RE: Digital Archaeology: Dell Inspiron 9400

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I really enjoyed your digital archeology on this older Dell. I always really liked Dell computers, and had a very solid Dell Latitude E6410 for several years, running Linux the whole time, first with Ubuntu for six years, and then Arch Linux for the last three until my computer finally died a bit more then a year ago (the jungle eats everything). I still need to replace it.

I'm currently running a 32-bit version of Debian which is the only mainstream Linux distribution I am aware of that still does new 32-bit releases.

There is also the Arch Linux 32 Project, which continued support for 32-bit architectures.

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Interesting. I was looking for a version of linux that I could shoehorn into an old Compaq 2240 with a K6-200 processor. It looks like the i486 build of Arch might work...maybe. The problem is that the memory maxes out on this thing at 48MB (motherboard limitation) so I am doubtful. Even most CLI installations need 128MB. Currently it is dual booting Windows 98SE and an ancient version of Ubuntu (CLI only).

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(Edited)

The great thing about Arch, and by extension Arch32, is that it is installed from the command line, and you only install what you want, other than the base system. You can create a very streamlined system. I hope it goes well! 🙏 💚

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It turns out the hard part with dealing with such limited memory is the installation process itself. Even with Arch it's hard to get below a 128MB requirement even during the install of just the base system. 64MB can be done. Less than that requires lots of manual intervention and even then not everything works right. On the other hand, it will run just fine in more limited memory. So the easy way to do it seems to be to do the install on a system with more memory then move the drive over. Haven't tried it yet but that's probably what I would do.

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(Edited)

It turns out the hard part with dealing with such limited memory is the installation process itself. Even with Arch it's hard to get below a 128MB requirement even during the install of just the base system. 64MB can be done. Less than that requires lots of manual intervention and even then not everything works right. On the other hand, it will run just fine in more limited memory. So the easy way to do it seems to be to do the install on a system with more memory then move the drive over. Haven't tried it yet but that's probably what I would do.

One thing I learned years ago is to adapt, improvise, and experiment with everything, including Open Source Software, Linux, and most especially Arch Linux. There is always a way! I look forward to hearing how it goes! 🙏 💚

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