My son recently sold his home and while helping him, lo and behold I found a computer I built for him in 1999. He ran Windows on it while in school, but I must have played around with it at some point because when I got it running it booted into an old distro called Xandros. It's way out of date and I would like to replace it but can't figure out how to install a new distro over it. I admit I am just experimenting because I heard that Linux can run well on 32-bit hardware and frankly just for the heck of it. I have another machine I can use for downloading and formatting media, but it is on Windows and everything I find online about building boot disks seems to be about the process on a Linux machine. Any help on updating this old dog would be appreciated,
Install Problems
- Thread starter azopaul
- Start date
If the old machine has a CDROM drive (and it works), it might be easiest to just burn a distro to an actual CD and boot it from there to start with. What distro you use, and how, might depend on the specs of the old machine:
How much RAM does it have?
Does it have USB 2.0 ports and can it boot from them?
What CPU does it have and at what speed?
Might as well post the full specs or complete make and model - someone's sure to ask.
If it only has USB 1.0 ports, even if it can boot from them (was that even possible with USB 1.0?), the slow speed will prevent booting from USB. -No one- has that kind of patience!
If it has less than 1 GB of RAM, most modern distros will struggle. Some will -boot- with 128 MB or even less but most will be severely limited in what you can -do- with them.
If there are any files on it that need to be saved, make sure to take care of that first.
How much RAM does it have?
Does it have USB 2.0 ports and can it boot from them?
What CPU does it have and at what speed?
Might as well post the full specs or complete make and model - someone's sure to ask.
If it only has USB 1.0 ports, even if it can boot from them (was that even possible with USB 1.0?), the slow speed will prevent booting from USB. -No one- has that kind of patience!
If it has less than 1 GB of RAM, most modern distros will struggle. Some will -boot- with 128 MB or even less but most will be severely limited in what you can -do- with them.
If there are any files on it that need to be saved, make sure to take care of that first.
Brickwizard
Well-Known Member
This is true, provided you have sufficient ram and a suitable CPU, I am guessing it has either Intel Pentium III or AMD K6-III. CPU, I can only think of a couple of 32 bit builds that will run on them, probably the best [but not ideal for a newbie] would be Puppy [ minimum system requirements for puppy] , the other point is 32bit Linux is expected to reach its end of life within the next 12 months
Do you mean that the kernel devs will EOL 32 bit linux?
If not, I believe that, for instance, the Tiny Core devs will continue to support 32 bits as long as the kernel does - as far as I can see, there's no really good reason not to.
Unless @azopaul has a bit of linux experience, or is up for a little adventure, I wouldn't necessarily recommend Tiny Core for his project... but I'd bet it would work. I ran it on a 1998-ish Compaq Deskpro with 256 MB, though it wasn't -good- for a heck of a lot.
Brickwizard
Well-Known Member
Mike,
This is something I read back around 2020. As we know most mainline developers have already dropped 32 bit, the next Debian [on which most clones are based] is not expected to support 32 bit, support for 32 bit ARM will probably continue for a few years. [The last 32 bit I386 CPU came off the production line back in 2008,]
The though at the time was, the only hope for 32 bit would be the hobbyist building their own kernel. And distribution, but that has its problems in that many apps are no longer made or 32 bit support has already ended.
It's a home built machine that has an MSI K?? Turbo main board, Athlon 2000+ CPU, 1GB RAM and an old WD 7200rpm HD that I would like to replace. I can't get a handle on the CD drives as yet-sometimes they seem to work, other times they won't even open. I'll probably shop ebay or somewhere for an unused IDE drive. It seems to run okIf the old machine has a CDROM drive (and it works), it might be easiest to just burn a distro to an actual CD and boot it from there to start with. What distro you use, and how, might depend on the specs of the old machine:
How much RAM does it have?
Does it have USB 2.0 ports and can it boot from them?
What CPU does it have and at what speed?
Might as well post the full specs or complete make and model - someone's sure to ask.
If it only has USB 1.0 ports, even if it can boot from them (was that even possible with USB 1.0?), the slow speed will prevent booting from USB. -No one- has that kind of patience!
If it has less than 1 GB of RAM, most modern distros will struggle. Some will -boot- with 128 MB or even less but most will be severely limited in what you can -do- with them.
If there are any files on it that need to be saved, make sure to take care of that first.
I get that the world has moved on long ago, but what I've read, there seems to be some hope for a Linux build that still functions for home use without a whole bunch of expense. I am I trying to make the proverbial silk purse?
I'd say that even 1 GB of RAM isn't enough.
That mobo has usb1.1 ports, so you can forget about booting from USB.
The CPU, HD and RAM should be sufficient to run a distro like Tiny Core handily. You wouldn't want to run a lot of memory hungry apps on it though.
"enough" is such a subjective term.
I doubt the OP is planning on using it for heavy-weight apps and I hope he's not planning on running one of the heavier DEs... @azopaul ? I don't know about the new one, but one of the old DSLs would probably run on it, though that would get into ancient kernels and all that.Hmmm... I think I still have a Duron 800 box in the basement. If so, I'll haul it out and do some testing. No idea how much ram it has but probably not over 1GB. I'd hate to find out I'm giving out bad advice.
Brickwizard
Well-Known Member
Unless its a 32 bit motherboard [I may be able to check later] then this looks like a 64 bit machine [my last home build was an Athlon x2 6000 which started out as a single core] if it is then with just 1 gb of ram it will still run many distributions, the only problem is it is probably not USB bootable,
Most distributions now need a DVD drive as they won't fit on a CD, some that will include Linux Lite,Antix, Bodhi, Porteus, Puppy, Siltaz,, but these are the 32 bit builds
Brickwizard
Well-Known Member
Well I don't read/speak any Chinese, so finding a tech sheet was a task in its own rights,
from what I read
it is only 32 bit motherboard
max amount of Ram the MB can use ia1.5 GB as 3x500mb
It should be USB2.0 [but not bootable]
so back to my previous post and give any of those listed a try [I think you will like Linux Lite]
from what I read
it is only 32 bit motherboard
max amount of Ram the MB can use ia1.5 GB as 3x500mb
It should be USB2.0 [but not bootable]
so back to my previous post and give any of those listed a try [I think you will like Linux Lite]
i did quite a bit of searching around and got the impression that there were distros that would run with what i have. Looks like maybe not. I had an old pci card in a drawer somewhere with four USB 2.0 ports. I could not get the USB port on the motherboard to recognize a stick, but the card seems to read them just fine. I don't know if it will boot the machine even tho the BIOS has a boot from USB option. I don't know whether the CD and DVD drives work or not. Might be able to pick up a new one off ebay. I also have a brand new Samsung IDE hard drive that was in the same drawer. The old WD seems ok, but my son used the machine all the way through college, at its age it might be a candidate for replacement as well
Brickwizard
Well-Known Member
I am surprised on a machine of that age, most were not.
Follow my how to install guide
I strongly suggest you start with AntiX as it has minimal requirements
- RAM: 256 MB of RAM
- CPU: PIII systems
- Disk space: 5 GB of drive space
whatever you decide to do, please remember many applications are no longer available in 32 bit format
