Hi, I am new here without any knowledge of linux.
I have an old Akura laptop with Pentium4 CPU @ 2.66GHz and 512Mb RAM .
Which linux distribution is best for this system? I would appreciate something lightweight and user friendly mostly for surfing the net and watching videos.
I have Windows XP installed and 30GB unpartitioned hdd space to use for linux alongside windows.

Thanks in advance.

AntiX is specialised for old machines.

Welcome to LQ! There are many distros that will run on a Pentium 4 but not many that will be happy with 512MB. Look here
https://thishosting.rocks/best-light...linux-distros/
A lot are listed as able to run in 512MB, but that doesn't mean they would run well. The software running probably won't take a lot of memory, but the system needs extra space to work efficiently. Of those listed as needing less than 512MB, not all are suitable for a beginner. I'd consider AntiX, Bodhi, or WattOS. It's some time since I last saw Bodhi and Watt, but I do remember liking them: they were actually easier than AntiX.

PS Remember that you can run Linux from the installation medium before installing, to make sure that you like it — and it likes your hardware.

I second AntiX.

Easy on resources - try & give it some swap space when you install it, (2GB should help).

One of the Puppy Linux Distro's might work.

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I have just tried installing lxle but it couldn't install. Then I tried with Q4OS 3.8. It went well... to some point. I installed it but when it tried to boot up it gave me an error.
error: attempt to read or write outside of disk 'hd0'. Entering rescue mode.
This happened the last time I tried to install linux alongside windows xp. On the same machine.
Now, I tried the solution for this as I have found on the net, but without any luck. I have set root, I have set prefix, but when I came to grub rescue > insmod normal, it returns the same error, attempt to write outside disk 'hd0'.
Why is this happening? The last time I came upon this error, I formatted the hard drive and reinstalled xp. Now, maybe I could install only linux but I have a few programs that I need windows for. Windows XP suits well for those programs but that's about it. Browsers are outdated, can't open every page, can't play all the videos online. That's why I want linux too. I have had once ubuntu installed alongside windows xp on this same laptop but that was ages ago, it was, as I can remember, when ubuntu's new unity desktop was presented. Then, it worked well. Now, either I'm too old or the laptop is definitely gone. But xp flies on it...

No modern linux distro, however light, will give you what you want ie 'for surfing the net and watching videos' since the web itself needs at least 1GB RAM for it to be bearable.

I'd suggest checking the manufacturer's website (or the manual if you have one) to find out whether you can add more RAM to this box.

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Do you have a favourite already? I'd say there are two parts to this:

1. which distros have a light weight installer.
2. in which distros can you easily select to run a lightweight window manager / desktop and run a small browser that won't run javascript.

For 1. I can vouch for debian and slackware. For 2. the same two (probably everything can do #2). Of the two I'm most familiar with, I'd recommend Slackware especially. If you are open to non-Linux, then any of the BSDs should do the trick too. Well, I don't know how much memory TrueOS uses. You probably should stick to vanilla FreeBSD if you go that way.

I'm typing this from Slackware running twm as the window manager with a couple of xterms and tor-browser running. top shows 928 MB used, but of that three firefox / tor-browser processes are taking 600, 388, and 84 MB of what top calls resident memory. As usual memory numbers are confusing. Some of those stats for firefox are probably the same memory from libraries counted three times, but you get the idea. From there down, Xorg takes 41 MB resident, tor itself 11 MB, emacs 14.5 MB, and the rest have single digit megabyte values.

If you can use gopher and a web browser like dillo or w3m instead of firefox or other large browsers that run all the javascript, you can probably get by quite well with 512 MB. A way to think of a Linux distro is as a Unix system on which runs a 2nd operating system, one that could have been Smalltalk but ended up being this half baked accretion of junk we call a web browser. GNU and Linux can run perfectly well with much less than 512 MiB, but this other environment running on top of it, you can't really have that unless you stick more RAM in the machine. You have to take an approximation to it, one that doesn't run most of the code (the javascript) and doesn't pre-allocate obscene amounts of RAM just starting up. That is to say you're not so much in need of a lightweight distro as you are a lightweight web environment or you need to avoid the web entirely. (There probably are some distros whose installers can't run in 512 MB though.)

So, how can I get pass "entering rescue mode"? Formatting again? I think I cant just format the linux partition, I have to format the whole disk. The last time I tried installing linux, I formated the disk 4, 5 times. It's getting so hard&pointless, I feel so frustrated. Is there an install manual that shows you all the moves, step by step? There was a moment in partition setup when it asked me about the windows installation, it said "use as..." and I had to configure the file system but there wasn't an option to use it as ntfs, like it is. So I had to leave this blank. I created en ext4 partition and a swap partition. The windows partition had the boot up flag (only one could have the flag). I couldn't find anywhere an answer, suggestion, advice for newbees for what's what. You have to be a linux expert in order to install it. Or install it on a new machine. And, is there a troubleshoot if the troubleshoot doesn't work? Is there a way to revert the installation process? How can I get rid of the grub loader if it doesn't do its job? I have two OS' installed but neither one is working.

Take a look at SliTaz, you can run it 'live' or install it 'frugal' as well as install it normally, it is a very light weight distro.

http://www.slitaz.org/en/

So, I guess there isn't a solution to "entering rescue mode" and "grub rescue >"? Again, my only option is to format the hard disk. I don't know what went wrong. Maybe this laptop is alergic to linux. Tried almost ten times to install it and I guess I'll just give up. Until I forget how it was :-) A couple of years later. Looking backwards, this is probably my fourth or fifth time trying to install linux alongside windows on this laptop. Several attempts per trial. That's a lot. And it only worked in the beginning.
I have tried Ubuntu, Debian, openSUSE, Fedora, antiX, PCLinuxOS, Lubuntu, Peppermint, Q4OS, Slackware, Vector, MX Linux, Gentoo, LXLE, Puppy, DSL... It only worked with a few, like Ubuntu, PCLinuxOS, Peppermint, Puppy... But, for some reasons I guess I had to reinstall, weather because of no updates available, or no drivers for some device, or hdd fault (had to change it twice) or whatever... Now I just can't do it. I had 1GB RAM at one moment and it didn't made any difference since I can't get to install it properly.
I guess linux has evolved too much for older machines. It doesn't work "revive your old computer" anymore. Or at least the meaning of "an old computer" is not quite the same. Ah, I'd better get to work, format&install windows xp. It is rather old OS, but it works fine and it installs without any troubles. A little bit of a struggle with the browsers though.

This is very true. You need a modern web browser to surf modern sites.


w3m is a text based browser. Who wants this in 2019?
The problem with dillo is you probably couldn't visit half the sites you wanted as they wouldn't work right.

Wow a Smalltalk fan from the 1990s on a rant.

To most people avoiding the web is the same as avoiding computers in general. It is the main reason most people own a computer.

'Obscene' is relative. You can get 4GB of Crucial DDR3 RAM for $23US. If a browser allocates 500MB just starting up that is a whole $2.88US of RAM. Less than a burger. Modern software such as browsers are created wrt modern hardware capabilities. The problem is ancient boards can't be expanded beyond a certain point and use discontinued memory which even if available are multiple times the cost of new memory.

In 2011 my single-core P4 from 2006 with 1GB of RAM was too small for Java programming. The MB could be expanded to 2GB. Problem was 1GB of RAM for the machine was over $50. I could get 4GB of DDR3 RAM for less. I ended up buying a new i7 4-core with 8 GB RAM which I am still using now. There is a limit to how much old boards can be expanded. Financially it is better to buy a used computer say 5 years old at far less than half price than try to upgrade a 15 year old box.

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Antix requires 256 MB of RAM. You have according to your first post 512 MB.

Give Antix a spin. It should boot for you.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AntiX

https://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=antix

If you still run into trouble.....
Look on the mobo and see if there is an additional slot/slots for RAM.

Here's the link to the specs:
https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us...3-mhz-fsb.html

The laptop itself is antient and can't be upgraded. I appreciate all of your help but I guess there isn't any solution for "grub rescue>" condition, so I'll just format the hdd and install the xp again. It serves its purpose enough with it. I use it only for my accounting program and it has no problem running it and ms office as well. So, I'll just have to manage it without the internet. I just can't figure out why couldn't I install linux. I guess I'm getting old...