Linux on older machine

[Changes]

I've been trying to set up a computer for my mum. She'll be using it for writing and light web browsing, so I've salvaged her one out of working parts from four old trashed computers.
It's a P200MMX with 64 megs of ram, a 3.2gb hard drive and a S3 video card.

Now, I could take the easy way out and just install Win98SE, but I know that my laziness would bite me in the ass, as she's a total newbie and I don't even want to think of all the garbage that would find its way on her computer ("CLICK THIS IRRITATING FLASHING BANNER!!1!" "well why not?").

So Linux it'll be. Only problem is, I don't know which distro to use.
I tried Damn Small Linux, and while it boots and it certainly is light, it seems too impractical and buggy to be used constantly (can't install xfree86 in root because the installer needs a specific user logged in, but can't run the installer as that user because the package menu comes out empty... this sort of thing).

Debian's documentation says it will run on as little as 32 megs, but requires heavy optimization which I, being sort of a newbie, am not sure I can do.

I thought about Knoppix, but the KDE environment is too heavy and 64 megs of ram aren't quite enough for it.
Perhaps one can use a light GUI such as icewm on Knoppix?

Any help would be great

[oz]

Welcome to the forums!

Here's a recent poll regarding distros for older computer hardware:

http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/cof...-hardware.html

[Juan Pablo]

Debian's documentation says it will run on as little as 32 megs, but requires heavy optimization which I, being sort of a newbie, am not sure I can do.

I don't know what they mean with heavy optimization but I suspect it's about recompiling a kernel with less feature as maybe the default etch kernel is a bit heavy.
It may also mean doing a minimal install and then install everything using apt, which is not very hard.

I would definetly use Debian

[netstrider]

I can vouch for Debian too, while not knowing totally how to recompile the kernel to your needs, I assume there should be a lot of help available on that. I use Debian often and I'm not experienced, I do use apt to install my own apps - which gives you that slight bit more control. I think if you recompile the kernel you might also want to have a look at LFS (Linux From Scratch) - I am trying that..not too hard yet

[Juan Pablo]

I think if you recompile the kernel you might also want to have a look at LFS (Linux From Scratch)

I don't think you need to go that far to recompile a kernel

It's not a hard process, the hardest part is configuring the kernel because you will need a pretty good knowledge of the machine's hardware before beginnig and this means chipsets not just brands and models used in marketing

[Changes]

It's not a hard process, the hardest part is configuring the kernel because you will need a pretty good knowledge of the machine's hardware before beginnig and this means chipsets not just brands and models used in marketing

That might be a bit of a problem.
The machine is old and uses some proprietary hardware. I even had to guess the dip switches to get the motherboard to recognize the 200mhz processor (it was set to 133), because I couldn't find a manual online. I've no idea about the specific chipsets.

I tried Knoppix, but it doesn't work. The installer locks up at 97%.

How does one do a minimal Debian install? Is it preconfigured or do I have to wrestle with configuration files and the like?

[Doug W]

how does one do a minimal Debian install? Is it preconfigured or do I have to wrestle with configuration files and the like?

I am pretty much a fellow newbie and am in the process right now of downloading Slackware and I hope the minimal install has to do with going to a custom setup screen and choosing the desired features. The only trouble here is that it isn't clear to me when offered a feature just what it is used for (the names are sometimes cryptic).

I will let you know how it goes with slackware, my machine is only slightly faster than the one you are working on: Cyrix 333 chip with 128 Meg RAM.

[Changes]

The 64 megs more make a lot of difference...

I just installed Puppy on the P200, and while it seems to work better than the others I've tried it can't for some reason connect to the internet.

I have a plain ethernet ADSL router, through which the other distros have connected without even having to configure anything; open up the browser, type in the URL, voila.
Puppy doesn't, though. It doesn't even get eth0 up on its own, actually, but even after I give it "ifconfig eth0 up" it still won't open web pages or, indeed, ping anything online.

Any ideas?

If I can't get it to work I'll try Debian, I've already burned the netinst.

Edit: no matter, I should learn to read wikis before asking.

Update: Puppy is entirely unsuitable for such an old machine. Need something lighter. Trying Debian, next is slackware, and if that doesn't work I'll *gasp* install Windows *shudder*

[Doug W]

I went through:
Puppy, DeLi, Damn Small Linux so far on this machine and there was a lot of freezing up and the mouse not being recognized and other fun things. I will be giving Slackware a try in the next few days.