[SOLVED] What is a good distro for a tiny laptop?

Gregg Bell · 03-29-2016, 11:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ztcoracat

You're Welcome.

Are you suspicious that the CDROM drive on it's way out?

-::Try other CD's and different usb flash drives and see if they are recognized.-::-
-Clean the CDROM drive with one of those cleaning disk's maybe it's dirty?
Replace the cdrom drive if that's an option.

Thanks Ztcoracat. I never thought about the CD drive being bad. I don't know, this laptop has been like the Bermuda Triangle of laptops. The CD drive is new. In fact maybe its' too new. (I've never used it.) I'll try a different USB flash drive. Something's gotta give, right?

Gregg Bell · 03-29-2016, 11:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Doug G

If you want to try something real small and pretty new, you could try stali http://sta.li/
I'm going to give it a test drive soon an initial 30'ish mb iso is appealing.

Thanks Doug. Wow, that is really small. Unfortunately it looks like it's 64 bit and my laptop is 32 bit.

273 · 03-30-2016, 11:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shadow_7

You don't really "have to". I do debootstrap installs which is basically installing debian in a chroot. For me this bypasses having to download the netinstall iso that is often bigger than my base install before I boot it or upgrade it. It also lets one download firmware for networking and use the browser of the host distro to walk one through the process. You could also upgrade to sid, but I tend to stick with stable on my slow interwebs. If I need something newer, it's normally the kernel or firmware, not the packages. Which is a tolerable customization relative to the headaches of other distros.

Can Sid be installed dirrectly though? And, also, that does mean having a working install in the first place?
Good idea though, but I meant more that there is no official Sid net install rather than one must install Debian only one way.

rokytnji · 03-30-2016, 12:05 PM

Quote:

Can Sid be installed dirrectly though?

How I handle it

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

https://distrowatch.com/table.php?di...tion=siduction

Though I also do experimental repos in AntiX also as well as Sid repos depending on my gear.

273 · 03-30-2016, 12:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rokytnji

How I handle it

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

https://distrowatch.com/table.php?di...tion=siduction

Though I also do experimental repos in AntiX also as well as Sid repos depending on my gear.

Nice links, thanks, though I do tend to avoid distributions like this as I'm never sure how well they'll work a year or two down the line when dist-uprading, yet Sid is fine as long as one remains vigilant. I'll take a look, though, as I like choice and with some hardware it's easier to go another route.

jamison20000e · 03-30-2016, 09:06 PM

Sid is available as an .iso but like the non-free included ones you have to know what to search.

Another option and how I fond some is to go (NO PUN) rooting around their mirrors e.g: https://www.debian.org/mirror/list

http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/un...ding-firmware/

Shadow_7 · 03-31-2016, 01:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 273

Can Sid be installed dirrectly though? And, also, that does mean having a working install in the first place?
Good idea though, but I meant more that there is no official Sid net install rather than one must install Debian only one way.

I never tried sid directly, but the arch, distro, and archive URL are some of the parameters passed to debootstrap. I used debians debootstrap to install ubuntu 14.04 just last week. Even if you can't, the initial install is 200MB-ish when you're ready to chroot. With the first steps in the chroot being to set a root password, update the apt sources, and install a kernel image to make it bootable. I tend to use the existing installs bootloader to boot it the first time. But you can install and configure grub while in the chroot. It's great for making bootable usb sticks. But it does require an existing install (or live disc).

garryg68 · 03-31-2016, 07:38 AM

I got Puppy Linux Running on machines that are older than this.
Puppy seems relatively straightforward to install and setup compared to some other things I've tried.

Just my opinion though, I'm definitely no Linux expert!

I had an old thread asking a very similar question, which may be of some interest to you:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...laptop-780494/

Gregg Bell · 03-31-2016, 01:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by garryg68

I got Puppy Linux Running on machines that are older than this.
Puppy seems relatively straightforward to install and setup compared to some other things I've tried.

Just my opinion though, I'm definitely no Linux expert!

I had an old thread asking a very similar question, which may be of some interest to you:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...laptop-780494/

Thanks Garry. Yeah, I think Puppy may be good for me. And thanks for the link.