Plug N Play monitor vs Linux Install

[dwight_a]

I have been trying to install Linux on an older computer. I start the install CD. The logo comes up ok. The kernal starts to load. The screen goes black and I cannot communicate with the install software.

My computer features an old 200MHz pentium uses a Plug N Play monitor , SiS 5597 / 5598.

How can I get around this limitation?

[rokytnji]

Howdy there dwight. You say you got a 200 mhz processer. Well I need to inform you that Suse is a little to robust for your hardware.


openSUSE 11.1
Hardware Requirements

openSUSE supports most PC hardware components. For the best computing experience, your system should meet these minimum requirements for openSUSE 11.1:

* Processor: Intel—Pentium 1-4 or Xeon; AMD—Duron, Athlon, Athlon XP, Athlon MP, Athlon 64, Sempron or Opteron
* Main memory: At least 256 MB; 512 MB recommended
* Hard disk: At least 500 MB for minimal system; 3 GB recommended for standard system
* Sound and graphics cards: Supports most modern sound and graphics cards
* DVD-ROM Drive (required for installation from DVD media)

You might have to set your sights a little lower on which distro you are gonna run. Check out this thread for low system requirement distros

http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/cof...re-2009-a.html

[D-cat]

To simply answer the question, set options acpi=off,noapic and manually define your monitor resolution to something sane, guessing 1024x768? These are adjusted using the F? keys along with the menu desplayed at the bottom of the CD/DVD boot screen.

AFA the 200MHz processor goes, you might be able to run OpenSuSE 10.3 on that machine (if you're partial to SuSE and have enough RAM), but I think you might have a better experience with a lighter distro, say Puppy or DSL. Even if you get SuSE 11 to boot on it, it's going to be a dog.