[OT-ish] fitting Linux distros?

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leilei
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Joined: Fri 25 Apr, 2014 4:47 pm

[OT-ish] fitting Linux distros?

Post by leilei »

For curiosity and development I'm wondering what's available that fit the criteria...

- Be small
- Use some lightweight Windows9x-like WM like XFCE that's actually lightweight and not allegedly lightweight as every WM uses that word
- Have working Mesa drivers for secondary 3dfx Voodoo cards
- Have a new enough GCC, like somewhere in 4.7-4.9
- Usable on 128mb
- Packages available for offline use, if a package manager/repo is involved

for use within PCem? I'd assume older distros, but a lot of these seem buried and searching for this isn't trivial. All I know off the top of my head is Damn Small Linux but that's a bit old and sluggish.
Zup
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Joined: Mon 30 Nov, 2015 10:47 am

Re: [OT-ish] fitting Linux distros?

Post by Zup »

I'd try a Puppy Linux, but that can be tricky.

It seems that 4.x versions can run on 128 Mb, and that versions are easy to find/download. The tricky part is that you'll need to install it to hard disk (do NOT use a frugal installation), then add devx packages (to get your GCC, but I don't know which version was available on 4.x) and your voodoo drivers.

Also some distributions have a very comprehensive archive of old versions (Debian comes to mind), but they need more effort to install (OTOH, once installed they fit your system better).
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Tux
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Location: Germany

Re: [OT-ish] fitting Linux distros?

Post by Tux »

Not sure about 3dfx Voodoo, but I successfully used TinyCore Linux under Pcem, and PCem under TinyCore Linux...
UPerschke
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Re: [OT-ish] fitting Linux distros?

Post by UPerschke »

Close hit: https://antixlinux.com/
Close because: 192 MB required ,256 MB recommended. Otherwise it should be suitable.

Closer hit, maybe accurate: https://clearlinux.org
Can run on 128 MB RAM/600 MB disk.
Ships with latest mesa.
Dedicated graphics support was added last year.
Menu is pretty slim, close to Win9x or WinXP.
szadycbr
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Re: [OT-ish] fitting Linux distros?

Post by szadycbr »

as far as i find out las mesa with 3dfx drivers is 7.11 from 2011. so the latest wont work with voodoo.
PS. antix 16 worked well on v14, i had it on p120mmx 256mb ram. i dont think Clear linux will run, if it has 32bit distro then it is surely pae and needs cmov.
UPerschke
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Re: [OT-ish] fitting Linux distros?

Post by UPerschke »

so the latest wont work with voodoo
This is a general problem with all distros continued after 2011. I've not seen a backport either.
I did not consider discontinued distros because many of them don't run on recent hardware.
if it has 32bit distro then it is surely pae and needs cmov
It's 64 bit only.
szadycbr
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Re: [OT-ish] fitting Linux distros?

Post by szadycbr »

UPerschke , true , and i only ask for 32bit as i think leilei meant to use it within PCem :)
UPerschke
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Re: [OT-ish] fitting Linux distros?

Post by UPerschke »

szadycbr wrote: Tue 21 May, 2019 8:25 pm UPerschke , true , and i only ask for 32bit as i think leilei meant to use it within PCem :)
Ohhh, gotcha. Thanks. Then Clearlinux is out of scope.
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te_lanus
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Re: [OT-ish] fitting Linux distros?

Post by te_lanus »

There is Slax: says 128mb needed for desktop use but 512mb for webbrowsing)

https://www.slax.org/

Also runs in PCem, but had to use Slax version 6.1.2
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