Archlinux CD won't boot on a 64MB system

eduardosm · 2013-08-07 15:57:27

Hello,
I'm trying to install Archlinux on a virtual machine with 64MB ram. Even though the beginners' guide says that it will run with at least 64MB of ram, it will stuck at "Booting the Kernel.". Sometimes I also get "Fast TSC calibartion failed", but nothing more. If I increase the ram to 128MB, it boots. The reason of testing it with 64MB of ram is because I have an old computer with that ram. Windows XP runs on that computer, so I believe Linux shouldn't have problems.
Anyone has any suggestion? Thanks.

Trilby · 2013-08-07 16:10:30

Something similar came up in a recent thread. While arch will run on a machine with 64MB ram, booting the live CD requires loading the image into memory, and this is where you are failing.

I don't know if there is any easy work around for this - and I'm not sure you'd really want to try. While arch will run on 64MB, it probably won't be the best distro for such a system. Arch itself will run, but if you install and use X, you'll likely quickly be swapping. If you install any DE and or use a popular web browser, you'll definitely be swapping a lot. This will not make for a very pleasant-to-use system.

There are other distros more suited to such hardware. I used to recommend Slitaz (which specifically has a lo-ram iso) which is tiny and has one of the better package managers out there (not in pacman's league, but none are), though I haven't used it in quite a while and have heard questions about it's continued development.

I've heard good things about Alpine as a tiny distro - but I have no personal experience with that one.

eduardosm · 2013-08-08 08:01:50

Thank you, I'll check these distributions. Maybe I could boot Archlinux if I first create a swap partition.

Arch Linux

#1 2013-08-07 15:57:27

Archlinux CD won't boot on a 64MB system

#2 2013-08-07 16:10:30

Re: Archlinux CD won't boot on a 64MB system

#3 2013-08-08 08:01:50

Re: Archlinux CD won't boot on a 64MB system

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