Subject: RE: Question about upgrading a 386SX from 200MB disk to 6.4GB
To: David Brownlee <abs@anim.dreamworks.com>
From: Frederick Bruckman <fb@enteract.com>
List: port-i386
Date: 08/09/1999 11:26:12
On Mon, 9 Aug 1999, David Brownlee wrote:
> egcs with -O2 really tries hard to optimise the kernel.
> http://www.netbsd.org/Documentation/kernel/index.html#kernel-compile-slow
> suggests using "make COPTS=-O" to save time, though it may make
> most sense to find an old pentium or even 486 on which you can
> compile :)
>
> On Mon, 9 Aug 1999, Steven Grunza wrote:
>
> > It worked great. The only problem now is that I can't reasonably
> > build a kernel. I've got 8 MB of RAM and a 386SX. I let the system
> > run (without X running) for two days but the new kernel still wasn't
> > finished building. I seem to recall this machine took a long time to
> > build a new kernel but that an overnight run (8 hours or so) was all
> > that was needed.
> > - 386SX-25
> > - 8MB RAM
> > - 6.4 GB disk (56 MB swap)
It could be that 1.4 GENERIC has grown a little fat. I once built a
kernel while booted from the INSTALL kernel (of necessity). Maybe that
would give you a little more real memory to work with. "boot
netbsd-install -as", to specify your root device (not the ramdisk!),
mount the partitions by hand, and so on.
FWIW, it only takes about 1/2 hr to build a custom kernel on a
486DX4-48mb, and it never comes close to using all 48.