Micron PentiumPro for Linux?
 

I have an old (1997/98) Pentium Pro dual processor server box from Micron that currently has an unstable WIN98 on it. Need to check how much memory I have (I think only 128 or 192).

It has a nice Creative SoundBlaster Live Platinum sound card that I wanted to use for recording instrument audio for mixing....etc.

I was thinking of making it a Linux box and perhaps putting Mandrake 10.1 on it. I know a bit of unix because years back I was a Solaris 2.7 sysadmin but have not really been using unix for a while now.

Basically I just want to use it in my study for basic recording/mixing and web browsing and network it with the other computers in the house.

Is this box too old and should be abandoned as a boat anchor or is it worth the trouble of perhaps upgrading the memory (if it is still available) and using it with LINUX. I am not looking to become a linux expert. I want to have something that is stable and easy to use and don't want to mess around with too much.

Are there any good recording/mixing software progs out there for LINUX?

Thanks mucho for your collective wisdom.

ciao

You could download the following liveCD,
which is specifically geared toward the media inclined user, be it audio or video.

http://www.mediainlinux.org/

this is their package list;

http://www.mediainlinux.org/index.ph.../packages_list

Using this liveCD should also let you know how well your hardware will hold up with these audio packages.



peace V

It is not too old, 128 Meg is enough for Mdk 10.1. ( more is always better, try it first). For the uses you describe you may want to go with one of the smaller desktops, but once again, try different ones. I'm running a P1 300Mhz laptop, it is no screamer, but it works.

Look at Audacity for a recording and editing sound program. I'm sure there are more, that is the one I'm using.

The installer for Mandriva is very easy to use. It has partitioning and formating tools built in.

welcome to LQ! :)

you didn't say what clock speed the cpus have, but you should be fine with a dual pentium pro and those 128/192 megs of ram... of course i'm refering to general pc/server usage, i'm not sure what the hardware requirements of the available linux audio apps are... take a look at hydrogen and ardour maybe:

http://www.hydrogen-music.org/

http://ardour.org/

keep in mind that the quality and quantity of audio recording apps availabe for linux is quite low compared to what's available for windoze...

I have overclocked the 180 CPU to about 230 or so. Thank to all for your advice. I guess I will just try it out with existing hardware and memory to see what happens. I have a feeling I will have questions.

ciao :)

I think you might want to find a lighter weight version of linux for a pentium. Because the minimum req's for mandrake is i586(pentium) and its become pretty grapic intensive over the years. You should check out Damn Small Linux which can run on a 486, or if your feeling adventurous and want to learn alot, I would suggust gentoo, its a pain to install, but you'll learn alot, plus the documintaion and comunity is ausome, the website for gentoo is www.gentoo.org gentoo can also run on a 486, and it is sugguested that you have an internet connection to the computer so you can get the latest packages, although you can also just use the packages from the cd, but they'll be a little outdated.

the Pentium Pro, AFAIK, is an i686 cpu, so if you wanna get something binary optimized for it you want a distro optimized for i686... mandriva, being an i586 distro, should run just fine - and perhaps even optimally - on an i686 (i mean i assume mandriva's packages have been compiled with i686 optimizations like slackware's)...

speaking of slackware, it would be a nice choice also... even though slackware is an i486 distro, almost all packages are compiled with i686 optimizations as so:
BTW, whichever distro you use, remember to use an SMP kernel or else you'll only be using one of the CPUs...

So is an SMP kernel an option for MEDIAINLINUX or MANDRAKE 10.1?

i don't know what MEDIAINLINUX is, but i'm sure mandrake/mandriva provides an SMP (Symmetric Multiprocessing) kernel...

BTW, it's not really a distro thing, you should be able to compile and use an SMP kernel on any distro you wish even if the distributor doesn't provide a binary SMP kernel package...

but yeah, most if not all the major distros provide SMP kernel binaries...