Which Linux for Old Toshiba 470CDT Laptop?
 

I have what many people would consider a *really* old laptop: toshiba satellite pro 470cdt. I want to use it for something...anything, under linux. It runs windows 98 at a snail's pace with its 32Mb of RAM. RAM upgrade is not a viable option. So here's what I've done so far: Downloaded puppy linux, which a lot of websites think is a good option for *old* laptops... only to find out that their idea of old means a pentium III. It hangs on startup with an error pertaining to the "volume table" or something... which I've heard can be a misleading error. Tried running DSL on it, and I can't rightly remember what the problem was there but it didn't go too well either. My question is, hasn't linux been around for a really long time? There's gotta be a linux version that will work on this thing. At this point I'd settle for getting an OS on it that would only let me check my email, for example. Or only let me view a picture slideshow. I can't bring myself to throw out this piece of hardware... Help.

p.s. just got done downloading wolvix.. maybe it will work, who knows.

also, there was one other person who posted a while back on this forum about the very same laptop.. I read it and it gave me most of my ideas but it seems like the guy may have just given up in the end. I'm not expecting miracles, any help you can give is appreciated.

hey dph84b

first idea would be KolibriOS floopy img
http://www.kolibrios.org/

takes about 10mb of ram full tilt I think...

do you have a higher ram pc or lappy to check out some of these small linux's before I start rambling as it'll make things easier:)
I have more suggestions but need to know your linux experience level and if you have any Linux installed?

That 32 MB RAM is the killer for any sort of GUI. My old NEC laptop with an AMD K6-300 and 64MB RAM ran Puppy 1.04 better than it did Windows 98.

Hello

Damn Small Linux is the best chioce i thing (http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/)

Damn Small is small enough and smart enough to do the following things:
Boot from a business card CD as a live linux distribution (LiveCD)
Boot from a USB pen drive
Boot from within a host operating system (that's right, it can run *inside* Windows)
Run very nicely from an IDE Compact Flash drive via a method we call "frugal install"
Transform into a Debian OS with a traditional hard drive install
Run light enough to power a 486DX with 16MB of Ram
Run fully in RAM with as little as 128MB (you will be amazed at how fast your computer can be!)
Modularly grow -- DSL is highly extendable without the need to customize

Kostas

no option to put extra RAM in that, or is this some experiment....?

Remember, Linux started WITHOUT a Graphical User Interface (and still is..., you can put a GUI over it, but not needed)
=> although the X-server exists since circa 1985 I think...

Umm...seriously? I always got the impression that KolibriOS was kind of *dead*. :scratch:

I won't deny it, though, it is super-lightning-fast! :D It'll run in a VM with just 16 MiB of RAM allocated to it quite comfortably. You can even bring it down to 8 MiB, but don't expect to be able to run any of the 3D demos that way...

Ahhh, a 200 MHz Pentium... That's a neat prorcessor. Yes, you can turn that one in a nice computing engine!

In 2001 I installed Slackware 8 on a P75 machine and it ran fast enough to do ANYTHING. Later I upgraded to a 200 MHz WinChip processor and that was superfast (for me) even when running KDE. More memory is better though... What kind of memory is inside the machine? I might still have a few RAM planks around.

I succesfully run Slackware 9 on a 450 MHz AMD K6 (Pentium I clone). See also http://fruttenboel.verhoeven272.nl/linux/index.html and check the Hydrogen, Lithium and Galium machines.

Get a disk copy from ftp://ftp.belnet.be/mirror/ftp.slackware.com Slackware 8.1 will suely do the trick.

By the way, did you check this site: http://tuxmobil.org/mylaptops.html ?

This is the memory you need: http://www.memoryx.net/satpro47.html Find it on your local 'Ebay' or craigslist or whatever.

Ok cool-- really appreciate all the advice guys.
I've downloaded kolibriOS and Slackware 8.1.
I think I'm gonna try slackware first.. because 9.1 appears to have worked on a 200mHz cpu with 64MB of RAM, therefore going back one version to *make up* for that fact (in my imagination).
If that doesn't work I'll try kolibriOS.. then on to the next options.
Will post my findings and inevitable issues.
Preciate it.
til next time,
D.H.

Oh and in response to the inquiry as to my linux experience level: -2i out of 100. ;)

The funny part about Linux kernels is, that a higher kernel version number does not automatically assume a higher value for 'x' in the processor type: 80x86. For Windows, higher windows is higher x value. But not here.

To my opinion, Slackware 11 may be your best option. It has excellent support for PCMCIA WLAN cards. I would give it a try. Install a swap partition of 64MB and park it on an always mounted USB stick. Perhaps part of the filesystem can be put on the USB stick as well.

I have checked out the PCMCIA support and it seems that Slackware really is the best option for this machine. I have tried to install it, only to find out that the full installation for slackware 8 is over 2GB, and for 11 it is over 3GB... larger than the hard drive of the laptop. You mentioned making a 64MB swap partition, and putting the full install on a USB stick.. how do I do that exactly? It's starting to get interesting, maybe getting linux on the laptop. Thanks in advance for your guidance on the installation.
D.H.