[Rule] Introduction

[Richard Kweskin]

On Thu, 15 Feb 2007 13:40:11 -0600 (CST)
chris at idlelion.net wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> My name is Chris Schumann, and I heard about the Rule project on the 
> Fedora developers mailing list.
> 
> I am a software developer, but have not done any work on a FOSS project.

Welcome Chris

> I am mainly interested in getting a version of Fedora running on my 
> ThinkPad 750P, which is a very old machine. It has a 33MHz 486 CPU, 36MB 
> RAM, and right now a 2GB hard disk.

Thanks to our hard working crew the problem of getting around Ananconda is solved with a script named Slinky. Also, there is a solution to xorg using kdrive, a light version of X, and a light window manager like fluxbox (there are several to choose from.) What are sticky points in the case of your computer are the little ram and the 486 cpu when it comes to using the 2.6 series of kernels.

> Ideally, I want all of its peripherals to work, which I understand will 
> take some doing. The sound chip (CS4248) should work, but it never worked 
> on linux before. The video chip is the ubiquitous WD90C24, which is no 
> longer supported by X.org.
> 
> The 750P also has a pen, as it is a tablet machine.
> 
> I have had Slackware and Debian running on it, but I am a long-time Red 
> Hat and Fedora user. I didn't know how to maintain those other systems, 
> and didn't want to invest more time into them. I tried Gentoo, and after 
> compiling things for 20 days or so, it never worked.

If you want to give Fedora 6 a shot, you will need to recompile Fedora's kernel (it has patches that a vanilla source won't provide) so as to run on a 486. Another consideration is whether to use udev or not. It will crawl on this box.

> I made my own FC6 boot floppies, but Anaconda just won't run in 36MB RAM 
> any more. I suppose I could try FC5 or FC4 and upgrading... but even that 
> only gets me so far.
> 
> This is not a high priority project in my life, but I am fond of the old 
> machine (it's my first PC ever), and I'm looking forward to getting her 
> going.
> 
> How would you folks suggest I start?
> 
> Thanks,
> Chris
 
Go to our site http://www.rule-project.org/ read about Slinky - a niggle for you to help us out with is to take the version of Slinky 0.5.05a, the last written for Fedora 5, change the package list for the Fedora 6, try it out using the kernel from Slinky and the new kernel which you have compiled, report back to the list, and then you no longer need to say "I am a software developer, but have not done any work on a FOSS project"  :))

Richard