Computing desk
< April 6	<< Mar \| April \| May >>	April 8 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Computing Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

April 7

Linux on a 486

I have a 133Mhz 486 with 255 MB of RAM. It runs DOS and Window 3.11 like a champ. Now I want to pop in another hard drive and try to get Linux working on it.

I have installed Slackware on my modern PC with no problems. Still thinking about whether I like it better than Ubuntu.

I looked for YouTube videos of linux on a 386 or 486 and found these:

40MHz 386: One minute to boot Slackware Linux 1.0. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DBPuZHWEXc

133 Mhz 486: 11 minutes to boot 2018 version of Gentoo Linux, 5.5 minutes to shut down. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qSziR6sD8Q

So I know that anything using the latest kernel will be annoyingly slow, and I know that the oldest version of Slackware will work just fine.

My question is, can I pick a newer version of Slackware?

What is the newest Slackware that runs on a 486?

What is the newest version of Slackware that installs from a stack of floppies?

(No USB or CD support in the BIOS so I am expecting trouble even if I find a USB card and an IDE CD-ROM)

It is really hard to figure out the above from the Slackware website. --Dalek Supreme X (talk) 06:01, 7 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Slackware should support 486 in the latest version because the linux kernel still supports 486 (at least it did when I checked last year and I haven't heard anything about dropping support). Gentoo may be easier. It automates the process a bit more, but it is still source-based, not package-based. So, it downloads the source and compiles it on your computer, just like you'd do with Slackware. I haven't used either Slackware or Gentoo in about 20 years, so I can't state how different they are from one another right now. I know that Slackware 20 years ago was a pain. Gentoo was much easier to get the same result. Now, I use packaged systems, primarily Redhat, so I don't compile anything. 97.82.165.112 (talk) 13:41, 7 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

That computer is probably over 25 years old. It is time to replace it and get a Pentium. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 02:58, 8 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I just built it last month. The motherboard and processor are new old stock, the power supply, case, SD card floppy emulator, SSD and IDE to SATA converter were all built in 2020 or 2021.

I already have a Pentium 4 machine (the newest I could find that still has PS/2, serial, parallel, floppy, and IDE) and a nice core i5 machine. They both suck at playing retro DOS games, even with emulation. Do a web search on 486 retrocomputing and you will see that many people are running 486 machines.

It already works great at doing the things I built it for. I just think it would be fun to get a workable Linux distro running on it. Dalek Supreme X (talk) 05:47, 9 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I understand now. I gave an original 386 system to the Computer Museum of America a few months ago. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 06:20, 9 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I agree with the above recommendations for Slackware or Gentoo, but you might also consider Tiny Core Linux, which was last updated February 17, 2021. I wouldn't recommend Damn Small Linux only because it hasn't been updated since 2008, and you should be running as recent a version as you can if you are connected to the internet.-gadfium 05:27, 8 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

That's a GREAT suggestion! I just downloaded it and put it on a USB thumb drive, and it runs great on my P4 and core i5 boxes (no USB on the 486). How did they make it so small? I am going to try tiny core before slackware.

There are a bunch of ways I can approach this:

I can try to figure out how to install Tiny Core from floppy. I don't think that is going to be practical but maybe some web page has instructions on how to do it.

I can pop in an IDE CD-ROM drive and try to install Tiny Core from there. No CD-ROM boot on the 486 box so I still need to make a bootable floppy and hope that it recognizes the CD-ROM.

I can pop in an IDE CD-ROM drive, install Slackware 1.0 (which installs from a dozen floppies), hope that Slackware recognizes the CD-ROM, and try to install Tiny Core over slackware. Maybe to a second IDE drive? The motherboard has connectors for four drives.

I can put the IDE hard drive in my P4, install Tiny Core from my USB thumb drive, move the HDD to the 486, and see if it boots.

Any advice on which to try first? Dalek Supreme X (talk) 05:47, 9 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Reducing size of inbox

I've recently started using MS Outlook for mail. I've moved a lot of emails from the inbox to other folders, and the inbox as viewed in Outlook is much smaller than before but when I access my mail system using webmail the messages in question are still in the inbox. I would like to reduce the size of the inbox, but as viewed by webmail this seems not to be working.

Any suggestions? rossb (talk) 16:55, 7 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Are you using IMAP or Exchange ActiveSync or something similar to access the webmail on Outlook? Or are you using POP3? If you're using POP3, then the simple answer is you can't. At most you can delete content via POP3 that's on mail server if that's supported. POP3 is designed for the client to retrieve email from the server. It's not designed for the client to manage email on the server. Nil Einne (talk) 07:31, 8 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for this. Now understood. Another effect that hadn't occurred to me is items that I've send from webmail, which appear in the webmail "Sent" box, don't appear in the Outlook "Sent" box. I suppose I just have to work round this! rossb (talk) 11:32, 8 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]