First post, by Sphere478
- Rank
- l33t
there really doesn't seem to be a good guide out there to what operating systems you have to choose from when it comes to i586 machines and I stumbled quite a bit wasting many cds trying to figure it out.
586 processors include pentium, cyrix mII, k6-x, pentium mmx, etc
there are a few things that will get in your way when trying to run operating systems on a i586
the biggest one with linux seems to be CMOV instruction set support
naturally all 64 bit OSs are out
and of course sufficient ram but that's kind of another issue
and the wild card seems to be acpi support in the bios. this one is hard to nail down, either you have it or you don't but it seems bios's at or after 1999 seem to have a better chance of having it
take note that not all 586 processors are created equal, but their ability to run software is similar what worked on my k6 III+ may not work on your pentium 90
the following is a list of operating systems confirmed to work on a 586 processor feel free to add to this list but only if you have actually run it
debian jessie 8.11.1 this is supposed to be the last debian with support for i586 and it's a relatively modern one too. the assumption is that this and all previous versions would work but not future ones. note had a failure to install on non acpi pentium 233 mmx this appeared to be cpu related but had a successful install on a k6 3+ acpi
fedora 11 this is supposed to be the last fedora/redhat with support for i586 and it's not terribly old. the assumption is that this and all previous versions would work but not future ones. there is a false claim that fedora 14 is supposed to work but it does not. 13,12 untested but assumed non working. 14 failed due to lack of cmov
windows 7 yes this absolutely will run on i586. you will need 384mb of ram to make the installer run but the os it's self doesn't run too bad on 256 and you don't really even need a lite version the lite and full versions aren't that different in ram usage there is a hex edit to disable the setup ram check and allow installation on 256mb (or less?) that is confirmed to work. acpi is a must here note that 7 rtm will not work it has a glitch that prevents i586 from working but later version with service pack will work
windows vista unverified but assumed to be the same story as windows 7 (try the latest service pack version if you attempt)
windows 8,8.1,10 no go
windows xp,2k,ME,98SE,98,95,nt,3.11,etc all work
haiku beta 2 I tried to get this to work but it froze on loading setup more testing may find a version that works or a setup that it works on
beos 5 confirmed working by cyberdyne
freebsd there are supposed to be some relativly recent versions that are supposed to work but I was unable to get setup to fully launch on my system more testing may find a version that works or a setup that it works on
Temple OS appears to be 64 bit so no go
os/2 confirmed working by cyberdyne
mac os some of the earlier versions are supposed to be able to work under dos virtualization but untested not sure if this counts but figured it's worth mentioning
dos 6.2, dos 7, freedos, all work assumed previous versions also do. 5.0 3.3x confirmed working by cyberdyne.
CentOS up to EL6 reported by froller
Mandriva up to 2010.2 reported by froller
OpenSuse up to 15.2 reported by froller
Alt Linux up to 7.0 reported by froller
RedHat Linux all versions (not the RedHat Enterprise Linux)
Mandrake Linux all versions reported by froller
alpinelinux Reported by warloard no version given assume all till OP date
Windows xp media center edition 2005 sp3. Runs very well, even works on dual pentium 1 MMXs with mps multiprocessor.
