Revive that old PC!

  • Thread starter Deleted member 137406
  • Start date
D

Deleted member 137406

Guest

Quoted from this link.

One of my biggest pet peeves about any release I do is that lack of people reading anything about it. I've gotten so many emails and reviewers bitching about the release being built from 20.04 that at some point it just becomes hilarious.

Particularly because I've been using linux for 20 some odd years and doing this distro for nearly 10 of those years as if I have no idea what tends to be true when it comes to old hardware and new kernels/releases. No matter how many times I explain the decision to stay an lts release behind the current it seems to go right in one ear and out the other.

Can you put LXLE on a modern computer? Sure, absolutely. Is that what it's built for? No it isn't. It's not just 'lightweight'... there are many distro's that 'claim' that... and I do mean 'claim'. However this distro does more than focus on being 'lightweight'.. I also take into account support for older hardware and stability. That almost always is ensured by basing the OS on a slightly older mature kernel/lts and the subset software that goes with it.

With Ubuntu's ESM your old computer will have until 2030 to run this latest version of LXLE while receiving updates. I mean good grief.... 2030... 2 years shy of what the latest lts will give you. So do you want stability and support for your hardware today right now this minute or do you want 2 extra years of security updates that is more than 8 years away for a computer you might not even have then?

LXLE is built to install it on an old computer to extend it's life by making it still usable. It's not a 'competitive OS' vying for users, acclaim or popularity. It's a throw on OS so you don't have to throw out a still working computer. Many times the 'I want' crowd has no idea what they're talking about. Luckily I have no problem issuing refunds if someone is unsatisfied. ; )

Side Note: To all users of this OS. I'm a desktop administrator by trade and education/degree. I never wanted to be a programmer as it never appealed to me. This distro became popular because a Desktop Administrator shockingly... wait for it.... developed a pretty decent desktop. Popularity was never the intention. The original intention was out of personal need of wanting an easier way to install what I thought was a good desktop for customers with old machines that came into the computer repair shop where I was working at the time. I decided to make it publicly available.

Sometimes the complaints about this and that make a 'fun project' not much fun and that sucks. I'm not sure about the rest of you. But once I install an OS I think is decent for my needs I almost instantly forget about it. Because I'm too busy being alive to care which OS is helping me check my email and browse some webpages.

The only time as OS would be 'on your mind' a lot is if it's constantly giving you problems that you need to address. Which is why windows users always know exactly what version of that POS they're running. LOL....
 


Easy & MX dual boot.
Easy for safe browsing, downloading, email, playing music.
MX for everything else I need, with the fat trimmed. No wireless, no bluetooth, no cusp, no RPC ...
I need fcitx absolutely, so I hang to MX like a leech, because I am lazy (or dumb?:)) to re-do the setup with any other distros even its brother antiX.
A SSD will do wonder no matter how old the PC is, mine are Phenom 9500 - 2G, 1045T - 6G.
On the 1045T I also have virtualboxed XP (Brother printer, Canon scanner), Windows 7 (Garmin GPS) - so practically all my antiques are preserved. Yep, update POI (Points of interest) on my Dakota, not using Windows, for the life of me, is out of question. :(
 
As far as DE's go, LXDE is plenty light. It's also really stable, especially considering its age. There are some lacking features, but hopefully those are addressed in time.

For example, you can enable things like a CPU monitor in your system tray. Unlike every other DE out there, you can't click on said CPU monitor's icon to open the task manager. That has been in their to-do list for at least a couple of years. It is not yet done, though it might be coming up. I'm not sure how much of 1.0 is packaged in Lubuntu yet, so I'd have to investigate.
 
LXLE has and still is one of my daily drivers.

LXLE installs and works on my computers OOTB.

LibreWolf is the default browser in LXLE Focal works well.

Read the text file on the desktop titled 'Must-Read' prior to installing the OS while connected to the internet.

Disconnect from the internet prior to installing LXLE Focal.

I don't know why and I didn't ask why however the developer said it has to be disconnected from the internet to properly install LXLE so that's what I did and I have a perfect install. :D

LXLE is an old friend and I'm glad to see it continues it's tradition of keeping old computers and old computer hardware alive which is one of the reasons I use Linux.

Cheers. :)
 
No you can't revive old computers because microsuck says so.
evilgrin0041.gif
 
@arochester

Hey man that dude broke into my garage and got my PC. :p :D

Not really however I have one that is very similar to it.

I'd just upgrade the memory to it's maximum amount and install Linux and use it it will work fine with Linux after the memory upgrade.

If the existing mechanical hard drive checks okay with no errors or bad sectors I'd use it ain't nothing wrong with mechanical hard drives imo.

Most of my Linux computers just get a memory upgrade depending on what I have in my junk box or what I can purchase dirt cheap.

Hell half of the fun of using Linux is to be able to get by with any computer you already have or some curb find computer.

And besides I'm just a cheap old bastard and don't want to buy anymore new computers. :p :D

Cool videos @arochester
 
Agree with Dex. Puppy will run on anything....even these 'thin client' things that I've seen some folks digging out of companies' back-yard dumpsters.

CD/DVD....USB...HDD...SSD...'zip disk'...SD card.......you name it, Puppy will run on it. Several of our Puppy members run old scrap PCs/notebooks with knackered internal drives. Bung a Puppy on a USB drive or an optical disc, and away ya go. Puppy is the only OS in the world that can even 'save' back to the very same CD/DVD that you've booted it from!

And if ya can't boot from USB.....PLOP is your friend.

With the current crop of 'portable' apps I've developed (with plenty of assistance from other community members), stick a selection on another USB drive, and run 'em from there.

Simples! (as the meerkats in a current series of Brit TV adverts would say).


Mike. ;)
 
Last edited:
Simples! (as the meerkats in a current series of Brit TV adverts would say).
Ha ! For you but not for me.
We use an Acer C720 to do Hangouts (Google Meet) with our kids & grandkid.
It stopped last week (maybe Google have their hands full with Zero day attacks).
Instead of rushing out to buy new camera and microphone, I decided to give the
Chromebook a new life. Nothing booted except Puppies. Great, I thought, I would
install Fossapup, Google Chrome, Update Chrome to the latest and be done with it.
How wrong I was.
As root Google balked, as Spot it asked for password ...
A few hours later, lots of Googling, exhausted and a few crumps of hair lost,
I made it, did not even remember how. :(
But I have to say thank to Puppy, because another distro might give even more
hardship like camera, sound drivers , internet ...
 
I used to have good results with TarPup back in its day but the newer Puppies just don't get along with me.

At 71 years old I just ain't got the patience to jack with learning the Puppy ways anymore just to many other dlistros that work normal OOTB.

These days if it takes more than 15 minutes to fix or repair or figure something out I just say F%k it and move to a working desktop.

Don't get me wrong Puppy works if you want to spend the time to learn the ways of Puppy.

There's a lot of Linux distros I can also say the same thing about which is why I don't use them.

I like install and use OOTB the way all OSs should work so I'll stick with Debian based and Ubuntu and Ubuntu based distros.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
@ML_113 :-

The Chrome-portable I put together for Puppy should work for you, OOTB. The version that's in my repo IS more-or-less up to date, but that's no problem.....the built-in updater will soon have you on the latest bright, shiny, spanking-new version in just a couple of minutes.

The one thing you DON'T do with Puppy is to install Chrome straight from the .deb package on their site. Not only is it expecting to find a standard, sudo-controlled multi-user environment, it will also bugger up permissions on the pup_rw layer of the unionfs file-system. Amongst other things, this will break your CUPS environment, and prevent your printer from working.

If interested, you can find the Puppy Chrome-portable here:-


That's at my MEGA repo; this entire account is dedicated to the 'portable' apps. Ignore the '91-series' folder; that's there for special use-cases. You want the tar.xz and md5 checksum files beside it.

  • Download the tarball
  • Extract the tarball
  • Move the portable-Chrome directory anywhere you like, but preferably outside the save-file/save-folder. (/Mnt/home is a good location, alongside all the Puppy SFS system files.)
  • Click to enter
  • Click 'LAUNCH' to fire it up

Additional scripts will permit adding a Menu entry, if one is required. Or simply run it from the 'LAUNCH' script all the time, and keep it purely AS a 'portable'.

---------------------------------------------------------------



@Bartman :-

I used to have good results with TarPup back in its day but the newer Puppies just don't get along with me.

At 71 years old I just ain't got the patience to jack with learning the Puppy ways anymore just to many other dlistros that work normal OOTB.

These days if it takes more than 15 minutes to fix or repair or figure something out I just say F%k it and move to a working desktop.

Don't get me wrong Puppy works if you want to spend the time to learn the ways of Puppy.

There's a lot of Linux distros I can also say the same thing about which is why I don't use them.

I like install and use OOTB the way all OSs should work so I'll stick with Debian based and Ubuntu and Ubuntu based distros.

I never judge anyone for their choice of OS.

I think you'll agree with me; Puppy is definitely an "acquired taste". Some people are born tinkerers, and love constantly tiffling and messing-about with things. Puppy, being a single-user, "hobbyist" distro, could have been made for them.

You yourself are in very good company, of course. The vast majority of computer users are not "geeks", and want to just install a distro by the easiest means possible.....and then to simply use it, without any fuss. This is what most of the mainstream distros nowadays attempt to provide, OOTB. And I think, by & large, they succeed.

Horses for courses. We're all different, and want different things from a computer. Fortunately, these days, there is such a wide range of Linux distros out there, aimed at all kinds of use-cases, that one would have to be extremely unlucky - or very, VERY picky and/or fussy! - NOT to find something they could live with.


Mike. ;)
 
Last edited:
Thanks Mike, that's what I used.
But I did not start from scratch but I found your portable AFTER installing G Chrome with QuickPet. That's when more troubles came.
It served me right for being lazy.
 
+1 @KGIII -- the lack of common features turned me off LXLE from the start -- specifically, the inabilty to "shell out" to a console. Has this been remedied?
 
specifically, the inabilty to "shell out" to a console. Has this been remedied?

You're going to have to elaborate. I'm not quite sure what you mean.
 
Alt-Ctrl-F2 to F6 on most Linux distros => console

Last I checked, LXLE would not go there.
 
Last I checked, LXLE would not go there.

I'll have to spin up a live .iso to check that some time. I'm pretty sure it worked, but not 100% certain. LXLE uses LXDE - so it *should* do so. LXDE worked well with Lubuntu for years and that feature was there. It was helpful for those times you made the system nearly freeze.

(I mistyped an earlier response.)

But, yeah, I'm pretty sure that worked when I played with it last. I was a little put off by LXQt and tested LXLE to see if it'd be a suitable replacement. Then I decided LXQt was fine and joined the Lubuntu team as a tester (leading to official member status).

Also, now that you're reminding me - it might not have been the distro with the CPU monitor that didn't quite work. I might be conflating it with another LX** desktop environment. I seem to recall LXDE's monitor working as expected, so that might be an LXQt thing. Man, I miss LXDE.
 
@KGIII -- Man, I miss LXDE.
Yeh -- LXDE was a favorite for a while -- quick, simple, functional.

I favored Linux Lite or lubuntu minimal install over LXLE when I was using ubuntu-based distros.
 
Yeh -- LXDE was a favorite for a while -- quick, simple, functional.
Hey - it still is; with some getting down to 76MiB RAM used here is a screenshot back in Trisquel-mini days of March'21- it caused considerable upset but hope the truth does not hurt any here? However some are getting 76MiB used (Take away Htop RAM)
minimax-RAMused-04.png
 

Attachments

  • LXDE-79.jpg
    LXDE-79.jpg
    78.8 KB · Views: 109

Members online


Top