Guest Lord_Chade Posted December 10, 2004 Report Share Posted December 10, 2004 Im trying linux for the first time on an old computer i install 10.1 on it and it reboots i get linux and failsafe options i can select either one but when i start any of them up the computer restarts so i cant do anything Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ixthusdan Posted December 10, 2004 Report Share Posted December 10, 2004 Would you give us some specs please? Are there any messages prior to reboot? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Lord_Chade Posted December 10, 2004 Report Share Posted December 10, 2004 compaq 4706 400 mhz amd 20 gig 64 mb video used to run win 98 thats all i can remember now if you need something else just ask Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inflexion Posted December 10, 2004 Report Share Posted December 10, 2004 there isnt enough ram i dont think unless you have added more, machines areound that time came with 64Meg and if its shared you deffinately have problems Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted December 10, 2004 Report Share Posted December 10, 2004 there isnt enough ram i dont think unless you have added more, machines areound that time came with 64Meg and if its shared you deffinately have problems <{POST_SNAPBACK}> yep sounds about right. much as I regret it being the case 64MB seems to be a minimum nowadays with generaluist distro's like MDK as the boot process is changed so it loads into memory. Of course this makes it boot faster on fast machines... If you have shared memory on your graphics card (usual if its built into the mobo) then you probably have less than 64MB if 8MB is being used by the graphics for instance. If this is the case then perhaps a more minimalist distro would help. It is possbile with MDK, you just need to change to a non initd kernel but this is a somewhat more advanced topic. Someone aughta make a special distro for old machines... ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisM Posted December 10, 2004 Report Share Posted December 10, 2004 I've a box with 64MB RAM - its OK with MDK9.2 but it will not entertain 10.1 (will not install) - is there really that much of a spec difference between the 2? The 9.2 runs OK - slow, annoyingley sometimes, so its now serving a useful function as a print server. A Machine at work is running 10CE on 128MB RAM and works just dandy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted December 10, 2004 Report Share Posted December 10, 2004 I've a box with 64MB RAM - its OK with MDK9.2 but it will not entertain 10.1 (will not install) - is there really that much of a spec difference between the 2? The 9.2 runs OK - slow, annoyingley sometimes, so its now serving a useful function as a print server. A Machine at work is running 10CE on 128MB RAM and works just dandy. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> It depends on the kernel... firstly... If the kernel is small then thats a good start but the initrd ones load into memory differently hence you can always choose the conventional kernel... secondly if you are not using X get rid of it, especially if you are using nvidia, the driver is huge! the more default modules are loaded the more mem is used as well. so if you don't use some of the file systems etc. they can be removed and free up memory... when you thing the difference is HUGE between a modern 1GB ram machine and a 64MB machine! The extra stuff just gets lost in a 1GB RAM mach and even if you don't use jfs or something its useful but with 64MB every MB is precious.... try a lsmod to see how much each module is taking then consider removing some that are not used... or at least only loading on demand! Some are chained so say you use a single USB storage device it means loading lots of modules on top of each other and if its the only usb device it is a heavy usage! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisM Posted December 10, 2004 Report Share Posted December 10, 2004 I've acquired a second 64mbox sitting in a room not doing anything, so over the holidays, thinks i'll strip back some of the luxuries in mdk and see what I can achieve in terms of noticeable speed increase. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Lord_Chade Posted December 10, 2004 Report Share Posted December 10, 2004 it was slightly upgraded to 72 mb of ram but i guess still not enough, i guess ill have to dual boot my other computer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Lord_Chade Posted December 10, 2004 Report Share Posted December 10, 2004 oh and Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arctic Posted December 10, 2004 Report Share Posted December 10, 2004 for kde you need at least 83 mbram, for gnome some 75 mb ram. you should be able to run it with icewm though. alternatively, you can take a look at such things as dammn-small linux or other "mini" distros. they work on very old boxes with low ram. just search at distrowatch.com. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aRTee Posted December 10, 2004 Report Share Posted December 10, 2004 I have installed on a P 166mmx with 48 MB RAM, had to revert to text only installer, and set it up to use icewm. Slow but works fine with 10.1. Note that using 9.2 instead of 10.1 or 10.0 is bad advice, the 2.6 kernel works better with low resources. As with high resources. 2.6 works better, period. (well, except when your hardware is not so well supported, in which case you will have to revert to a 2.4 kernel...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisM Posted December 11, 2004 Report Share Posted December 11, 2004 INote that using 9.2 instead of 10.1 or 10.0 is bad advice, the 2.6 kernel works better with low resources. As with high resources. 2.6 works better, period. (well, except when your hardware is not so well supported, in which case you will have to revert to a 2.4 kernel...) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I wasn't advising to use 9.2. I was trying to say that I tried to install 10.1 on this old box with 64RAM - but I couldn't get it to install all (few weeks ago now, don't recall the details) - but the 9.2 installed straightway. It runs as fast as a dog with 3 legs into a gale wind, but it installed and runs nontheless - and with some tweaking, will probably get some increased [performance. Sorry for any confusion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iphitus Posted December 11, 2004 Report Share Posted December 11, 2004 I think the problem is deeper. Even if the system is low on ram, it wouldnt just reboot before even getting to X! There is a further problem to this issue. Besides if he made it past the install, Mandrake ought to at least start for him. Can press the key on screen and put it into verbose mode, are there any errors when booting? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Lord_Chade Posted December 12, 2004 Report Share Posted December 12, 2004 well i installed it on my other computer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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