My Apologies

[ET_]

Originally Posted by Rodrigo

In case it makes a difference in the selection, the P75 is running DOS 6.20 and Windows for Workgroups 3.11; while the P233 is running Windows 98 Second Edition.

Rodrigo

I'm afraid you should then abandon the P75, or install some light Linux distro on it: Factor_x makes use of GMP (Gnu MultiPrecision) Library.

GMP is a set of math functions written in C and optimized in Assembler: it is distributed as source code, so that the end user can configure each call using the best enhancements available for his/her architecture.
The bad news: GMP only compiles under Linux, Unix or Cygwin/MinGW (the last being a 32/64 bit framework to be installed under Windows from 98 up).

So it's up to you to choose between the retirement of your P75 or a new Linux hope...

Luigi

[xilman]

Originally Posted by ET_

I'm afraid you should then abandon the P75, or install some light Linux distro on it: Factor_x makes use of GMP (Gnu MultiPrecision) Library.

GMP is a set of math functions written in C and optimized in Assembler: it is distributed as source code, so that the end user can configure each call using the best enhancements available for his/her architecture.
The bad news: GMP only compiles under Linux, Unix or Cygwin/MinGW (the last being a 32/64 bit framework to be installed under Windows from 98 up).

So it's up to you to choose between the retirement of your P75 or a new Linux hope...

Luigi

I first ran Linux on a 386 and it's likely that I still have the installation media for distributions which work well on machines of that
age. In fact, my PPro-233 (which predates a P75) still works and runs an old version of RedHat though it's not been powered up for almost a year.

If you (chalsall) want to install Linux on your P75 and want an old version better suited for elderly machines please contact me.

Paul

Originally Posted by ET_

I'm afraid you should then abandon the P75, or install some light Linux distro on it: Factor_x makes use of GMP (Gnu MultiPrecision) Library.

GMP is a set of math functions written in C and optimized in Assembler: it is distributed as source code, so that the end user can configure each call using the best enhancements available for his/her architecture.
The bad news: GMP only compiles under Linux, Unix or Cygwin/MinGW (the last being a 32/64 bit framework to be installed under Windows from 98 up).

So it's up to you to choose between the retirement of your P75 or a new Linux hope...

Luigi

Luigi,

That's a bummer.

I'll have to investigate whether there is a way to multiboot an ancient machine such as that P75. I just installed a second hard disk on it. If multibooting is possible, I could move all the data files over to the new HDD, defragment the old HDD, and then create a new partition for Linux. What size partition would be needed by the version of Linux that you mention in order to function, and to run Factor_x ?

Rodrigo

P.S. To post this, I had to log in as unregistered and changing my name slightly because every time I logged in to the forum and then tried to reply to your post, I got logged out.

Originally Posted by xilman

I first ran Linux on a 386 and it's likely that I still have the installation media for distributions which work well on machines of that
age. In fact, my PPro-233 (which predates a P75) still works and runs an old version of RedHat though it's not been powered up for almost a year.

If you (chalsall) want to install Linux on your P75 and want an old version better suited for elderly machines please contact me.

Paul

Paul,

It was me, Rodrigo, and not chalsall, who might need that Linux. :-)

Assuming that I can multiboot on the P75, what size partition would I need to run Linux and then Luigi's program for OBD?

Rodrigo

[Rodrigo]

Luigi,

One other quick question:

Is there any other software that will enable that P75 to participate in OBD without having to install a new operating system?

Grazie!

Rodrigo

[xilman]

Originally Posted by Rodrigo2

Paul,

It was me, Rodrigo, and not chalsall, who might need that Linux. :-)

Assuming that I can multiboot on the P75, what size partition would I need to run Linux and then Luigi's program for OBD?

Rodrigo

When I first ran Linux on a 386 it dual-booted Win 3.1 and everything fitted on a 120MB disk, though it was rather cramped. A 1995-vintage Linux will fit into a few tens of megabytes but I would recommend not running X11 (i.e. a window system) but keep it entirely text mode. If you are familiar with DOS you'll soon learn how to drive a Linux system in text mode.

I've no idea how much space Luigi's program requires. He will have to answer that one.


Paul

P.S. I may still have a P75 hidden away in my loft. I certainly still have the 386 system, though the processor was upgraded with a 486sx before the machine went into storage.

[Uncwilly]

Originally Posted by xilman

When I first ran Linux on a 386 it dual-booted Win 3.1 and everything fitted on a 120MB disk, though it was rather cramped.

There was one distro that I tried on a 486 that one could launch from DOS. Also, Zipham could boot off a 1.4 floppy. Knoppix and others have live CD boot options.

[chalsall]

Originally Posted by ET_

What about algorithm enhancement?

What about it?

Originally Posted by ET_

Thank to OBD, we discovered lots of low-hanging fruits (factors) of billion digits Mersenne numbers.

But none that couldn't have been found by faster machines with much less energy being consumed doing so.

Originally Posted by ET_

Thank to Oliver (TheJudger) we now have a Mersenne factoring program that can reach 95 bit factors. But reaching 95 bits depth even on OBD numbers would be a tough task. Luckily enough, our previous nonsensical work provided him with factors that, multiplied together, could simulate a 90-95 bit huge factor to test his program.

I agree with this. I have been awed by Oliver's work. It will be the reason my next personal workstation will be a desktop with a high-end NVidia card.

Originally Posted by ET_

Nothing of the previous paragraph would have happened without slow computers thrown into OBD...

I *don't* agree with this.

If there was a solid reason for empirical data to be made available, I know at least one person who would have made modern computing resources available to generate that data efficiently....

[chalsall]

Originally Posted by Rodrigo2

Assuming that I can multiboot on the P75, what size partition would I need to run Linux and then Luigi's program for OBD?

Just wondering...

Why do you need to multi-boot a machine which you're going to dedicate to GIMPS and/or OBD? Wipe the hard-drive, and install Linux as the sole operating system. (It's another learning opportunity.)

But to answer your question, I very recently installed CentOS 5.3 on a machine, and the base (command-line only) install took just under 2 GB of file-space.

A corollary -- the others above are correct; it is possible to boot into Linux using less than a single floppy disc's worth of file-space. If this will be enough to run GIMPS and/or OBD is another question I cannot answer....

[cheesehead]

Originally Posted by Rodrigo2

every time I logged in to the forum and then tried to reply to your post, I got logged out.

That was probably because you weren't allowing cookies from mersenneforum.org.

[Rodrigo]

Originally Posted by chalsall

Just wondering...

Why do you need to multi-boot a machine which you're going to dedicate to GIMPS and/or OBD? Wipe the hard-drive, and install Linux as the sole operating system. (It's another learning opportunity.)

chalsall,

Another fair question.

That P75 was my main office computer from 1994 to 2002. Wiping the hard drive would mean losing all the software that came pre-installed from Dell, as there were no floppies or Setup files from which to reinstall. I don't want to lose access to that.

Moreover, all my e-mail from that period is in a proprietary format for software that won't run on any of my other PCs, and I do not want to lose access to it. (Yes, the need to access it does still arise once in a while.)

Finally, and from a psychological viewpoint, I have a chain of PCs dating back to my 1984 Sanyo MBC-555, every one of them still fully functional and in the same state (OS) in which I used them back in their time. It's a pleasure to be able to go back to any of my PCs whenever I wish and recreate the experience of the time. It's a connection to the past. Wiping out WfW3.11 on my P75 would break the chain, and that connection.

Thanks for the scoop on being able to boot into Linux. We'll await ET/Luigi's answer re: OBD.

Rodrigo