lindberg.bill

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Intel Pentium 2 processor 363 MHz, 128MB Ram (it some times only indicates 64MB not sure why), 30GB hard drive, Cdrom and one usb port, usb ethernet adapter.

It is a quirky old laptop, I have to hold down the right front corner to get it to boot, but it can handle windows xp pro sp2, slow but definitely usable. I really want a linux distribution on this laptop. Applications I need are: Open Office, Audacity, Tiemu, firefox, and a virtual box of some type.

I have tried Ubuntu 5.10-6.10, Slackware 11, Xbuntu, Debian, Puppy (works, but I need it to run from hard drive because it can't boot from usb) DSL (same as puppy, works, but I cannot boot from usb and hard drive install did not work.)

It kills me that I can run xp with no real problems, but I can't install a linux distro. I'd hate to think that xp is the best I can do. I'm interested in any suggestions especially from any one who is running a cpi a-series I know you are out there somewhere.

J.W.

The ability to boot from USB depends on your BIOS, and is unrelated to the Linux distro you are trying to use.

What specific problems are you having installing a distro? From your description, it sounds like the laptop may have some internal damage (pressing down on the corner in order to get it to boot makes me think that it's got some loose/bad internal connections) but just saying that you "can't install a Linux distro" doesn't give people much to go on. Can you provide more context?

lindberg.bill

I'm having trouble making it through the installation. I have had Kernel Panic messages and errors within installations. You know you are probably right I'm not providing the kind of information you need to be able to help. And there is probably someting physically wrong with the laptop, however I get a lot of use out of it and I had no trouble installing windows xp. Could it be that since the computer was designed to run a microsoft os that it makes it easier?

My guess is that it is a ram issue. Some times when it boots up it only recognizes 64Mb of the 128Mb it has installed. I guess there are driver issues with these older laptops as well.

Next time I post I will try and have a specific issue. I think I just posted this because I was frustrated.

n00bified

I have practially the same laptop (d266xt) and OpenOffice will never be happy in this environment. The applications you've listed as "essential" can probrobly be replaced with lighterweight alternatives. I would recommend opera instead of firefox, koffice instead of OO, and using a lightweight window manager like fluxbox instead of kde.

lindberg.bill

I'm still using this laptop, with open office and internet explorer7, just wrote a paper on it today. Now like I said, it is slow, but I'm not worried about slow, I just need useable. I'm thinking of installing fluxbuntu, but I can't find a good download link.

I am aware of these lighter apps. I'd have no trouble switching to them. I just need to get a distro to install. I'm not able to describe exactly why, but I just can't get through the installations process. I did get Ubuntu 5.10 installed, but it wouldn't boot. XP however is still rolling right along.

theedisoneffect

I had a similar system, think it was a CPi-A PII 300, but with a smaller HD. I wouldn't recommend anything with the 2.6.x kernel family, stick with something on a 2.4.x base... Debian 3.1 would be a good bet.

Still, though, I don't think you're going to get it working properly under Linux until you get the hardware working consistently... Linux is a lot less forgiving of flaky hardware than Windows is.

There's a panel on the bottom of the laptop towards the back of the machine. Open that, pull out your ram chips and then reseat them. That should take care of that issue. And what's in your right expansion bay... CD-Rom drive? What exactly happens when you don't hold down the right front corner?

This may be getting a little OT, but I'd say it's more a hardware problem than software.

lindberg.bill

Well this weekend I poped open the laptop and blew the dust out and I ordered a stick of 128 ram for $30. I reseated the ram as suggested and now all seems to be fine with hardware. I tried to install puppy to the hard drive but I could not get the grub to install. It kept telling me that the hda was not linux. I know for a fact it was because I formated it prior to install, but anyhow. I'm back on XP for now and running fine. I'm thinking about trying some other distros, but I'm really not seeing any that seem to fit my needs. I'm hoping to get some suggestions from floks using old laptops, but maybe I should say ancient laptops. Thanks for the help folks!

theedisoneffect

I hope you made sure to order EDO ram instead of regular PC66/PC100. Those laptops are pretty picky about what ram you can use.

Anyway, I've never used gub so I can't help you there, but as far as a distro to use... the only real deficiency those laptops have is the lack of video memory (only 2mb IIRC), so you can't use any multimedia/video effects heavy X-Window system. Though I stay with my recommendation to keep away from the 2.6.x kernel family (which rules out Ubuntu and a lot of the other newbie-friendly distros, unfortunately), due to the fact that a lot of support for older hardware was dropped in the update.

Perhaps see if you can track down an older version of Mandrake, from before it became Mandriva. It wasn't one of the best distros you could get, but it was decently user-friendly and usually recognized most hardware without much trouble.

lindberg.bill

I really hope I'm wrong about this and I'm going to keep looking, but for all the options I get, right now I'm sticking with xp. I have all the applications I need and all my hard ware supported. The biggest problem would be my linksys USB200M any how, I'm not sure if linux supports that at all since they came out with the new version 2.0. I'm reading in some other posts that the 2.6.19 kernel supports it, however, we have already discussed that the 2.6 kernels probably will not support my older hardware. I don't like running xp, but I can't afford a new laptop, and I can't sacrifice my internet connection.