Arne Posted January 19, 2006 Report Share Posted January 19, 2006 Hello Guys, I am running mdv 10.1 with KDE on my old thinkpad but it is slow. I like to give this notebook a shot in arm by using a light GUI and limited number of software like: Abiword, Gnumeric, Opera, Krusader, audio, wired and wireless pscmcia card as a LAN client, Skype, USB and gkrellm and little els. I want to use this notebook to sit out in the garden sometimes and play. I am retired so this is just for fun. I have downloaded booth 2005LE mini and 2006 mini and my questions are: Which one demand less of the notebook??????? I am looking for big differences. What light GUI does this to give????????????? Where can I find info on what software is available????? included in the 2 downloads Can I update using urpmi with mirror sites just as for 10.1 and 2006PP ?????????? Is the installation similar to the full fledged mdv distros???????? Spec for the notebook is below I am looking for general advice, please. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw1974 Posted January 19, 2006 Report Share Posted January 19, 2006 I would tend to use 2006, as it's fast to boot, etc. Mini is basically a basic installation, with minimal software. Chances are it'll probably give you X with KDE, and not much else. The rest of course you can install later using urpmi providing your internet connection is fast enough for large downloads. I've never used mini, as you can always do minimal installations with the normal versions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arne Posted January 19, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 19, 2006 ianw1974, Thank's for reply. I can see that a mini installation can be done with i.e from 2006 Power pack which I have. My problem doing that is all the depencies which I don't know belong to who so when chosing the software during installation I will get lost and further more I belive am only offered KDE and/or Gnome as the Gui. There is a light one called "Iw....". And maybe it's other options as well. So, how do you do it??????? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw1974 Posted January 19, 2006 Report Share Posted January 19, 2006 How big is your laptop HDD? I have 2006 Free and Powerpack here, and can attempt a minimal installation on a Virtual Machine, and then let you know how much space it takes. Ice-WM is a Window Manager, and not a desktop environment. Other alternatives are FluxBox, Blackbox, etc, etc. The only thing is that when you install an app, it'll then ask for it's related dependencies etc. So, if you install K3B, then obviously it will install any necessary KDE dependencies, even if you use Ice-WM, etc, etc. If you let me know the size of your HDD, I'll create my Virtual Machine accordingly. Also let me know how you want your partitions mapped out, swap size, size of / partition, home partition size if separate from /, and so on. If you want a purest minimal installation, which means no X or GUI, that's just a CLI environment, and took me about 5-10 minutes to install Mandriva 2006 Free. So adding a desktop such as Ice-WM, won't take much longer. Minimals can be done with say base OS and a GUI, and then add the apps you want later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw1974 Posted January 19, 2006 Report Share Posted January 19, 2006 One other additional, I will download the Mini 2006 CD, and see what you get at the end of it. I have a feeling it's probably a purest installation, but I'll know for sure soon enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arne Posted January 19, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 19, 2006 ian, Thank's it would be fantastic if you can do that. You can see it at the bottom of my replies. Please tell me if its not shown HDD 4GB Partition 800Mb home 512 MB Swapfile the rest for system files I would for sure like to have a GUI. I dont know which of the small one have a clean and logic GUI and fast and small as well. I know this is impossible but if you believe in dreams... You know what I mean. I am exited to hear what you get. Thank's again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw1974 Posted January 19, 2006 Report Share Posted January 19, 2006 70% downloaded on mini, so will try this first, and see what I get. If no good, will build minimal from normal 2006 CD/DVD. I'll take some screenshot pics during install, so you can see what options I've done, and I'll email them over to you so you can follow them for your installation later. Cheers for the partition info, I've made a note ready for install. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arne Posted January 19, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 19, 2006 What speed do you have on download normally Ian. I have a one megabite line and when I am lucky I get above 100 KB/sec Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw1974 Posted January 19, 2006 Report Share Posted January 19, 2006 I'm in the office, so I was getting around 180kbps. Not sure what the link speed is. At home my link is 256kbps broadband, and my download rate is 32kbps! I'll be going quiet for a bit, I've got to reboot into Windows to create my Virtual Machine, but shall move it back to Linux and VMware player for the rest of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw1974 Posted January 19, 2006 Report Share Posted January 19, 2006 The Mini CD is exactly what it means. Basically, you get X with ICE-WM, tools for the command line, and that is it. This type of installation takes approximately 305MB. Screenshots attached for the type of installation. With the Normal CD/DVD you have more to choose from naturally. I chose the exact same options to that of the Mini CD, and it came as 506MB for the mini install! I figured that you want to do Office stuff, so I selected this, which pushed the install to 931MB, again using ICE-WM instead of KDE or Gnome, because of the amount of resources they consume. Both installations took around 10 minutes to complete, because your not fully loading the system with large desktop managers like KDE and Gnome, which normally bump the system to somewhere around 1.7GB - 2GB in my experience. The screenshots show what you're going to see mini versus normal. I only had my mobile phone with me, so the shots aren't great, but they give you an idea of what's going on. Whatever option you decide to go with, you can use urpmi afterwards to add your sources and then download and install any additional apps that you require, plus system updates and such like. One thing I will say though, if you like mcc and prefer this to editing file manually, then I suggest using the normal installation. You don't get mcc with mini, but then you could add it manually if you like using urpmi later. Oh, and with mini, since there's no apps, you'd have to type your urpmi commands manually, as there is no web browser it seems. And the list of services are larger than with mini. Hope that helps you a bit! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arne Posted January 19, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 19, 2006 Ian, Thank you. You are very helpfull. Your reply trigger a few questions: Can you in 2006PP choose ICE-WM from the program group, down to the right, under KDE and Gnome??? Let say I follow the same as mini but do it a normal installation. I dont choose the internet group but then I go to detail picking i.e. Opera and in the office group which I dont choose either and in detail I pick i.e gnumeric is that possible whitout all the other stuff in this groups which mandriva have choosen as default??????? Ah.. this is a horible sentence. Please tell me if you don't understand and I will try again. I feel comfortable in both Cli and MCC but sometimes mcc kan be faster and more conveniant. Further more I dont intend to use Open office my notebook is to slow. Abiword and Gnumeric is all I need. Then around 500MB + software I choose in addition ca easily be handlet within 4 GB. If you can confirm positively the 2 questions I tend to chose the normal installation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw1974 Posted January 19, 2006 Report Share Posted January 19, 2006 Sure, choose normal, deselect KDE so that you only have ICE-WM chosen as per my image above for the normal installation. Then, you can click the option for browse packages by what you want, then just select abiword, or whatever else you require. Bear in mind, it will select any dependencies these apps require, but you should be perfectly fine! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw1974 Posted January 19, 2006 Report Share Posted January 19, 2006 Another note, you can always just install the apps later after getting the basic operating system up and running. So install with the normal, then reboot to a working system, and then install abiword, etc, etc after that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arne Posted January 19, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 19, 2006 Thank's Ian, Since I need Lan client for wired and wireless internet connection and file and printer sharing. I will add this group since I don't know what software is neded. You are right I can use urpmi after and download. Abiword must be fetched from 'contrib' anyway Spacewise this is no problem bearing in mind that my present set up is 10.1 and around 2GB used of system partition. I am happy and relaxed thank's to you and I will do this first thing tomorrow, since local time is 9PM and my wife demand some attention and I am happy to attend to it. I will post back Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw1974 Posted January 19, 2006 Report Share Posted January 19, 2006 Cool thanks. I'm away from lunchtime tomorrow and back Sunday, so if I'm quiet, that'll be why. Shall post Sunday evening or Monday morning unless someone else has helped you out in the meantime! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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