96MB not enough to boot Puppy on PMMX-266 laptop?

[kethd]

I tried to boot Puppy 1.0.8r1 on a laptop with 96MB. I was surprised that 96 was not enough to load Pup all into RAM -- it just tried to fallback to running from CD. I can understand that RAM would have been rather tight, without enough left to do much real work, but I would have rather been given a choice, if it is at all possible to load all into RAM in that circumstance.

Also, this PMMX-266 (first I have ever seen) laptop was unable to start XWIN. Xvesa gave up quickly. Xorg took quite a bit longer to fail to launch XWIN.

AMS Tech Travelex 100CT (same as Twinhead P90?)
PowerSlim-266
Intel Mobile Pentium MMX 266
SL28x CPUid=582
P55LM Mobile Tillamook
Intel 82430TX / I440TX
Trident 2MB Cyber9382 / Cyber9388
F00F bug

[Sage]

What happens if you try boot option 4? Did you try setting up a small swap file or partition? Is your Trident sharing main memory? No acpi?

[kethd]

I think this test was with LiveCD boot option 4.
The hard drive is broken on this old laptop. (Which would be why I needed to test with a LiveCD!)
The Trident might be sharing 2MB of main memory, for video.
ACPI -- sorry, that is a detail I don't understand well enough...

[kethd]

It just ran Knoppix v3.3 LiveCD fine (after whining about the 96MB). I hope I someday understand Puppy internals and Knoppix well enough to be able to help transplant some auto-config DNA!

[Sage]

ACPI:
I would strongly recommend everyone visiting this topic to read a new seminal piece by Klaus Knopper in the May issue of Linux Magazine. The situation is rather worse, especially for laptop users, than I had previously envisaged.