Old Laptop - What distro?

Superewza said:
I think you're oversimplifying it a bit there. A lot more goes into building a distro than simply slapping a kernel in, adding a desktop enviroment and window manager then installing a few programs.
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Not really: what I described actually is that simple... however you seem to have added in an extra level of complexity - which although I completely agree with I fail to find the relevancy in this discussion.

My point is find a distro that you are happy with (start with package management, then work down to the finer points), then put a light WM on it.

Even though the likes of KDE/Gnome are installed - and I find it better to still have them installed, even if you're not going to use the WM functions of the Desktop Environment - it's not like Windows where the registry will get bloated and slow down the rig, therefore you can have as much installed as you want and not lose performance.

On the bigger distros certainly, things like XFCE4 have nice, pretty default themes which invariably look similar to the distros gnome theme. More minimalistic WMs like openbox, fluxbox, enlightnement, dwm, etc, etc all look carp out of the box but with even a little effort can look stunning.
 
Indeed. I think though that if you're less experienced it's a good idea to find somebody else who has already done that. Debian for instance 'under the hood' is brilliant. Rock solid, huge repos and runs great on old machines. You'd just want a less dependent WM than Gnome (i actually think it should ship with XFCE, but that's another matter). Slitaz is Debian based (to a point) and has Openbox. But it's miles away from just running Openbox in Debian.
 
Yeah, but it's not exactly difficult to use whatever gui front end that most package managers have these days and install XFCE4, then log in through KDM/GDM/XDM into that new WM... you don't even need to remove the old DE - in fact it's much, much better (for most people) if you don't!

Hence: find a distro that you're comfortable with and stick a lighter WM on it :)

Crunchbang is Debian based (to a point) and has Openbox. But it's miles away from just running Openbox in Debian. (Sorry - I have actually used neither Slitaz nor Crunchbang, but the point is there?)
 
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Xubuntu or Ubuntu netbook remix for Ubuntu flavours, if not then there are loads which are designed to have a small footprint^
 
well i decided on xubuntu as it seems to be the most pain free (ie newb) install only to find that the cd/dvd drive on the laptop is buggered :( rather annoying!
 
Well it gets worse....

I opened it up yesterday to get the cd drive out (to get a replacement) and to sort the touchpad out that wasnt working. Fixed the touchpad - Ribbon Cable had come loose but in the meantime i appear to have broken the keyboard.. doh! Guessing its come unplugged but laptops are such a pain to get apart.

Cant for the life of me see how to totally seperate the bottom from the top, something at the back of the unit holding it shut :(
 
I know, i hate taking apart laptops. You don't know how much force to use. But on the keyboard i remember mine had a frictionless connection onto the motherboard.
 
.walls said:
If not.... PXE boot it :)
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Googling just makes my eyes boggle at that! I'm looking for simple solutions hehe ;) If there is an easy way to PXE/network install then I am all ears :D

Superewza said:
Does it support USB booting?
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appears to, but this laptop was free and I am trying very hard to avoid spending cash :p


Superewza said:
I know, i hate taking apart laptops. You don't know how much force to use. But on the keyboard i remember mine had a frictionless connection onto the motherboard.
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Sorted, brute force and ignorance won the day :D
 
Why would you have to spend cash? I assume you've got a memory stick... if not, where the hell have you been for the last 10 years? :p

My vote's still with Slitaz.
 
down the mines see butt! :p

I was thinking USB CD drive... zzz :p

Gonna check now and see if i can

Annoying thing is that CD drive is detected etc, even in windows but just shows empty
 
Hrm.. seems it will boot from a USB pen drive :D

No creator on the iso though so i'm trying to make a bootable USB with unetbootin - if i'm piddling into the wind feel free to correct me :D
 
Hmm I made a bootable usb pen last night and it booted ok but would not install as it could not mount /dev/cdrom
Clearly I'm doing something wrong :(
 
Yeah - you will need to either pick a different distro (although - having not really read the thread - whatever you have chosen may have a usb specific version), or hack the initrd to look at the correct place (i.e. fix the "broken" script that points you to /dev/cdrom).

Arch, DSL and Knoppix are full distros that boot from usb, there are others though.
 
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