OK, so I just "inherited" an old Compaq PIII computer. Hate to get rid of it because it still in operational order. Small hard drive (by today's standard) of 3GB, 128MB of ram. Has a working CD drive & 3.5" floppy (yes I had to use it to get existing files off for my mom). I've tried DSL (Damn Small Linux) but the install crashes every time with a read error. May be the iso image was bad that I burned from or the burn itself was bad, I'm going to try to make another copy and see what happens. Tried Ubuntu 11, it just hung on the load If I boot DSL in to run level 2 (command line only) the system is plenty fast. All I'm going to do with this box is put in a wireless card, install a web browser put some speakers on it and use it to play music from cloud players (such as amazon) out in my garage/workshop. Any suggestions for a small linux system? Thanks
I would consider a live disc of knoppix or linuxmint that you don't actually have to install. Just boot from cd/DVD and then get the ip via dhcp as long as your wireless card is supported. Unfortunately even linuxmint needs/wants 8gb to install on.
Did you try Puppy Linux? Puppy Linux Community Home - Getting Started Or Lubuntu? lubuntu | simplify your computer
DarkLight - I rather go with installed, it will be faster. Every live cd i've run in the past has been slow compared to an installed system. Guit - trying Puppy now. I downloaded the .iso last night. If this doesn't work out I'll try LUBUNTU Thanks
I'd like to have a Linux distro I could test out w/o too much trouble. Couldn't run the ones I tried on old IBM Pentium machines about 10 yrs ago. Haven't tried since. BTW, been wanting to ask, what is a "Guit"?
If you can enable USB boot, you can install Liberte Linux on the USB thumb drive and use your PC's HD as storage. That might work, but I don't know for sure.
The first syllable of "guitar." Pronounced "git." It is a play on words...reminds me I need to put the computer down and go fishing. See also: Junior Brown - An American Original
finally have DSL loaded and working. Took some finagiling but finally. Tried several distros, but all had various issues, DSL was the only one that would boot to a usable system. Now to find a cheap wireless card and I'll be set.
DSL is old DSL is outdated software, last update/release November 2008 Try a newer Debian based distro, maybe CrunchBang if all you have is a CD drive. Or a Debian netinstall.