LFS on an Intel i486 Episode 1 - Setup and Configuration
This is a project to document the building of Linux From Scratch 8.4 on an Intel 80486 processor in 64 MB of memory.
Why do this? There are several reasons:
1. The main reason is personal. Using a Linux system built directly on 486 architecture means that I can use that LFS image as a seed for booting any x86 PC to build LFS (or possibly others such as Gentoo) to take advantage of the new machine’s CPU architecture. It also means I don’t have to worry about cross compiling and the potential risk that invalid code may be produced. This is also the reason why I am building using the fastest Intel 486 CPU ever made, and not one of the faster AMD CPUs.
2. It’s a fantastic demonstration of the scalability of Linux. On 14 November 2017, all of the world’s fastest supercomputers (as listed in the TOP500 list https://www.top500.org) were running on Linux for the first time in the list’s history. Some of these machines are utilising cores in the region of tens of millions. I am running and compiling the latest GNU/Linux software on a single core processor that was announced over 30 years ago in April 1989.
3. The first supercomputer to utilise off-the-shelf components (Beowulf https://www.beowulf.org/overview/hist...) was built with sixteen 486/DX4-100 PCs by Thomas Sterling and Donald Becker while at NASA. This nicely connects reason 2 above with the hardware I am using in this project.
NOTE: There is no audio with any of the videos in this project.
Playlist: • Building LFS 8.4 on an Intel 486/DX4-100 i... \