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dude67

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  1. Suggestions for a light distro for old hardware

    in Other Linux and Unix Distributions

    Posted · Edited by dude67

    you know I have a fairly full MDV install in my bedroom (Its been running so long i forgot about it) on my tv at 640x480.

     

    now i admit i only use this as a MYTH box, and most of my connections are through VNC, but it seems to work fine.

     

    now this is NOT daily "work" pc as I only really need to interact with it to program and "burn" shows, but it seemed ok there....

    Yes I had Mandriva 2007.1 running beautifully with KDE (OK, perhaps a bit slow...), but my biggest concern was that it didn't fit well in the 640x480 screen. This and the fact that I only need this PC to run my vids from my VCR so I only would need a very lean basic distro. This system does not even need to burn any CDs/DVDs since it only has a combo reader.

     

    Thanks anyway, mindwave. Appreciate your comment and support. :thumbs:

  3. Suggestions for a light distro for old hardware

    in Other Linux and Unix Distributions

    Posted

    The kernel panic at Arch first boot is actually a bug present only in the last Arch bootable ISO:

    ftp://ftp.archlinux.org/iso/2007.08.1/Known-Issues.txt

    Fixing it with one of the suggested methods is easy, IMHO the easiest one is picking the Fallback Image at first boot, logging in and remaking the ramdisk with

    mkinitcpio -p kernel26

    OK, thanks for that info. I'm planning to give Arch a second go tonight.

     

    so now you have to type a whole string of packages.

    What does that mean (remember, I have not worked with Arch at all => More fresh than a nooby :P )

     

    A workaround for it is due to be out soon.

    Any predictions as to how soon is soon? :huh:

  4. Suggestions for a light distro for old hardware

    in Other Linux and Unix Distributions

    Posted · Edited by dude67

    Thanks arctic, that is a helpful tip. I knew/should have known that, but for some reason I dind't remember to use it e.g. yesterday. I very seldom need to use that.

     

    So, thanks, I'll try to keep that in mind.

     

    But my problem with this is that I would really, really like to use a Window manager/Linux distro that would be designed for the low end resolution in mind...

     

    -EDIT-

    And the fact that it's not just installation that I'm having hard time with. E.g. in KDE the screen/desktop properties dialogue is bigger than my screen just to name one. I hate when I have to move the window around (or guess what's missing from my screen).

  6. Suggestions for a light distro for old hardware

    in Other Linux and Unix Distributions

    Posted

    OK, I did some installing yesterday. Unfortunately my time with this was a bit limited, but I managed to do the following (w/ the following errors...).

     

    I had burned two CDs: Arch linux and Xubuntu Feisty Fawn.

     

    First I wondered if I would be able to keep the /home partition where I had already DL'ed a bunch of vids from my PVR, but then desided I would not even try to do that as I feared it would mess things up or at least make it more complicated.

     

    The Arch experience

     

    I booted with the Arch CD. The first parts seemed OK, but I really cannot remember all the choices I made. The first thing I did was to choose the Finnish keybord set and the partition went well as far as I could tell (I partitioned the whole HD anew).

     

    I chose all the base packages (as suggested in the installation guide) and chose a few packages from the network packages (I could not find any madwifi packages).

     

    I made no changes to the config files (I chose vim editor), except at one point I alredy typed in my IP Gateway (192.168.254.254), but I was ahead of myself as I didn't have Madwifi installed and the only way this PC can communicate with outside world is the Atheros chipset WLAN PCI module. I do have Madwifi on my USB flash and I'm planning to install it after the system would be installed.

     

    OK I rebooted (with and without the CD inside) and every time got Kernel panic! It said something like it not find some partition, but cannot remember what it was exactly.

     

    I re-installed the whole thing, but I got the same Kernel panic.

     

    As I said I had limited time and had to pop out for awhile. When I got back, I decided to try Xubuntu.

     

    The Xubuntu experience

     

    I put the Xubuntu CD into the slot and booted.

     

    I saw some choices in the welcome screen where I chose e.g. the VGA screen and Finnish kb settings. Then I chose 1. for the installation.

     

    It went fine. I had some chores to do (yes, my wife makes me do work around the house... ;) ) at that time and went back in 20 mins Xubuntu was running! OK, I thought this goes nicely.

     

    The desktop however had no menus (no panels on top or bottom of screen) nor was it the resolution my TV set would have been happy with. There was a desktop, but none of the text-labels of the icons on the desktop were legible... I tried to find my way into the screen resolution menu with my RMB menu, but as I am not familiar with *ubuntu or xfce desktop, I felt like someone who had just lost his contact lenses...

     

    I had to bring in my flat panel from my main PC... Not a good sign as this was something I was hoping to avoid...

     

    Well, I got to the screen resolution menu, but there were only the following choises: Default (the one currently on with a far higher resolution than 640x480), 640x480 and 800x600. OK, I thought this is great, so I chose 640x480. But the screen was totally screwed. The best way to describe it is to say that it had vertical lines, but they were mixed and the all the lines were not in line with the next... I could see something changing when I moved my mouse or pressed tab to change the active selection in that window...

     

    Aahh, I thought, this is the TFT acting up for very low res. source. I changed to my TV set, but no help. It then returned (or I pressed cancel - don't remember which came first) to that higher resolution. I also tried the other res. of 800x600, but no help. It was the same...

     

    I rebooted and re-installed the system (remember, it was easy, it fired up the live version itself).

     

    Now I got better screen choises! There was even the possibility to choose 320x200 resolution! OK, I chose 640x480 and it worked fine!

     

    I started the installation with the shortcut on the desktop. Nice, but... Now I got the same problem I was running away from in Mandriva/KDE environment: With this resolution the whole installation dialog could not fit in my screen!!! Aaargh...! :wall:

     

    I changed back to a higher resolution (don't remember what it was now) and finished the installation process. That was all the time I had left yesterday for this project and shut down the system. I told Xubuntu to shut down (from exit) and took my TFT back downstrairs. When I returned one hour later, the PC had not turned itself off, but instead I had to press the power button and it shut down immediately...

     

    I'll do some more testing tonight, but I'm thinking of trying the Arch installation once more. I really was disapointed that the xfce didn't work well with 640x480 resolution screen. I'm hoping to try out the E17 wm that scarecrow was talking about. If that would work...

  8. Suggestions for a light distro for old hardware

    in Other Linux and Unix Distributions

    Posted

    Thanks again guys for your ideas. And for the short tutorial by scarecrow.

    :thumbs:

     

    I have thought of Xubuntu and haven't ruled that out yet. BTW how easy is the package installation in *ubuntu systems? I guess they are as plentyful as Mandriva's repos?

     

    But for now, I will first try out Arch.

     

    As for the choice of desktops, I think that xfce4 and E17 both look nice and lean.

     

    One thing though: Has anyone (recently, not years ago :P ) tried any of these WMs with VGA 640x480 resolution? As I stated, KDE in Mandriva is definitely not designed to work on that low resolution.

  9. VLC or mplayer install help

    in Software

    Posted

    I am fairly new to linux. Can you elaborate what should i install and how should I install that?

    I had the exact same problem as you are having, until I found this how-to link. I'm not very good at tuning my system and this helped me to get videos running in Firefox on my 2007.1 Free.

     

    I've posted this same link a few times and if you bear with it, this how-to will help you establish a nice desktop system of your Mandriva Spring (2007.1) Free.

     

    http://www.howtoforge.com/the_perfect_desk...007_spring_free

     

    If you don't like something, I think you can skip at least some parts of this how-to tutorial (I didn't install e.g. the VMware server).

  10. I loved mandriva-one liveCD but

    in Installing Mandriva

    Posted

    Why wait ? Try it now ! :mandriva:

     

    I can't live without Windows as there are high end apps used for business, that only Mac and Windows can run.

    - what apps ?

    For me this would be gaming! B)

    Although there are more and more games playable on Linux either directly (e.g. some ID games) or through Wine.

     

    Oh, and some video compilation problems I still haven't mastered in Linux yet (stress on 'yet').

  11. Suggestions for a light distro for old hardware

    in Other Linux and Unix Distributions

    Posted

    I kinda like the idea of not having to give up Mandriva, but I would like something that is not a "live" version (or One as Mandriva calls it). There will be no other OS running in the background or as a dual boot.

     

    And I'm definitely looking for something more on the smaller side for the window manager (from KDE) as I need to be able to operate the system with a VGA screen of 640x480. Well - I guess MCNLive comes with a bunch of options to KDE as does Mandriva.

     

    Anyway, thanks for the tip mindwave - I'll look into MCNLive even though I think I'm trying this Arch first.

  12. Suggestions for a light distro for old hardware

    in Other Linux and Unix Distributions

    Posted

    OK guys, thanks! I'll give Arch a go first...

     

    Is there anything special I should know; keeping in mind that Mandriva is the only Linux distro I've used. That and PCLOS in 2006 for a short period of time.

     

    OK, one last question before I start to burn the CD: How do I install the different programmes in Arch? I found e.g. the VLC in the Arch repos (http://www.archlinux.org/packages/583/) - so how does one go about installing new stuff in Arch (like urpmi or MCC in Mandriva)? Is it the pacman I read something about in Arch wiki?

  13. Suggestions for a light distro for old hardware

    in Other Linux and Unix Distributions

    Posted · Edited by dude67

    Just last weekend I put together some ol' parts of abandoned PCs and managed to get this together (I feel like dr. Frankenstein and MacGyver all in one... :D ).

     

    I would like to hear your suggestions for a lean (and mean) distro for the following PC hw-set and use.

     

    HW

    PII 400 MHz processor

    Motherboard (something from last millennium; 1999)

    2 x 128 MB (DIMM) of RAM

    ATI PCI 9xxx (something) w/ 256 MB

    Planet WL-8310 PCI card for WiFi/WLAN

    HP DVD Player (don't remember the model)

    HD space of massive 160 GB!

    TV set (100 Hz TV; CRT) as a screen (VGA capable) with max resolution of 640x480.

     

    I need this PC to access my Wireless LAN and to mainly act as a video player for my PVR files. The PVR is located downstairs and hooked with a USB cable to one of my network PCs (running MDV 2007.1 Free) and it can be accessed with ftp. So I can run the videos from my upstairs PC (this old pc) and play them in the TV set I have connected to it (as the PC Screen).

     

    I would need to have the following features

    1) Easy to use and install sw (I really like urpmi and MCC)

    2) I should be able to install atleast the following SW components

    - Madwifi/ndiswrapper for my wlan card,

    - VLC videoplayer for my files

    - ssh and ftp

    - perhaps some other video and audio codecs and sw

    - Firefox

    - NO Open Office, NO e-mail, NO 3D gaming (OK, perhaps something easy and simple for my 4-year-old son :D )

     

    I'm now running MDV 2007.1, but with that poor resolution some parts of the software pop-ups don't even fit on the screen that size! One good example is the "Configure your desktop" where I can set my screen resolution. I cannot see the OK or Cancel buttons as they are below the screen...

     

    My main pain with Mandriva together with this HW is the screen resolution and the general slowness in some cases.

     

    I'm familiar with Mandriva and KDE, but am not afraid to try some other distros or window managers. I don't need any eye-candy for this PC, but need to make it operate smoothly (with mainly vid's downloaded from my PVR or play them directly from the PVR through the wlan w/ ftp).

     

    All your comments and advice is greatly appreciated. :thumbs:

     

    EDIT: I did search the forum and read e.g. this thread: https://mandrivausers.org/index.php?showtopic=39430

  14. ProjectX freezes [solved]

    in Software

    Posted

    After a while, I had given up on this ever working on my system, but decided to give it one more go.

     

    I got some very helpful advice that helped my pass this obstacle (thanks Anssi). Here's a cool one for you... :beer:

     

    I wanted to share this info with you all just in case someone else is having this same problem!

     

    As I had already suspected the problem had to do with java. I had already java-1.6.0-sun installed, but it was not specified in the ProjectX config file! I corrected the original ProjectX at /etc/java/projectx.conf to point JAVA_HOME to "/usr/lib/jvm/java-sun". It was either cacao or jamvm until then, and one of these earlier jvms caused the freezing! Now it's no longer crashing on me and this is finally solved.

    :banana:

  21. How to run scripts automatically on boot [solved]

    in Command Line, Kernel and Programming

    Posted

    There is something I would like to run automatically whenever I restart my system.

     

    I know practically nothing about writing or running scripts, but this is what I am forced to run each time I boot my system:

    				   $ cd /home/dude67/Programmes/ftpd-topfield-0.7.4/
			   $ ./ftpd -D -P 2021

    I was searching through this forum and thought this would go nicely as a script; something like this (please correct the code as I'm not sure if this is enough)

    #!/bin/bash
			 cd /home/dude67/Programmes/ftpd-topfield-0.7.4/
			 ./ftpd -D -P 2021

    If this is correct (or corrected by someone), how do I get it to run automatically everytime i boot my system?

  24. Game cd's really weird (new problem!)

    in Games

    Posted · Edited by dude67

    I'm no expert, but I had similar problems when I was copying some mp3 CDs to my HD. The system showed only a few music files on each CD (after the first CD) and I thought these CDs were corrupted as they were already several years (5+) old.

     

    But then I realized that if I unmounted the CD and remounted each one I got all the music files I had on the CDs. So my tip is to try to unmount the CD and then mount it anew.

     

    Edit: And a BIG welcome to the board!

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