[Techtalk] Libretto 20CTA progress (WAS: Do I even think about upgrading it?)

[caitlynmaire at earthlink.net]

Hi, Telsa, and everyone else,
> 
> He said he cheats :) He has a tool called sysgen which installs
> minimal RH 7.2 setups onto a hard disk: you put the disk into a
> slightly more useful box than the PC110, run 'sysgen', and put
> the disk back into the PC110.

I cheated too, but I didn't need sysgen.  I simply placed the 810MB hard
drive from the Libretto 20CTA into my Libretto 50CT.  I wiped the drive
(yes, everything was backed up) and created a DOS partition.  I
installed the DOS drivers for my Addonics PC98 PCMCIA CD-ROM drive.  I
then rebooted, went to the D: drive (the CD-ROM), CDed to \DOSUTILS, and
ran Red Hat's AUTOBOOT.BAT file.  Red Hat Linux 7.2 installed with no
problems.  

I skipped the X configuration since the chipset is different and did a
custom install to slim things down.  When it all went well I put the
10GB drive back into the 50CT and the 810MB drive back into the 20CTA. 
The 20CTA is now running Red Hat 7.2.  A df shows I slimmed things more
than I needed to as I have 280MB free.  That's a good thing, because RH
7.3 is bigger than 7.2, and I'll now repeat the manual upgrade I did on
my 50CT.  Unfortunately, the 7.3 installer doesn't work on the
Librettos, otherwise I'd have gone with 7.3 in the first place.
> 
> That provides a basic RH 7.2 with X, rvxt and Sylpheed and then he
> adds XFce for a pretty X which doesn't munch the RAM he has(n't)
> got.

All good choices, as we already discussed.  XFce is very comfortable for
anyone who learned in the commercial UNIX world with a CDE desktop.  For
anyone else trying something like this, though, IceWM, Blackbox,
AfterStep, WindowMaker, and FVWM2 are all lightweight enough for
older/smaller hardware.  It's really a matter of preference.
> 
> I asked him about Caity's box and he said a 2.4.18-ac kernel
> (or any kernel with rmap) tends to outperform 2.2 on a low-memory
> box. It uses more memory, but swaps the right stuff out when it's
> under load.

Is the stock Red Hat 2.4.18-5 kernel one of his?  Does it have rmap?

> He's actually written a short guide to Linux and low
> powered boxes, but clearly he hasn't put it up anyway :) 

Does he plan to, or will he permit me to post it?

Please do thank Alan for all his help and encouragement.  So far... so
good.

All the best,
Caity