Linux on GlobalPC with 8M ram

From: Rudy Hartmann (rudy_at_r-o-c-k-t-e-c-h-n-o-l-o-g-y.c-o-m)
Date: 02/19/05 

Date: Sat, 19 Feb 2005 02:52:17 GMT

I have an opportunity to acquire some Internet PC's that were made by a
defunct company called GlobalPC. These machines at present are configured to
run Geos. But I would like to run an operating system that is not extinct. I
have played with tiny versions of Linux and I have had some limited success.
These machines can run DOS too. But if I have to pay big money to update
every machine its not going to be profitable or worth the trouble. They are
based on an AMD Elan SC410-100AC processor with just under 8M of EDO DRAM.
The small footprint is one of the biggest challenges. They have an ALI M5042
and M5113 chipset. They also have one 1.4M floppy and a 4.3G hardisk. The
VGA chip is an IGS Technologies CyberPro 2010 that supports SVGA and NTSC
composite video. They have a PS/2 interface mouse and keyboard. They are
also configured with a Yamaha YMF715-ES sound chip and a Conexant R6764-63
modem. I would really like to see if I could get Linux running on this
machine. Hardware upgrade on these machines are impractical.

If I can get a tiny version of Linux to run on these, I would like to make
some install diskettes that reformat the hard drive and install it all on
there from this stack of diskettes. Once I get a basic Linux and X system
working, I would like to put a bunch of stuff on a website to download for
free. There are about 12K of these PC's left.

If anybody can help me with this, I would appreciate it. I could pay a
little but, but this has to be done cheap. I will send you one of these
machines for free too.

rudy@rocktechnology.com

Rudy

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