yeokm1

7 ms·

1. 31.▲
   by yeokm1 8y ago

   I did mention it at the end of my blog post. "A small fun fact is that a guy is intending to remake the Model F keyboards, you can check out his site here. Hope you look at your keyboards differently from now!" The issue is that I
2. 32.▲
   Why I use the IBM Model M keyboard that is older than me(yeokhengmeng.com)

   152 points by yeokm1 8y ago|167 comments
3. 33.▲
   Reflections on Trusting Trust Demonstration in Go(youtube.com)

   1 points by yeokm1 8y ago|0 comments
4. 34.▲
   by yeokm1 9y ago

   I tried Tiny Core Linux on this PC. It wouldn't boot from the install disc. It kept doing the reboot loop.
5. 35.▲
   by yeokm1 9y ago

   Very likely the onboard PATA controller is connected via ISA. I had to enable the ISA PATA support during the kernel configuration for Linux to recognise it. In this case, there probably won't be any benefit of having additional ISA co
6. 36.▲
   by yeokm1 9y ago

   I just Googled to double check. The 486 does NOT have branch prediction. Source 1: https://books.google.com.sg/books?id=MLJClvCYh34C&pg=PA122&l... Source 2: https://books.google.com.sg/books?id=QzsEA
7. 37.▲
   by yeokm1 9y ago

   Ok I can give 256K a shot next time. Actually won't the ISA controllers be even slower? I'm not sure what bus the PATA controllers on this PC are connected to but isn't it connected "natively" so to speak? It might
8. 38.▲
   by yeokm1 9y ago

   I think all of us really have different definitions of what constitutes "modern linux". For me running a modern kernel and software is sufficient. Speed wise, I believe further optimisation is possible given time. However the poin
9. 39.▲
   by yeokm1 9y ago

   The CF card is a Sandisk Extreme with up to 120MB/s read speed. My guess is the PATA interface on that motherboard is also a bottleneck. I did a disk speed test with "dd if=/dev/zero of=/tmp/output bs=8k count=
10. 40.▲
    by yeokm1 9y ago

    > The kernel does a great job in maintaining backwards compatibility, the rest of the stack not so much... reply No disagreement. But so far I did not encounter any issues with other parts of Linux other than the kernel. So the rest of t
11. 41.▲
    by yeokm1 9y ago

    Well for me, the first computer I used was a 486 when I was 5. So it's "ancient" enough for me :)
12. 42.▲
    by yeokm1 9y ago

    Ok my mistake, edited the post to just "RAM".
13. 43.▲
    by yeokm1 9y ago

    With Gentoo, it is possible to reduce the startup services I guess. I just ran with the default configuration suggested by the Handbook.
14. 44.▲
    by yeokm1 9y ago

    But one day, the 486 will be deprecated. Just like the 386 was...
15. 45.▲
    by yeokm1 9y ago

    Sounds like a plan!
16. 46.▲
    by yeokm1 9y ago

    I agree that I could have optimised the system more. Since this is the first time I'm installing Gentoo, I just followed the default instructions given in the Gentoo Handbook. https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Handbook:
17. 47.▲
    by yeokm1 9y ago

    I'll look into distcc next time. Thanks!
18. 48.▲
    by yeokm1 9y ago

    Kernel yes. Another yes to the GCC compiler. Probably Yes and no for the rest. The fact that Git, Python 3, SSH and nginx worked fairly ok implied they probably did some testing too.
19. 49.▲
    by yeokm1 9y ago

    Have to mention this blog post is extended work based on knowledge gained from that hackathon
20. 50.▲
    by yeokm1 9y ago

    My first 486DX PC also only had 8MB of RAM until my parents through it out when I was a kid. I was personally shocked as well when I saw that this 486 PC had 64MB.
21. 51.▲
    by yeokm1 9y ago

    Hahaha, you guessed that right for me!
22. 52.▲
    by yeokm1 9y ago

    I don't disagree. In fact, even the Raspberry Pi is more powerful than this PC.
23. 53.▲
    by yeokm1 9y ago

    I don't mind giving this a shot once I have the time for it! :)
24. 54.▲
    by yeokm1 9y ago

    I concur. I can't determine that during the bootup sequence though. Then again, 64MB RAM is considered plentiful for a 486 PC.
25. 55.▲
    by yeokm1 9y ago

    I was actually working on this project before those attacks were announced. When I heard that pre-1995 CPUs were unaffected, I couldn't help but LOL and included a reference in my blog post as well.
26. 56.▲
    by yeokm1 9y ago

    Thanks! You have to thank my teammate Hui Jing for that too
27. 57.▲
    by yeokm1 9y ago

    Haha. I spent several weeks of sleepless nights on this :)
28. 58.▲
    by yeokm1 9y ago

    You can see the video demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qSziR6sD8Q Detailed install instructions: https://github.com/yeokm1/gentoo-on-486
29. 59.▲
    by yeokm1 9y ago

    I rebooted my server but it seems like crash again. Let me adjust adjust my Digital Ocean droplet.
30. 60.▲
    Modern Linux in an ancient PC(yeokhengmeng.com)

    198 points by yeokm1 9y ago|126 comments