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Which linux??

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Twist

Member
Joined
Oct 9, 2002
I have a VERY old computer and am looking to run linux on it. It has no CD drive, and I have no spare CD drives, so thats my first problem. Also-- the computer has some junky integrated graphics card, and doesn't work well (at all?) with VGA or SVGA.

Specs:
COMPAQ XE560
Pentium 60 (60 MHz)
64MB SDRAM
6GB HardDrive
Unknown Mobo (it says Compaq on it?)


Any help would be appreciated!!
 
Stay away from the usuall desktop distros (Redhat,Mandrake,Suse): they all need more RAM than you have.

A lean Debian or Slackware are doable: X is possible but kde and gnome are not advised (RAM again). Use fluxbox, blackbox or windowmaker instead.

As for the CD: it is doable to install from floppies (tedious but doable), and getting the rest via the net,but if your PC doesn´t have any network connection, your best bet ist put the Compaq harddisk into another PC which has CD and install Linux there, then move it back to the Compaq.

Alex
 
your best bet ist put the Compaq harddisk into another PC which has CD and install Linux there, then move it back to the Compaq

Even easier to take a CD Rom from that other computer and hook it up to the Linux box then move it back. Would avoid reconfiguration issues.
 
I had a feeling you'd say that.

If I didn't want to move anything (cd-rom, hd) what linux distro could i use to install by floppy.
 
I have a similar Acer computer at home that I run with slackware. You can run X on that machine but it will be slow, but other than that everything else should run fine. Remember, linux was designed to run on a 386.

As far a a floppy install is concerned, you should take a look that the distro page at Linux Online, they have a huge selection of different types of distros suited for anyone's needs.

http://www.linux.org/dist/list.html

You'll probably want to refine the search down to minimalist distros, as those should be the ones that usually install by floppies.

I'd recommend Tiny Linux, though. It was designed for old recycled computers. http://tiny.seul.org/en/
 
Actually I think 64 mb is enough to run KDE or Gnome. I have a P166 with 32 mb ram and it works fine for me. In any case, it won't hurt to try.
 
Too Smart said:
Actually I think 64 mb is enough to run KDE or Gnome. I have a P166 with 32 mb ram and it works fine for me. In any case, it won't hurt to try.

I got Knoppix/IceWM to load on my 486DX2/66 with 64Mb RAM but I couldn't get any browser to load. It was extremely glacial and all but useless with GUI. I never tried it command line only as a terminal. It probably would work better as a thin client with a server doing the major crunching.
 
Too Smart said:
Actually I think 64 mb is enough to run KDE or Gnome. I have a P166 with 32 mb ram and it works fine for me. In any case, it won't hurt to try.

Well I've run KDE with 128mb, but it was kinda slow. For anything less than 128, I would recommend something else, like Fluxbox or such. It will be nice and fast.
 
I thought linux oses where suposed to be able to feild a os simaler to M$ but use less resorces?! Heh heh.... Sorry couldn't resiest that.... But anybody know of a linux distro that would have some form of GUI, run on a 486 66mhz laptop with 12 mb ram and be able to run some old DOS games? other wise I will keep what I got.
 
Well, KDE/GNOME is the linux exquivalant of XP. If you want something that uses less resources, you have WindowMaker and the *boxes. Thats the beauty of linux, you pick what you want.

With 12megs of RAM, you are probably going to need to go with some sort of minimalist distro. There were several mentioned in a thread a few days ago, look around for it. Or, check out the distro list at www.linux.org .
 
Try Zipslack. It is a compact version of Slackware (only about 50 mb IIRC). It doesn't come with X but you can easily add X. I think Windowmaker would run fine on a 486 with 66 mhz and in case it doesn't you can always choose from one of the hundreds of windows managers available.
 
In order to run DOS games in Linux you will need to install WINE and even then it's not guaranteed they will work.
 
There's always the dual boot option. But depending on your harddrive space, that may not be viable.

IMO, linux is nicer when its on a system by itself, but usually works fine in a dual boot setup, with just a little bit more work.
 
eab said:
Ah well I will keep windows then... To bad I would have liked to fool around with it on it. I stick with trying linux on my main computer. Thanks anyway

Put a Knoppix CD on it and see what it does.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
 
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