Is using old VIA EPIA C3 (i586) as MD possible?

[Robert.Laverick]

Hi all,

[Edit to sum up to avoid TLDR]
Is anyone out there using i586/i386 hardware as a MD with 810, or can confirm that they have tried and failed and I should wait till I can afford some newer hardware before I start with LinuxMCE?
[/Edit]



I've been on the verge of playing with LinuxMCE for a very long time, since back when it was just Pluto. I've never quite had both the time and the money to get started, so I've looked at it a few times over the years and never quite pulled the trigger. I've just been required to update my Linux firewall box from an old VIA EPIA C3 to a newer Core i5 based machine after I got some shiny new FTTC broadband and the old CPU couldn't keep up.

I've downloaded the i386 LinuxMCE ISO but the i386 iso is actually i686 as it won't even boot on the old VIA C3.  If I go ahead and install LinuxMCE on the core i5, will I be able to boot the C3 as a MD or not? I don't mind if I have to hack things about a bit, I saw some instructions from back in 2005 saying that I could once installing the i686 core, then change the kernel out for an i386 one and then netboot would work.  I also saw some notes indicating that work was in progress for a way to support more than one kernel for different MDs in a network, is that something that happened in the end, or was it abandoned as almost everything is i686 these days?

I don't mind getting down and dirty with some of this, I've been using a Fedora 10 install and configuring a lot of stuff on it by hand, but I'd rather know that I am going to be able to get this VIA box to be able to do something before I go ahead and actually reformat my gateway box and go through the hassle of setting everything up.

[purps]

Welcome!

Only read the first paragraph of your post, but older hardware is generally more likely to work than the latest and greatest. Probably not a bad idea investing in a half-decent core (mine was under-powered by modern standards 2 years ago, and is still running just fine). MDs, I have booted old laptops and things to use as kitchen MDs, also got an old pentium running in my shed, they work fine (just need to make sure they have PXE boot). Just expect to have to use UI1.

[Robert.Laverick]

Do you know which Pentium chip it is that you are running? it would have to be one of the original pentium cpus (before pentium pro/pentium II) to be i586 class, all of Intel's chips since then have supported CMOV which is what my VIA C3 lacks and what causes me so much pain.

[purps]

Think it is at least a pentium II, sorry, should have mentioned that.

Your VIA C3 probably wouldn't make a very good core to be honest if it's THAT old (unless anybody has a personal experience of this working?), but wouldn't hurt to try it out as an MD once you have a core up and running. Check your NIC supports PXE booting though.

[Robert.Laverick]

That's what's so annoying, it's not that old, it's ~600Mhz, and has works well with a Linux distro that's a couple of years old, it's just to keep it low power they made it i586 not i686 by missing the CMOV instruction, and all the Linux distros build kernels as i686 by default...

I guess you're right I should just bite the bullet and install it on a server and see if I can work it out, maybe I'll try a vmware based install over the weekend and see if I can test it out that way.

[purps]

Sounds good, let us know how you get on!