Hardware Talk :: Older machine (386)

I've got an older machine (it WAS something called a "DrBonD" box from NEC). The nice thing about it is that it has lots of serial ports and a built-in ethernet port. All I want to do is make a small mail machine out of it and maybe a printer spooler. The problem: It maxes out at 16Mb of memory, and the CPU is a 386SX (yes, I know it won't go very fast!). Previously I've put a 2.0 kernel on it (no GUI stuff, only text mode) and it works "OK" (slow, but OK). Now I'm thinking that DSL might work as a more modern "replacement". The questions: How would I complile the kernel to work on a 386 box? Has somebody done this before? Is the task hopeless? The box is nice in that it is a low profile form factor, and has a nice two line LCD display (with a couple of buttons) on the front (which I can get working!). Any pointers/hints would be helpful. Thanks.

I can't see a DSL derivative working well in that environment. You may want to check out the Super Ant "Small Linux" project.
http://www.superant.com/smalllinux/

Or Basic Linux:
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/baslinux/

SX has no math co-processor DSL wont run on a machine without a math co-processor

Brian
AwPhuch

original here.