ok, i have two really old computers. I want to run Linux on them. what distribution should i choose? I want to install Linux on the hard drive and not just boot it from a cd all the time. I have tried recently to boot the ubuntu desktop cd on them but it wouldn't work. I was thinking of using dsl or puppy linux, can you install these to the computer or are they cd only?

"really old" can mean almost anythign these days... some specs would be nice...

Distros for older Hardware:

Vector Linux
http://www.vectorlinux.com/

DSL
http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/

Puppy Linux
http://www.puppylinux.org/user/viewpage.php?page_id=3

Slackware
http://www.slackware.com/

SLAX Live CD
http://www.slax.org/

BeaFanatIX
http://bea.cabarel.com/

Elive:
http://www.elivecd.org/

Deli
http://delili.lens.hl-users.com/

Luit Linux
http://luitlinux.sarovar.org/

you can find more here

http://www.linuxlinks.com/Distributi...Distributions/
http://www.linuxlinks.com/Distributions/Floppy/

that's one of the problems. the computers don't really have a specific company or model so i don't know much of the specs. I couldn't find much in the BIOS either. Here's what I do know. One is a club software(?) computer with no usb slots, and uses the old keyboard and mouse plug-ins(the big ones). The other one runs the same bios as it but has two usb ports. they both have windows 98 installed on them. these clues tell me that these computers are pretty old.

The one with the older style keyboard/mouse is, at the newest, an older Pentium-class system, although possibly even a 486. BTW, the keyboard connector is "AT" style, and the mouse is probably a serial mouse. In all likeliness, you probably won't get much more than a command line system running on it, unless you go with an ultra-lite window manager like fluxbox. Even then, it probably won't be pretty. I'd probably go with Slackware or something based on it, preferably with fluxbox or IceWM as the default window manager, and using a 2.4-series kernel if possible

The other one could be anything from a late-model Pentium up to a Pentium 4, or the AMD equivalents, I'd probably look at debian etch for that, although you might want to remain consistent and use the same distro on both. ZenWalk also seems a decent alternative, especially if their new startup scripts are as good as they claim.

Right click on "My Computer" and select "Properties", it should tell you more there. Also, if DirectX 7 (?) or newer is installed, click Start>Run, then type "dxdiag" (without the quotes) and run it. Apologies if any of that is incorrect, it's been a good number of years since I've used Win98.

The BIOS should at least tell you how much RAM is in the computer.

The one with no USB is probably a Pentium computer. The fact that it's running Windows 98 instead of 95 probably means it isn't something older like a 486). Most likely, it has less than 64megs of RAM, and its best use would be what I'm using the 48meg computer I'm typing on for--a lightweight X terminal running remote software on a much faster computer.

The one with USB ports is probably a Pentium 2 or Pentium 3. It might have anywhere from 32megs of RAM to 256megs. The amount of RAM will determine what its best use is. If it's less than 64megs, its best use will be as an X terminal. If it's 128megs or more, it can run pretty well on its own (with Debian and other relatively efficient distributions, at least).

Are you going to have these computers on a network with other computers? If it's on a LAN with a nice fast computer (like 1Ghz or better), then they'll make good X terminals. The older computer will probably be a tiny bit sluggish, but the one with USB ports may run almost as fast as using the "fast" computer locally.

Setting up an X terminal is really easy. Assuming you use gdm, then all you need to do is allow remote logins on gdm on the "fast" computer (gdm has a GUI configuration window which is self-explanatory). Then, on either of the "slow" computers, you select gdm's XDMCP remote login chooser to remotely log into the "fast" computer.

Personally, I'd just install Debian on all of the computers. Even on the older Pentium, the option to log in locally might be used for...well, maybe for playing music.

wow.
Am impressed that you folks could work with so little info!

earlobe, you could definitely find out more? The hardware manager (98 has one if I remeber right, as amp_man pointed out)... and am sure the BIOS should have more info. google the part number ..whatever it takes.

Imagine what you can get out of these folks if you can at least name the processor (open it up!)

If you can confirm it to be a p3, I can tell you right away that debian (sarge/etch) with e16 (enlightnment, a window manager) works great. I have a p3 700Mhz, 192MB ram and I can play movies/sound perfectly.. in fact I also got quake 2 working :|

That comes from too many years of being too broke to afford a new pc

Meh, hardware manager shouldn't be necessary, and won't tell you much. The first properties screen should tell you how much ram is installed (minus any that might be dedicated to video, but I doubt there's any), along with the CPU model (or at least vendor) and hopefully the speed. CPUz can also give you more info about the CPU and ram, hadn't even thought about that. XP's hardware manager will tell you the CPU speed and ram size, but IIRC 98's won't.

Slackware or Zenwalk run beautifully on older hardware, you need at very least a 486 for recent Slackware versions though and Zenwalks' requirements are slightly higher. Assuming you are wanting a destop machine with XWindows, use a lighter window manager like fluxbox. You can run X and fluxbox quite nicely on 64 MB of RAM. You could use XFCE or Enlightenment if you have more RAM, about 128Mb. Avoid programs like Firefox and OpenOffice.org which are memory hogs.

If you've a live CD lying around, use it to boot up both machines, and watch the bootup messages (anything that you miss can be seen again using the 'dmesg' command).

You should be able to find what class of CPU both machines utilize, in addition to RAM amount.

If you don't have a live CD available, download one (Slax or Knoppix should do). If you've a slow connection (dialup, low level DSL), crack open the cases, write down information from the hardware (serial and/or model numbers) then commence to searching google.com.

I know that Slackware will run on almost anything down to a low-level 486...I've heard of 386-based Slacked machines.

ok. so i did some digging and here are some of the things i found. Let's call this computer 1's results. This is the comp. w/club software written on the front. it uses the old serial mouse input and bigger keyboard plug-in(so does the other one). I'm going to list my findings to make it easier to read.

Windows 98 4.10.1998

File System - 32 bit

Virtual Memory - 32 bit


VGA Memory - 1 MB

Direct X version 8.1 (4.08.01.1881)

USB - No (but it supports usb, it just doesn't have it onboard)

Processor - Cyrix M II - 233 (in mxdiag it was called Cyrix 6x86MX running at 183 MHz)

NVRAM - was mentioned as "OK" on startup

TX Pro II with video inside - motherboard video card on board

2.5 gb Western Digital hard drive

3 PCI slots - one taken up for phone jack

2 Memory slots (1 empty) - 31 MB. couldn't find any identification on memory module (looks like SDRAM. read something about SDRAM in BIOS. i have some old SDRAM memory so i could install it to see if it recognizes it)

250 Watt psu

there was a lot of stuff in the mixdiag dialog box. tell me anything specific you need from that. thx for all the help. i will post info. on the other computer as soon as i can check it out too.

i have a ubuntu startup cd but computer 1 or 2 wouldn't boot to it. when i tried to run it in "my computer" on computer 1 it said "Error Starting Program: The K-Melleon.exe file is linked to missing export MFC42.DLL:6860" the other dialog box that came up said "The Operating System denied access to the specified file".

That's computer 1? The stats on that computer are a bit higher than we guessed, based on the fact that it didn't have USB. The processor is a Pentium II compatible, rather than the Pentium class we were guessing. However, the amount of RAM is unfortunately very low. It's a 32 meg RAM module, of which 1 megabyte is set aside for the on board video. Unless you expand the RAM, you can pretty much forget about Ubuntu on it. The good news is that it should be pretty easy to expand the RAM--I'm guessing it uses 168pin SDRAM at 66Mhz. 100Mhz PC100 SDRAM should work in it, but avoid 133Mhz PC133 SDRAM.

168pin SDRAM is easy to identify--it has two "notches" rather than the single "notch" of more recent types of RAM.

The hard drive is a bit on the small side, but it's enough to fit a lightweight install. Assuming you stick with the existing 32 megs of RAM, you'll only be able to run lightweight applications anyway. Damn Small Linux is a good place to start.

no it isn't. Cyrix 6x86 is a socket 7 CPU, the "233" that your getting is it's P-rating, IE it, running at 183MHz, has about the same performance as a Pentium 233. The "M II" part is just a marketing name upgrade, intended to make it look like a new chip, when it really wasn't. oh, and some of the late socket 7 motherboards did have usb headers, but for some reason most manufacturers didn't bother with the usb dongles, since no one was using usb yet. You would also have to update to Windows 98se to really get the full use of USB, iirc the original 98 didn't deal with it very well.

edit: oops, the MII (6x86MX) had MMX. info. So it's Pentium MMX class.

Agreed. With 32MB of ram, you're probably not going to get any X system set up. But those later Pentiums with SDRAM sure make that easy, finding SIMMs these days is a royal pain. Just drop the biggest sdram stick you can find in, and see what the machine does. If it rejects it, try the next size smaller (i think the limit is 128mb per stick, not sure). If it works, and you have another stick larger than 32mb, replace the original one while you're at it.

Agreed. A full ubuntu install is roughly 2GB, so that's a bad choice. OTOH, on one machine I'm running debian etch fully off a 2GB compact flash card, with Xfce4/X.org, and I'm only using about half of it. That machine has 512MB of ram though, so there's no swap partition at all.

With the ubuntu install cd, you need to shut your computer down and boot off the cd, much like the windows install cd. In most cases, people dual-boot (ie partition their hard drive and install ubuntu beside windows), but with your situation you're probably going to need to whipe windows completely to have enough disk space.

Yeah I have two 128 MB sdram sticks. So i'll try one of them out. And when it comes to hard drives i have a 30 GB hard drive but i was planning on installing it in my good computer and have windows xp pro. and ubuntu both on it. Will an old computer accept a bigger hard drive? and i've downloaded damn small linux, but i haven't burned it to a disc yet. should i run the newest version of it, or should i try an older one? and i plan on wiping the hard drive to install linux so that's not a problem.