[ltp] Can my LTP project get off the ground?

[Victor Wagner]

On 2002.05.29 at 14:04:54 -0400, Vincent -LKV- wrote:

> I have a TP 560 (2640-10U?) with 2 Gigs and 24 MB inside.  There's no IBM
> external floppy drive or IBM CD-ROM.  Here's what else I (might) have at my
> disposal:
> 
> - Imation SuperDisk PCMCIA drive
> - H45 QuickCD 16X PCMCIA drive
> - MegaHertz Modem/LAN card (XJEM-something) PCMCIA
> - Iomega Zip 100 Parallel drive
 
> Right this minute, the only way to get data into this laptop is via the
> (untested) modem card.  The LAN portion will come up once I get the right
> dongle.  


> I'm going to research installing FreeBSD 4.5 via a network connection, but I'm

I think that if you are planning to run primarily Linux software,
you shouldn't run FreeBSD. Any emulation, including FreeBSD Linux
emulation layer, costs extra resources, and you don't have plenty of
them. By the way, Linux support of strange and oldish hardware always
was better than FreeBSD one.

So, I suggest you to install Linux instead.


> assuming it's possible if both laptops (the one receiving FreeBSD and the one
> installing it on the receiver) are running Windows.
It is much much better if machine supplying files would run some *nix.
You don't need to own this second machine - ftp.debian.org would serve
as well.

You'll need to download few files under windows, then reboot into
safe mode command prompt and run one of them. voila, you get Linux which
allows you to continue installation via PCMCIA ethernet or even pcmcia
modem with usial ISP account.


> 
> 
> - FreeBSD 4.5
> - XFree86
> - Opera for Linux
> - Mozilla for Linux (i386)

Really, I cannot understand why one would run Mozilla for Linux
on FreeBSD. Opera is closed source product, and you have no choice.
But Mozilla is open, and nothing prevents you from building native
version.

> > I prefer to erase any remnant of DOS/Windows, too.
> 
> Do I have enough firepower to pull this off?  I'm most concerned about my

You are right. Mozilla seems to be a bit problematic on 24 or even
40Mb. I got 64 on my Thinkpad 760ED and I cannot say that I'm satisfied
with performance of Mozilla.

> memory status.  I have 24 MB now, but the maximum is 40 MB.  Are there popular
> or critical components that I won't be able to run with this setup?

Everything would run, given enough swap space, but Mozilla would be
painfully slow. They recommend pII 266 processor.

You can have better luck with Galeon or Skipstone, which use
same renderer as Mozilla but have lighter GUI.

>
> Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!
> 
> Vincent
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-- 
Victor Wagner			vitus@ice.ru
Chief Technical Officer		Office:7-(095)-748-53-88
Communiware.Net 		Home: 7-(095)-135-46-61
http://www.communiware.net      http://www.ice.ru/~vitus

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