Linux on a 486

This started out of curiosity, to see if it is possible to use an old 486 as an X-terminal. This is indeed possible, and as I found out, it is possible to run a lightweight Linux desktop. The PC in question is a no-name 66 MHz 486 with 32 MB memory, a vl-bus Tseng ET4000-W32 display card and two hard disks (250 and 420 MB). I have looked at a few lightweight distributions and applications using this PC:

Monkey Linux
This was my first attempt. Monkey resides on a fat/dos file system and is extracted from 5 diskettes. It comes with kernel 2.0.30, a basic SVGA X server and takes around 30 MB of your disk. The X setup requires some tweaking, in particular you should check that the "HorizSync" keyword in the /etc/XF86Config file corresponds to your monitor. Also dhcpcd is missing, and there seems to be a bug in ftp. Overall, this is a small and nice distribution. You can find some info about Monkey here and how-to install here. You can download Monkey here or here.

Dragon Linux 0.8
Next attempt was Dragon Linux version 0.8 which also installs on a fat/dos file system. It comes as a zip archive which is installed from Windows. It is based on Slackware 4.0 and comes with KDE, which was ditched in favour of IceWM – KDE will bring any 486 to its knees. This worked ok for some time until the boot process stopped midway (probably because of my fiddling) after which it was deleted. You may download Dragon here (45 MB), and you can find some additional user experience here and here.

Grey Cat Linux 3.0
Grey Cat comes with X, IceWM, Netscape and a few simple, lightweight X applications. It weighs in as a 12 MB download and may be installed from diskettes. Uncompressing takes 15-20 minutes and it occupies around 63 MB on your dos/win disk (including a 32 MB swap file). Grey Cat is based on Slackware 3.5 – you should be able to extend it by downloading and installing precompiled Slackware packages. Booting is pretty fast, X-windows works ok with 16 MB memory, and may in a pinch be used with only 8 MB (it will be slow, and avoid using Netscape). You can download Grey Cat here or here.

Pygmy Linux
Another alternative is Pygmy Linux which comes without X, but it comes with instructions on how to install X and also how to move it to a Linux partition. It is based on Slackware 7.1 – you should be able to extend Pygmy by downloading and installing precompiled Slackware packages. You can download Pygmy here. I may add that Pygmy was installed in another 486 which was used for remote on/off-switching for some Electrohome projectors. It had run without problems for 4-5 years when it was retired in march 2008.

Vector Linux
I tried Vector linux 2.0 (X 3.3.6 version), but it was terribly slow - even in console modus. Maybe it is optimised for pentiums or maybe I did not set it up correctly. And with v1.8 there was some corruption problem with a downloaded file. On the other hand, v2.0 works very well on my P2-266, and since it doesn't come with KDE, it should be well suited for slower pentiums.

Peanut Linux 8.4
This is a step up the ladder as it was installed on a linux partition (you may also install it on a fat/dos file system). Installation is not as simple as with the fat/dos based version as you have to set up a linux partition. Though, if you follow the installation instructions, it shouldn't be too difficult. Peanut comes with KDE as standard, which again was ditched in favour of IceWM. IceWM can be optimised by removing unnecessary entries in the menu-file, and by selecting a light theme (e.g. "nice"). This halved the time for starting X to around 15 seconds. It also seems more responsive, e.g. the "confirm logout" window pops up (almost) instantaneously, whereas for the default Infadel2 theme, it took 4 seconds. The default theme also produced some colour problems. I also deleted all KDE related files in /opt/kde2 which halved the disk requirements to around 110 MB. It is no speed daemon, of course (it takes e.g. around 45 seconds to load Netscape 4.77), but it still hums along with a respectable speed. There is a noticeable slowdown with 16 MB memory.

Browsers

• Netscape 4.77 came with Peanut. On a 486 it is horribly slow and it is also prone to crashes (once it took X with it). Avoid.
• Netscape 3.04 (tested with Grey Cat 3.0). Feels faster than 4.77, but lacks functionality – not a very good choice (and if you absolutely have to use 3.04, switch off Java support to avoid irritating error messages).
• BrowseX 2.0.1: Initially I had some problem getting this browser to run, it seemed to hang; a workaround is to kill the process, create a file named browsex.cnf in the .brx directory which should include "dns:type internal". It is far faster than Netscape 4.77. It supports frames, but not perfectly.
• Dillo 0.6.5 is a fast and very lightweight browser (only a 230 KB binary!); it is 3-4 times faster than BrowseX. It does not support frames directly, rendering is not 100%, and it cannot handle java or ftp downloads. Another "feature" is that it doesn't handle those irritating pop-up ad-windows. Read a review of Dillo here.

Office applications

• AbiWord 0.7.11 was installed from a Peanut package (3.8 MB download). This probably is a nice word processor, but on a 486 it may be too slow: When marking text, the marked area lags behind cursor movement, changing the font of that marked area freezes the mouse for a couple of seconds, and a fast typist will probably outpace screen update.
• Siag Office 3.4.7 was also installed from a Peanut package (2.1 MB download). It consists of a word processor, spreadsheet, editor and a file manager. I haven't tested this in depth, but it is faster than AbiWord.
• Ted is a word processor which in many ways it seems similar to Siag office, both in capabilities and in use of system resources (3.2 MB download).

Other applications

• Compared to xterm, rvxt uses about 1/3 less of the system resources.
• File manager: EmelFM and xfiler (part of siag office) - EmelFM is more functional, looks better, feels faster and uses about the same amount of memory. Or you could use good, old character based Midnight Commander. xfm and xplore are other (not tested) alternatives.
• I have looked briefly at two ftp clients; gftp (0.5 MB download) and iglooFTP (comes with Peanut, 1.3 MB). Both are similar and simple to use, but gftp is far faster at startup. Or you could use good, old command line ftp (ncftp in the case of Peanut).
• xpdf works, but is slow (3.9 MB download).
• I do not read my e-mail on this PC, but I have heard people mention sylpheed as a fast and lightweight e-mail client.
  

Conclusions
If you only have 8 MB memory and want X, you may try Grey Cat 3.0. But you really need more memory, at least 16 MB, for X to fly. Currently I am using Peanut and it works pretty well after configuring it for lightweight use. As for the applications:

• On the browser side, I mostly use Dillo as BrowseX is too slow.
• For file managers, I use Midnight Commander in a rxvt window.
• The command line ftp has been used more than the X programs.
• I have hardly used any of the office applications, but Siag comes as a whole suite, seems to work fine and isn't hard on the system resources.

Links

• A Modern, Low Resources Linux Distribution and All the Real Reasons Why We Need It
• Linux on my Handbook 486
• Installing Linux on a Compaq Contura Aero 4/33C Laptop
• Working with Micro-Distributions --or-- Linux in Your Pocket
• Linux on a 486 with 32mb (discussion forum)
• Approaching Vector Linux
• Getting Small with Linux: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4
• Linux for the Timid: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4
• Cooking with Linux: The Ultimate (but Small) Linux Box!

My name is Knut Backe and you may contact me via e-mail; knut.reitan.backe@ntnu.no. Last updated 11 November 2002. Some updates 13/5-08.