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ghaerr/elks

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Embeddable Linux Kernel Subset - Linux for 8086

27 mentions on Hacker News by 22 people: 8 stories, 19 comments · first 2016-02-23 · latest 2026-08-18

Mentions per year 27 mentions · busiest year 2023 (6)
20082026
  1. …there are fuzix and elks running on 8085 or 8086 respectively: https://www.fuzix.org/downloads/0.4/ https://github.com/ghaerr/elks
    comment by fsiefken · 2026-08-18 · in The Road to MS-DOS 2.0
  2. …Edit: to answer my own question it seems the recent branch dropped 286 protected mode support https://github.com/ghaerr/elks/pull/235
    comment by retrac · 2026-04-19 · in Fuzix OS
  3. …have answered your question.. [1] 0 - https://www.langelaar.net/jnos2/documents/about.html 1 - https://github.com/ghaerr/elks/releases
    comment by cricalix · 2025-01-05 · in ELKS: Linux for 16-bit Intel Processors
  4. ELKS supported MMU-less operation on 8088 and 80286 machines, but I don't think an ARM port exists: https://github.com/ghaerr/elks
    comment by rzzzt · 2024-02-01 · in Damn Small Linux 2024
  5. …1" industrial 8088 computer which to my surprise I later discovered it could run Linux (ELKS: https://github.com/ghaerr/elks ). I ultimately sold it on Ebay because although it was a beautiful piece of old tech, I was struggling to find…
    comment by squarefoot · 2023-11-27 · in SIIG MiniSys S286 Small Form Factor PC
  6. It might run ELKS https://github.com/jbruchon/elks
  7. …is ELKS which runs on old MMU-less x86 CPUs. I managed to run it on a 8088 industrial PC ages ago. https://github.com/jbruchon/elks I should have a Furby buried somewhere; now that I think of it, it may be the right platform to stick a…
    comment by squarefoot · 2023-01-09 · in Furby source code (1998)
  8. I successfully run ELKS on a Flytech Carry 1 industrial computer. https://github.com/jbruchon/elks http://elks.sourceforge.net/ (old Sourceforge page) https://vinc.prv.pl/text/299e3ed5-320.html
  9. I've built an 8088 replica (Sergey's Xi 8088) and I'm having great fun with ELKS. https://github.com/jbruchon/elks ELKS is a Linux subset designed for the 8088, along with a complete toolchain (gcc-ia16). It's also actively maintained and…
    comment by rahen · 2022-05-25 · in 8088 PC XT Compatible Logic Board
  10. This title is sort of clickbait. I was expecting to see something about ELKS[0]. [0] https://github.com/jbruchon/elks
  11. That's awesome. I recently ran [ELKS]( https://github.com/jbruchon/elks ) (Embedded Linux Kernel Subset) on a Toshiba T1200 laptop from 1987 with an 8086 processor. Booting into a unix-like system from a floppy with recently developed…
  12. …Linux which would work on 8086 CPUs too which I successfully run on a industrial PC many moons ago. https://github.com/jbruchon/elks Extremely small systems aside, it can run fine on decently equipped laptops or netbooks. Surfing the web…
    comment by squarefoot · 2021-03-20 · in Why use old computers and operating systems?
  13. …Linux on 16-bit x86 chips and other MMU-less CPUs. It's called ELKS and it was never very active.) https://github.com/jbruchon/elks
  14. …it seemed abandoned. But development has started again in 2014, and still seems ongoing: https://github.com/jbruchon/elks Should play with it some time, maybe in an 8086 emulator. EDIT: By the way: I forgot to mention this in my other…
    comment by anyfoo · 2018-12-05 · in PC/GEOS
  15. A shrunk version of Linux can run on 8088 CPUs too. https://github.com/jbruchon/elks But the problem here isn't to put this or that OS in place of Minix but rather to get rid of that completely for good. Different licensing also wouldn't…
  16. …late 90s. At one point Alan Cox[3] was an active contributor. [1] http://elks.sourceforge.net/ [2] https://github.com/jbruchon/elks [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Cox
    comment by pacaro · 2017-06-15 · in Z-Berry: Z-80 computer
  17. 8086 Linux still exists; people are working on it: https://github.com/jbruchon/elks But it's still pretty unstable. If you have a spare 8086 and want a Unixoid, go look up Minix 2 (not 3). It's not very comfortable on a 8086 with 640kB,…
  18. …would fork itself up to 4 times in order to address enough memory to decompress certain *.Z files: https://github.com/jbruchon/elks/blob/master/elkscmd/minix1/...
  19. …would be nice as well, you would get the ultimate speedy portable unix ecosystem in the browser. https://github.com/jbruchon/elks
    comment by fsiefken · 2016-02-23 · in Show HN: Windows 98 in browser