install on low-end system

[MartinvdBerg]

Gurus!

First of all: I like the comcept of knoppix very much, good work!

Ok, here's my 'problem': I have a low end system that I would like to use as a linux only server. Its an old 200MMX pentium with 32mb ram and three hdds: 800, 500 and 300 megs. I would like to have a very basic installation: no graphics, no apps except for apache, php and mysql. It would be great if I could just boot it from CD. Can that be done on this PC from the stoneage? If so, how?

Thanks! Martin.

[eon]

You might want to take a look at DSL http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/

As far as booting from cd: You should be able to enter your bios at start up
Look to see what keystroke accomplishes that ( Usually it's the f2 or del key).
Then see if you can choose the cdrom drive as a start up device.

Good luck!

[UnderScore]

Skip the LiveCDs and go directly to Debian. You can run either Debian Stable (Woody, old but very stable versions of programs) or Debian Testing (Sarge, slim chance but possibly unstable programs. Debian developers are finalizing Testing to be the next stable release in the near future).
Debian stable - http://linuxiso.org/distro.php?distro=4
Debian testing - http://cdimage.debian.org/pub/cdimage-testing/sarge_d-i/i386/current/sarge-i386-netinst.iso 10-Feb-2005 23:51 109MB
I installed Debian tesing via sarge-i386-netinst.iso this past Tuesday. The minimal install is about 200-300MB and includes only the basic shell, etc, filesystem programs, apt and dpkg programs so that you can get updates and install more packages. Debian is great because with a properly configured system I can install apache mysql and php via:
aptitude install apache2 mysql-server php4 php4-mysql

I hope this helps.
James

[foamrotreturns]

gotta agree with the debian. However, it sounds like you're going to be using it for a server...
You might want to try FreeBSD or another BSD flavor. They are very stable and specifically designed to thwart hackers and virus writers. The reputation of BSD is unparalleled in the server world.

[CrashedAgain]

The only way you could get a Knoppix HD install on this would be as a poormans install on your 800 Meg HD. It is not possible to install only 'part' of Knoppix and a full HD install requires 2.4 Gig minimum. For a Knoppix-like system, you could try Morphix, it is a 'modular' knoppix spinoff.