Installation on System with less than 256 MB RAM

Klara Cihlarova

Martin Vidner

$Revision: 01 $

$Date: 2007-01-08 $

[Note]Note

This how-to is for openSUSE 10.2 and later. Some features cannot work for older versions

Saving Memory Tips

If you have a little memory on your system, you probably want to save any Byte you can. Here are some tips:

  • Install from CD or DVD. If you use HTTP or FTP for the installation, the filesystem must be copied to RAM (about 70 MB large) before it is used.

  • Prepare swap partition before for installation. If you already have a swap partition on your system, you can activate it before the installation start with the parameter addswap=hdaN, where N is the number of the swap partition in your Linux system. If you don't make it, YaST ask you about swap activation later.

  • Install in the text mode. Using the text mode for the installation (ncurses) saves about 10 MB compared to the graphical mode (qt).

    To start installation in the text mode, pres F3 key and select Text Mode or enter boot parameter textmode=1

  • Reduce the logging. To do it, set the parameters Y2MAXLOGSIZE (in KB) and Y2MAXLOGNUM.

         Y2MAXLOGSIZE=1000
         Y2MAXLOGNUM=1
         

    If you find a problem during installation, skip this step.

Creating swap Partition during Installation

  1. Start installation.

  2. Swith to the text console. To do it, press Alt + F2

  3. To create a partition for you swap, use fdisk command. For example fdisk /dev/hdX, where X is a letter of the disk on your. It starts a application promt. If you need a list of commands, enter m. For more information, press x and then m. To quit without saving, press q. To save and quit, press w.

    To create a new partition, enter n option and choose a partition type, primary or extended, then the start cylinder. To create 512 MB large partitionhe, enter to the end cylinder prompt +512M. The type of the partition must be 82 - Linux SWAP partition.

  4. Verify the new partition configuration with p.

  5. Save and close the fdisk. To do it, use w.

  6. Format the new partition as swap. To do it, use mkswap /dev/hdXN, where X is the disk letter and N is the number of the partition in your system.

  7. Add swap to the /etc/fstab.

  8. Activate swap. To do it, use swapon -a.