Quick update. The only distro that would install was anti-x. There are a few others suggested that I haven't tried. I'm going to mess with this for a bit first.

In answer to your question about the Arch dual ISO, yes it has both 64 and 32 bit versions. That said, Arch is abandoning support for 32-bit later this year.

Cheers :-)

For the most part download the .iso for your computers architecture. ie) 32 or 64-bit.

Most distribution work unless there isn't support for the wifi card on the mobo. That can easily be remedied by purchasing a usb wireless adapter that works with Linux.

http://www.wirelesshack.org/top-linu...-adapters.html

Glad to hear that Anti-X worked. I suspected that it would since you said it's an older machine.

If you haven't been able to get the wifi in Anti-X to work go to:
Menu > Control Centre > Network > Network Interface > wlan0 > and follow the Wizard and give your ESSID and passwd.

I successfully installed anti-x but that was the only one. Everything else failed. arch dual has to be installed from within another distro. I went back and tried to install anti-x but it won't accept my root password in the control center. I thought I had wireless working before but I didn't. Now I'm completely stumped. There may be something wrong with this laptop.

Why would you re-install anti-x after it was already installed?
Did it not boot up?

If you are suspicious of hardware failure or the functionality of your laptop is suddenly shady you can run SMART.

http://www.asrdata.com/forensic-soft...art-for-linux/
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/S.M.A.R.T.

Takes just a few minutes to reinstall antix. The sudo and root password are the very last step in the installer. You must have had caps on or something. Anyhows. There is a show passwords check box so you can see what you are typing at the end of the install process when it comes to sudo and root passwords.

If the laptop hard drive is on it's last legs. That will cause hiccups. That was the 1st thing I fixed on my IBM T23.
I run a wirless pcmcia card on mine. Not enough usb space to waste for wireless on my 1.1 usb ports.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DLink-WNA-13...QAAOSwg3FUbGGj

Wireless G fits that laptop just fine. I posted the same card I use in mine that works with kernel out of the box.

If you post a terminal readout of

with your AntiX install that is presently installed., Members can see your hardware and other specs.

I hope you md5sum checked your Linux downloads before making them install cds or usb's.

Youtube is chock full of what md5sum means and how it works.

I had to reinstall anti-x because I got through part of the install on one distro. Everything is working now except wireless and that driver is just not available. I am going to have to buy a wireless adaptor.

Yes, I always check my md5sum or sha256sum.

Arch dual does not need to be installed from within another distro. As a matter of fact - I've never actually heard of anyone doing it that way. It is a live distro ISO, like most.

If you decide to give it another look, let us know and we can see you through.

Cheers !

bsth123: as with your other threads, without the often requested console output and a bit more to go on, your thread can only ever be endless speculation (followed by you giving up, etc).

The laptop detailed in your original post is listed as using either:

"Mini PCI adapter v Intel PRO Wireless 2200BG Mini-PCI Adapter"
"Intel PRO Wireless 2915ABG Mini-PCI"

Both of these are supported by the in tree ipw2200 driver.

Sorry for not responding yet. I'm having all kinds of problems. As far as arch when I booted it gave me an error that it couldn't find a kernel. I'm installing it on my netbook. I haven't given up.

edit: ok now it just freezes and I can't log in, I think I'll give arch another try.

Ok, when I try to install arch I get this error message:

When you boot the Arch dual ISO, you are given several choices in the menu that pops up. Since, as previously mentioned, your system is 32 bit, you must choose the 2nd option: "Boot Arch Linux (i686)", and NOT the 1st option "Boot Arch Linux (x86_64)".

Let us know how it goes !

*** EDIT *** As mentioned in one of my earlier responses, Arch Linux is phasing out 32-bit support later in the year. You must use (as specified on the Arch Linux site) the February 2017 ISO or earlier to install 32-bit.

I tend to use debian. Especially on old things that don't need anything resembling bleeding edge. It's the least effort and least bandwidth for me. With the highest odds of being bootable.

I'm sorry but I did run that command but just couldn't post it. I got the i386 version of debian installed and I even repartitioned my hd for another distro. I'm checking out other i386 distros on distrowatch. I think I'll save arch for my laptop when I get it back.

Shadoe_7 thanks for the suggesion!