- This topic has 53 replies, 13 voices, and was last updated Aug 23-11:45 pm by Brian Masinick.
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Kjellinux
I’m currently testing which lightweight Linux distributions can be used to give old low spec computers a second life. My primary reason for doing this is out of curiosity and as a learning experience. I’m fairly new to Linux, and I only started looking into Linux when I was given an old Dell Latitude D610. This computer was upgraded to the maximum 2GB RAM and is now my trusted Linux machine running Linux Mint 19.3 Cinnamon. Admittedly not the fastest computer ever seen, but good and reliable.
A secondary reason for this testing is to find out if any, or several, of these lightweight Linux distributions can be used to provide people with limited financial means with functioning computers by installing Linux on donated older hardware. Most people today have access to a smartphone, and these are great for many applications, such as facebook and YouTube, but for other applications, such as word processing or editing photographs, a larger screen, a proper keyboard and a mouse can make life much easier.
For the porpose of testing, I have aquired an Acer Aspire 3100 with 512MB RAM that I’m using as a test rig. It’s upgradable to 4GB, but for the time being, I’m not upgrading the RAM, since this would defeat the purpose of my testing. So far my testing has included Lubuntu 16.04, various versions of Puppy Linux and currently I’m looking into Tiny Core Linux. From my testing so far, I have concluded that one of the most crucial bottlenecks is RAM usage. Lack of storage has been less of an issue.
Next, I intend to test antiX, and I would like to ask for advice on a suitable test setup. I would like to run antiX from a USB stick, and I would like to save changes to the same USB stick. For the download and creation of the USB stick, I can use a desktop (Dell Optiplex 990) running Windows 10 or the Dell Latitude D610 mentioned earlier, running Linux Mint 19.3 Cinnamon. I have a number of USB sticks (SanDisk Cruzer Blade 16GB) and by now I have become reasonably skilled in using GParted, so I can format them as required. After testing Puppy Linux, some of them are formated with an 11GB ext3 main partion, and a 2GB Linux Swap.
Now I would like to ask for your advice on the best antiX version to use for my test rig, and how to best create a USB stick as described. Advice on how to get started with initial setup etc. would also be much apprecieted.
anticapitalista
Running on a stick with such hardware, the Aspire, (usb 1.1 or if you’re lucky usb2) and limited RAM (512MB) will be painful to be honest.
Philosophers have interpreted the world in many ways; the point is to change it.
antiX with runit - leaner and meaner.
seaken64
https://www.antixforum.com/forums/topic/antix-the-best-operating-system-for-my-p-iii/
https://www.antixforum.com/forums/topic/system-requirements-for-antix-and-other-debians/
https://www.antixforum.com/forums/topic/still-using-antix-16-in-2020/The above links have a lot of good stuff about running antiX on old under-powered equipment. There is lots of other good stuff on the forum if you do a search from the first page of the forum. Many of us have been doing this for years and I have got a lot of good advice on this forum from many members.
If you can you will want to either install to hard drive, either as full install or frugal, or run in RAM. I run antiX on several machines with 512 or less RAM but trying to run Live from USB or CD will be like slogging through the mud. You coud try to learn using the CORE version but the learning curve may be steep. I would try the BASE version and use geany to modify some startup and config files to limit ram as much as you can. Disable services not needed.
I would recommend using antiX Live USB Maker. You may have to do this in two steps sincer you don’t have antiX installed yet. Install antiX and then run Live USB Maker and then re-start live with persistance. You may be able to get the Appimage to work in Mint.
Welcome to antiX.
Seaken64
- This reply was modified 1 year, 9 months ago by seaken64.
BobC
A D610 has a slower USB port and slow disk drive. I would put an SSD in it and run from that instead of from a flashdrive. That’s how I run my D620.
Of course you can do it from a flashdrive but programs will be slow to load and access data or anything not in memory.
Anonymous
Hi kjellinux,
the D610 runs antiX ok if installed on the hard drive not the slow usb.
You need the 32-bit version.
Finding a ssd drive with the pin connections might be hard as it isn’t
sata. can you post the output ofinxi -Fxzfor each so others know what the hardware is to give suggestions.
@anticapitalista
Running on a stick with such hardware, the Aspire, (usb 1.1 or if you’re lucky usb2) and limited RAM (512MB) will be painful to be honest.
After reading “256MB RAM is recommended minimum for antiX” on the About antiX page, and having tested a number of different versions of Puppy Linux (32 bit) installed on USB sticks running on the mentioned Acer Aspire 3100 (USB 2.0, by the way), I was somewhat surprised by your comment. Are there any specific reasons why antiX should perform worse than Puppy Linux?
anticapitalista
That is for installed antiX, not running it live from a usb stick.
The only way to find out is to try it. All you lose is some time.
Good luck.Philosophers have interpreted the world in many ways; the point is to change it.
antiX with runit - leaner and meaner.
Brian Masinick
Running on a stick with such hardware, the Aspire, (usb 1.1 or if you’re lucky usb2) and limited RAM (512MB) will be painful to be honest.
After reading “256MB RAM is recommended minimum for antiX” on the About antiX page, and having tested a number of different versions of Puppy Linux (32 bit) installed on USB sticks running on the mentioned Acer Aspire 3100 (USB 2.0, by the way), I was somewhat surprised by your comment. Are there any specific reasons why antiX should perform worse than Puppy Linux?
Regarding the general performance of Puppy Linux versus antiX Linux on a variety of systems over the years, I find the basic performance in terms of subjective feel to be similar for similar versions of either tool. Both are distributions with multiple approaches available, so one or the other might suit you better for a particular use case. For me, mostly because of more day-to-day experience with the Debian family of software, including Debian, MX Linux, antiX and a variety of other Debian-based systems, I’m partial to antiX, yet most builds of Puppy (with a few exceptions work well for me).
Until a month or so ago, when I got another computer, every single system I’ve ever used prior to that ALWAYS worked with antiX; I’d say about 80-85% of the various Puppy versions have worked for me; the percentage dropped when I didn’t always have Ethernet available; that may have been what stopped the latest one with antiX or it may have been a mismatch between the kernels I was attempting to use and the hardware specs on the new device.
The ‘good news’ in both cases is that over time that usually works out; hardware support becomes available and in the meantime there are always at least a few systems that DO work; I’ve had a great track record with antiX and Puppy over their respective lifespans.
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Brian Masinick
christophe
Hello Kjelinux,
Try other variations on the antiX live boot, but be sure to also try this:
Starting from an “full-featured” antiX live-USB (manual frugal is also possible):
F5 option = frugal static persistence (f_static_root)
This will start to boot from usb but switch to hdd, which should speed up quite a bit. It (at first boot) copies the usb files over to a hdd folder.
And the static persistence part keeps your RAM for … well, RAM. (Static saves changes to disk, not RAM). I find it works well even if you have more RAM.Once you are up & running with persistence, enable zram. I especially like it on low-RAM systems. It sounds counter-intuitive, but it seems like it “adds ram,” IMHO.
sudo cp /usr/local/bin/zram /etc/init.dsudo update-rc.d zram defaults
Reboot to automatically use it.- This reply was modified 1 year, 9 months ago by christophe.
confirmed antiX frugaler, since 2019
LikkMii
Hi. Mr Personality here
Go buy a Kingston 120 and put in the thing
Install Antix beta one and then install Mabox.
The Mabox installer will let you choose a 50/50 install on the ssd.
Run both and see what you like best(it’ll be antix if you spend the time to work the control panel and add icons. Play with it several hours one day and learn it.
Both systems will run well in it.
Openbox vs Ice-space or rox.
Both are great. Both require a lil effort at first.
Save the USB stick for….usb stuff. Naked wife pics,pdf,stuff to show your buddies at the bar.
I do have a usb with persistance from the Dolphin video. I use it once in a while at a hotel but many get snaggy when your try the bios on THEIR equipment so it’s often useless.At home it makes zero sense.@BobC @linuxdaddy
The D610 will not be used for testing. It’s one of my two options for downloading an .iso file and burning it to CD and/or USB.
@anticapitalista
That is for installed antiX, not running it live from a usb stick.
The only way to find out is to try it. All you lose is some time.
Good luck.I’m in quarantine due to the pandemic, so I’ve got ample time. 🙂
Brian Masinick
Back in time (or “Once upon a time”) the Dell D series of laptops were among those which worked quite well with Linux. While the best of the original Thinkpad line had the best keyboard for laptops at the time, the D600-D630 were good, solid, well built systems too and they all ran well with Linux.
Ever since the kernel project removed support for some of the oldest hardware, some of them may no longer have the same degree of hardware support as they once enjoyed; I do have a Thinkpad X201 that still works.
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Brian Masinick@cristophe
Once you are up & running with persistence, enable zram.
This sounds quite interesting. The key phrase her beeing “Once you are up & running”. I need to get up and running first. 🙂
andyprough
You can try my Libre-antiX respin for i386 if you like: https://www.antixforum.com/forums/topic/antix-libre-respin/page/2/#post-55939
The ISO is small enough to burn to a regular CD. If I recall correctly, I think it runs with slightly less memory than normal antiX. To be fair, I haven’t fired up my 32-bit desktop in a couple months, so I’m having to go by my own error-prone memory regarding the RAM usage. I think it normally boots up into an Icewm window manager with about 120-130mb of ram (don’t shoot me if I’m wrong on this).
It comes with the Linux-libre kernel (proprietary blobs are stripped out), and with non-free firmware stripped out. It probably won’t work with wifi unless you have a wifi card with a specific Atheros chip.
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