dpkg fails on low-memory-hardware

Hello everybody, this is my first post to this list.

Some time ago I wanted to upgrade an old laptop (Toshiba T4900CT,
from 1994) from Debian Etch to Debian Lenny. Unfortunately dpkg
(resp. apt-get or aptitude) was running out of memory. The maximum
amount of RAM for this laptop is limited to 40 MB.

I use this laptop for daily work for many years now. The limited
memory is no problem for this purpose. All programs I need, run fine
with this amount of RAM (jed, latex, tin, mutt, fbi, fbgs, links).

The only problem seems to be dpkg or associated programs, like
aptitude oder apt-get. Strangely enough, the laptop has 256 MB of
swap-space which dpkg (aptitude, apt-get) seem to ignore. Other
programs use swap, so it should be no general problem.

I know this laptop is old hardware and modern hardware is cheap. But
I got used to this machine so much and I would really love to keep it
alive. Plus I would like to continue using Debian. I tried NetBSD on
it. It works fine but I prefer Debian.

So could someone tell me please, how I could use dpkg with max. 40 MB
of RAM or how I could tell dpkg to use swap-space?

TIA, Martin


To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-dpkg-REQUEST@lists.debian.org
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@lists.debian.org
Archive: http://lists.debian.org/20110218132419.GA3736@martinkl.dialup.fu-berlin.de