I would recommend Vector for a system with ram like that. It's based on Slackware and uses XFCE as its desktop. It uses the Gslapt package manager and has a large repo of available software.
Give it a try if the others don't work out for you.

Thanks

Make sure to download standard not SOHO.
Standard is their regular release with XFCE, SOHO is small office home office with full blown KDE4.

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RE: What Distribution for a 2006 HP Pavilion Desktop

I have hp (Pavillion a600n) and hp-compaq (dx2250M) PCs built around the same time. I used Ubuntu 12.04 LTS exclusively. The 64-bit machines get the 64-bit version of the OS. Right now I am using the dx2250M to make this post. It has 2 GB RAM (maximum) and the video capabilities are low by today's standards. It runs YouTube 1080 HD videos just fine.

John

John VV:


Do I have to add this to the grub.config like this man did in this thread?
As proposed, I added vga=791 into the grub.conf file
http://www.centos.org/modules/newbb/...32303&forum=56

I'll keep looking because I think he wants CentOS installed this evening.
Ok; pretty sure it's this:
http://pkgs.org/search/?keyword=173.14.37
http://pkgs.org/centos-6-rhel-6/atrp...86_64.rpm.html

I'll follow these instructions unless you advise me otherwise-
Hope it's the right instructions--
Be back after the installation.

for ease and a LOT LESS WORK

i would use the "kmod-nvidia173 " in the base cent repo

that is already configured for the operating system

will output a list of what is available

you should not need to add the vga setting to the boot line unless you DO want a very lo res boot and login screen
or it is a very old CRT vacuum tube screen

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Got it I will go to the Centos Repo for that driver,

At his house now trying the live DVD/CD -

Trying to decide if I should use Parted Magic or hope that the live DVD/CD will allow me to shrink his Win's XP Pro partition.

The CRT/monitor; BTW, is an old one that resembles a television.

The CentOS Live 6.4 DVD/CD booted up no problem.

After waiting for about 15 min's the mouse pointer never appeared on the DE.
Any keyboard typing was unresponsive. I tried several keyboard shortcuts and the keyboard didn't light up.

Why might this be happening; John?

Is there something I could try to make the mouse and keyboard work
after the CentOS Live CD boots?

Is the keyboard and mouse not being recognized because they are that old?

is this what you have on the CD
"CentOS-6.4-x86_64-LiveCD.iso " it is 702 meg image ( yes it will fit on a 700 meg CD - do to changes in names for Mb and Mib )
or
"CentOS-6.4-i386-LiveCD.iso " it is a 692 meg image

or the dvd
-- 32 bit
CentOS-6.4-i386-LiveDVD.iso -- 1.7 gig
-- 64 bit
CentOS-6.4-x86_64-LiveDVD.iso -- 1.7 gig


the CD's are only about 700meg so there is not much on it , and not a lot of hardware support

for installing the live images do have the ability to install to the harddrive
( but the mouse and keyboard are needed )


the 3.5 gig
"CentOS-6.4-i386-bin-DVD1.iso" is the regular install image
the DVD 2 is not needed 99.999% of the time - it has the source files on it

a good page on installing cent -- but just the basics
http://www.techotopia.com/index.php/...out_Installing



as to the mouse and keyboard
i have 6.4 running on a 12 year old box
using the original serial keyboard and mouse ( they were in storage - i used to use a wireless keyboard and mouse for years )

Are yours serial ( round light green and light purple plugs ) or usb1 or usb2

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CentOS-6.4-x86_64-LiveCD.iso is exactly what I have on a DVD/CD-

If I can't get the Live CD to run and the mouse and keyboard to be recognized than I obvisously
won't be able to install this distribution for my friend. I'll give it another go

He has the serial 'light green' plugs on the older mouse and keyboard.

Shame I don't have another keyboard and mouse laying around:-

Thank You for the tutorial at techotopia.

use the live dvd
or the install 3.5 gig dvd

live cd's do not have much hardware support

I'll try the 3.5 GB in the afternoon.

BTW I found a 5.41 GB of CentOS here:
http://linuxtracker.org/index.php?pa...133214e5b5a6d4

Brought my friends computer to my house to dis-essemble the entire desktop.

He wants to compleatly purchase a new mobo, processor, power supply, graphics card....the whole nine yards.

I suggested a AMD processor and a Radeon graphics card because I wasn't 100% certain that Nvidia Optimus and the bumblebee-project: bumblebee 3.2.1 would work successfully- I have spoken to others that sware by Nvidia but I don't want to run the risk of helping a friend and only later to find that he becomes irritated with my cousel and the performace of the new system he is building.

It's an old HP Tower 1/2 the size of most of the towers that are on the market now-

Not sure if a Gigabyte or Asus mobo is what I should suggest.
Not sure what wireless NIC to suggest either-

Any suggestions are welcome for a new build.
Thanks in advance

on a desktop Optimus should not be an issue .Unless you are putting a laptop "chip" on the mobo and not using a full 3d card

if you are using a laptop chip then go with AMD/ATI

In my opinion the Nouveau driver dose not work
i have two machines with two very different nvidia cards and they over heat because the nouveau driver dose not turn on the fan

Now the nvidia.run driver , i have not had any issues with that .

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