Can Old PC run Knoppix?

[Cuddles]

I have an old Pentium 166 with 520M harddisk, 32M ram running Win95 and was trying to use it to introduce Linux to my family but was unable to get Knoppix running. (Knoppix CD is okay, had tried it on the other pc)

I had updated the Bios Setting to enable to boot from CD but somehow it doesn't work.

Read the Knoppix text and understand that i need to create a boot floppy with a mkbootfloppy program.


1.Is my old pc able to run Knoppix
2.Where can i get this mkbootfloppy program.
3.How to do it.
4.Is there other way to get it running especially something like a PMI that i read from Knoppix.net/doc but was not able to understand.
5.Anything else that i should be “greedy” to try


Any advise, comments is very much appreciated.

MicQ, lets see if I can get you a few answers...

I have an old Pentium 166 with 520M harddisk, 32M ram running Win95
1.Is my old pc able to run Knoppix

The problem in your system is going to be the memory. Not that it cant be run with this amount of memory, but, some of the "desktop" managers are more of a memory hog, like KDE and GNome. The below link, to the Docs on this forum, site, suggest using another, more memory friendly, desktop management program, like damnsmall, you can check the link, and find others. KDE is a very "environment rich" desktop manager, but at the cost of using memory, in which, you do not have.

Knoppix DOCS - Knoppix on Old PC

...was trying to use it to introduce Linux to my family but was unable to get Knoppix running. (Knoppix CD is okay, had tried it on the other pc)

I had updated the Bios Setting to enable to boot from CD but somehow it doesn't work.

Read the Knoppix text and understand that i need to create a boot floppy with a mkbootfloppy program.

2.Where can i get this mkbootfloppy program.
3.How to do it.

First problem, to get the mkbootfloppy program, you need to be able to boot the Knoppix CD, the program is probably a script, or it could be a "full-fledged" program, but it is probably only able to be run on Knoppix OS booted, and from within a Konsole screen, which is like a "DOS Prompt" window, within Windows. This Konsole screen is the CLI for Linux, or Command Line Interface, very powerful, considering that you can run almost anything from the CLI, even if it may also have a GUI ( or Graphical User Interface ) to run a program as well.

So, considering the boot floppy, or getting your system to boot, first, is the concern, can you explain a little on "where" your system is not booting... You mentioned that you set the BIOS, but that it refuses to boot off the CD, why? Does the CD spin, light on the drive come on? Does it display anything that would be associated with Knoppix? Where, if it does start, does it stop, or get lost? Your system "may" just need some fine-tuning with some cheatcodes, to either enable certain things, or if the boot is getting stuck on something, disabling some things.

I have never found a system, having done Knoppix on three systems now, that no system can boot without at least one cheatcode on the boot: prompt, mine usually need a slew of them... My oldest system is a 128M memory, 233Mhz, Pentium II - it needed around five, or six, of these cheatcodes to get it up on the CD, but, I was able to get it running on it.

Hope this helps,
Ms. Cuddles