Advice on how to speed up Debian installation on Amiga 1200???

[beltrixx]

Hi everybody,

I'm trying to install Debian Linux (Sarge) on my A1200. I have set up the base install and I can boot Linux from within AmigaOS, but when it comes to install packages using DSELECT ...

DAMN!!! I've never seen a computer running so SLOWLY in my whole life. I have aborted the process twice and have decided not to retry it until I find a way to speed up my A1200.

I don't want to spent so much money on this, so I'm considering to install an Elbox Fast ATA MKIII controller (about 90$) or buy a 68040 Accelerator card but unfortunately I can't afford both solutions at the same time.

I understand my system has two major bottlenecks :

(1) The processor : a 68040 would be better than 68030 that comes with my Accelerator card.

(2) Hard disk I/O : I don't have any fast ata controller installed so the maximum disk transfer mode should be PIO2 (I think).

Would like to receive feedback on Debian Linux installations from those of you with similar H/W configs and which of the points (1) & (2) do you think would  improve the system performance more significantly.


Thanks in advance,

Manel.

[utri007]

better cpu would be better investment.

[Piru]

I'm afraid there isn't much you can do. Linux on A1200 runs quite slow even on 060 and DMA SCSI controller.

[keropi]

go for the 040!!!!

[RW222]

It might get a little better if you define and enable a swap partition early on. That's what I'd do on a slow and low RAM PC anyway.

[kolla]

Piru wrote:
I'm afraid there isn't much you can do. Linux on A1200 runs quite slow even on 060 and DMA SCSI controller.

That's actually not correct. Linux runs quite fine, even on 030. It's certainly no worse today than 10-12 years ago. But, a lot of the software you find today (especially on Debian where they pull along all kinds of nonsense) runs slowly - slow computers are not the target for such software.

Running linux on m68k today has a lot more in common with running linux on embedded systems than running linux on modern generic PCs.

Personally I noticed quite some speed gains when I started compiling with optimization for size, -Os, instead of spee, -O3. Obviously smaller footprint (and then less IO) made a difference.

And I also dont use the video console more than I have to :-)

[Piru]

Well, linux is quite pointless without any software :-)