Linux Questions

Ok, I "found" a free 199MHz MMX dinosaur. It has 4.3 HDD and a whopping 32 meg of ram. It was a Compaq presario 4808. I can't imagine how bad Win95 choked on it.... I figure it would be good for my daughter and son-in-law. And with Linux it would be a good starter word processor at best.

It has usb and I had a sony CDR burner from another week's yard sale excursion, so I hear it screaming Linux. I had Suse and Mandrake 7.1. I set up Suse and it would not load graphics, so I used Mandrake, did the disk drake and now it is ok except monitor type selected 85 HZ monitor and now it blinks at x setup.

1- need help resetting monitor (19 Inch Sylvania CRT) and then

2- Will Mandrake/Mandriva 10.0 run on this beast or do I leave it with 7.1, config ppp for dialup and let my son-in-law destroy it.

Thanks for the help

 

bump

OOOOOOOOOOOOOkkkkkk

If no one knows Mandrake, what distro should I be using?

Thanks

 

I take it Mandrake didn't find the monitor; you're going to have to keep changing the monitor type in setup to find you that works. Go with minimum resolution and work your way upwards.

All the new distributions I have tried require 64Mb of RAM to run, some will run on less physical memory but use a swap disk, and run incredibly slow.

Given time I'm sure I can come up with the command you need to issue at the command-line to change the video terminal in X.

Also have you tried RedHat Linux to see if it will automatically recognize the monitor.

 

From the Command line you can try these commands:

• XF86Setup - A newer X configuration program with a GUI interface which modifies the "/etc/X11/XF86Config" configuration file.
• xf86config - An older X configuration program with a text based interface. It also modifies the "/etc/X11/XF86Config" configuration file.
• Xconfigurator - The Redhat tool used during system setup to configure X.
• xvidtune - This program will test video modes on the fly without modification to your X configuration. Read the usr/X11R6/lib/X11/doc/VideoModes.doc file before running this program.
• SuperProbe - A program that probes the video card to determine its type for use with setting up X. xvidtune - This program will test video modes on the fly without modification to your X configuration.

 

I thought since MD is a RH offspring, it would be as easy as RH. It has been a loooooong time since I config on Linux, and cannot recall how to even boot in safemode. The flickering will not stop to allow me to even change.

I have a smaller 17 inch monitor that I can hook up and see if I can get somewhere. This 19 inch is a bit odd in that it will flicker even on the XP box I run. Resolution is minor. Upgrade of another OS and kernel is what I am wondering about.

My question is about upgrades if any and what distro to install on the dino and then lastly will it work in 32 or do I need to look for 64 meg RAM. And I know distro is a personal flavor thing. I am looking for suggestions.....

Thanks for the reply Shadow_Peter_dude!

 

MD is RH based, but 7.1 is kind of old. If you didn't create a rescue floppy at install, you're not going to be able to change your X config, since you can't get to the CL.

Try the 17-inch monitor, see where that will get you. I would go with RH 7.x it would probably be the most compatable for your hardware. As far as updates the Fedora Legacy Project supports updates for RH 7.2, 7.3, 8.0, and 9.0. 64Mb or better for system RAM is always best.

 

Buuuuuuump

It worked better under the 17 monitor as there was a 17 Dell selection with 60Hz. Still runs kinda slow even with 64 Meg of Ram... Maybe I can do some other trading and get the ram up to higher.

It choked on Staroffice 5.2. it does not like other than 8 bit video. I am sure there is not enough memory in the box....

I did find a site to set up the Lucent winmodem. That should be fun, but I am opting for a KVM to do so, as my wife wants her kitchen table back....



I see thay want to set up Unbantu for this very box. I will watch that distro and see if I can try it. Maybe then I wll be on cable or dsl so I can dl the distro/updates myself.

 

Glad you got the box up on the 17". I've heard good things about Ubuntu, SimplyMEPIS is another good newcomer. Linux is becoming more demanding on system memory. My FC4 box has 256Mb of system RAM and runs fast.