Old PII...new DLink wireless PCI card...best distro?

woodmaster · 03-22-2010, 05:18 PM

I have an old pII 128mB RAM computer. 2HDD's so plenty of disk space. DamnSmallLinux runs great(better than the Win98 it came with) but I can't get the wireless card I bought to work with it. The card is D-Link DWL-500 11Mb Wireless LAN PCI. Is there a way to make this work in DSL? Or is there another suitable distro for it? I tried Ubuntu6.10, 8.04. Couldn't get them to boot. Could try more with them maybe. Just wondering if another lightweight distro that is more appropriate? This is a project for me. Thanks for any help.

Super TWiT · 03-22-2010, 05:27 PM

The standard DSL Linux uses an old kernel version for space requirements (dsl is only 50 mb). DSL-N however, (DSL NOT) made by the same people, is DSL Linux without the 50 mb space limit and uses the newer 2.6 kernel. I tried to get DSL linux to boot on my computer that uses SATA once and it wouldn't boot because of the old kernel. So I would use DSL-N Linux, its pretty much the same. This FAQ is helpful. Or, if you feel like it you could do a gentoo install.

colorpurple21859 · 03-22-2010, 09:11 PM

Not for sure but I think the prism2 driver will work. Here is a link to setup in DSL http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/wiki/i..._Wireless_Card
Other distros that will work are puppy, slitaz, debian with alternate lxde desktop, absolute and a few others, just can't remember what they are. my own preference is puppy for ease of use and setup, however if you need a particular package, may have to do some searching to find packages provided by others, puppy has a limited package repository.

woodmaster · 03-25-2010, 03:54 PM

OK...thanks the advice. DSL just couldn't get it connected. Wired or wireless. Added some RAM(another 64k) and Puppy Linux is running on it and working great. Got all the old Windows files I wanted off it and gonna reformat and install Linux permanently. I am connected(wired) right now. One more question. How do I know if I can upgrade the processor? Specifically, which processors could go onto my MOBO? dmidecode gives:

Code:

Processor Information
        Socket Designation: Socket 7
        Type: Central Processor
        Family: Alpha 21064
        Manufacturer: Intel
        ID: 34 06 00 00 FF F9 80 00
        Version: Pentium II
        Voltage: 3.3 V
        External Clock: 66 MHz
        Max Speed: 400 MHz
        Current Speed: 300 MHz
        Status: Populated, Enabled
        Upgrade: ZIF Socket

Thanks for the help!