Re: Hints on kernel config for a dula pII/450 system anyone?

[Bill Hacker <wbh@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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Oliver Fromme wrote:

> Gergo Szakal <bastyaelvtars@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>  > [...]
>  > If you can prove that the problem is caused by the machine itself, 
>  > please do it (I don't consider statements like 'It's old cr*p' as 
>  > proof), else let's wait for someone else who dug into the problematic 
>  > code. Sorry for being a bit harsh, no offense meant, but somehow the 
>  > countless appearance of sentences like 'get a new box' frustrates me. :-(
> 
> Personally I consider a Pentium-II-450 perfectly standard
> hardware.  In fact, one of my main servers is a Dual-
> Celeron-466 (sligtly less standard because Celerons weren't
> supposed to be used in SMP systems).  It's more than fast
> enough to run DNS, MTA and Apache for several domains, SSH
> shell server for a dozen users (each in his own jail) and a
> few other things.
> 
> An OS that aims to support i386 hardware should have no
> problems whatsoever running on a Pentium-II.  It caused
> quite a big bikeshed when FreeBSD stopped supporting the
> 80386, and later when it stopped supporting processors
> without FPU (such as the 486SX).  (I think DragonFly still
> supports the 80386, but I'm not sure.)
> 
> By the way, my main server at home was a Pentium-75 until
> recently.  I replaced it with a low-power EPIA board (with
> VIA C3 processor), mainly because the Pentium-75 couldn't
> be upgraded beyond 128 MB RAM, and I needed more RAM
> because the Squid proxy caused paging sometimes.  Other
> than that, the Pentium-75 was perfect and even ran fanless
> (with a huge self-made heatsink) at ~ 30 °C.
> 
> Best regards
>    Oliver
> 

Nothing wrong with 'run what you got'...

But... All our 1970's vintage S-100 gear save 3 8" FDD was shipped off this 
summer to a collector, the 6' magnalium-alloy US Navy surplus rack, power 
supplies, Sperry ISS-80 'absolute' air filter system, all went to the metals 
recycler.

For production we 'downgraded' all our 1U rackmounts save one to VIA C3 from 1.X 
GHz Celerons (FreeBSD 4.11) to help stay within the Data Centre UPS power budget 
for our rack, and upgraded the 2U rackmounts to Tyan MB with Intel Core-D and 
FreeBSD 6.2/AMD-64 OS.

But I *still* say it is 'not kind' to the DFLY project - already struggling with 
  scant resources and tough goals, to distract or sidetrack it even a little bit 
to chase aging hardware flakiness - especially when there are other usable OS 
that can make good use of that hardware w/o any work.

Let's keep out of the core DFLY team's way so they can get the basics done, 
demo'ed, and publicized FIRST.

IF THEN more folks take an interest and come on-board, I am sure anything worthy 
of support can find it from a larger pool of contributors.

The 'clear and present danger' is loss of momentum. Note the gradual reduction 
in posts here to the d.kernel list, for example.

Fear Fabius, not Scipio.

Bill