[SOLVED] Easiest to use linux distro for i486

kabars_edge · 03-11-2011, 08:39 PM

applecheeks,

I would recommend Debian since it's an older system. Ubuntu is great, but it's by default a little graphics heavy, and you definitely want to stay away from the Red Hat derivatives (CentOS, Fedora); they are very graphics heavy by default. Debian's x86 installer will work for your 486, as it's an all inclusive x86 kernel. It will also allow you to install a lightweight x-windows-manager like XFCE. Of course, Ubuntu has LXDE, which would provide the same lightweight feel. I will say, however, Debian is not for the faint of heart. I've been using Debian for 10 years, and it's like that hot girl/boyfriend that you have the volatile relationship with; when it's good, it's really good, but if it get's bad, it can get really bad. Good luck to you and welcome to LQ.org.

HTH,

applecheeks · 03-11-2011, 09:57 PM

is there a quick way to showing you guys my system information? can i enter some sort of line into the terminal and get the information needeD?

Ignotum Per Ignotius · 03-12-2011, 08:26 AM

Quote:

is there a quick way to showing you guys my system information? can i enter some sort of line into the terminal and get the information needeD?

The software on your system's liable to be different from mine, so I'm not sure what you have at your disposal. My preferred tool for listing hardware is called lshw --- it may or may not be installed on your machine. Log in as root and try:

Code:

lshw -short

If that doesn't work then lshw is probably not installed on your machine. Of course you can simply install it if you wish, but it's possible that your distribution already includes a tool similar to lshw --- I can't say. Maybe someone else can shed light on this...

...Anyway, you can always find information about your CPU & memory from /proc:

Code:

cat /proc/cpuinfo /proc/meminfo

For information about your PCI devices, issue the command

Code:

lspci

...And if you want even more (and can wait an age for the benchmarking to complete), you could try

Code:

hardinfo -f html > hardwareinfo.html

(here the output is in HTML and is redirected to a file which can be viewed in a web browser).

Also, you can have a look at what the kernel spits out during the boot process:

Code:

dmesg

Again, though, there's a lot to sift through, so you may want to redirect it to a file or pipe it to a paging program and peruse it in order to pick out the interesting bits, e.g.

Code:

dmesg | less

Anyway, I hope this helps. Good luck!