Installing Linux

Hi Everyone,

I'm trying to run linux on an older computer to try to bring it into the modern era (a bit). I want to run it live CD, so first I tried DSL. It didn't work right, so I moved to Luit Linux, which is based on DSL. The same problem occured.

Basically, when it goes to boot, I get the lines:

Init: Version 2.78 Knoppix Booting
   Processor 0 is mII Core/Bus Clock 250 mHz

And then it seemingly does nothing.

I'm confused about the whole thing so any advice/help is greatly appreciated.

Go with a more popular flavour like Ubuntu. It may work straight off the bat, and if not, there will be more users about to support you.

Well apparently DSL is pretty well known... and its based off that.

I just want to know what its doing!

If it doesn't work then it's probably because it doesn't support the hardware. Ubuntu supports a huge range of hardware so is worth a shot. Open SUSE is also good as is Mandrake.

Will those all run live CD?

Sometimes, telling the Linux kernel to NOT use ACPI works miracles. On the boot prompt, before the actual boot procedure, try something like this:

knoppix acpi=off

There's a bulk of other kernel parameters that potentially can make your system fly - or crash. Check the distribution's FAQs.

By the way, Knoppix is one of the best live distributions, especially when you need advanced system diagnostic tools or a full live desktop environment. It's been around for much longer than Ubuntu, but addresses a completely different - and mostly technical - audience.

Ubuntu and openSuSE probably are better for beginners. And yes, they all have Live CDs/DVDs.

ok I'll try messing with some of the boot options. If that doesn't work, I guess I'll try something else...

Any other ideas?

Maybe you can post the machine spec here and check the distribution's hardware compatibility list if there are any known problems.

If this is an older machine, you must also make sure that you use a Linux build that is still compatible with the CPU in that computer: Most current distros probably require something in the Pentium IV class or higher.

If that CPU of yours is what above message makes me think it is (a Pentium II), I don't think you can use a kernel compiled for 686 CPUs, which most current 32 Bit x86 kernels are. Try a kernel compiled for 586 CPUs or lower, if you can find one. Maybe there's one on that live CD as well.

I think I found your problem :P
(Just kidding, although I can't say I had great luck with Knoppix either. We must be unlucky).

If you are aiming at a lower-end machine, you might be interested in a distro using XFCE as its desktop environment. For example, Xubuntu is nice and lightweight.

I find that the live cd distros tend to be pickier in terms of hardware they cope with, so you may find better driver support out of the box with one of the *buntus, Fedora or OpenSuse.

Luit does have XFCE, and its funny you should mention Xubuntu because I just gave a computer away that had it, but I didn't install it myself.

More info about Luit can be found [a http://luitlinux.sarovar.org/index.html]here[/a

EDIT
EDIT
And the system specs: 32Mb RAM, 3.2 Gb Hard Drive With another 5 Gb drive added to the system), and a Cyrix mII 233mHz processor. (Something with Intel Pentium 2. I don't know, its an odd processor)

Maybe they are designed for more RAM these days?

My P100 Red Hat box runs on 96meg, although it used to run ok on 32 also.

I'm thinking DSL is using a 80686 build target and your ancient machine can't cut it.

I got ubuntu running on a 400Mhz duron once, it was -just- about useable. Xubuntu is possibly a better choice as its the same thing, just stripped down & with a simple gui.

250 Mhz is pretty old tho.

Very bad suggestion to install Ubuntu on a 250 Mhz computer, even if it's the Ubuntu flavor. Some people say that Ubuntu is a good option for *old* machines, but it's simply not true. If by old we mean 5 years old, then it's fine, but for a machine older, the best options are DSL, Puppy, and TinyMe (my favourite).

You can also try one of these if you have floppy disk drive (probably). http://www.linuxlinks.com/Distributions/Floppy/

Just throw it out, or use it as decoration.

Put an i386 build of FreeBSD on the box. In my not so humble opinion, FreeBSD is the better OS anyway. ;-)

www.freebsd.org

Ok so I went to the eMachines website, and this is the full system specs:

http://www.emachines.com/support/product_support.html?cat=Desktops&subcat=eTower%20Series&model=eTower_366c

Whats with the RAM? Is it 32 or 256?

Thanks for all the help so far. Still looking for a good distro. I ran Luit Linux using the "failsafe" boot option, and it got a bit further, but had an error and froze. I've since given up on it.

Now I want to try Xubuntu, if in fact it's 256 Mb.

But it seems my computer is doomed for Windows 98 forever, or as a networking machine. Yet I will not give up just yet.

You can try Puppy Linux, it's kind of nice.

Why live cd though? Some of the tiny linux distros will run in memory, but I guess this would require more RAM. Others that run directly from the CD (like I think Ubuntu does when run as a live cd), will be very slow as your cd player is a 100 times slower than your hardrive. Why not install a version of linux?

You might also want to try windowing environments such as Fluxbox, which is extremely lightweight (more so than XFCE).

As a side note, what do you plan to use the machine for. If it's as a file or web server, you might be better of installing no windowing environment and just use the command line. :)

Install Vista. After your cpu fries you can upgrade. Problem solved.

Oh yeah, puppy, forgot about that, thats defo worth a try

Hi everybody,

Went to Xubuntu, everything booted quite smoothly, although a bit slow on the live CD (as ragtag said). Its running slowly, but I like it well enough.

My plans for this computer are unknown so far. I just wanted to try to upgrade it a bit. My longterm plans are to use it as a server to host my website, in which case I'll move to a smaller distro. But for now, I'm happy enough.

Sounds like you just saved it from becomming a useless brick :)
Just dont open more than a few progs at a time and it should be reasonably useable.

Yeah, as long as I give it sufficient "warm up time" all the programs run effectively. Went down in the basement, found some extra RAM, now running with 96 Mb of RAM as opposed to the 32.

Really like Xubuntu, highly recommend it.

Ubuntu recommends 256Mb ram

I want to install Linux, I have installed it, but it didn't create a boot loader. So I have to make one myself by tweaking the "BOOT.INI" of XP. Much fun...

I think you can install grub manually anyway (as a stand alone rather than part of the install process) It *should* automatically sort stuff out.
Be careful though, reading/backup reccomended. :)

I installed XP today and it took over, so I could only boot XP. I just reinstalled Ubuntu and imported my old settings and now grub is back.

Xubuntu != Ubuntu; Xubuntu is designed for weak machines.