Which OLDER version of Slackware for ancient notebook?
 

I've got an 11 year old HP Omnibook XE2-DB that I've previously tried with Windows 2000 SP4 and Damn Small Linux frugal install. (Only 1 OS at a time on HD.)

Here's the hardware:
Pentium II 333MHz
256MB RAM (max possible)
4.6GB 4200RPM ATA/IDE Hard Drive (IBM Travelstar)
Silicon Motion LynxE video card (2MB memory)

I had a 40GB 5400RPM HD in it that died a couple of weeks after the warranty expired. Windows 2000 was OK with that HD. Old IDE HDs are too expensive where I live now, so I put the original 4.6GB drive back in.

I've thought about the Slackware, but the latest version seems to ask for a faster CPU and a bigger HD than I've got. Is there someone who knows about the older Slackware versions who can suggest one that'll work without any hassles? It'd be stupendous if I could get a D-Link DWL-G630 wifi card to work with it too.

I installed Slackware 12.1 on a P-II 266 and hat it playing (barely) videos with sound under X. I might have had a little more memory. Since you can install Slackware in under 30 minutes (well, I can, choosing everything), why not just try 13.1 and see how it runs? Obviously, everything's on going to fit (the install admonishes you that you need over 6GB for everything, except KDEI).

hth,
dnm

why not use 13.1 or current?
I run ARCH testing on my 266mhz 160mb ram 4gb hdd lappy
http://multidistro.proboards.com/ind...play&thread=38

I had -current installed before that and no issues

Older versions of Slackware
 

You'll want to try and run as current a version of Slackware as possible, the older versions were difficult to get running on laptops. I'm talking about Slackware 1.0-2.0 that I installed way back when on my spanking new 486-DX2 With a whopping 8MB of ram (cost me over $300 and that was cheap at the time). Seemed easy on the desktop but when I tried to run it on my Toshiba Satellite at the time it was driver hell.

The site says this about the requirements:

* 486 processor
* 64MB RAM (1GB+ suggested)
* About 5GB+ of hard disk space for a full install
* CD or DVD drive (if not bootable, then a bootable USB flash stick or PXE server/network card)


So you should be fine. The 5GB+ stipulation is for a FULL install. All packages. Just be picky about what you install don't go nuts.

I've heard of Slackware 7 to 10 running well on Pentium IIs, start with the highest version and work your way back, they've made the installs ridiculously easy since the early versions. I remember looking at the install list and exclaming "Biff!?!" what do I need Biff for? Turns out I didn't... :)

I'm rusty on the newer versions of slackware so I can't help you beyond that, hope it helps a little.

Thanks to everyone who posted a reply!

OK, so I want to try a very minimal install of 13.1 in order not to use up all of my 4.6GB HD. All I want is X, a desktop, ethernet, a minimal browser, the ability to try to get my wifi card going, maybe USB; probably need a minimal text editor and some sort of package manager.

There are 6 ISO image torrents on the slackware site, so how few of these and which one(s) do I need? Can I get by with just the first 3 ISO images listed at http://www.slackware.com/getslack/torrents.php or even fewer? I'm not big on command-line only Linux; I'd like to have X. I'm sure I will never look at any source code. I just want to install and use slackware linux.

Is there a way to install just disc 1 and get the rest of what I need via downloads with a package manager? I don't see Gnome listed on the disc images, just KDE--what's up?

I've had no problems in the past creating bootable CDs of other Linux distro ISO files in Windows using ImgBurn, so that's what I hope to do with Slackware too. Too bad there's not a live CD so I could check it out before installing it.

Its been a long time since I've installed using cd's (I just use the full dvd now), but it looks like you would want disc 1 and 2. Disc 1 in itself should be enough to get you up and running but it does not include X or any of the X applications (XAP). From the sounds of it, you want that stuff.

Disc 3 is only KDE and I wouldn't try to run that on the system you specified. Discs 4-6 are just source code for all the applications.

Wicd (manages wireless networks) is in /extra which appears to be on disc 4. I wouldn't bother getting disc 4 though. Just go to a mirror and download wicd if you want it.

Gnome is not officially supported by Slackware anymore. There are third party sites that can offer it though.

Grab images first and second. The third image contains KDE -- the desktop environment useless in your case. The fourth one image contains some extra packages. Instead of download the entire ISO it's more convenient to install extra packages after downloading them separately. Fifth and sixth ISOs contain packages' sources.

current Live cd's won't work on older hardware anyway.

I'd say 12.2, since that's a recent and up to date, maintained version of slackware. Or maybe 13.1, since there's some new stuff that notebooks can benefit from ( intel graphics e.a.).

You don't wan't Gnome or KDE to run on that kind of hardware,.. or atleast: not as they are presented to you by default. Eyecandy is what you do not want. XFCE is a little lighter, and ran smooth on my old(er) laptop,. maybe you could use a very lightweight window manager like fluxbox. Remember: X is just the 'windows' bit, the WindowManager gives you the 'theme': how it looks and feels.

The lighter the windowsmanager, the less hardware performance you need ' just to have a visual ' and the more resources are left to use for the programs you run.

There are a lot of options to install slackware, but the default would probably suit you best: without KDE it'll probably be down to 2 discs.

OK, thanks again folks!

I'm getting the disc 1 and 2 torrents now. They're downloading pretty fast, unlike some torrents I've previously suffered through. I'll skip KDE and go with a lighter desktop; xfce should be fine.

Is there some sort of guideline presented for partitioning when you install Slackware? Should I make a 1024MB swap partition? I've got 512MB of memory.

It's been a while since I tried installing a linux distro to a HD. One bootable partition for the kernel + linux, an ext2 partition for user data and possibly a swap partition is what I remember. Also grub for booting.

I don't have a wireless network per se. The building I live in has free wifi (WPA2-PSIK) but the connection's too slow for me. What I wish I could do with this old lappy is get a linux distro I like on it and get my D-Link DWL-G630 to work so I can take the old clunker to a wifi hotspot and surf the net while slurping coffee. I'm not going to put any personal data on the machine nor save any passwords, etc. As long as it keeps running, fine. If it dies, if I drop it, if it's ripped off--no great loss and no personal data lost.

If you're going to install -current or 13.1 on that small HD I would use a 512 MB swap partition. That will leave you a little over 4 GB for the install. You will need to do a custom install on your PC as a full install won't fit on your HD. Slackware uses lilo as the default boot loader and it never fails to work properly for me. If you plan to run X windows you will need to run something very light, Fluxbox may fit the bill for you.
Older hardware will run -current just fine by the way. My oldest -current box is a PIII 667 MHz IBM 300PL with 256 MB RAM (I run Fluxbox on that unit).

Slackware defaults to lilo. Grub is in extra though if you prefer it

Hmmm, I just looked at my install tree and it looks like grub is available as source only.

It's not even available on the 64 bit disk.

I ran 12.1 on a Thinkpad 600E. It had 192 megs of memory and a 233 mhz processor. I ran fluxbox on it. It worked well enough that my daughter hijacked it and used it for 3 years of highschool. If 13.1 doesn't work or is too heavy, I'd suggest 12.1. It ran pretty well.


Chet

I was wrong about my RAM
 

I've only got 256MB of RAM as my original post indicates, not 512MB, so a 512MB swap partition will be right for me. I haven't used LILO before, but I'm not interested in compiling source code, so this installation will use the LILO boot loader. I think xfce will be OK for me too; it's pretty light.

I've downloaded the old Slackbook, which will be of some help with the installation. I've burned the installation CDs. The MD5 checksums on the ISO files were good.

My concerns are getting XOrg right for my graphics card (some distros can't handle it at all while others get it right, no problem) and the impending hell of trying to get my wifi card going--I'm not holding my breath here.

I definitely need PCMCIA, so I need the supplemental pcmcia.dsk file when I do the install. I'm not too masochistic so I'm going to take a day off and try the install tomorrow, beginning with deleting the sole Windows 2000 partition then partitioning the HD.

As always, thanks to everyone who has posted replies.

The newest Xorg should automagically identify your graphics card and set-up X windows with little or no intervention on your part. When you get to the part of the install that asks you to set-up your network skip that part. After the install I would install wicd which is in /extra. Wicd is very good at detecting, setting up a wireless connection.

Of course, as a very basic test I usually run a iwconfig just to make sure that the card is actually being used. If a wlan0 doesn't show up and have wireless extensions then something is wrong.

Generally that indicates to me that the kernel doesn't recognize the hardware and perhaps I would need to look into madwifi or ndiswrapper or even check to see if the manufacturer has their own Linux driver.

I haven't used those in years now though anyway. The last time I bought a wireless card I checked for compatibility first.

quick question
 

Do I need anything from category D, Program Development Tools, if I'm just going to be a plain vanilla user?

TIA.

I believe that you would need some of those tools to build slackbuilds packages.

Also, if you end up trying to get any tools off of other sites it may become necessary. Often times you will find a .deb or a .rpm prebuilt on a site but very often I end up having to build from source for Slackware.

If you are happy with what is included on the Slackware cd's then you would be fine.

Failed :-( Video card hell
 

I printed out the installation HOWTO from disc 1 and read it a couple of times. I had it next to the antique lappy as I did the install so I could reference it.

Nothing I do can get the video card going. I'm going to open a separate thread in the Slacker Installation Forum rather than pursue the problem in this thread.