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Re: Linux on IBM Thinkpad 600X

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On Wed, 14 Jan 2015, thescullster wrote:

> On 14/01/2015 09:53, Dmitry Davletbaev wrote:
>> On Wednesday, January 14, 2015 at 1:53:54 PM UTC+5, thescullster wrote:
>>> Hi all
>>> 
>>> I have been trying to load some version of Linux onto an IBM Thinkpad 
>>> 600X.
>>> Pentium III 500MHz.
>>> 196Mb RAM.
>>> 
>>> Using Live CDs, so far I tried Ubuntu 12.04 which didn't get far.
>>> Then Ubuntu 8.1 which got as far as language selection and hung.
>>> 
>>> Last I have been trying Slacko Puppy 5.7.
>>> 
>>> It boots off the CD
>>> The Slacko Puppy splash screen appears, then
>>> Loading VMLinuz.....
>>> Loading initrd.gz..... the word ready appears for a split second
>>> 
>>> Then it loops back to restart.
>>> 
>>> Have looked at the F2 Help and tried a few of the parameters in 
>>> desperation.
>>> 
>>> The system has been DBAN'd so it's start from scratch time.
>>> 
>>> Anyone got a clue on how to load a version of Linux onto this machine?
>>> 
>>> Thanks
>>> 
>>> Phil
>> 
>> Hi thescullster!
>> 
>> Default Ubuntu distros have too high minimum requirements for your IBM 
>> Thinkpad 600X in respect to RAM. But there is a web page that describes how 
>> to install Ubuntu on low memory systems. It may be a bit cumbersome, but 
>> give it a try if you have enough time: 
>> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/LowMemorySystems
>> 
>> --
>> Dmitry Davletbaev
>> Software Developer
>> dmitry.davletbaev@maginfo.com
>> http://www.maginfo.com/
>> 
> Thanks Dmitry
>
> This machine ran Windows 98 well, so I was expecting that a light linux 
> distro would load no problem.
> Will check out low mem link.
>
It's more complicated than that.

A later Linux release may be compiled for a later CPU, so it can't run on 
something earlier.

More recent kernels have gotten quite large (in part to deal with lots of 
different hardware and that may impact on some older computers, if they 
have too little RAM.

You don't seem to be having problems starting to boot, but I remember not 
being able to directly boot my favorite distribution after some point.  I 
had to use some intermediate step.  But you seem to be able to get going 
here.

Even in "the old days", some distributions used a bloated installer.  So 
they'd require a certain amount of RAM to install, though you didn't need 
that much RAM to run Linux.  Or at the back of the book, there'd be an 
addendum telling you how to boot with the text installer, that didn't 
require as much RAM.

There are some distributions "intended for older hardware" but that's 
always vague.  What they generally do is take an existing distribution and 
cut it down", so they may only include one browser and all.  But the 
browser is a graphic browser, while a text only browser would better use 
the smaller resources of an old machine.  I'm not sure what such 
truncated distributions do with the kernel, if it's too recent again it 
may not run on an older machine.

Slackware tended to compile for "the lowest common denominator" well after 
other distributions dropped support of older machines.  But I think that 
changed at some recent point, though I can't remember.

One thing about Slackware is that it's still a text only installer, so you 
can install without needing much RAM.

   Michael

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Linux on IBM Thinkpad 600X thescullster <phil@nospam.com> - 2015-01-14 08:53 +0000
  Re: Linux on IBM Thinkpad 600X Dmitry Davletbaev <ddomgn@gmail.com> - 2015-01-14 01:53 -0800
    Re: Linux on IBM Thinkpad 600X thescullster <phil@nospam.com> - 2015-01-14 10:31 +0000
      Re: Linux on IBM Thinkpad 600X Harold Stevens <wookie@limbo.localdomain> - 2015-01-14 06:55 -0600
      Re: Linux on IBM Thinkpad 600X Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2015-01-14 22:22 -0500
        Re: Linux on IBM Thinkpad 600X Robert Riches <spamtrap42@jacob21819.net> - 2015-01-15 04:12 +0000
          Re: Linux on IBM Thinkpad 600X Bobbie Sellers <bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com> - 2015-01-14 20:49 -0800
          Re: Linux on IBM Thinkpad 600X Richard Kettlewell <rjk@greenend.org.uk> - 2015-01-15 09:18 +0000
            Re: Linux on IBM Thinkpad 600X notbob <notbob@nothome.com> - 2015-01-15 15:36 +0000
              Re: Linux on IBM Thinkpad 600X Richard Kettlewell <rjk@greenend.org.uk> - 2015-01-15 16:14 +0000
                Re: Linux on IBM Thinkpad 600X Bobbie Sellers <bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com> - 2015-01-15 09:08 -0800
                Re: Linux on IBM Thinkpad 600X The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2015-01-15 17:09 +0000
                Re: Linux on IBM Thinkpad 600X "John F" <j@j.ii> - 2015-01-19 13:22 -0800
    Re: Linux on IBM Thinkpad 600X The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2015-01-14 10:50 +0000
      Re: Linux on IBM Thinkpad 600X William Unruh <unruh@invalid.ca> - 2015-01-14 17:23 +0000
        Re: Linux on IBM Thinkpad 600X The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2015-01-14 18:29 +0000
  Re: Linux on IBM Thinkpad 600X Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2015-01-14 15:38 +0000
  Re: Linux on IBM Thinkpad 600X notbob <notbob@nothome.com> - 2015-01-14 15:40 +0000
    Re: Linux on IBM Thinkpad 600X "Anonymous Remailer (austria)" <mixmaster@remailer.privacy.at> - 2015-01-14 19:01 +0100
  Re: Linux on IBM Thinkpad 600X Stef <not@this.address.com> - 2015-01-14 17:47 +0000
    Re: Linux on IBM Thinkpad 600X The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2015-01-14 18:28 +0000
    Re: Linux on IBM Thinkpad 600X Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2015-01-15 02:38 +0000
  Re: Linux on IBM Thinkpad 600X Marc Haber <mh+usenetspam1118@zugschl.us> - 2015-01-14 19:30 +0100
    Re: Linux on IBM Thinkpad 600X Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2015-01-15 04:21 +0000
      Re: Linux on IBM Thinkpad 600X Marc Haber <mh+usenetspam1118@zugschl.us> - 2015-01-15 09:25 +0100
  Re: Linux on IBM Thinkpad 600X thescullster <phil@nospam.com> - 2015-01-20 13:47 +0000
    Re: Linux on IBM Thinkpad 600X Robert Heller <heller@deepsoft.com> - 2015-01-20 09:15 -0600
    Re: Linux on IBM Thinkpad 600X Bobbie Sellers <bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com> - 2015-01-20 07:50 -0800
    Re: Linux on IBM Thinkpad 600X sctvguy1 <sctvguy1@invalid.net> - 2015-01-20 19:37 +0000
    Re: Linux on IBM Thinkpad 600X Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2015-01-20 19:38 +0000
      Re: Linux on IBM Thinkpad 600X The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2015-01-21 10:11 +0000
        Re: Linux on IBM Thinkpad 600X Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2015-01-21 19:05 +0000
          Re: Linux on IBM Thinkpad 600X The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2015-01-21 19:44 +0000
        Re: Linux on IBM Thinkpad 600X "David W. Hodgins" <dwhodgins@nomail.afraid.org> - 2015-01-21 13:56 -0500
          Re: Linux on IBM Thinkpad 600X The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2015-01-21 19:44 +0000
            Re: Linux on IBM Thinkpad 600X "David W. Hodgins" <dwhodgins@nomail.afraid.org> - 2015-01-21 16:16 -0500
  Re: Linux on IBM Thinkpad 600X thescullster <phil@nospam.com> - 2015-01-21 16:53 +0000
    Re: Linux on IBM Thinkpad 600X Robert Heller <heller@deepsoft.com> - 2015-01-21 11:33 -0600
    Re: Linux on IBM Thinkpad 600X Bobbie Sellers <bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com> - 2015-01-21 11:55 -0800

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