- This topic has 24 replies, 11 voices, and was last updated Dec 28-10:28 pm by Anonymous.
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simon
@missTell by the way, it does play music via Poor Man’s Radio Player without any issue and minimal cpu usage according to conky. Also today I reduced the fan noise by replacing the fan with a newer quieter fan (and blue LEDs!)
Reliability is definitely a concern for me, I’m not sure how much longer this system can run, but I’ve seen people running much older hardware like commodore64s and Apple IIs, I’ll be sure to keep backups of my data (maybe on floppy 😉 )
Anonymous
@simon Yes, nobody can say how long it’ll work but, on the other side, there is a good reason why the computers used in space are being build in 128 nm technology or such. It’s not because they couldn’t afford themselves a 7 nm. 😉
That said, I could imagine that it’ll continue working for many more years albeit, without any warranty that’ll still start tomorrow morning. If you really wanna use it, I’d recommend you three things: high quality fan (top down like Scythe Samurai * — if properly mounted, they are cooling the motherboard components too), new hard disk and new RAM (I think, 512 / 1024 MB RAM was max., depending on 2 / 4 slots). Those components can (not very easily) still be found brand new and are definitely worth it if you like to keep your toy.
olsztyn
there is a good reason why the computers used in space are being build in 128 nm technology or such. It’s not because they couldn’t afford themselves a 7 nm
This is an interesting observation… I read an article in Time magazine that F16 military planes are still using Pentium III chips and such. So because they have no longer been manufactured for some time spare parts are recovered from old motherboards. One company contracted for this employs such service in China where they heat motherboards over fire to unsolder chips. They are checked of course before being installed in planes…
Live antiX Boot Options (Previously posted by Xecure):
https://antixlinuxfan.miraheze.org/wiki/Table_of_antiX_Boot_ParametersThere are two sides to it: one side is the reliability. This is absolute priority in space, flight and military technology. Another side is the development cycle: new radar, plane or spacecraft is designed over many years, needs again many years to get thoroughly tested and ready for actual usage so, you’ll automatically a decade “too late” for the newest technology, which is basically untested and nobody can say if it works or not.
You don’t wan’t to sit in a newest Boing airplane which is based on a 7 nm processor (which appeared a couple of months ago) I suppose. 😉
PowerPC PPC7400 (Apple iBook G4) RISC processor was very widely used in military technology. Simple, speedy and reliable.
Hi All
Just wanted to update everyone here on the status of the PII machine. It’s still going strong, but I did have one small hiccup. Recently I tried out the Antix19 DVD install media to see if I could upgrade. I ran into the same issue where X would not work, however the fix I found above (editing xorg.conf) did not work.
Do you know if the new linux kernel dropped support for matrox graphics cards? Any tips on how I can get AntiX 19 working on this machine. Is Antix 17 the end of the line for this hardware architecture?
Thanks in advance.
BitJam
Do you know if the new linux kernel dropped support for matrox graphics cards? Any tips on how I can get AntiX 19 working on this machine. Is Antix 17 the end of the line for this hardware architecture?
The newer kernels (including, IIUC, those in antiX-17) have dropped support for the mga.ko driver. The X-Server in antiX-19 still has support for their “mga” driver under /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/ so if you downgrade your kernel then antiX-19 might work. You need both the mga.ko kernel driver and the mga X-Server driver.
Context is worth 80 IQ points -- Alan Kay
seaken64
I’ve had various levels of success getting Linux on Pentium-II and Pentium machines. I was able to load Vector Linux (Slackware) on an old P-150 laptop with 48MB RAM. But I could never get antiX to work in X, CLI only. Was going to try TinyCore but did not get to it yet.
I had antiX 16 on a Thinkpad 500E with 288MB RAM. But the battery and power are unstable and I can’t get it to boot anymore. But antiX ran fine, even browsed the internet.
I have a Pentium-II desktop with 194MB RAM on which I tried to get antiX running but I could not get it take. It came close a couple of times but ultimately I could not get it to boot. I gave up. I successfully have Puppy on that machine along with OS/2.
I would never suggest actually using these old machines as everyday computers. But I have a lot of old computers and I find it fascinating to find out what Linux can do on a machine that was never designed for such an OS. Linux is much more fun than Windows or OS/2. But it’s also a lot harder to manage. I can put Windows 98 on the Pentium-II but then what? Maybe some games. Maybe a CD-Player. With Linux I can get on the internet and explore, even if only in a text interface. Internet radio is pretty fun.
But for me, Linux has been really good at bringing P-III and P-4 back to life. Can even use those as daily drivers if I wanted. I still use a Pentium 4 as an HTPC with Kodi on MX/antiX.
For me it’s a hobby. Not for practical use. But I always love these stories of someone pulling out their old computer and installing Linux. Keep it up.
Seaken64
rokytnji
My old story with old gear and old pcmcia wireless with older versions of AntiX
http://yatsite.blogspot.com/2009/07/fixing-old-gear.html
Sometimes I drive a crooked road to get my mind straight.
Not all who Wander are Lost.
I'm not outa place. I'm from outer space.Linux Registered User # 475019
How to Search for AntiX solutions to your problems
Brian Masinick
https://brianmasinick.blogspot.com/2012/02/?m=0
My OLD article about creating a customized version of antiX Core
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Brian MasinickI haven’t tried p-2 in long time but have some …. recently my p3 wouldn’t load the I810
video for X though. My p-2 is a project 4 this winter and have different video cards for it.
It’s a p2-333 with 512 mb ram and agp/pci video card. What a concept is it …. year 2020 and
to bring a baby-at mobo online 🙂 It’s a p2 baby at Intel -p2- LX mobo.
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