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03-20-2003, 12:27 AM
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#1 |
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Member (7 bit)
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 89
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Linux Machine baby
i finally got it, an old 486 100mhz machine to start running and learning linux..Anyone got any good suggestions for which distribution?oh and can i add usb or will the board even recognize it?
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03-20-2003, 01:35 AM
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#2 |
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Member (12 bit)
Join Date: Aug 1999
Location: Secret City (Oak Ridge, TN)
Posts: 3,271
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The Newer verisons of Linux do support USB, but I do not know if a version of linux that would run on that system would handle USB. I am guessing it is possible. Myself I am just slowing learning linux.
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03-20-2003, 02:42 AM
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#3 |
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Member (10 bit)
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Nottingham UK or Kuala Lumpur Malaysia
Posts: 600
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are there any good site to teach me linux before i run into problems after i install it?
must be better than windows....wait...everything is better than windows |
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03-20-2003, 10:37 AM
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#4 |
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Member (10 bit)
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Belgium
Posts: 850
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when i still had my p100 (a few years ago now) ive have been looking to get usb on it , but it wasnt really easy. i had to try over 10 different controllers to find one that worked somewhat with my mobo
(it was a soyo) . but do you really need usb on it? every device can be connected trough the old ps2 and din and such . i guess something like redhat 6 should work on this pc, but i dont think this has usb support . newer versions are going to be hard on that machine. i currently have a cyrix 266 that runs mandrake 8.2 , but it needs a voodoo3 3000 and 194 mb of ram to run somewhat decently. especially graphic desktops use lost of power . maybe ask around at www.linuxjunior.com its quite a nice site imho.
__________________
Been there, broke that |
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03-20-2003, 10:45 AM
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#5 |
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Member (7 bit)
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 89
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i don't have to have usb,but there are no ps2 slots either. just 1 big AT slot. Oh i've got serial ports,just nothing i can hook up to them.
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03-20-2003, 10:48 AM
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#6 |
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Member (8 bit)
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Chicago
Posts: 156
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http://justlinux.com/
http://www.linuxdot.org/ Those are two of the sites I frequent most. Any distribution that will run on that old of a machine probably will not support USB. Good Luck |
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03-20-2003, 10:56 AM
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#7 |
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Member (10 bit)
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Belgium
Posts: 850
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when you say nothing to hook up to them to you mean keyboard and mouse? you can buy convertors for allmost everything.
like usb do ps2, ps2 to din and on and on. over here they cost like 2 bucks a piece or so. maybe that can help ya out. |
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03-20-2003, 11:01 AM
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#8 |
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Member (11 bit)
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: Blue Springs, MO
Posts: 1,766
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Please, don't judge Linux harshly if you have problems with an old machine like yours. The machine was designed to run Windows 3.1 or at best Windows 95. Neither of them have USB support. Any version of Linux that will run a gui well on the old machine will probably not have USB support either.
How much ram does that old 486 have? You will not get good performace using one of the graphical interfaces (KDE, Gnome etc) unless you have a reasonable amount of ram. I learned Linux using a slightly newer AMD 133 machine. Redhat 6.0 needed 64 mg of ram to run gnome properly. CH Last edited by Computer Hobbyist; 03-20-2003 at 11:08 AM. |
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03-20-2003, 11:11 AM
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#9 |
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Member (10 bit)
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Belgium
Posts: 850
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Does it have the option to boot from cdrom in bios. i know a linux distro called knoppix that runs entirly from cd.
here 's the system requirments from www.knoppix.com # Intel-compatible CPU (i486 or later), # 20 MB of RAM for text mode, at least 96 MB for graphics mode with KDE (at least 128 MB of RAM is recommended to use the various office products), # bootable CD-ROM drive, or a boot floppy and standard CD-ROM (IDE/ATAPI or SCSI), # standard SVGA-compatible graphics card, # serial or PS/2 standard mouse or IMPS/2-compatible USB-mouse. you wont bo able to run it in kde but if your system specs meet the minimum, you can always give text mode a try and maybe even one of the lightweight desktops if you find enough ram memory |
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03-20-2003, 11:28 AM
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#10 |
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Member (11 bit)
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: Blue Springs, MO
Posts: 1,766
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An old AT machine probably doesn't have the ability to boot from a CD-Rom. He will probably have to make a boot floppy using rawrite.
CH |
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03-20-2003, 05:26 PM
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#11 |
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Member (7 bit)
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 89
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yeah, it doesn't have a cd rom yet. i'm having to switch out ide cables ro make it work. i am switching that old hdd with a 6 gig i have. i was just looking for a version of linux that was easy to use and learn. I am just learning to code now, so whatever i can get my hands on that is easy to use and get familiar with would be good.
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03-21-2003, 03:12 PM
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#12 |
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Member (8 bit)
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: An ancient aircraft hangar.
Posts: 185
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As much as it pains me, you will need a distro like vector linux, zipslack, or even slackware itself. There hasn't been a Mandrake distro compiled to i486 or i386 in a long time. Perhaps an old RedHat, say 6.0. It will give you some experience with Linux.
You might give a try with www.google.com/linux and do a search on small linux or tiny linux or something like that. |
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