A version of Linux for 'net access, using a wireless dongle, and 256MB RAM?
 

Hello, first time poster and *total* Linux beginner here, though I'm fairly experienced with Windows. Anyway, my mother has been given a Dell laptop with 256MB RAM and Windows XP (XP with less than 512MB is awful!) and she wants to use it just for internet access, so a quick google found Browserlinux at

http://www.browserlinux.com/

which I downloaded and burnt to a CD-R to test it (I would install it to the hard drive if it worked, of course, though I don't know how to do even that, yet), but it didn't see the dongle that I'd plugged into the laptop (the laptop has no hardware Wireless built in), so it couldn't access the 'net. The dongle is an EDIMAX EW-7711UTn, and I think the Linux driver is at

http://www.edimax.com/en/support_det...2&button=Go#01

but I don't know how to install this driver into Browserlinux, or any other version of Linux, so please can someone help me to do this, or instead recommend a different version of Linux that requires 256MB of RAM or less to run well, and has the driver for this dongle built in. The laptop only has to be used for 'net access, e-mail, Youtube, etc, nothing else, so if it boots straight into the browser then that's fine, as long as it can use the wireless dongle.

Thanks for any answers, and please don't assume even the most basic of Linux knowledge on my part, I honestly don't even know the file extension for executable Linux files.

Haven't tried it myself. But you could have a look here :)

http://puppylinux.org/main/Overview%...%20Started.htm

Puppy Linux seems to be a very lightweight OS. Not sure if it supports the dongle. But I'd give it a shot if I were you :)
Pretty sure you can run it as a live CD before installing it. So you can check if it works.

You pose a sort of difficult to answer question.

Let me try to break this down a bit. That may be a RT2870 Wireless chip. Not an easy chip to get working I believe.
Second is that browser linux. All of the specialty type distros tend to be more difficult to get working. Source code tends to need many other files and programs. One of the reasons it is small is because it doesn't have all those extra files.

It may be easier to buy a common supported usb wireless nic.


As to this distro, we'd need to know more about it. What is the base, for example is it a debian or what?

I might be tempted to try some of the other made for old system distro's before I put too much work into this linux.

DSL is still a good choice and still made for older hardware.

Xpud might be a choice too.

Austrumi might work.

I like Slitaz no matter who says what about it.

The only limiting issue with the 256 is that you might be able to get some of the ones listed at www.distrowatch.com to work by selecting one of the alternate choices of window managers. Some of the common distro's offer a choice that may work on this system.

Other choices might be Vector, Antix and even Slackware,

Try Slax too maybe.

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=50059

uname -r in terminal should give the browser linux kernel version you are using. Use only the .pet that fits your kernel version.

kernel version is in the pet description

If confused. You can post in that thread I guess also.

Found these also

http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=71889

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/vie...=481085#481085

Puppy takes some Sherlock Holmes skills to find info. So I suggest you use

http://wellminded.com/puppy/pupsearch.html