which linux versions suit : Pentium 4 cpu 1.8 Ghz 512 MB ram
 

suggestions of linux versions to suit : Pentium 4 1.8 Ghz 512 MB ram


System Type X86-based PC
Processor x86 Family 15 Model 2 Stepping 4 GenuineIntel ~1816 Mhz
BIOS Version/Date Award Software, Inc. ASUS P4S533-E ACPI BIOS Revision 1007, 18/09/2002
SMBIOS Version 2.3
Total Physical Memory 512.00 MB


Nice will be with updates still supported


Nice to find uses for old machines :-)

anything with lxde

should be ok with just 512MB, but if you can get more ram, that will help

I ran CrunchBang Linux on my old Pentium 4 (until I recycled it a couple of years ago).

http://crunchbang.org/

Mine was 3ghz with 1.5gb RAM, though, so YMMV.

You should be able to run anything on that, except the desktopenvironments that are simply to heavy for just 512MB (KDE 4, Gnome 3, maybe things like Cinnamon).
You seem to run openSuse, so try openSuse with LXDE, XFCE or one of the many window managers, like Enlightenment, one of the *boxes or Windowmaker.

It's generally best to get a distro with it's default GUI, since that's the one which gets the most users, and the one where any problems are quickly spotted and solved. Yes, OpenSUSE is available with Xfce: if you don't mind the occasional bug and missing components.

The CPU is fine, much like I'm using here, and only the memory is restrictive. You don't want something that says that 512MB is the minimum: that means it will just run and the next version may not. So reliable, easy distros that require less than 512MB are

SalineOS for Xfce
http://www.linuxquestions.org/review...page/15/sort/7

Exe Linux for Trinity
http://www.linuxquestions.org/review...page/15/sort/7

Zorin OS Light for LXDE
http://www.linuxquestions.org/review...page/15/sort/7

Im running slackware 14 on a machine with those specs. Fluxbox runs fine on it. Mostly tho i use it for a nameserver and to do setiathome work units.

That sounds like a Sony Vaio desktop I had. The maximum ram for the Vaio Rx-660 is 1 gig of DDR. See if you can find out how much ram your system will take (google) and then get that amount of ram. If you can get to 1 gig, you should be able to run most distros that don't come with a lot of eye candy.

i know that CentOS 5.9 will run on a old p4 with 512 meg ram
i had that installed on a old box
i then upgraded the ram to 1 gig
and have ScientificLinux 6.4 running on it

CentOS 6.4 or SL 6.4 should run
however if there is also a 10+ year old 3d card THAT might be a big problem

for example
i have a Nvidia Gforce 2 ( yes 2 ) mx 400 card
the current OLDER xorg in RHEL/CentOS/SL 6.4 dose NOT support that card
the version in RHEL/CentOS/SL 5.9 dose

i might add that with such a slow processor and limited ram that i would toss out the idea that you are going to get many high def video formats to run smoothly, but yes, most of the resources of a modern Linux distro are the heavy weight gui environtments, so a lightweight gui should do you well.

Just looked that up, the ASUS P4S533-E can handle up to 3GB.

Thanks :-)

Will look through the options, particularly for upgrades which seem may be availalbe to 3G RAM.

Everyone is assuming you want a GUI desktop. Do you? If you want commandline only - as in this system will be a "server" and not a "desktop" - then you have plenty of choices and don't need to worry about graphics capabilities, etc.

My Vaio owner's manual specifically said 1 gig. I'm sure someone had a hack for it, but I never wanted to experiment.

Anyway, if it's a Vaio, the OP can add in the RAM, add in an old (PCI slot) video card, and should be just fine with most distros.

The P4S533-E (which I doubt can be found in your Vaio, Sony mostly uses custom boards) has an AGP slot, no need for slow PCI video cards.

I'd try antix or crunchbang (#!)-

http://antix.mepis.org/index.php?title=Main_Page
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=antix

http://crunchbang.org/
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?dis...ion=crunchbang

Depending on where you get the RAM you would be looking at $30-50+ for each 1GB DDR1 stick.

Really not worth it IMO.....for the cost of 3 sticks you could get a new motherboard, CPU and 4GB DDR3 which would be much faster and use less power than the old P4.

Old geforce cards should wotrk with CentOS 6.4 just with nouveau, not the closed nVidia drivers.

Bit ironic to make a point about the defualt distro UI then link to Zorin Lxde....

I'd say give Antix a try.

It runs very fast on a Pentium 3 600mhz with 192mb of ram. I threw on lxde so it'd look nicer and it was still fast. I'm sure it'd be great on a P4 of any speed. It's very light on the ram.

http://antix.mepis.org/index.php?title=Main_Page

It comes with a nice control panel that I feel makes a lot of tasks simple to do that a lot of other distros don't include.

I have an older (2003? something) Acer Extensa 2300 (1.3 Ghz Celeron, half a Pentium) that come out with 256 MB RAM and it run a stripped down Debian Squeeze Gnome ok, I added an extra memory stick that brought it up to 512 MB RAM and it run well. I installed a stripped down Debian Wheezy with Gnome and it was just way to slow. I then tried the same Wheezy with LXDE, MATE, and XFCE and they are all fine with 512 MB RAM. Obviously the more RAM you have the better it will run but they all run at an acceptable level.

I have a few Dells (2 Ghz Pentium 4 with between 512 MB and 1 GB RAM) and they run Debian Wheezy fine. The graphics wont run Gnome Shell though.

The big thing is don't have to many applications open at any one time and you'll be fine. My 1GB RAM machines are ok with LibreOffice and Iceweasel (Firefox) and maybe one low resource program open at the same time but I wouldn't try to watch a video on VLC or listen to music with Banshee as well.

Thanks again to all :-)

Working my way through, so first tried what familiar and did install opensuse 10.3 then opensuse 11.0 OK (both retired) from CD/DVD, tried install openSUSE-12.3-DVD-i586.

openSUSE-12.3-DVD-i586 on USB failed to install, eventually discovered my bios of P4S533-E does NOT support Boot From USB drive.


Try to install openSUSE-12.3-DVD-i586 on disk also failed, still to resolve problem GRUB fails http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...6/#post4993030





Distrowatch makes it easy to consider which non-opensuse :-)
Whilst NON-Technical am a little adventurous :-)


CrunchBang apparently requires USB
(updating motherboard BIOS where to-date remain nervous)


Slackware 14.0 looks good so downloading to try :-)

http://www.slackware.com/install/sysreq.php





Linux a land of free choices :-)

CentOS or ScientificLinux 6.4 should install

and CentOS 5.9 WILL install and run fine , though firefox might be a bit slow

As far as CentOS 6 is concerned, Red Hat recommend 1GB and Stanford University's guide says "At SLAC, RHEL6 has been successfully installed on systems with 512 MB, but such systems have a tendency to bog down badly…" A quick look at top shows I'm using 543MB at the moment, with Opera and OpenOffice.

I'd repeat my previous advice, but it's your computer!

No, it doesnt. You can instal from optical media with crunchbang just fine.....though from the .iso size it would need a DVD or a 750MB CD (non-standard size, most are rated at 700MB but will normally fit 735MB/702MiB)

Noted comment from cascade9 :-)

After my weekly trip into town discovered my box of DVD's was empty, young culprit "helpers" educated dangers any repeat of this !

Shall work my way through...

Like see ways found to revive and make useful older, slower, less ram, computers which otherwise likely dumped, use or send them to others far less technical, who may benefit from them :-)




Information found at http://support.asus.com/

P4S533-E-----------------P4S533-E
---------------------------------
North Bridge-------------SiS645DX
South Bridge-------------SiS962
Hyper=Threading Support--No
DDR Socket---------------3
SDR Socket---------------N/A
MAX memory---------------3GB
Onboard Audio------------CMI 8738-6CH
USB 2.0 Ports------------6
Crash Free BIOS----------No
Post Reporter------------Yes
EZ Flash-----------------Yes
Q FAN--------------------Yes
C.P.R.-------------------No
Multilanguage BIOS-------Yes
IPanel-------------------Yes
Boot from USB------------No


Thanks to all :-)