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Running Linux on a 486 :)

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First post, by TheLazy1

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Is anyone else trying this?
It's certainly an odd way to spend time, but eh...
😉

/proc/cpuinfo

processor	: 0
vendor_id	: AuthenticAMD
cpu family	: 4
model		: 14
model name	: Am5x86-WT
stepping	: 4
fdiv_bug	: no
hlt_bug		: no
f00f_bug	: no
coma_bug	: no
fpu		: yes
fpu_exception	: yes
cpuid level	: 1
wp		: yes
flags		: fpu
bogomips	: 61.05
clflush size	: 32
cache_alignment	: 32
address sizes	: 32 bits physical, 32 bits virtual
power management:

/proc/meminfo

MemTotal:          36976 kB
MemFree:           27276 kB
Buffers:               0 kB
Cached:             6844 kB
SwapCached:            0 kB
Active:             4224 kB
Inactive:           3372 kB
Active(anon):        780 kB
Inactive(anon):       12 kB
Active(file):       3444 kB
Inactive(file):     3360 kB
Unevictable:           0 kB
Mlocked:               0 kB
HighTotal:             0 kB
HighFree:              0 kB
LowTotal:          36976 kB
LowFree:           27276 kB
SwapTotal:             0 kB
SwapFree:              0 kB
Dirty:                 0 kB
Writeback:             0 kB
AnonPages:           768 kB
Mapped:             1152 kB
Shmem:                40 kB
Slab:               1544 kB
SReclaimable:        456 kB
SUnreclaim:         1088 kB
KernelStack:         224 kB
PageTables:          128 kB
NFS_Unstable:          0 kB
Bounce:                0 kB
WritebackTmp:          0 kB
CommitLimit:       18488 kB
Committed_AS:       1576 kB
VmallocTotal:     991224 kB
VmallocUsed:          20 kB
VmallocChunk:     991204 kB
HugePages_Total:       0
HugePages_Free:        0
HugePages_Rsvd:        0
HugePages_Surp:        0
Hugepagesize:       4096 kB
DirectMap4k:       40960 kB
DirectMap4M:           0 kB

lspci -vvk

00:0d.0 Mass storage controller: Promise Technology, Inc. 20269 (rev 02) (prog-if 85)
	Subsystem: Promise Technology, Inc. Ultra133TX2
	Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
	Status: Cap+ 66MHz+ UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=slow >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
	Latency: 64 (1000ns min, 4500ns max), Cache Line Size: 16 bytes
	Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 11
	Region 0: I/O ports at fff0 [size=8]
	Region 1: I/O ports at ffe4 [size=4]
	Region 2: I/O ports at ffa8 [size=8]
	Region 3: I/O ports at ffe0 [size=4]
	Region 4: I/O ports at ff90 [size=16]
	Region 5: Memory at ffbe8000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
	Expansion ROM at ffbe4000 [disabled] [size=16K]
	Capabilities: [60] Power Management version 1
		Flags: PMEClk- DSI+ D1+ D2- AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0-,D1-,D2-,D3hot-,D3cold-)
		Status: D0 NoSoftRst- PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-
	Kernel driver in use: pata_pdc2027x

00:0e.0 VGA compatible controller: Matrox Electronics Systems Ltd. MGA 2164W [Millennium II] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
	Subsystem: Matrox Electronics Systems Ltd. Device 2007
	Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop+ ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
	Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
	Latency: 64
	Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 12
	Region 0: Memory at fe000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=16M]
	Region 1: Memory at ffbec000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
	Region 2: Memory at ff000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8M]
	Expansion ROM at ffbd0000 [disabled] [size=64K]

00:10.0 Host bridge: United Microelectronics [UMC] UM8881F (rev 04)
	Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
	Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort+ >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
	Latency: 0

00:12.0 ISA bridge: United Microelectronics [UMC] UM8886A (rev 0e)
	Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle+ MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
	Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
	Latency: 0

00:12.1 IDE interface: United Microelectronics [UMC] UM8886BF (rev 10) (prog-if 8a [Master SecP PriP])
	Control: I/O- Mem- BusMaster- SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
	Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
	Region 0: I/O ports at 01f0 [disabled] [size=8]
	Region 1: I/O ports at 03f4 [disabled]
	Region 2: I/O ports at 0170 [disabled] [size=8]
	Region 3: I/O ports at 0374 [disabled]
	Region 4: I/O ports at 1000 [disabled] [size=16]

It's running kernel 2.6.32 and a uClibc based userspace.
Bootup takes 2 or so minutes, but keep in mind this system has no L2 cache.
😉

So far the only issue is that I cannot get the matrox framebuffer to work, it just can't probe the card for some reason.

Reply 2 of 9, by TheLazy1

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Xorg is pretty brave eh?
I'm not sure I'd bother trying it unless I could get 2D acceleration, since it's barfing on my matrox card I might not get that far.

My board is also an M919, they're pretty speedy things when paired with a 5x86 especially when you crank up the FSB.
I only get ~6MB/s with my PCI IDE card though 😜

Reply 4 of 9, by bucket

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Funnily enough, I ran DSL on my Compaq LTE 5400 (Pentium 150, 32MB RAM, 2GB HDD) because it was the only way to upgrade it to Win98SE. I had no way to get files onto it (no CD drive). I have a SD-to-PCMCIA adapter but Win95 doesn't detect it. It was quite a convoluted process:

Ingredients:
DSL live CD
DSL boot floppy
Linux PCMCIA modules
Win98 CD
DOS 6.22 boot disk

1) Copy DSL and Win98 to SD card
2) Boot into DOS
3) Format C: and D: drive
4) Load DSL boot floppy
5) Load PCMCIA modules
6) Copy Win98 from SD card to D:
7) Install Win98 from D: to C:

And then use the SD adapter to copy games/programs to the laptop.

Reply 5 of 9, by feipoa

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TheLazy1 wrote:

Is anyone else trying this?
It's certainly an odd way to spend time, but eh...

There was a topic on this not too long ago. Refer to this thread,
Which Linux on a 486 ?

I tried about a dozen distros on my 486.

Plan your life wisely, you'll be dead before you know it.

Reply 6 of 9, by TheLazy1

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I remember that thread, I finally got around to making that Gentoo based 486 installation.
😉

I've spent an evening trying to get my OPL3SAx working but I'll have to call it quits, it's being pissy and not showing up with the MIDI interface.
And somehow I made matroxfb work, once.

Rsync is pretty handy though for keeping the 486 updated with any changes I make.

Reply 7 of 9, by TheLazy1

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Interesting stuff, got the YMF-719 to play a MIDI file.
😁

Perhaps it's the PCI weirdness of the M919 but so far it looks like the Matrox framebuffer driver isn't working because it fails to request the video base address.
I'm still looking into it but apparently that should only fail if something else has already reserved that region.

Edit:
It works if you comment out the nice request for that memory region...

/proc/iomem

00000000-0009ffff : System RAM
000a0000-000bffff : Video RAM area
000c0000-000c7fff : Video ROM
000c8000-000ca7ff : Adapter ROM
000f0000-000fffff : reserved
  000f0000-000fffff : System ROM
00100000-027fffff : System RAM
  01000000-0124844a : Kernel code
  0124844b-013279c3 : Kernel data
  01360000-013848af : Kernel bss
02800000-03ffffff : RAM buffer
fe000000-feffffff : 0000:00:0e.0
  fec00000-fec00fff : reserved
  fee00000-fee00fff : reserved
ff000000-ff7fffff : 0000:00:0e.0
ffbd0000-ffbdffff : 0000:00:0e.0
ffbe4000-ffbe7fff : 0000:00:0d.0
ffbe8000-ffbebfff : 0000:00:0d.0
  ffbe8000-ffbebfff : pata_pdc2027x
ffbec000-ffbeffff : 0000:00:0e.0
fffe0000-ffffffff : reserved

Correct me if I'm wrong, but there shouldn't be a reserved region smack in the middle of the Matrox's memory range?
(0000:00:0e.0 == Matrox card)

Reply 8 of 9, by NJRoadfan

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I used to run Redhat 6.0 on a 5x86 equipped M919 (last revision with the cache stick) with 16MB of RAM as a home router box from 1997 to 2002. It ran fine, although XFree86 was sluggish and getting the Ark2000 video card to do 256 colors required some tricky mode lines and RAMDAC setup. The system was rock solid for what it was, never a problem with the PCI slots.

Reply 9 of 9, by fillosaurus

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Been there, done that. Redhat 6.1 on a DX4/100, 20-24 Mb RAM, Spea VLB S3 928 2 Mb, Adaptec AHA 1542CF SCSI controller, 2 Gb Samsung hdd, 4x Yamaha writer.
Wasn't sluggish at all, KDE was fast and better looking than Windows95 OSR 2.1 which I dual booted.
By the way, motherboard was a Soyo VIP, SiS chipset, if I recall corectly.
Or I had a PCI S3 Trio 64V+ or V2? Whatever, it was an S3 card. Back in '99-00.

Y2K box: AMD Athlon K75 (second generation slot A)@700, ASUS K7M motherboard, 256 MB SDRAM, ATI Radeon 7500+2xVoodoo2 in SLI, SB Live! 5.1, VIA USB 2.0 PCI card, 40 GB Seagate HDD.
WIP: external midi module based on NEC wavetable (Yamaha clone)

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