You can if you emulate a CPU that does have an MMU. Someone has actually done this to get Linux booting on an Intel 4004. Another one got Linux to boot on a Commodore 64.
They tried running Linux on their ENIAC, but someone accidentally tipped over one of the crates of punch cards which has unfortunately set the project back a few months.
Very funny, but I actually used to own a computer that didn’t meet the minimum requirements for Linux.
(Not my pic, but the same model.)
https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/include/math-emu/double.h#L29
#if _FP_W_TYPE_SIZE < 32 #error "Here's a nickel kid. Go buy yourself a real computer." #endifLOL!
That isn’t the same limitation I was thinking of, though.
I wasn’t confident which requirement you were missing, but I love that error
I was under the impression that the main impediment to running Linux on a 286 was the lack of an MMU. I might be wrong about that, though.
What was it, the ENIAC?
Linux doesn’t run on anything below a 386 because it requires a MMU.
(Some people have made forks that can run on 286s etc., but those changes have never been part of the mainline kernel.)
You can if you emulate a CPU that does have an MMU. Someone has actually done this to get Linux booting on an Intel 4004. Another one got Linux to boot on a Commodore 64.
They tried running Linux on their ENIAC, but someone accidentally tipped over one of the crates of punch cards which has unfortunately set the project back a few months.