500Mhz processor
128mb sdr ram
20 gig hard drive
I need a linux OS to fit on this that is user friendly, I'm doing this up for my friend. He had windows ME on before. Any suggestions.
Tried DSL (not user friendly), puppy linux (wouldn't recognised usb internet port). Slax (was really great, but doesn't come with open office and is difficult to install on the c drive),
Haven't tried vector linux, zenwalks or KateOS yet. Are they any good.
500Mhz processor
128mb sdr ram
20 gig hard driveI need a linux OS to fit on this that is user friendly, I'm doing this up for my friend. He had windows ME on before. Any suggestions.
Tried DSL (not user friendly), puppy linux (wouldn't recognised usb internet port). Slax (was really great, but doesn't come with open office and is difficult to install on the c drive),
Haven't tried vector linux, zenwalks or KateOS yet. Are they any good.
Aimed at older/low end machines. All the advantages of Ubuntu's good hardware detection with xfce desktop environment for speed.
i'd try debian.
arch linux! Ultra fast. The fastest distro I have ever used.
Aimed at older/low end machines. All the advantages of Ubuntu's good hardware detection with xfce desktop environment for speed.
You call xfce light? Its pretty fat. If you want speed try evilwm, ratpoison, wmi, or ion.
Arch = not user friendly
try debian.
debian sarge, not woody, as it's 4 dvd's or 25 cd's
Arch = not user friendly
thats not true. Its about as hard as slackware.
For a standard etch install wit gnome etc you need only CDs 1 and 2
i found arch hard to install
Sure you have to edit some config files. But once you do that its like debian, but faster. Plus Arch has newer kernels. The current kernel version is 2.6.21.3-2 compared to debian's 2.6.18-4. This might not be a plus for some people but the 2.6.21 kernel added support for my headphone jack on my laptop.(America's army is much more enjoyable now ;-)
Hmm, ok, I think xbuntu does support 128mb, but I heard it was still rather sluggish.
Never even considered debian. I saw arch linux but it looks a little tricky.
Now the other problem is I gotta hardware problem somewhere, I just can't get any os to stick, be it windows or linux. And I don't know for sure what's the problem, is it my harddrive or because the system is so old it could be anything, like a mobo or processor problem. It probably didn't help me taking stuff out and putting it back in again.
Time to trouble shoot. Cheers.
what do you mean by stick?
ive got debian etch system with gnome running on a pentium 3, 128mb ram laptop and it runs just fine
what do you mean by stick?
Take for e.g. winXp, (it probably isn't a good idea to install on a 128mb system) but I put the cd in and formatted the harddrive. It gets all the way to the end, but on reboot, it returns an error. Same with ubuntu, I dunno.
@jbennet, you gotta link to debian, it is a special one or something? Oh and is it user friendly?
no if you tweak the standard one a bit you can get it running just fine on 128mb
With a really slow computer I recommend i686 cpu optimization. You can only get that with a few distros, and debian is not one of them.
With a really slow computer I recommend i686 cpu optimization. You can only get that with a few distros, and debian is not one of them.
Assuming of course that it's an i686 architecture. If it's an AMD chip, it's more likely at that age to be i586.
mmm the K6 is a 586
I would assume he has a pentium 2 or something?
500mhz would be a pentium 2 or 3 or an AMD K6
is the PII 586 or 686?
its 686 I think
Right so does that mean I should try and install debian etch over arch linux? I'm confused?
Btw the spec again...
-500MHz AMD k6
-128MB Ram
-10G HD
I went to the debian homepage , but which one do I install? There's so many options. Please help :(
if you have an always-on internet connection (e.g you are connected to your router by ethernet) its a good idea to use the Netinstall CD (180mb). Otherwise, you want to download cds 1 & 2 of the stable version from a mirror near you (go to the debian site and click get debian) . you want the i386 version (ignore any other ones, e.g x86_64 or ppc)
Please can you provide a link, everytime I click on a link it goes to another one then another? I hope the installation will not be this difficult.
:(
Thanx in advance. My internet says 54Mbps btw if that helps
not really, thats just the speed between you and the router
the installer is text (menu) based but if you can manage the first part of an XP install, you can manage this, most of the time choosing the defaults will be ok.
http://www.debian.org/CD/http-ftp/
At the bottom of this page choose a country near to you, or the one that you live in, until you find one with a good download speed.
You want to click "HTTP"
it will then take you to a foler-type view
Choose "Current/" then "i386/" then "iso-cd/"
Then you can see all the various disk images for your platform
The netinstall one will look like "debian-40r0-i386-netinst.iso" and the full cds will be named like "debian-40r0-i386-CD-1.iso" through to about CD-21. You only need a few cds to do a day-to-day install. 3 max, usually 2.
Ah yes, so are you saying I only need the two. Will it auto detect the internet?
My friend has got an NTL box connected by usb, with like a big thick wire going from the box into the wall, is it adsl or something I dunno.
All I know is it auto detected the internet with DSL and Slax.
Anyway I'll prob be able to only download the first cd tonight. I'll let everyone know how it goes. He he, although my friend is getting desperate saying, if I can't fix it soon he's gonna buy a new one, which prob won't be a bad idea seeing the spec of the current one.
yes it will probably detect your ethernet card.
I recommend you do a base install and then install the your required packages. (e.g choose no mirror during the setup). Then add the mirror:
deb ftp.debian.org/debian etch main contrib non-free (not I might be wrong I have not used debian in awhile) to your /etc/apt/sources.list (I might be wrong about this too)
yes it will probably detect your ethernet card.
I recommend you do a base install and then install the your required packages. (e.g choose no mirror during the setup). Then add the mirror:
deb ftp.debian.org/debian etch main contrib non-free (not I might be wrong I have not used debian in awhile) to your /etc/apt/sources.list (I might be wrong about this too)
I'm just a linux newbie, ideally, I'd like all the packages already there, like slax. Damn if only that was easy to install :(
Anyway I'm waiting for this to download...I hope this works.
ok just do the full download if unsure.
Right I have just downloaded cd-1 from
http://debian.mirror.inra.fr/debian-cd/current/i386/iso-cd/
Which other ones do I need? Do I just need cd-2?
We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.