Guest WannaBeGeek Posted August 6, 2004 Report Share Posted August 6, 2004 :unsure: I have read a lot on preparing my first Linux installation, but I need someone to tell me if I can instal Mandrake 10 (from ISO downloaded CDROMs) on a 2 Gigabyte Hard Drive. I'm hoping to use a Pentium II 266 MHz Desktop with 64MB SDRAM. Is there an obvious problem with any of that so far? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pzatch Posted August 6, 2004 Report Share Posted August 6, 2004 It'll be slow. You'll really have to watch what packages your installing because of the limited space. But its possible. I would run a besktop other than KDE. Its the biggest and slowest out there. Gnome is next on the heavy weight chart. All the others are quite a bit smaller and thus faster. If you could scare up a real cheap( or even free) 10 gig then you could install everything and just turn off or uninstall what you find you don't like. That way you'll get a real good idea of just what you want and what you can get rid of and still do what you want. In the end a 266pentII is good enough to give you an idea and it makes a pretty good internet/utility machine. 2 gig will work but more room is better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest WannaBeGeek Posted August 6, 2004 Report Share Posted August 6, 2004 Thanks Pzatch, but keep in mind I have never installed or even seen linux in use. So these "KDE" and "Gnome" you talk about, are they optional GUIs or something? BTW I only want a machine to learn basic linux on and surf the web a bit. Later on I will get together a serious machine. Thats why I'm choosing Mandrake. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theYinYeti Posted August 6, 2004 Report Share Posted August 6, 2004 (edited) Be optimist! :lol: I've used Mandrake on a P150MMX with 32MB RAM and 2GB hard drive. RAM: 64 is the reasonable minimum. It'll be more than bearable. Disk: Come on! There's no real issue. Just don't install duplicates. CPU: You just won't be able to watch videos. And OO.o may be a little long to load. The only issue I see is RAM: as I said, it is the mimimum for "normal" computing. You'll have to use a lightweight desktop. I tested a lot on my 32MB laptop, and the lightest window managers I've found are IceWM, and Matchbox. To be honest, these are the lightest while remaining more or less standard, graphic-wise. There exist lighter ones, but those are very special, to say the least (eg: Ion is a good window manager). With 64MB RAM, I think you'll be able to use Mozilla and OpenOffice, though they'll be slow to load. If you find it is too slow, I recommend latest Netscape (4.79?): it is fast, handles all kinds of mail, and requires neither KDE libs (qt), nor Gnome libs (gtk). And for office work, I don't know. Maybe Abiword/gnumeric, or maybe siagoffice, or... Bye, Yves. Edited August 6, 2004 by theYinYeti Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pzatch Posted August 7, 2004 Report Share Posted August 7, 2004 Yes KDE and Gnome are differect desktop GUIs. Very windows like from the start. The lighter or smaller ones can be made to look windows like eventually. Give yourself about a 250mb swap and cram in all you can onto the hard drive. Leave about 250mb of room during the package selection for anything you download and personal files. Isn't much but its a good start. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arctic Posted August 7, 2004 Report Share Posted August 7, 2004 (edited) i also recommend using icewm and kicking kde and gnome. i also suggest that you make an individual package selection, installing only the minimum stuff required to run the system (thus freeing space for installation) and add the other packages you need later on, using the mandrake control center. for webbrowsing, you should remove mozilla, galeon et all and install a lightweight webbrowser from web. firefox is fast and not too big, if you want a high end browser, but there are many smaller ones. just search them on the web and you will find lots of them (ishzilla, dillo, lynx,...) e.g. here http://www.linuxsoft.cz/en/sw_list.php?id_kategory=7 lynx is a special fun, as it is a text-based browser, thus incredibly fast. it is already included in your install-disks and can be run from the console. :) Edited August 7, 2004 by arctic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest WannaBeGeek Posted August 9, 2004 Report Share Posted August 9, 2004 Yes KDE and Gnome are differect desktop GUIs. Very windows like from the start. The lighter or smaller ones can be made to look windows like eventually. Give yourself about a 250mb swap and cram in all you can onto the hard drive. Leave about 250mb of room during the package selection for anything you download and personal files. Isn't much but its a good start. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Thanks again Pzatch, I installed from d/l iso twice now (after low level format) but get error: "error installing packages Xfree86-4.3-30mdk.i586" I chose "continue anyway" and instal finished. So what was that? Is it serious? Should I re-download the iso? or is it more likely a bad cd burn? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spinynorman Posted August 9, 2004 Report Share Posted August 9, 2004 WannaBeGeek has started a new thread here. This thread is now closed to avoid confusion. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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