crp Posted July 4, 2012 Share Posted July 4, 2012 "old" being a relative term. Laptop: Compaq Presario 1800T (model 18x74) RAM : reporting 192M my guess is really 256M Desired use: sendmail gateway receiving server and ip port forwarder for vnc connections (simpleproxy) less than 25 users, actually light use. Has cd , lan, etc. and an impressive touch pad. Also, how can I bring up the BIOS menu ( DEL key didn't do it) and what is the best way to prevent it from over warming? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ichase Posted July 5, 2012 Share Posted July 5, 2012 For those old laptops, you can't go wrong running Bodhi. Jeff worked some serious magic making this OS work amazingly quick on old hardware. When you boot, nothing comes up stating press *** to go to BIOS. I would try Esc, F10, F12 etc One of those should work. Outside of using a laptop "Cooling Pad", hard to keep those old laptops from staying cool. Even new ones run hot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted July 5, 2012 Share Posted July 5, 2012 Answer 1 --> Bodhi Linux - stable, lightweight, robust repos, and excellent documentation. Answer 2 --> F10 key for BIOS setup Answer 3 --> use a laptop cooler Compaq Presario 1800T support page at HP --> http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/product?cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&product=95419& Have fun! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunrat Posted July 5, 2012 Share Posted July 5, 2012 Bodhi is good and should work on 256MB RAM. If you want it to fly, try Slitaz. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crp Posted July 5, 2012 Author Share Posted July 5, 2012 1: would an admin please fix the typo in my thread name (installina -> installing) 1a: why can't the originator edit the thread name 2: SliTaz looks very interesting, think i'll try that first. 3: How active is Bodhi? Last stable release was quite a while ago, especially compared to SliTaz. Is its relationship to Ubuntu the same as CentOS 's to RedHat ? Thanks for the help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urmas Posted July 5, 2012 Share Posted July 5, 2012 1: would an admin please fix the typo in my thread name (installina -> installing) Done. 1a: why can't the originator edit the thread name Self service? WHAT? That would lead to mass unemployment among admins. 3: How active is Bodhi? Last stable release was quite a while ago, especially compared to SliTaz. Is its relationship to Ubuntu the same as CentOS 's to RedHat ? Read this: A Bodhi Linux 2.0.0 FAQ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunrat Posted July 5, 2012 Share Posted July 5, 2012 3: How active is Bodhi? Last stable release was quite a while ago, especially compared to SliTaz. Is its relationship to Ubuntu the same as CentOS 's to RedHat ? The current version receives regular updates and support. I've got it on my EeePC 900; it takes currently about 1.5GB of install space. I updated the kernel today, first time ever, and lost wireless. A quick browse on the Bodhi forum and an equally quick fix got it back (remove apparmor). Bodhi is mainly developed by Jeff Hoogland, who posts here occasionally, and is built on the bones of Ubuntu using remastersys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abarbarian Posted July 5, 2012 Share Posted July 5, 2012 http://www.salixos.org/wiki/index.php?title=Home http://porteus.org/index.php Both Salix and Porteus would fly on your laptop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted July 5, 2012 Share Posted July 5, 2012 (edited) I have an even older Compaq Armada 1700 around here. Maximum memory is 160MB using a 128 MB SODIMM but I've heard you can put in a 256 MB SODIMM and it will work. This machine originally ran Windows 95. It has a PII 266. I got it to work OK with wifi through a PCMCIA slot and run Vector Linux 5.8 on it currently. The ACPI on these machines is very primitive and with new kernels you may not get the fan to run so the machine will overheat. Anything newer than VL 5.8 didn't work. I should try Bodhi on it, although the processor is a bit slow for the minimum requirements. I suspect the fan won't work - usually the best you can hope for is to get the fan running continuously. Eric's suggestion of a laptop cooler is a good idea. The laptop will not boot from the USB port so you are stuck with a CD if you need to install. I did get Puppy Linux to run by booting from a floppy and then loading the rest of the system from USB. Edited July 5, 2012 by raymac46 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted July 5, 2012 Share Posted July 5, 2012 Well for fun I did boot up a Bodhi Linux CD in the Armada 1700. It was painfully slow and I had to recover from a couple of E17 segfaults, but it did run. The fan seems to operate OK. The wifi was a pleasant surprise as BL recognized the PCMCIA card right off the bat and I was able to connect wirelessly. With VL 5.8 I had to install the WPA wifi manually. The problem is that I have only 800X600 screen resolution. Don't know how easy that is to fix. An interesting situation though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amenditman Posted July 5, 2012 Share Posted July 5, 2012 I have an even older Compaq Armada 1700 around here. Maximum memory is 160MB using a 128 MB SODIMM but I've heard you can put in a 256 MB SODIMM and it will work. What type of ram does that beast run? I have a bunch of old sticks in both 128 and 256 which I will never use. Laptop or desktop? Is it even PC-100 or PC-133? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted July 5, 2012 Share Posted July 5, 2012 Salix is a good choice also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amenditman Posted July 5, 2012 Share Posted July 5, 2012 (edited) Anti-X - designed for use on older hardware, supports hardware that has been dropped from mainline kernels/distros anti-x 486 (most likely for your machine) torrent http://linuxtracker....99a80708ab7db23 anti-x 686 torrent http://linuxtracker....67c4b449849c4c6 Edited July 5, 2012 by amenditman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted July 5, 2012 Share Posted July 5, 2012 The soldered in memory on the Armada 1700 is PC66 SDRAM but I have a 128MB stick of PC100 in there. I think nowadays the oldest RAM you can get is PC133. It'll be backwards compatible. There's only one slot so 256 is the most you can add to the onboard memory. In my case that would bring it up to a crushing 288 MB. SODIMMS are laptop memory. BTW I was wrong in my earlier conclusion about the fan. I still don't think the modern distros will run the fan properly at least not on my 1700. Things may be better with a Pentium III ACPI setup. I tried Slitaz 4.0 and it did give me a display with 800X600 and the wifi worked. Vector Linux 5.8 runs just fine but all the software is way out of date now and it's difficult to upgrade. These old machines are just curiosities, not suitable for any serious work except maybe as a gateway or firewall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted July 5, 2012 Share Posted July 5, 2012 The real answer for the ancient Armada 1700 at least is AntiX 486. The cooling fan works, wifi is easily configured with WICD. I've installed it as I have been looking for a replacement for Vector Linux 5.8 for about 3 years now. I doubt that this old piece of junk will ever be in regular use any more, but it seems to me rather interesting that a 1998 laptop which ran Windows 95 and connected to the Internet via dial-up can run a fairly modern Linux distro and connect via wifi in 2012. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amenditman Posted July 5, 2012 Share Posted July 5, 2012 The soldered in memory on the Armada 1700 is PC66 SDRAM but I have a 128MB stick of PC100 in there. I think nowadays the oldest RAM you can get is PC133. It'll be backwards compatible. There's only one slot so 256 is the most you can add to the onboard memory. In my case that would bring it up to a crushing 288 MB. SODIMMS are laptop memory.I'll check my inventory shortly and let you know if I have any 256MB SODIMM I could mail you.These old machines are just curiosities, not suitable for any serious work except maybe as a gateway or firewall.Play around with Anti-X for a while and you will see that old machine makes a fine web browser, email machine. You could even do some real work on it like document editing and bookkeeping. Just make sure you use Adblock, Flashblock, and NoScript to speed up your web experience. They are a pain when you first start, but as you add exceptions and whitelist items they are great for that old hardware. The real answer for the ancient Armada 1700 at least is AntiX 486.And you can keep it up to date anytime you like because....wait for it.... It's a Rolling Release distro. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abarbarian Posted July 5, 2012 Share Posted July 5, 2012 The real answer for the ancient Armada 1700 at least is AntiX 486. The cooling fan works, wifi is easily configured with WICD. I've installed it as I have been looking for a replacement for Vector Linux 5.8 for about 3 years now. I doubt that this old piece of junk will ever be in regular use any more, but it seems to me rather interesting that a 1998 laptop which ran Windows 95 and connected to the Internet via dial-up can run a fairly modern Linux distro and connect via wifi in 2012. That is pretty impressive penguin power. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted July 5, 2012 Share Posted July 5, 2012 I'll check my inventory shortly and let you know if I have any 256MB SODIMM I could mail you. Play around with Anti-X for a while and you will see that old machine makes a fine web browser, email machine. You could even do some real work on it like document editing and bookkeeping. Just make sure you use Adblock, Flashblock, and NoScript to speed up your web experience. They are a pain when you first start, but as you add exceptions and whitelist items they are great for that old hardware. And you can keep it up to date anytime you like because....wait for it.... It's a Rolling Release distro. If you do have an old 256 MB SODIMM I'd love to get one. Thanks. Let me know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amenditman Posted July 6, 2012 Share Posted July 6, 2012 If you do have an old 256 MB SODIMM I'd love to get one. Thanks. Let me know. Sorry, no such luck. I have a bunch of PC-133 DIMMS and a bunch of DDR SODIMMS I will never, ever need. But no PC-133 (or PC-100) SODIMMS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted July 6, 2012 Share Posted July 6, 2012 It's a Rolling Release distro. AAARRRRRRRRRRGH! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunrat Posted July 6, 2012 Share Posted July 6, 2012 Rolling is as rolling does. I like the idea of rolling release, but have not tried Arch because of all the little issues that are posted here. aptosid is a perfect fit for me - rolling release, almost bleeding edge packages, and a Kommandant who sends badly behaved upstream packages to the Cooler until they are sorted out while also implementing aptosid-specific fixes to make sure everything keeps working in harmony. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amenditman Posted July 6, 2012 Share Posted July 6, 2012 AAARRRRRRRRRRGH! At least it's based on Debian. A bit more progressive than Slackware, but still so far off the bleeding edge the sharks can't even smell the blood. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunrat Posted July 6, 2012 Share Posted July 6, 2012 Ooops, last post drifted OT, or followed the drift actually, and I forgot the main point. Aptosid Xfce version would probably be great on a lower-spec machine. I ran it on my EeePC 900 (added LXDE for main DE there), and on an Athlon 2000+ system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amenditman Posted July 6, 2012 Share Posted July 6, 2012 Ooops, last post drifted OT, or followed the drift actually, and I forgot the main point. Aptosid Xfce version would probably be great on a lower-spec machine. I ran it on my EeePC 900 (added LXDE for main DE there), and on an Athlon 2000+ system. Both those machines are powerhouses compared to the machines crp and raymac are discussing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crp Posted July 6, 2012 Author Share Posted July 6, 2012 The story so far: Siltaz kept crashing after keyboard selection. I even tried different keyboard options The Salix-KDE iso wouldn't burn. First off it was actually slightly than the publicized size making for a very tight squeeze, secondly the Cue Sheet couldn't get created. Downloading the Salix-XFCE which is a bit smaller. Hopefully will be able to install on Friday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burninbush Posted July 6, 2012 Share Posted July 6, 2012 @ crp ... lots of laptops invoke cmos setup by holding down a F1 key while powering it up. Or maybe a special 'function' key. Chances are good you could find a manual for it online. Lots of linux distros claim to run well in small amounts of memory, but that might depend on your idea of what 'well' means. I doubt you'll find one that works as well as w98 on that older puter. Either way, try to add another memory stick if you have an empty socket. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crp Posted July 6, 2012 Author Share Posted July 6, 2012 @ crp ... lots of laptops invoke cmos setup by holding down a F1 key while powering it up. Or maybe a special 'function' key. Chances are good you could find a manual for it online. oh yeah, that. F10 bought up the BIOS menu, which was close to useless. Didn't even say how much memory there was installed! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunrat Posted July 6, 2012 Share Posted July 6, 2012 Both those machines are powerhouses compared to the machines crp and raymac are discussing. True dat. I just booted up the latest aptosid-xfce in VBox and htop reported only 80MB RAM used, so should be fine on those machines. PS. Just tried SliTaz 4 in VBox. Runs like a mad march hare! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted July 6, 2012 Share Posted July 6, 2012 Sorry, no such luck. I have a bunch of PC-133 DIMMS and a bunch of DDR SODIMMS I will never, ever need. But no PC-133 (or PC-100) SODIMMS. Thanks anyway. I'll have to check the junk shops in my area. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted July 6, 2012 Share Posted July 6, 2012 Rolling release isn't a big attraction for antique crapboxes, but what is great with AntiX 486 is: (1) 1024X768 screen resolution using some cheatcodes at bootup. (2) WICD easily configured a PCMCIA card. (3) kernel runs the fan and keeps everything cool. The updates managed to bork the /etc/sodoers file so now the graphical shutdown and reboot buttons don't work. I know how to fix this. What does not work is the sound, as the soundcard is a decrepit ISA ESS 1869 that isn't even detected. I might be able to manually load the module but on a 14 year old laptop who cares. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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