Distro for 124mb ram computer i486 possibly i586.

[dragos240]

I got an old laptop. The battery is 100% DEAD, and the adapter is really flaky. One millimeter out of place and it shuts off. However. I managed to install damn small linux on it. I just don't like DSL, I don't mind the graphics. It is just missing so much. I want something with the 2.6 kernel, that has a stable dhcp client. Something like arch. What would be good?

[pwnst*r]

sounds like a fire waiting to happen.

[Grifulkin]

Tinycore

[Sealbhach]

It is just missing so much. I want something with the 2.6 kernel, that has a stable dhcp client. Something like arch. What would be good?

How much disk space have you got?

.

[dragos240]

how much disk space have you got?

.

12gb

[Grifulkin]

Tinycore.

This (http://tinycorelinux.com/)

[Warpnow]

Just do an ubuntu minimal install and install a lightweight WM or XFCE on top. I've ran XFCE on a machine with 64mbs and it ran rather decently.

[dragos240]

Arch seems to work on it. What's the best DE for this.

[Greg]

Arch seems to work on it. What's the best DE for this.

There's no best DE or WM, but you might want to look at ones like xmonad, dwm, and evilwm.

[dragos240]

There's no best DE or WM, but you might want to look at ones like xmonad, dwm, and evilwm.


I meant what's the best DE or WM for my system. Light but functional.

[lykwydchykyn]

I meant what's the best DE or WM for my system. Light but functional.

Not that I've done benchmarks, but I've found JWM to be one of the lightest that still sports a panel and menu. What kind of WM do you like?

[sigurnjak]

I did install on 4 gb hd and p2 266 with 96 mb of ram and did ubuntu minimal cli install and then added LXDE . It was quite usable .Sys monitor was showing 100 % cpu usage but only 55 mb of ram used with very little swap used . Afterward it all comes down to your app choices .

[dragos240]

Not that I've done benchmarks, but I've found JWM to be one of the lightest that still sports a panel and menu. What kind of WM do you like?

I usually use GNOME DM.

[xuCGC002]

Try using IceWM.

[earthpigg]

I usually use GNOME DM.

LXDE.

using LXDE, you can still use lots of your familiar gnome stuff with little hassle -- "users-admin" (of ubuntu fame) for one example. "alacarte" (of ubuntu fame) menu editor for another.

and honestly? if you are willing to play around enough, no reason you couldn't get ubuntu running on that thing with LXDE or -pick your wm/de-.



what do you intend to use the computer for?

[Warpnow]

LXDE, IceWM, or XFCE. All have fairly intuitive panels. XFCE is not as lightweight, but not heavy either. It also has much better settings support. Its a fair trade off, I think. As long as you leave compositing off it should work fine.

[Grifulkin]

FVWM2, IceWM, Fluxbox, Openbox, and many more take your pick.

[-grubby]

A 486 with 124 MB of RAM and a 12 GB hard drive? No.

[driftertx]

If you're just wanting a server that runs via command line for file storage. www.freebsd.org Not a user friendly OS for people who dont understand how to use vi and manuals though :)

[corsakh]

Arch seems to work on it. What's the best DE for this.
You don't need to go nuts with something like dwm, system should be fine to run openbox, fluxbox or fvwm. Try awesome if you like tiled managers.

ps Maybe give Enlightenment a go, but I doubt it.

[gn2]

Antix (http://antix.mepis.org/index.php/Main_Page) might be worth a try.

[XubuRoxMySox]

I meant what's the best DE or WM for my system. Light but functional.

Openbox with it's right-click menu is very functional and minimal. If you want a DE, LXDE is by far the lightest weight DE out there. But for me it was very buggy. But it qualifies in the lightweight and functional department.

-Robin

[longtom]

A 486 with 124 MB of RAM and a 12 GB hard drive? No.

This. When I was the extremely proud owner of a 486 DX 66 it had a huge hdd of 212MB and I boosted it to 32 Meg Ram (if memory serves me right..)

What kind of 486 is this?

[markp1989]

Arch seems to work on it. What's the best DE for this.

I would recommend openbox + fbpanel or tint

if you go with openbox, use obmenugen to generate the menus as the default openbox one misses a few programs.

[dragos240]

This. When I was the extremely proud owner of a 486 DX 66 it had a huge hdd of 212MB and I boosted it to 32 Meg Ram (if memory serves me right..)

What kind of 486 is this?

Nvm. It's a i586. That's why I put 486 OR 586.

[kk0sse54]

TinyCore, Slitaz, NetBSD, FreeBSD, (~)Slackware, Crux, hell even a Debian netinstall would probably work. You have plenty of options and there's a lot more than what I just randomly listed here. Personally I'd find a distro that I'm comfortable with use JFS as a filesystem and throw on DWM with some light weight apps.


I got an old laptop. The battery is 100% DEAD, and the adapter is really flaky. One millimeter out of place and it shuts off.

In all honesty though, perhaps you should consider retiring this one

[dragos240]

TinyCore, Slitaz, NetBSD, FreeBSD, (~)Slackware, Crux, hell even a Debian netinstall would probably work. You have plenty of options and there's a lot more than what I just randomly listed here. Personally I'd find a distro that I'm comfortable with use JFS as a filesystem and throw on DWM with some light weight apps.



In all honesty though, perhaps you should consider retiring this one

Well..... We found the problem. Something came loose on the inside. We can fix it...... if we can open it up. Thinkpad disassembly is a pain!

[longtom]

Antix (http://antix.mepis.org/index.php/Main_Page) might be worth a try.

I tried AntiX before. Also I believe it is a nice OS I do not consider it as lightweight as some other, similar distros (TinyCore, Slitaz, Puppy...).

[Icehuck]

You said Arch works on this machine therefore it's at least i686.

[megamania]

Not trying to hijack the thread - I was looking for something similar, but for a PowerPc eMac with 128MB ram.

Anybody knows of a lightweight distro that runs off a live cd (I need to attempt a data recovery with photorec)?

[longtom]

Not trying to hijack the thread - I was looking for something similar, but for a PowerPc eMac with 128MB ram.

Anybody knows of a lightweight distro that runs off a live cd (I need to attempt a data recovery with photorec)?

Pretty much all of them run of a CD. SliTaz and Puppy are the 2 I have used before and both did the trick....

[megamania]

Pretty much all of them run of a CD. SliTaz and Puppy are the 2 I have used before and both did the trick....
Thanks, but I can't see a PowerPc version for those two distros... Am I missing something?

[longtom]

Thanks, but I can't see a PowerPc version for those two distros... Am I missing something?

Ah - sorry - missed that PowerPC bit. However - maybe one or two of those (http://penguinppc.org/about/distributions.php) might do the trick.

[dragos240]

You said Arch works on this machine therefore it's at least i686.

Is the first intel centrino processor an i686?

[-grubby]

Is the first intel centrino processor an i686?

Centrino started in 2003. The first i686 processor was released in 1995. So yes, it is.

[t0p]

OP: I know you were asking about desktop environment and window managers and the like: but I'd like to suggest that you run the machine with no GUI. You can do pretty much anything from the command-line, even watch videos! There are several threads in the forums on how to do stuff from the command-line, Google is, as always, your friend. Your little laptop would be blisteringly fast without a GUI. And it would be a good experience.