simsie Posted February 22, 2008 Share Posted February 22, 2008 So I have a 6.5 year old laptop: 128MB RAM 20GB HDD 900MHZ Celeron It used to run Windows ME (rather well actually) but I want to put Linux on it... The issue is every distro I try either doesn't like my WPA-PSK network/NDISwrapper or has a boot up error... So far I have tried: Puppy - Couldn't get it on the wireless, though it was scanning. PCLinuxOS spins TinyME and PCFluxOS. TinyMe wouldn't go on the network. PCFluxOS goes on the network fine but when I try and install the installer closes randomly after formatting the hard drive. For both I had to add noscsi at the start or else it hangs on boot. Also randomly hangs when on the desktop. DSL - Didn't like the WPA-PSK network, however was scanning OK through NDISWrapper Fedora - Crashed on loading X Ubuntu - PC cut out when it came to loading X antiX - Won't go onto the WPA-PSK Network Neowin Shift 0.5 - With "noscsi" says it can't find the shift image. Without hangs on NoSCSI. I imagine Morphix would do the same. Zenwalk hung on "Loading iSCSI Class" or something... If anyone has any ideas for other Distro's that will run OK on my laptop, that will like the WPA-PSK wireless network or ways to get the network working with existing distro's please advise... Thanks so much! Simsie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markwolfe Veteran Posted February 22, 2008 Veteran Share Posted February 22, 2008 Fedora and Ubuntu might have difficulties in running Gnome, just because you have 128MB of RAM. Might want to try Xubuntu (a lighter Ubuntu) or Fluxbuntu (even lighter yet!). More important than the distro, is which Desktop you plan on running. You want to keep resource usage to a minimum, so I would lean toward XFCE or Flux/Open/Blackbox. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kyro Posted February 22, 2008 Share Posted February 22, 2008 Strongly suggest you give try to http://torrent.fedoraproject.org/torrents/...CE-i686.torrent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simsie Posted February 22, 2008 Author Share Posted February 22, 2008 Do you guys think the fact I was trying to run Gnome (on both distro's that crashed at X) caused them to go blank or the machine to die? I'm downloading Shift Linux 0.6 Fluxbox currently, and will see how that goes. If not I'll try the two lightweight Ubuntu's and the Fedora. Thanks :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markwolfe Veteran Posted February 22, 2008 Veteran Share Posted February 22, 2008 Well, from the Ubuntu site, they have an absolute minimum posted for 64MB RAM. This may likely be with no GUI. They have a recommended minimum of 192MB (which is more than what you have). They even have a sub-section for "Low-spec" computers. It says to not use the standard CD, but to use the "alternative" CD, instead. I am going to guess you used the standard? That might be why it had problems. EDIT: And Shift Lite (with XFCE & Fluxbox) are based off of Ubuntu, so these would be much like the "standard" images. Meaning I would not expect success with it, I am afraid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simsie Posted February 22, 2008 Author Share Posted February 22, 2008 I went back to my Ubuntu CD and this time ran it in safe graphics mode. It was running at a total snails pace - as expected - but it shows the cut out was due to the video driver... I decided to go for Fluxbuntu in the end as it was a smaller ISO. Its just finished downloading...now to try it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yochanan Posted February 22, 2008 Share Posted February 22, 2008 As markjensen said, you'll most definately want the alternative release. They are designed with lo-spec machines with less than 256 MB RAM in mind. I have Ubuntu 7.04 (PPC Alternative) running just fine on my iMac G3 400 MHz 256 MB RAM ATI Rage 128GL 16 MB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barney T. Administrators Posted February 22, 2008 Administrators Share Posted February 22, 2008 I'm downloading Shift Linux 0.6 Fluxbox currently, and will see how that goes. ... did you try it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeta_immersion Posted February 22, 2008 Share Posted February 22, 2008 you might want to take a look at freebsd .... it does well with kde/ gnome and is fairly easy to use ... all the packages are available and more than that ... it is compatible with old pc's (i have one with the same specs as yours and bsd runs great) ... mind you mostly is from command line but when i go to kde (not so much a gnome fan) handles it pretty well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simsie Posted February 22, 2008 Author Share Posted February 22, 2008 Thanks for all the alternate suggestions... I'll try them if I can't get this to work... At the moment I am trying to get Fluxbuntu working. Its installed and functional. I managed to install ndiswrapper, get a driver installed and the light is on on the wireless card. I blacklisted bcm43xx and doing a "rmmod bcm43xx" says its removed, however doing a "modprobe -l bcm43*" says its loaded. The card can scan through the built in network config or a "iwlist eth0 scan" but I can't get it to go onto either the network (WPA-PSK) or a simple Adhoc I made using my Pocket PC, though it can see them both when scanning. Ndiswrapper -l says: bcmwl5 : driver installed device(14E4:4320) present (alternate driver: bcm43xx) Does anyone have any ideas what to do to get this on the wireless? I don't have a backup wired network. Thanks so much Simsie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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