Old laptop; trying to install linux

I'm trying to install linux (pretty much any flavor I can get to work that'll run smooth for this situation) to a laptop I recently got, but everything I try still doesn't actually allow it to be installed. I'm thinking it must be boot options, but I'm not sure what they all mean. I've gotten errors like: "buffer i o error on device sr0" so I burned a new disk and verified it to make sure it was ok (I assumed it was a bad disk). The laptop is a pentium 400 Mhz (approx, can't remember exactly) and has 32mb ram. Obviously no graphical install will work, as well as installing something like kde or gnome. I tried the Ubuntu alternate disk, which i read can be used for old computers, as it doesn't use the graphical install, and allows you to install without Xorg. The disk seems to work, but after I get passed the point where it asks me info like what keyboard I'm using (US) it just hangs. The screen turns black, then the ubuntu brown, then back and forth. Are there any good boot parameters for a system like this (or what else can be done)? Also, I would like to have some sort of window system after the install. I was thinking Xfce, and if it can't handle it, fluxbox. Does anyone have any recommendations for me?

I'd recommend that you give Ubuntu Server a try... let it install and see where you end up


As for a GUI, you should definitely be able to get something up and running I used to run GUIs on my Pentium 75 w/ 24MB RAM... mind you those were older and designed to be crap :)

xfce is probably a good bet once you get the os installed.. just apt-get install xfce and you'll most likely be good to go.

You could try Damn Small Linux (although I've never used it), your computer has more than enough power to run it.

I believe xUbuntu is designed for older systems.

http://www.xubuntu.org/

Might be worth a shot.

Xubuntu and DSL both work great on old machines, but I think Xubuntu would maybe be a little too much for yours. DSL should work ok.
KP

Just a shot in the dark

Try this as a boot option:

all-generic-ide

I bet $20 this is the solution you seek.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...&start=10&sa=N

I've tried all-generic-ide, and i've even tried cli with no success (same flashing hang). The strange thing is that I've been able to boot into Backtrack 3 with fluxbox, and dsl. Backtrack 3 was obviously slow, but I think an install would improve speed. Eventually, I hope to run a parallel system (purely for the learning experience, as they're only, as I said, about 400 Mhz), as I've been given a bunch of these laptops. I'm not sure how difficult that would be, as they only have RJ11 instead of the RJ45, but I think network boot floppies may help with that. Anyways, my question is, would dsl be able to work with a parallel environment? As that is the only installable os i seem to be able to run at this point, unless anyone has any other ideas for getting ubuntu or xubuntu (which I've tried) to work.

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Originally Posted by metguru

I've tried all-generic-ide, and i've even tried cli with no success (same flashing hang). The strange thing is that I've been able to boot into Backtrack 3 with fluxbox, and dsl.

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how about 'linux all-generic-ide' ?

or if you want to show the laptop whose boss. GOTO http://spout.ussg.indiana.edu/linux

there you can find every linux copy on the face of the Earth. Look for a distribution that allows network installs. Opensuse comes to mind. You might need a floppy or usb thumb drive for this. search for *network*.iso and witness the glory. The star represent wildcard searching. A proper network boot disk will give you options on howto connect to the outside and save the changes to the actuall installation when completed.

what is the model of the laptop?

If you have to install a wireless card.....find out the driver that windows uses and throw that in a directory on your new disk. Linux can somehow convert a windows network driver. $$$

Hi metguru,

1. What was running on the machine when you got it?
2. How big is the hard drive? and the largest free partition?

I would suggest that your main problem is the very small amount of RAM. Using the alternate CDs, regular Ubuntu requires 256Mb and Xubuntu 64Mb. They want 4Gb and 1.5Gb of disk space respectively.

DSL will work, although you will probably have difficulty with a lot of today's applications like browsers and office suites. It will run on a DX486 with 16Mb of RAM. Puppy Linux is another distro that will run on 486 platforms so might be worth a try?

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as I've been given a bunch of these laptops.

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Take the RAM out of some of the others? ;) assuming there are spare memory slots.

I would also be inclined to run a utility like DBAN to overwrite the whole drive with zeros before installing the OS.

Good luck!

EDIT:

Another approach would be to get an adapter for laptop PATA drives, slave them to a more powerful desktop and do the installation there.

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Originally Posted by Linen0ise

how about 'linux all-generic-ide' ?

or if you want to show the laptop whose boss. GOTO http://spout.ussg.indiana.edu/linux
what is the model of the laptop?

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Thanks for the info, I'll look into this. The laptops only have USB 1.0 and RJ11, so I don't know if network installs will work with that.

Some are Presario 1200, and others are Presario 1240. I don't think there is much difference between them

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Originally Posted by nihil

Hi metguru,

1. What was running on the machine when you got it?
2. How big is the hard drive? and the largest free partition?

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They were running windows 98. Which means I probably wouldn't have a problem reinstalling it, but thats not what i'm looking for, with my final goal of hopefully running them in parallel.
The hard drives are about 5 gigs.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nihil

I would suggest that your main problem is the very small amount of RAM. Using the alternate CDs, regular Ubuntu requires 256Mb and Xubuntu 64Mb. They want 4Gb and 1.5Gb of disk space respectively.

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That could be the problem, if the install CD requires that even when installing the most basic parts of the distro.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nihil

DSL will work, although you will probably have difficulty with a lot of today's applications like browsers and office suites. It will run on a DX486 with 16Mb of RAM. Puppy Linux is another distro that will run on 486 platforms so might be worth a try?

Take the RAM out of some of the others? ;) assuming there are spare memory slots.

I would also be inclined to run a utility like DBAN to overwrite the whole drive with zeros before installing the OS.

Good luck!

EDIT:

Another approach would be to get an adapter for laptop PATA drives, slave them to a more powerful desktop and do the installation there.

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I installed DSL, but it obviously isn't going to have the features of something like xubuntu, and I'm not sure how well it will run parallel software. So I still see DSL as an option, but I'd rather install a larger, more full distro, and just use fluxbox, if possible.

I have already thought of adding ram, but there are no spaces for more expansion.

I have also already run DBAN, but thanks for the reminder!

I think I'll look into getting a PATA drive adapter. But I also would like to try a network install. Is there one that is more recommended?

Could you check this out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compaq_Presario_1200

Whichever you have, it has to be expandable beyond 32Mb of RAM.

You should have at least 2 empty SODIMMS slots?

:)

EDIT:

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Memory expansion was available on the bottom of the units, allowing up to 128MB of additional SODIMM memory to be added.

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If you only have 32Mb of onboard RAM then you will only be able to go to 160MB, which is a bit light for Xubuntu.

Have you tried Puppy Linux?

Thanks Nihil. They don't all have expansion memory already in them. So you're saying it'd be better to have less laptops that have more ram in each of them than more laptops with less ram in each of them (from a parallel standpoint)?

Linux on a Compaq Presario 1200-XL106

"When run with the original 32MB of RAM and Mandrake's default KDE setup, the 1200-XL106 is decidedly sluggish. (4MB of the computer's 32MB of RAM are dedicated to video support, so it's really just 28MB of RAM.) I'm not a big KDE fan to begin with, so I configured the computer to use icewm instead, resulting in much better performance. Expanding the RAM to 96MB also helped, even when running KDE."

http://www.rodsbooks.com/presario/
https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...rio-905-69396/

Hi metguru,

Quote:

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So you're saying it'd be better to have less laptops that have more ram in each of them than more laptops with less ram in each of them (from a parallel standpoint)?

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Yes that was my thinking. I would suggest that you look at what you have got a bit more carefully as there are quite a few variants of the Presario 1200 notebook.;)

Use the memory adviser tool on this site to check them out:

http://www.crucial.com/

For example the 1200-XL101 ships with 32Mb of fixed memory and has an expansion slot that will accept a single 128Mb module to give you 160Mb. This sounds similar to the 1200-XL106 that Linen0ise mentions. Other models have 64Mb of fixed memory and will accept a 256Mb module for a total of 320Mb, or 128Mb for a total of 192Mb. You need to be a little careful as some will not recognise the 256Mb modules.

The 1240 should ship with 64Mb (32 fixed and 32 removable) but can accept a 64Mb module for 96Mb.

Thanks! I really appreciate all the help. I just ordered and recieved a IDE/PATA/SATA to usb adapter to connect the laptop drives to my desktop. I'm going to start experimenting with this. Again, thanks everyone, I don't know what I'd do without a community like this!