Gentoo and a VIA C3 Processor

Newage · n00b Joined: 07 Jun 2003 Posts: 3

Hi m8s

I have bought a little machine with VIA C3 533 Processor, 256MB Memory etc. etc.
I can choose between a DOC-socket (Disk-On-Chip) and an ordinary IDE channel.

It would be kEWL with Linux on a CF-memorycard - but I was wondering how to install Gentoo on that, since I only have 256MB and 512MB memorycards in stock.

Any ideas?

toon · Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2003 7:13 pm Post subject:

I have a book size pc with exactly the same processor
and a DOC socket and a CF socket and two IDE busses.
I decided to go the easy way, opened up the case, installed
a 2.5" disk drive and hooked up an ATAPI CDROM player to
the intestines of the thing just for installing Gentoo.
Afterwards, I removed the CDROM player and closed the
thing up. I'm writing this message on it.

Great! A fanless machine in my living room.
It's not fast, but it's quiet and it doesn't burn a lot of electricity.

Sorry, can't help you with the CF card.

Regards,
Toon.

ciaranm

MarcQuadra · Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2003 3:19 pm Post subject: It'll be two-stage, at least.

I think this can be done, all you need to do is stick a regular IDE drive in the thing to bootstrap the system (for temp space), after you're done and it works you format the CompactFlash card as ext2 (or whatever, I suggest ReiserFS as it will reduce disk space requirements) mount it at '/cf' and copy every folder on '/' (except '/cf') to '/cf'. reboot witht he gentoo cd, chroot into the cf image and run /sbin/lilo to get the bootloader in. This is oversimplified, but if you can handle a stage1 install and you get the gist of what I'm syaing you'll be fine.

I suggest exporting the portage tree from a read-only NFS share on another machine, as it will use way too much space on your CF card. Remember to 'rm -rf /usr/portage/*' before you NFS mount the portage tree remotely or you'll still be wasting disk space.
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3lue9 · n00b Joined: 12 Oct 2003 Posts: 11

How small can gentoo be with blackbox, xmms, an smb client, mplayer, lirc, grip, dvdrip? I guess I am asking has anyone done this already?
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Safrax · Guru Joined: 23 Apr 2002 Posts: 422

Something you should remember about CF disk's is that they have a limited amount of read/write cycles before they die. I think the most common is around 1 million r/w cycles....