Any chance in that happening?
I havent used Linux in a long time. I dug up an old copy of Suse (version8.2), and installed it on an old 599MHZ PC.
Ive been trying to update the various libraries to be able to get a updated version of Firefox installed. Is there any chance that this can work? I need to know if Im wasting my time and should just put winxp on this PC.
Also, I cant get any repositories working. I assume the default ones I have on the Suse installation are bad and the ones for the later versions will not work.
If anyone knows of any that would work for my old OS, thanks in advance.
> If anyone knows of any that would work for my old OS, thanks in
> advance.
imo it is better, probably a lot easier and much safer to use a more
modern system (than SuSE 8.2) that is up to date, but made for
older/slower less capable hardware…
i’ve not actually run any of these more than a few minutes, but i hear
they might do what you need, or maybe not:
Puppy Linux. <http://www.puppylinux.org/> Needs 64MB RAM for
versions before 1.0.2. More recent versions need 128MB RAM and 166MHZ CPU
-Tiny Core Linux is for those who think Puppy Linux is too heavy. Just
10MB it includes a 2.6 kernel and graphics by the Fast Light Window
Manager. Includes software from the BusyBox bundle. If 10MB is too
much you can go to Micro Core which is under 6 MB. http://www.tinycorelinux.com/
DSL (D**N Small Linux).<http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/> needs 16MB
RAM on a fast 486 CPU. But that will be slow!! Better off with 64 MB
RAM and a Pentium with 200MHZ CPU
Vector Linux. <http://vectorlinux.com/> Needs 32MB RAM and 166MHZ
CPU. I suspect much more RAM is desirable.
-SliTaz <http://www.slitaz.org/> When it runs, the 25 MB compressed CD
image expands to about 80 MB, so any computer with 128 MB of RAM will
be able to load it fully into memory, ensuring blazing fast program
execution.
Elive <http://www.elivecd.org/> (has Enlightenment window manager).
Needs 100MHz CPU and 64MB of RAM for one of the older versions. More
recent version needs a faster CPU and more RAM
if you want to try to stick with openSUSE, then one of these _may: run
on what you have…you don’t say how much RAM you have, but it is very
important…
SOAD (SuSE On Active Diet), Possibly the most light weight LiveCD
based on openSUSE is a Russian effort using an “Enlightenment”
windowing environment. Enlightentment is more light weight than KDE,
Gnome or XFCE. Read/download from here: http://sda.scwlab.com/soad_linux.html
LXDE will run well on only 256MB of RAM. More on LXDE here http://lizards.opensuse.org/2009/09/13/opensuse-lxde-live-cd-1-0-0/
NOTE: this link is about year old, the underlying openSUSE may or may
not still be supported with security updates/patches–but, i guess it
is 11.1 or 11.2, so it should be ok, if not:
openSUSE 11.3 with the LXDE desktop may be able to be installed from
the DVD (if you have enough RAM, and patience), but i’d not expect it
to be a lot of fun waiting waiting waiting for the swapping swapping
swapping…
On 2010-08-11 06:06, aldistuck wrote:
>
> Any chance in that happening?
> I havent used Linux in a long time. I dug up an old copy of Suse
> (version8.2), and installed it on an old 599MHZ PC.
Wow
> Ive been trying to update the various libraries to be able to get a
> updated version of Firefox installed. Is there any chance that this can
> work? I need to know if Im wasting my time and should just put winxp on
> this PC.
Difficult. And very slow, FF needs lots of memory.
> Also, I cant get any repositories working. I assume the default ones I
> have on the Suse installation are bad and the ones for the later
> versions will not work.
There are some mirrors that keep ancient copies of suse distros. GWDG does, I believe. You will have
to find one of those to be able to use any repo. And then, the copies will be for oss, non-oss, and
updates, don’t think any more is available. Perhaps packman, not sure.
I saw somewhere in the wiki a mention of a list of mirrors holding old distros :-?
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” GM (Elessar))
Download 11.3 (DVD or Net Install) and pick the LXDE desktop, should run fine on an old PC … if FF3.6 eats up too much resources, try Opera, done very well in the past with Opera on old hardware (might still need FF as backup for unsupported pages).
On Wed, 2010-08-11 at 04:06 +0000, aldistuck wrote:
> Any chance in that happening?
> I havent used Linux in a long time. I dug up an old copy of Suse
> (version8.2), and installed it on an old 599MHZ PC.
>
> Ive been trying to update the various libraries to be able to get a
> updated version of Firefox installed. Is there any chance that this can
> work? I need to know if Im wasting my time and should just put winxp on
> this PC.
>
> Also, I cant get any repositories working. I assume the default ones I
> have on the Suse installation are bad and the ones for the later
> versions will not work.
>
> If anyone knows of any that would work for my old OS, thanks in
> advance.
Well… I’ve tried to resurrect $25 hardware as well… usually end up
spending hundreds of dollars in the process… so for me at least, I
decided that it really isn’t worthwhile. You didn’t mention memory…
that’s usually the big killer. If you’ve got at least 512M on the
machine, I’d try to install something contemporary (no guarantees).
Trying to update such an old platform would require a LOT of source
compilation and FIXES (likely) to the source… a task I wouldn’t want
to do to save a few dollars (IMHO).
>
> Download 11.3 (DVD or Net Install) and pick the LXDE desktop, should run
> fine on an old PC … if FF3.6 eats up too much resources, try Opera,
> done very well in the past with Opera on old hardware (might still need
> FF as backup for unsupported pages).
>
>
I am big fan of opensuse (started with S. u: S. E: 15 years ago) but for
this old machine a specialized distro for old/weak hardware is a really good
idea.
There were examples in a previous post, I can recommend antix which I
installed and ran last year successfully on a 300 MHz (!) P2 with 192 MB of
RAM, I can not give more info about running that since this was more a fun
project with some old piece of hardware I had available instead of simply
trash it.
I also recommend Opera in that case it is much faster than firefox on my
netbook for example (but I do not know if this is available for antix).
Thanks for all the detailed replies everyone. It’s been some time since Iv’e used Linux but SuSE has always been my favorite.
Before I forget, the machine in question does have 192MB RAM and a 599MHZ PIII.
I must admit that I have always liked KDE as well. It seemed to be the closest thing to windows behavior which made a good transition for me.
I tried D**n Small Linux. It ran well but the jwm(joes window manager) made it difficult for me to get anything done. No drag and drop of icons among other issues.
It made it immpossible for me to even attempt to update firefox if that was even possible.
I tried Kubuntu but that install hung on me so I figured that was a no go. Do you think Kubuntu would run on this hardware? If so I will try it again.
This machine doesnt have a DVD drive in it so Im limited to 700MB Discs. I’d rather not download several discs so please don’t make me lol.
The most important thing to me is that I have as close to full function window manager/desktop enviroment as possible, and that I get I good browser that will run sites like Play Free Online Games, Internet Games, and Free Games | Pogo Games for playing online games that they have. If Opera will run that site then I can give that a shot. Time to look at that list of OS’s above now.
> The most important thing to me is that I have as close to full function
> window manager/desktop enviroment as possible, and that I get I good
> browser that will run sites like ‘Play Free Online Games, Internet
> Games, and Free Games | Pogo Games’ (http://www.pogo.com) for playing
> online games that they have. If Opera will run that site then I can
> give that a shot. Time to look at that list of OS’s above now.
>
You can test if the pogo games work with opera by installing it on your main
machine.
opera supports mepis (which is the distro antix is based on and it should
therfore work), flash seems to work on antix.
Here is a short article to give you some impression http://lightlinux.blogspot.com/2009/01/antix-8-test-release-reviewed.html
Im trying to load the live CD of SOAD(Suse on active diet). Im not sure how its going to work out just yet. I wanted to make mention that the Lizards suse is no longer available from that link ( something about taking it down due to not enough bandwith). I tried looking around but havent found an alternitive place to download. If anyone has that ISO I’d love to get it.
Thanks for the review link, I’ll check that out now.
>
> Update:
>
> Im trying to load the live CD of SOAD(Suse on active diet). Im not
> sure how its going to work out just yet. I wanted to make mention that
> the Lizards suse is no longer available from that link ( something about
> taking it down due to not enough bandwith). I tried looking around but
> havent found an alternitive place to download. If anyone has that ISO
> I’d love to get it.
>
> Thanks for the review link, I’ll check that out now.
>
>
This seems to work http://sda00.blogspot.com/search/label/Enlightenment-LiveCD
Up until last week, I was running on a 11 year old dual-Pentium II 350 MHz, 256 MB RAM, NVidia G-Force 2 MMX, Creative SoundBlaster Live, 160 GB HD system, ethernet, usb 2.0, U.S. Robotics 56K modem and SCSI card (for a scanner) with openSUSE 11.2. The install went without a hitch. Everything was recognized. Sure things weren’t the fastest, but it ran smoothly and speeds were acceptable since last year. I had the latest patches always installed too, super easy with the desktop update applet or YaST. I had the Mozilla repository set up as well. Latest Firefox was no problem.
openSUSE 11.2 currently runs on the system above, an Acer Aspire 1410 netbook and my new i7-930 GNU/Linux boxen.
openSUSE 11.2. Try the full install. (I’ve had problems with Live versions.)
>
> Up until last week, I was running on a 11 year old dual-Pentium II 350
> MHz, 256 MB RAM, NVidia G-Force 2 MMX, Creative SoundBlaster Live, 160
> GB HD system, ethernet, usb 2.0, U.S. Robotics 56K modem and SCSI card
> (for a scanner) with openSUSE 11.2. The install went without a hitch.
>
I am curious: Which desktop environment with 256 MB (I know gnome works with
that)? Default kde4 or something else?
Default KDE4. For the install, I selected the language, set the timezone and
time (to be later done automatically with NTP), partitioned the drive (I prefer
/boot, swap, /, extended, /usr, /home), and let the DVD go for the next
hour or so. I’d occassionally check the status, but it wasn’t necessary.
Make sure the monitor is connected and not in a sleep state when the
automatic hardware config kicks in. It’ll default to VGA, which sucks on
my 1600 x 1050 monitor.
If you have the ethernet connected during the install, you can configure
the network settings. Once the install is complete, it’ll ask if you want to
install all the patches over the internet. I don’t recommend this as it seems
to leave firewall off and doesn’t automatically load the Network Manager
applet onto the desktop panel.
After the install, the system will auto-detect hardware, then reboot.
After the system comes up, run YaST and do an Online Update. This will
get you the most recent package manager. Restart the machine and
use YaST Online Update again to add all the patches. (This may take
another 1/2 to 1 hour, at least with the PII 350 MHz and a years’ worth
of patches!)
11.3 liveCD LXDE may install, if you follow my above post and install from text mode.
After successfully installing 11.3 LXDE (a release candidate version) on my sandbox PC hard drive, I did some various tests with it, where I loaded a boot parameter to reduce the RAM available. I was even able to boot it from my hard drive with 84MB of RAM, albeit it was not functional. However it was functional (but slow) with 128MB for RAM, and I think it should run even better with 192MB of RAM.
The hard part will be getting by the install, and you will need to install in text mode from the LXDE liveCD with text mode instructions here: Text mode install from liveCD Note installing in text mode will still leave you with LXDE desktop when it is done.
What sort of graphics does your old PC have ? Support for some old graphics hardware is starting to happen in Linux and that could be important.
The SOAD liveCD works well. One caution about SOAD is as soon as you have installed, go into the Software Repositories control and disable all the repos except for OSS, Non-OSS, Update and Packman. You can add others later once you understand a bit more about the package management.
One nice thing about openSUSE light weight packages is the various packagers (SOAD, xfce, LXDE) all try to help each other out. Its the sort of friendliness that would be nice to see take hold in the constant KDE vs Gnome debates that are tiring.
I have an old something with 1.3 Ghz processor from 2000/2001 I think. On that one I run a triple boot with SuSE 9.1, OpenSuSE 11.2 and Windows XP, all runs fine. SuSE 9.1 is also capable of browsing the net just fine with Konqueror, though I expect there are limitations, mostly I guess(?) due to 9.1’s Java and Flash version. Perhaps one might upgrade to both the latest Java and Flash versions on older OSs, I am not familiar with what the dependencies are.
Earlier I had an installation of OpenSuSE 11.0 on a computer with Pentium3 and around 700 Mhz cpu which ran just fine with Blackbox. Perhaps Blackbox is a good desktop solution for you as well?
