- This topic has 23 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated Sep 13-1:11 pm by Brian Masinick.
-
Posts
-
Brian Masinick
@kbel: It appears that you are making some progress and it also appears that hardware and the specific releases of software are important for the next key steps to solve this matter.
--
Brian MasinickBobC
In case you want to try IceWM, here are the antiX 19 IceWM keyboard assignments. You should be able to do just about anything quickly from the keyboard or mouse with it, whichever is most convenient.
kbel
Update: dist-upgrade from antix-16 stretch didn’t work very well and I lost the ability to run X altogether! So I re-installed from the cli installer on the antix-17 DVD. That seems to be okay so far. X works and the responsiveness is about the same as before on 16. Now I’m browsing the “upgrading from antix-17 to antix-19” thread to see what looks feasible from here. At any rate, at least I’ve gained a couple more years of use.
Thanks for your responses.
Brian Masinick
@kbel: antiX 17.4 may have been one of the best releases with regards to the balance between old systems and reasonably current software.
The very early versions of antiX were extremely easy on resources. I remember running with under 60 MB loaded with the basic graphical interface. Fluxbox, IceWM and JWM all used under 60 MB but I think that IceWM and a simple terminal was about 1 MB lighter than the others (on my system).
We have a lot more useful software with reasonable resources today, but occasionally I miss those early days.
It was perfect for me because I could easily install exactly what I needed and nothing else.--
Brian MasinickMy suggestion would be to just upgrade the apps that won’t force you to upgrade Xorg.
seaken64
I am guessing the SiS graphics is on-board? Also the sound and NIC are SiS?
Maybe you could add a discrete video card to get better results in antiX-19.2.
It is also probably possible to manage this with a driver module and an Xorg.conf setup, if you are willing to put in that work. If you do get it to work you can make a snapshot so you can reinstall in case something happens causing a reinstall in the future, such as a bad software install.
If you are using only console apps then why use Xorg at all? antiX has a nice text only mode with a a full featured menu and package installer.
Seaken64
Brian Masinick
I am guessing the SiS graphics is on-board? Also the sound and NIC are SiS?
Maybe you could add a discrete video card to get better results in antiX-19.2.
It is also probably possible to manage this with a driver module and an Xorg.conf setup, if you are willing to put in that work. If you do get it to work you can make a snapshot so you can reinstall in case something happens causing a reinstall in the future, such as a bad software install.
If you are using only console apps then why use Xorg at all? antiX has a nice text only mode with a a full featured menu and package installer.
Seaken64
Good points!
Console apps can run in either a GUI or directly in a non X server console. If X isn’t working well (or at all, or performance is not adequate, a console would almost certainly remove performance concerns caused by a less than optimal video driver.
In my early days of using UNIX, I did not even have an X server on a few of my earliest systems. So everything was console-based. There are still ways to copy and paste text, but not my sliding a mouse cursor, highlighting text, then moving or copying it. Everything was dome with control and escape keys. It definitely takes some work to learn how to do that, but such techniques still work today on Linux consoles.
Needless to say, classic editors like TECO, vi, and Emacs were extremely powerful and useful then (and they still are for those who take the time to learn them).
--
Brian MasinickFWIW, I run a Console only version of antiX Core (no X server) and I can still use a mouse and the frambuffer video. I also can manage “windows” using a multiplexer like tmux.
Seaken64
Brian Masinick
Oh yeah, these days there’s a console mouse driver. That’s been around 15-20 years now but I forgot about it and seldom use it.
Maybe I should practice with it!😎💡
--
Brian Masinick
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
