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  • Linux for P4

    From ROB MCCART@VERT/CAPCITY2/CAPCITY to ALL on Wednesday, November 14, 2018 02:18:00
    Appologies ahead of time. I've been on these BBS feeds through various providers since about 1990 so I know questions similar to this have
    been asked hundreds of times.

    To save a lot of time I won't go into great detail on the reasons for
    things.

    I'm wondering if there is a very light Linux version that will still
    run on an old P4 machine. (Intel 2.66 Ghz with 512 meg Ram).
    I've heard that most newer Linux versions won't work due to problems
    caused by the CPUID checking run (?)

    I am currently running an updated to the moon version of Windows 98
    but it doesn't support browsers that can access most web pages (HTTPS)
    anymore. I have a need to keep a DOS based O.S. funtioning so I don't
    want to attempt to update (dual-boot) a newer bloated Windows version.
    (I have KernelEx available but with severely limited Browser support.)

    A couple of years ago I briefly installed Puppy Linux but I had a hard
    time finding Modem support.
    (Dial-up access required - AOpen FM56-PM (v90) Controllerless PCI Modem)

    Almost all I need the O.S. to do is support a Browser new enough to
    access most current web pages and, although I cut my teeth on Applesoft followed by IBM DOS (in 1983), I'd prefer a fairly simple GUI setup to
    run things.

    Any thoughts on this ?
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  • From poindexter FORTRAN@VERT/REALITY to ROB MCCART on Thursday, November 15, 2018 18:00:11
    Re: Linux for P4
    By: ROB MCCART to ALL on Wed Nov 14 2018 02:18 am

    I'm wondering if there is a very light Linux version that will still
    run on an old P4 machine. (Intel 2.66 Ghz with 512 meg Ram).

    I like Lubuntu. It's Ubuntu's core OS with LXDE, a lightweight window manager. It also has a collection of smaller, lightweight apps.

    I run it on a 1.7 GHZ Pentium 4 laptop, and it runs nicely. It idles in 200 megs of RAM.

    I've heard that most newer Linux versions won't work due to problems
    caused by the CPUID checking run (?)

    If you're talking about the CPU supporting PAE but not reporting it, Many Linux installers support a FORCEPAE command line option. I just installed Lubuntu 18.04 on my Thinkpad T42, which supports PAE but doesn't report it.

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  • From Al@VERT/TRMB to ROB MCCART on Friday, November 16, 2018 03:53:34
    Re: Linux for P4
    By: ROB MCCART to ALL on Wed Nov 14 2018 02:18 am

    I'm wondering if there is a very light Linux version that will still
    run on an old P4 machine. (Intel 2.66 Ghz with 512 meg Ram).
    I've heard that most newer Linux versions won't work due to problems caused by the CPUID checking run (?)

    I run Slackware, a fairly simple OS. I'm sure it'll run on your 2.66 Ghz Intel. Nothing wrong with that CPU type and speed. The RAM is a little low but I'm sure you can still run an X desktop in that although it may be a little slow from swapping.

    I'm running in a terminal right now, no X session running.. just the BBS and my terminal and htop says I have used just over 200 Megs of ram. There are text based browsers you can run in linux as well like lynx and links on the terminal (no x needed) but they may not work in all cases..

    Ttyl :-),
    Al

    ... What bug? That's a feature.

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