jmarsh wrote on 2021-02-26, 23:42:

People keep mentioning windows XP, but iirc it requires 64MB minimum RAM which can be a bit high for 586-era machines.

I still technically count it because most 586 era machines should be able to get that much RAM. 64MB was a pretty common ceiling during the late 486 era. Even my 1995 NEC Ready 9522 has a 128MB Memory ceiling, but from the same brand and opposite end, my Versa P/75 tops out at 40MB.

lolo799 wrote on 2021-02-26, 18:40:

Not necessarily still in development, though, right? OpenStep 4.2 QNX 6.2.1 BeOS 5.1d0 Zeta 1.5 Atheos 0.3.7 and its forkSyllabl […]
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Sphere478 wrote on 2021-02-26, 12:52:

the most helpful information is knowing the last version that works of each OS

Not necessarily still in development, though, right?
OpenStep 4.2
QNX 6.2.1
BeOS 5.1d0
Zeta 1.5
Atheos 0.3.7 and its forkSyllable 0.6.7

Well these can also be useful, even if you weren't using them as your daily workhorse OS.
For example, consider the emu devs. These niche-OSes provide an alternative codebase to test the emulator against.

maybe you could set a similar machine up in pcem as a vm to test things out but im not sure if disabling dynarec to run win 7 would give you accurate results.

The main issues I see with trying to run modern os on a 586 is not so much if it can run. Anything that is running on it has to be compiled to run on 586, like the web browser. Fining a update web browser that will run on 586 is pretty challenging. Normally you would need at least MMX. And from what I read AMD mmx implementation in socket 7 isn't complete at that.

lolo799 wrote on 2021-02-26, 18:40:

Not necessarily still in development, though, right? OpenStep 4.2 QNX 6.2.1 BeOS 5.1d0 Zeta 1.5 Atheos 0.3.7 and its forkSyllabl […]
Show full quote

Sphere478 wrote on 2021-02-26, 12:52:

the most helpful information is knowing the last version that works of each OS

Not necessarily still in development, though, right?
OpenStep 4.2
QNX 6.2.1
BeOS 5.1d0
Zeta 1.5
Atheos 0.3.7 and its forkSyllable 0.6.7

Doesn’t matter. List should be of ones that work and last version that does work even if that is the current version

creepingnet wrote on 2021-02-26, 23:44:

jmarsh wrote on 2021-02-26, 23:42:

People keep mentioning windows XP, but iirc it requires 64MB minimum RAM which can be a bit high for 586-era machines.

I still technically count it because most 586 era machines should be able to get that much RAM. 64MB was a pretty common ceiling during the late 486 era. Even my 1995 NEC Ready 9522 has a 128MB Memory ceiling, but from the same brand and opposite end, my Versa P/75 tops out at 40MB.

I have 256 in one 586 and 512 in another. Ram doesn’t matter for this list that’s a separate issue.

Warlord wrote on 2021-02-27, 01:07:

maybe you could set a similar machine up in pcem as a vm to test things out but im not sure if disabling dynarec to run win 7 would give you accurate results.

The main issues I see with trying to run modern os on a 586 is not so much if it can run. Anything that is running on it has to be compiled to run on 586, like the web browser. Fining a update web browser that will run on 586 is pretty challenging. Normally you would need at least MMX. And from what I read AMD mmx implementation in socket 7 isn't complete at that.

I’ve totally struck out trying to find a browser that runs on windows. Open to suggestions. I think linux may be an option but forgot to try it when I had it loaded.

froller wrote on 2021-02-25, 12:52:

• CentOS up to EL6

EL6 requires PAE, EL5 requires i686.
Earlier versions are somewhat inconsistent. EL4 should work on i586 based on https://wiki.centos.org/FAQ/CentOS4#What_is_CentOS_4.3F and the list of packages from https://archive.kernel.org/centos-vault/4.0/o … 86/CentOS/RPMS/ where there are kernel packages for i586 and i686.
However, EL3.1 https://archive.kernel.org/centos-vault/3.1/i … 86/RedHat/RPMS/ and EL2.1 https://archive.kernel.org/centos-vault/2.1/f … 86/CentOS/RPMS/ only have kernel packages for i686 and athlon.

jtchip wrote on 2021-02-28, 01:47:

EL6 requires PAE, EL5 requires i686.
Earlier versions are somewhat inconsistent. EL4 should work on i586 based on https://wiki.centos.org/FAQ/CentOS4#What_is_CentOS_4.3F and the list of packages from https://archive.kernel.org/centos-vault/4.0/o … 86/CentOS/RPMS/ where there are kernel packages for i586 and i686.
However, EL3.1 https://archive.kernel.org/centos-vault/3.1/i … 86/RedHat/RPMS/ and EL2.1 https://archive.kernel.org/centos-vault/2.1/f … 86/CentOS/RPMS/ only have kernel packages for i686 and athlon.

i586 built kernel and very basic system packages of EL7
http://vega.pgw.jp/~kabe/linux/c7-i586/pentium.html

froller wrote on 2021-02-28, 02:30:

i586 built kernel and very basic system packages of EL7
http://vega.pgw.jp/~kabe/linux/c7-i586/pentium.html

Interesting exercise but that's well off the beaten path, especially as the table indicates it only works with either non-MMX i586 CPUs or non-PAE but SSE2-supporting CPUs. CentOS 7 is officially x86_64 only (matching upstream RHEL 7), with the i386 version (with i686 kernel) as AltArch. That means no 3rd party repos like EPEL (there is an unofficial, unsigned version) or rpmfusion.

Sphere478 wrote on 2021-02-27, 09:52:

I’ve totally struck out trying to find a browser that runs on windows. Open to suggestions. I think linux may be an option but forgot to try it when I had it loaded.

list of browsers. That will run on windows 586. I was under the original assumption that you knew this all along. Thats why I kept scratching my head. Because both of these browsers are pretty modern.
Source
http://rtfreesoft.blogspot.com/

Windows 2000 NewMoon 26.5 Vanilla windows 2000.
https://o.rths.cf/gpc/files1.rt/palemoon-26.5 … 0718.win2000.7z

XP Newmoon 27 32bit. NO SSE.
https://o.rthost.win/palemoon/palemoon-27.10. … e-xpmod-ia32.7z

Recommended
https://msfn.org/board/topic/178306-the-uoc-p … r-old-hardware/

Main thread
https://msfn.org/board/topic/180462-my-browse … -builds-part-2/

Warlord wrote on 2021-02-28, 04:12:

list of browsers. That will run on windows 586. I was under the original assumption that you knew this all along. Thats why I k […]
Show full quote

Sphere478 wrote on 2021-02-27, 09:52:

I’ve totally struck out trying to find a browser that runs on windows. Open to suggestions. I think linux may be an option but forgot to try it when I had it loaded.

list of browsers. That will run on windows 586. I was under the original assumption that you knew this all along. Thats why I kept scratching my head. Because both of these browsers are pretty modern.
Source
http://rtfreesoft.blogspot.com/

Windows 2000 NewMoon 26.5 Vanilla windows 2000.
https://o.rths.cf/gpc/files1.rt/palemoon-26.5 … 0718.win2000.7z

XP Newmoon 27 32bit. NO SSE.
https://o.rthost.win/palemoon/palemoon-27.10. … e-xpmod-ia32.7z

Recommended
https://msfn.org/board/topic/178306-the-uoc-p … r-old-hardware/

Main thread
https://msfn.org/board/topic/180462-my-browse … -builds-part-2/

Sweet. I’ll try em out next chance I get 😀

np, theres another one Kmelon with goanna engine. I forgot about it. should be able to find it.

The main thing with the intel nics is the interupt moderation rate. The lower that is the more CPU it uses but its faster on fast cpus, the higher it is the less. There is a Extreme setting at least on the MT adapters which is max. It does lower CPU utilization in a measurable way.

Just like 3 com there is offloading of receiving and sending tcp/ip checksum those should be on by default.

last there is the send and receive transmit discripters. Lower the value it uses less ram but transmit speed is also slower, higher the opposite.

for a 586 Id probably put it on extreme setting, memory usage you will have to play with. Guessing on minimal which is 256, but it goes to 2048 max.

Probably I wouldn't put it on 1000 mbs setting and Id lower it to 100Full duplex even on the gb adater on a 586

Warlord wrote on 2021-02-28, 08:54:

np, theres another one Kmelon with goanna engine. I forgot about it. should be able to find it. […]
Show full quote

np, theres another one Kmelon with goanna engine. I forgot about it. should be able to find it.

The main thing with the intel nics is the interupt moderation rate. The lower that is the more CPU it uses but its faster on fast cpus, the higher it is the less. There is a Extreme setting at least on the MT adapters which is max. It does lower CPU utilization in a measurable way.

Just like 3 com there is offloading of receiving and sending tcp/ip checksum those should be on by default.

last there is the send and receive transmit discripters. Lower the value it uses less ram but transmit speed is also slower, higher the opposite.

for a 586 Id probably put it on extreme setting, memory usage you will have to play with. Guessing on minimal which is 256, but it goes to 2048 max.

Probably I wouldn't put it on 1000 mbs setting and Id lower it to 100Full duplex even on the gb adater on a 586

thanks!
system has 512mb of ram so that will be handy.

jtchip wrote on 2021-02-28, 02:50:

Interesting exercise but that's well off the beaten path, especially as the table indicates it only works with either non-MMX i586 CPUs or non-PAE but SSE2-supporting CPUs. CentOS 7 is officially x86_64 only (matching upstream RHEL 7), with the i386 version (with i686 kernel) as AltArch. That means no 3rd party repos like EPEL (there is an unofficial, unsigned version) or rpmfusion.

Seems there's still i386 repo of EL5 https://ftp.jaist.ac.jp/pub/Linux/CentOS-vaul … os/i386/CentOS/

Windows xp media center edition 2005 sp3 confirmed working very well on dual pentiums. Not much of a surprise though.

I can confirm Lubuntu 10.10 runs on a i586 system. AMDK2-6 400 256megs of ram. The install took 40mins. And when up and loaded LXDE is very responsive with the OpenBox window manager. I'll try out a couple of other DEs/WMs on it and post the results in this thread.

I don't quite remember whether it was Lubuntu 14 or 16 that had PAE and non PAE releases, but that was the last non-PAE support, next release was PAE only.

BitWrangler wrote on 2021-09-08, 19:50:

I don't quite remember whether it was Lubuntu 14 or 16 that had PAE and non PAE releases, but that was the last non-PAE support, next release was PAE only.

I'll find out soon enough. I have a few spare hdds to play with....😉

This https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PAE says 12.04 was the last {L,X}ubuntu non-PAE release. Anyway, the screenshot says Ubuntu Lucid, which is 10.04. That's consistent with https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MaverickMeerkat/Relea … x_kernel_2.6.35 which says 10.10 (across all Ubuntu variants) dropped i586 support.

jtchip wrote on 2021-09-08, 22:55:

This https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PAE says 12.04 was the last {L,X}ubuntu non-PAE release. Anyway, the screenshot says Ubuntu Lucid, which is 10.04. That's consistent with https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MaverickMeerkat/Relea … x_kernel_2.6.35 which says 10.10 (across all Ubuntu variants) dropped i586 support.

Lubuntu 10.10 installed and runs on my AMDK6-2 400 rig just fine. It also loaded and ran an old hdd I ran CrunchBang on a Celery 2.8GHz system with 2gig of ram. Slow loading up but once the desktop was loaded it runs fine. I even opened a picture in Gimp without bother. Now this system only has 256megs of ram as opposed to 2gig. That had me gob smacked.....Thought I'd wiped the hdd years ago.

In the process of installing Slackware 13 using the huge.s kernel which can be used with a 486. If that goes well I'll give Slackware 14 and the latest 15 a shot.

Well that went way way better than the last time I gave it a shot around four or more years ago. Very straight forward I deselected all KDE fluff and used xfce4. There are a few other light weight xorg desktop options available if you want to use them. Everything is as snappy as it is with other distros I've tried. Around a minute and a quarter to the desktop including logging in and running startx from the cli.