Need a very lightweight disto

justinp526 · 07-06-2010, 08:03 PM

Can someone recommend a good distro that is very lightweight?
I have a socket 478 P4 Northwood @2.8GHz 800MHz FSB
EVGA GeForce 6200 AGP 256MB DDR2
512MB DDR333 which system underclocks to 320
40GB Maxtor HDD

This is all I have and can't afford to upgrade anything in this system.

I'm currently running Ubuntu 9.10 Gnome
I've tried Ubuntu 10.04 and it's a nice OS, but won't allow me to connect to any router via wireless card I use. It will show a connection and show 100% signal but no throughput and makes no difference whether its a secure connection or not.

I don't really want to go back to Windows, but I'm starting to get fed up enough that I may very well just go with WinXP Pro again.

Suggestions please?

linus72 · 07-06-2010, 08:31 PM

OK
the lightest Ubuntu I know of is my own!
http://multidistro.com/

it can run on my 266mhz 160mb ram 4gb hdd toshiba lappy quite well
the Debian version may be the lightest..

not sure about the wireless....but you can check it out

jefro · 07-06-2010, 09:09 PM

That isn't the worst box you know. We may be able to correct your network issue.

Slax, Vector, puppy and puppy clones, many of the top names but with lightweight window managers like xubuntu and such.

snowday · 07-07-2010, 08:28 AM

Switching to a lightweight distro will not solve your wireless issue. Use the "lspci" command (or "lsusb" if it's a USB device) to figure out which network card you have, and we'll take it from there.

SliTaz is my favorite super-lightweight distro. Puppy is also very popular. However, your hardware isn't that bad--you should be able to run just about any distro.

Mr. Alex · 07-07-2010, 09:29 AM

Linux Puppy, Tiny Core.

justinp526 · 07-07-2010, 06:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by snowpine

Switching to a lightweight distro will not solve your wireless issue. Use the "lspci" command (or "lsusb" if it's a USB device) to figure out which network card you have, and we'll take it from there.

SliTaz is my favorite super-lightweight distro. Puppy is also very popular. However, your hardware isn't that bad--you should be able to run just about any distro.

I have it all running from OpenSuSE 11.2 LiveCD right now. This is the output for lspci. I believe you're right about being able to run just about any distro. OpenSuSE live is running better than the full install of Ubuntu 9.10 is. Seems something has gone wrong with whats installed on the hard drive, causing a major slowdown.

Though, it seems there may be something going on with hardware as well. I'm seeing very low read/write speeds to/from DVD-RAM drives and USB flash drives. USB is 2.0 and best transfer rates I see are 2.8MB/s on average, with brief bursts of 4.6MB/s
Transfer rates with either DVD-RAM drive is only slightly faster with average of around 6.0MB/s and bursts of about 9.2MB/s

Code:

linux:/home/linux # lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82865G/PE/P DRAM Controller/Host-Hub Interface (rev 02)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82865G/PE/P PCI to AGP Controller (rev 02)
00:06.0 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 82865G/PE/P Processor to I/O Memory Interface (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev c2)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 02)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) IDE Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801EB (ICH5) SATA Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) SMBus Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 02)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV44A [GeForce 6200] (rev a1)
02:0a.0 Network controller: RaLink RT2760 Wireless 802.11n 1T/2R Cardbus
linux:/home/linux #

As a side note, I had set up Damn Small Linux and Puppy Linux on a couple of older laptops for a friend. Older meaning AMD K6 processors and only 64MB of RAM. They originally ran Win98.
DSL and Puppy are very nice distos indeed, though, a slight tricky to install.

jefro · 07-07-2010, 08:06 PM

http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=austrumi

confidenceb · 07-07-2010, 10:39 PM

[QUOTE=linus72;4025706]OK
the lightest Ubuntu I know of is my own!
http://multidistro.com/

it can run on my 266mhz 160mb ram 4gb hdd toshiba lappy quite well
the Debian version may be the lightest..

not sure about the wireless....but you can check it out
that might be nice choice

craigevil · 07-07-2010, 11:19 PM

The vendor driver for Ralink RT2760/RT2790/RT2860/RT2890 PCI 802.11n wireless LAN devices (rt2860sta) is included as a staging driver (amd64, i386 only) in mainline Linux kernels from 2.6.29. install the firmware-ralink package to provide the needed firmware.

You need a newer kernel and the firmware, the install procedure is going to vary depending on what distro you finally pick.
rt2860sta - Debian Wiki - http://wiki.debian.org/rt2860sta

Also take a look at Ralink corp. - http://www.ralinktech.com/support.php?s=2

innoshare · 07-08-2010, 02:26 PM

Puppy has come a long way and has plenty of live CD + persistent storage options.

Georgia SEO Company | Atlanta Web Design

baxzius · 07-08-2010, 03:46 PM

Arch linux is best for you!

justinp526 · 07-08-2010, 08:26 PM

Thanks everyone!
I've just finished wiping HDD with DBAN 1.0.7 and installed opensuse11.2

I probably should have spent a bit more time researching and all before just installing one. But I was really so aggravated by everything running so slow.

Either way, I'll probably end up having to do it all again soon anyways when I put new HDD in the system and free myself of this Maxtor burden! Took DBAN 2 hours to wipe a 40GB drive!! Throughput peaked at 37216 KB/s and average was ~25000 KB/s
I'll take that as a sure fire bet that it's best to get some new drives!!

As far as adding memory.. maybe if I can find a good deal on ebay. Went to the local office stores and electronics stores (Best Buy, Office Depot, Office Max) and they want $80+ for just a single 1GB stick of PC3200 DDR400. To make matters worse, thats all that seems to be available. Maybe I'll get lucky and find a 2GB dual channel kit on ebay or craigslist.