5 ms·

There are quite a few choices of lightweight Linux distro. This isn't aimed at that market

by topbanana 12y ago

sliverstorm 12y ago
Oh, I know, but I've been happily using CentOS 6 on my 128MB box, and was looking forward to CentOS 7.
- cwyers 12y ago
  It looks like the listed minimum for RHEL 6 was 1gb[1]. I don't think 128 was officially supported even then, so if you're happy with how it works now, you may still be happy with 7. 1) http://www.slac.stanford.edu/comp/unix/linux/install_RHEL6.html#requirements http://www.slac.stanford.edu/comp/unix/linux/install_RHEL6.h...
  - netcraft 12y ago
    The installer requires 406mb of ram to work: http://wiki.centos.org/Manuals/ReleaseNotes/CentOS7#head-281c090cc4fbc6bb5c7d4cd82a266fce807eee7c http://wiki.centos.org/Manuals/ReleaseNotes/CentOS7#head-281...
    - 3h8d 12y ago
      Would it be possible to assign swap to a removable media device and then bootstrap the installer to run in that environment on a device with 128mb?
      - noselasd 12y ago
        Probably. You'll have to hack the install procedure to enable swapping before it's being run though. If you're serious about trying this, the fastest path is to install CentOS in a VM on a suitable machine that isn't going to spend a day in the installer swapping like crazy, and copy the image to a physical drive which you eventually stuff into the ancient low memory box.
- Florin_Andrei 12y ago
  > I've been happily using CentOS 6 on my 128MB box I used to do that too, but then I figured there's a constructive use I could give to my old desktops when any such system reaches the age of replacement - just max it out on RAM and declare it a "home server". Now I can run a Minecraft node for my kids on it - with 2GB of Java heap, no less. I mean, my Raspberry Pi has more than 128 MB of RAM. Lots of RAM - like chicken soup for your server.
  - sliverstorm 12y ago
    Oh, RAM sticks are cheap, esp. for old machines. This is true. But I use a VPS, and the 128MB instances are cheap enough to be worth taking ten minutes to shut off junk services (which improves security anyway).
    - Florin_Andrei 12y ago
      It might be worth trying to install it on a larger instance, save the image, and re-launch it into a 128 MB instance. It might work that way.
- voltagex_ 12y ago
  When I'm building tiny Debian images, I use debootstrap, which doesn't seem to use much RAM at all. There used to be a Fedora equivalent called febootstrap, but it looks like it's mutated a bit since then: http://people.redhat.com/~rjones/supermin/ http://people.redhat.com/~rjones/supermin/ You may be able to work around it that way. Out of interest, what machine are you using CentOS 6 on? I find 128mb kinda tight - although I've recently found a VPS provider who's managed to get Debian Jessie working in 96!
  - sliverstorm 12y ago
    BuyVM, $15/year The good news is BuyVM just announced they are preparing a CentOS 7 image, so the installer RAM limit may not matter. You are right that 128mb is a bit tight, I have problems with some services that just gobble memory. Apache+PHP are terrible in that regard.
  - stevekemp 12y ago
    Once upon the time I created "rinse" which is an RPM-using debootstrap-like tool. I've handed that off now, but the project is still very much alive: http://collab-maint.alioth.debian.org/rinse/ http://collab-maint.alioth.debian.org/rinse/
- rdtsc 12y ago
  Granted it is an Enterprise level distro with iscsi, storage drivers, xfs as default, other relatively heavy things in it included by default. Running on smaller machines was never a goal, if it did, it was probably accidental. I don't even know if they have an ARM port (maybe an ARM 64bit for those new hip low wattage ARM microservers).

There are quite a few choices of lightweight Linux distro. This isn't aimed at that market

sliverstorm 12y ago

Oh, I know, but I've been happily using CentOS 6 on my 128MB box, and was looking forward to CentOS 7.

cwyers 12y ago
It looks like the listed minimum for RHEL 6 was 1gb[1]. I don't think 128 was officially supported even then, so if you're happy with how it works now, you may still be happy with 7. 1) http://www.slac.stanford.edu/comp/unix/linux/install_RHEL6.html#requirements http://www.slac.stanford.edu/comp/unix/linux/install_RHEL6.h...
- netcraft 12y ago
  The installer requires 406mb of ram to work: http://wiki.centos.org/Manuals/ReleaseNotes/CentOS7#head-281c090cc4fbc6bb5c7d4cd82a266fce807eee7c http://wiki.centos.org/Manuals/ReleaseNotes/CentOS7#head-281...
  - 3h8d 12y ago
    Would it be possible to assign swap to a removable media device and then bootstrap the installer to run in that environment on a device with 128mb?
    - noselasd 12y ago
      Probably. You'll have to hack the install procedure to enable swapping before it's being run though. If you're serious about trying this, the fastest path is to install CentOS in a VM on a suitable machine that isn't going to spend a day in the installer swapping like crazy, and copy the image to a physical drive which you eventually stuff into the ancient low memory box.
Florin_Andrei 12y ago
> I've been happily using CentOS 6 on my 128MB box I used to do that too, but then I figured there's a constructive use I could give to my old desktops when any such system reaches the age of replacement - just max it out on RAM and declare it a "home server". Now I can run a Minecraft node for my kids on it - with 2GB of Java heap, no less. I mean, my Raspberry Pi has more than 128 MB of RAM. Lots of RAM - like chicken soup for your server.
- sliverstorm 12y ago
  Oh, RAM sticks are cheap, esp. for old machines. This is true. But I use a VPS, and the 128MB instances are cheap enough to be worth taking ten minutes to shut off junk services (which improves security anyway).
  - Florin_Andrei 12y ago
    It might be worth trying to install it on a larger instance, save the image, and re-launch it into a 128 MB instance. It might work that way.
voltagex_ 12y ago
When I'm building tiny Debian images, I use debootstrap, which doesn't seem to use much RAM at all. There used to be a Fedora equivalent called febootstrap, but it looks like it's mutated a bit since then: http://people.redhat.com/~rjones/supermin/ http://people.redhat.com/~rjones/supermin/ You may be able to work around it that way. Out of interest, what machine are you using CentOS 6 on? I find 128mb kinda tight - although I've recently found a VPS provider who's managed to get Debian Jessie working in 96!
- sliverstorm 12y ago
  BuyVM, $15/year The good news is BuyVM just announced they are preparing a CentOS 7 image, so the installer RAM limit may not matter. You are right that 128mb is a bit tight, I have problems with some services that just gobble memory. Apache+PHP are terrible in that regard.
- stevekemp 12y ago
  Once upon the time I created "rinse" which is an RPM-using debootstrap-like tool. I've handed that off now, but the project is still very much alive: http://collab-maint.alioth.debian.org/rinse/ http://collab-maint.alioth.debian.org/rinse/
rdtsc 12y ago
Granted it is an Enterprise level distro with iscsi, storage drivers, xfs as default, other relatively heavy things in it included by default. Running on smaller machines was never a goal, if it did, it was probably accidental. I don't even know if they have an ARM port (maybe an ARM 64bit for those new hip low wattage ARM microservers).