watch the number I have marked with *...*! The rest is "only" used for cache!

< I've installed RH6.2 on the harddisk,

Post by Bill
so now there is a swap partition and Knoppix is making use of it. If I can
get the problem to occur again I will give a more complete report.
Thanks to everyone for their help and suggestions. I found the other ideas
of using ICEWM very nice too, I didn't think I could get a window manager
working so nicely on such an old machine, but it looks and works great.

Just try it! Enter at the bootprompt:
knoppix desktop=icewm
then YOU may decide weather to give it a chance or not!

Post by Bill
/bill

Post by knopper-MC8LlOuzQ+ (Klaus Knopper)

From what I can gather the kernel has been built for 686, not 586, so I get

The Kernel on the download version of KNoppix has been compiled in 368
compatibility mode.

something about 'Pentium+ tcs instruction required' then a kernel fault.

When/where do you get this error?

Would it be possible to supply supplying a second kernel for older
machines on the CD?

The kernel on the CD is compiled to support the VERY OLD machines
starting from i386.
I may remove the FPU emulation support, though, to save some bytes on
the el torito bootfloppy. So, it won't run anymore on a plain i386
without an additional FPU (i486 and up should be OK).
Regards
-Klaus Knopper

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[Stephen Cormier]

Post by Bill
Anyhow, the only explanation I have is that since my first boot of Knoppix
on this machine (at Cyrix P150+ with 48mb)
/bill

What cheat codes did you use? I have a spare machine with the same processor
and 64mb and can't get it to boot to anything other than the terminal. It
runs kde on woody "fairly well" but I'd like to see the knoppix screen on it
just once.

May the source be with you!

Stephen Cormier