A Newbie ?
 

Ok I am sure this has been asked a million times by Newbies like me but I can't find an answer anywhere.

I decided to try out Linux so I have loaded Mandrake 10.1 onto my old 400 PII. Now it runs without incident for the most part but when I open certain programs I am having what I would assume to be memory issues (if I was running Windows 98). I am guessing it is a video card issue as I only have a 16M card in the old beast and everything today seems to need a 64+ card.

So what I would like to ask is… What are the system requirements for Mandrake 10.1?

Is there a version that would be better suited to a PII 400?

Thanks in advance.

try slackware ...

Why Slackware over Mandrake?
Difference being? Less memory intencive, better programming

Please enlighten the neophite



:newbie:

why i am saying that ???

coz personally i like slackware over mandrake and folow here

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=272090

regards

Of course, this site is overloaded with "slackers". ;)

I can't get to the Mandrake site from work (stupid corporate firewall) so I can't tell you the requirements, but one thing you didn't tell us was the amount of RAM in your system - not on the video card, but system-wide RAM. Most distros will have trouble with less than 64MB. I think for a standard Mdk install, you really want 128 or more, but you *can* install it in a "leaner" fashion. Of course, if you want to run some programs that require more, then you're still stuck.

Some distros that I know run in smaller RAM footprints are Feather Linux, and Damn Small Linux.

I don't think your problem is to do with your video card, I used to use a 4Mb sis card on Mandrake 8.x and it worked fine. Now I am using a 32Mb TNT2 card on my Linux system I am not into games etc so it's sufficient for my needs. Just make sure you have lots of RAM if running any OS on a slow CPU.

288 Ram. Ya I know bizzar # but I have 2 128's and one original 32.

Why is Linux memory requirements so much less than Windows?

Is the ever rising memory requirments of Windows systems simply a ploy to require users to buy new machines?

Oh so much to learn and so little time in a day

linux can be tuned a lot

from a palmtop OS to a desktop OS to servers

there is so much u can do with linux
so no matter u have less RAM ,linux can work for u

and BTW 288 is a good amount of RAM

regards

Do you really want to switch to a distro with a bunch of users who give answers like this?

Seriously Masand, comon.... help the guy... give him something useful or go annoy people in the slack distro forum.

Try what ever distro u like. You'll end up using slackware anyway...:D
I don't know masand personally, but he looks like a really nice person, who just wants you to save some time.
No really, slackware is not the most "newbie-friendly" distro in the planet, but is efficient and is ideal for users with older PC's. Most drstros try to fit everything in their releases and end up really bloated.

Remove the 32 MB RAM and see if your system works better. the 128 RAMs could be running underclocked, but using a 32 MB old Ram with newer rams, may cause some problems. If you don't see any difference, use it again.

I thought about that and I will give it a try. Thanks!

Does Linux allocate ram better or worse than Windows 98 does.

Just curious.

It might be helpful for us to hear what these "issues" are.

Is there a lot of disk activity, etc.?

Changing distros is not really a good or viable suggestion, but is a matter of personal user experience.

E.G. the Slackheads will tell you to switch distros to solve all of your problems.

A rather myopic response.

Mandrake leans heavily to KDE which in turn tends to be quite memory intensive.

But with Linux/Mandrake you can use whatever Window Manager and Desktop you desire.

If your system is light on RAM switch to a display manager that is likewise.

All of these are available to you once you set up the URPMI sources and are far easier to install and deal with than say (cough) Slackware...

You'll be able to run the same software as you would under KDE, but there will be less memory overhead.

Note: You should also make a few minor changes to yoru configuration.

Check the threads on "speeding up" Mandrake.

These minor changes have rather dramatic impact upon performance.

win98 is really old. I think it can not utilize a RAM bigger than 512MB. Linux tries to make use of all the ram available. I had 256MB of RAM after upgrating my RAM to 1024 I did not see any difference in Windows XP, but linux runs faster. The increase in the performance you get when you plug more RAM in your system is bigger in LINUX than in Windows.

i recommended slackware because this is what the thread starter also asked

" Is there a version that would be better suited to a PII 400?"

as far as mandrake is concerned,u need a good amount of RAM to run with kde and all stuff
instead ,u should try icewm or fluxbox or fvwm2 on mandrake

regards

Typing and mouse are sluggish. Programs get hung up and images load poorly or take forever to come up.