Choosing Linux distributions and software for old or antique computer

Reziac · 08-07-2019, 01:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrmazda

As shipped the G400/G450 may not have, but BIOS upgrades were (are?) available to cure that, maybe even to 2.1 or 3.0. I upgraded multiple G400s to 2.1, but that was at least a decade ago. Last I looked, Matrox seemed to have removed them from its website.

Probably hard to find BIOS updates for most old cards

and most that you'd find in the dumpster are going to be factory original, with no updates.

I hate when manufacturers remove old support files -- no, it doesn't force us to upgrade, it just makes us look elsewhere!

Reziac · 08-07-2019, 01:58 AM

Linux Display Driver - x86
https://www.nvidia.com/Download/driv...px/71302/en-us
includes GeForce FX 5700

I have no idea how you apply it -- maybe someone will chime in there?

mrmazda · 08-07-2019, 03:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reziac

(Apparently so did Dell; it's the video chip in the R510 -- and that chip is now about 20 years old!)

The Dell server G200 apparently has some modifications from the old G200s. https://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_b...?id=1004453#c9

Reziac · 08-07-2019, 06:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrmazda

The Dell server G200 apparently has some modifications from the old G200s. https://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_b...?id=1004453#c9

Thanks, that's interesting info.

Hopefully mine won't make me think.. "BUGS! why did it have to be BUGS!!"

Kitsep · 08-08-2019, 12:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reziac

Linux Display Driver - x86
https://www.nvidia.com/Download/driv...px/71302/en-us
includes GeForce FX 5700

I have no idea how you apply it -- maybe someone will chime in there?

Drivers do exist, but only for older versions of Linux. Nvidia stopped active driver support for the FX line of video cards (note: desktop, the FX quadro cards continued for some time) around 2013/14, and thus no modern linux distro will run that driver without modifications. I -could- fire up Ubuntu 12 and that would load it just fine, yes. I was just trying to see if modern linux versions would work on this computer and the answer is yes AND no. Yes they work, but No not with full compatibility. This computer feels pretty snappy until you try to do something that requires hardware acceleration. The only way that driver (which I'm 99% sure is for Debian) would work is if it were modified.

I could be wrong, but I remember loading up a Ubuntu 14 game in Ubuntu 16 when that first came out, and the game didn't work right, had all kinds of graphical glitches. The developer updated the game relatively quickly, but apply that same situation to this driver. Yes it might load, but it was written for an older kernel, it might rely on code that no longer exists, or might interface with new code in an unpredictable way. I'm willing to give it a shot, but odds aren't in my favor :P

mrmazda · 08-08-2019, 12:37 AM

My understanding is most distros' adoption of KMS enabled kernels and X in the 2008-2009 period initiated a culling of drivers for older hardware that had no one both capable of and interested in necessary driver rewrites. https://lists.x.org/archives/xorg-de...ly/058241.html lists some that may soon be lost if they haven't been already.