Super Old laptop which Distro

dannycivic02

dannycivic02

dannycivic02

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My mum gave me an old laptop which is pretty old but im determined to put some life back into it. Its an old Packard Bell Easynote C3300 with a whopping 516mhz 2600+ AMD Athlon processor with a staggering 192mb of ram :eek: currently it runs XP SP2 very slowly no idea how though lol.

So anyway looked around the web for a Linux Distro knowing that they usually have low requirements so far have tried Xubuntu, Lubuntu and Open Suse to no avail they either hang as the laptop is so slow or don't even load up on the installation.

Im starting to pull my hair out now can any recommend my a super low requirement Distro probably from the 1940s lol that will work. I literately only want to use it for browsing the web so am now asking a lot from the old girl or should I give up and burn it in the back garden.

Thanks
 
Arch Linux or Debian should run (clean installs without bloat or a desktop environment)

Then install a very lightweight graphical environment like fluxbox or just use the CLI.

Damn Small Linux is also worth a shot.

Really though, put it in the bin and invest in something more worthwhile :p
 
tntcoder said:
Arch Linux or Debian should run (clean installs without bloat or a desktop environment)

Then install a very lightweight graphical environment like fluxbox or just use the CLI.

Damn Small Linux is also worth a shot.

Really though, put it in the bin and invest in something more worthwhile :p
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Its 2000s retro man :cool: will have a bash at those though thanks.

BigglesPiP said:
If the battery still works it would make a good low power server, built in UPS.

Does it have a serial port?
Click to expand...

No serial port dont see how it would make a good server?
 
Perfect distro for such a old lappy would be Puppy Linux 5.2

www.puppylinux.org

It will run on 128Mb of RAM and a slower CPU than yours, but I think 500Mhz is the lowest really

The desktop icons are ...um, how shall we put it.... "youthful" ... but would be a ideal way to press the lappy back into service for a younger family member if that was a option? :)

Probably changing the desktop background and using a more adult theme for the icons and no one will be any the wiser :)
 
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Your biggest problem is the limited memory. Is it upgradable do you know? There is often a flap on the botton of the laptop, and if you undo a screw you can get at the memory module?

EDIT - How is an 2600+ only at 516mhz. Are you sure thats right? Could it be in power save mode.
 
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No make and model on the stick unfortunately had it a few years on my PC which installed itself on Vista but when I upgraded to Win 7 it wouldn't work. The only numbers on it are:

FCC ID:PANWL2203V
MAC:000272784B58

When I use lsusb I get:

Bus 003 Device 001: ID ld6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID ld6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0ace:1215 ZyDAS ZD1211B 802.11g
Bus 001 Device 001: ID ld6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

Cheers
 
Sussed it I just needed to install wireless tools and zydas firmware which is included in the mainline linux kernel and its all systems go, thanks to everyone for your help the old girl is running like a dream :D
 
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