- This topic has 53 replies, 13 voices, and was last updated Aug 23-11:45 pm by Brian Masinick.
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Kjellinux
Thank you all for your input. I think you overrate my Linux skills though. What I need at this stage is very simple and basic answers to some very basic questions.
Given the equipment described in my original post (Acer Aspire 3100 with 512MB RAM and a 16GB USB stick), what would be the best version of antiX to try first?
Should I burn the .iso file to a CD first and then install to the USB stick, or should I install directly to the USB stick?
If directly to a USB stick, should I format the USB stick in advance, and if so, how?
If directly to a USB stick, which program is best to use on Linux Mint 19.3 Cinnamon and Windows 10 respectively?
What configurations and settings should I do on first boot?
Are there any easy to follow step by step instructions for how to do this?I will eventually upgrade the test rig with more RAM (1GB, 2GB and 4GB) and an SSD, but for the purpose of my testing, I want to keep the test rig as “crappy” as possible for now. After all, the purpose of my testing is to find out just how old and crappy hardware can be, while still good enough to be given a second life using lightweight Linux distributions. Eventually I will also start installing to hard drive, but for now I want to stick with USBs to get comparable test results.
Brian Masinick
Thank you all for your input. I think you overrate my Linux skills though. What I need at this stage is very simple and basic answers to some very basic questions.
Given the equipment described in my original post (Acer Aspire 3100 with 512MB RAM and a 16GB USB stick), what would be the best version of antiX to try first?
Should I burn the .iso file to a CD first and then install to the USB stick, or should I install directly to the USB stick?
If directly to a USB stick, should I format the USB stick in advance, and if so, how?
If directly to a USB stick, which program is best to use on Linux Mint 19.3 Cinnamon and Windows 10 respectively?
What configurations and settings should I do on first boot?
Are there any easy to follow step by step instructions for how to do this?I will eventually upgrade the test rig with more RAM (1GB, 2GB and 4GB) and an SSD, but for the purpose of my testing, I want to keep the test rig as “crappy” as possible for now. After all, the purpose of my testing is to find out just how old and crappy hardware can be, while still good enough to be given a second life using lightweight Linux distributions. Eventually I will also start installing to hard drive, but for now I want to stick with USBs to get comparable test results.
I like and appreciate your thought process – particularly helping us evaluate the functionality of “old, crappy hardware” with antiX. Great idea!
How can we help make this exercise easier for you? What areas are challenging or difficult to understand and use? Maybe there is an opportunity for us to improve our documentation and instructions. Your comments would also be quite valuable here, so please explain what we can improve in that area, maybe with a step by step set of instructions?
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Brian Masinick@Brian Masinick
I like and appreciate your thought process – particularly helping us evaluate the functionality of “old, crappy hardware” with antiX. Great idea!
How can we help make this exercise easier for you? What areas are challenging or difficult to understand and use? Maybe there is an opportunity for us to improve our documentation and instructions. Your comments would also be quite valuable here, so please explain what we can improve in that area, maybe with a step by step set of instructions?
Like any other distribution, there’s an overwhelming amount of information available, in particular if one is fairly inexperienced. When installing Linux Mint 19.3 on the old Dell Latitude D610, I found an excellent video on YouTube that described exactly how to do, step by step. I followed the steps (download, burn USB with balena etcher, boot, install, follow the instructions, done) and off I was. There might be a similar video for antiX, but I haven’t found one yet.
What i HAVE found just now though is the thread “Step by step guide to install antiX-Base”. My next action will be to study this thread thoroughly. After that I will most likely hav even more questions… 😛
Brian Masinick
There is a guy named Dolphin Oracle (DO) who has created a number of videos for antiX and MX Linux over the years.
We also have a few topics in this forum that are explicitly intended to help out first time users.Check out the main antiX page for the video(s). https://antixlinux.com/ has a video.
The topic: Short essential how-to list for the complete Linux newbie
is great; here is the link: https://www.antixforum.com/forums/topic/short-essential-how-to-list-for-the-complete-linux-newbie/- This reply was modified 1 year, 9 months ago by Brian Masinick.
- This reply was modified 1 year, 9 months ago by Brian Masinick.
- This reply was modified 1 year, 9 months ago by Brian Masinick.
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Brian Masinick
anticapitalista
In the famous words of NIKE – Just do it!
Then let us know how it went.
Otherwise, I’m out of this thread.
Bye.Philosophers have interpreted the world in many ways; the point is to change it.
antiX with runit - leaner and meaner.
christophe
My recommendation:
1. Make a cd.
2. Boot with cd but that will be slow – use Live USB Maker to make a “fully featured” live usb.
3. Then boot with the new usb. Here you will have persistence options. I recommend “static” persistence for low RAM systems, as I wrote before.
Play with your antiX usb & read other threads for tips.
There is a lot to it.
Try the frugal (again, as I wrote above) if you have a hard drive in the laptop.
When/if you get stuck, ask here.But as anticapitalista wrote, you have to just start experimenting. 🙂
- This reply was modified 1 year, 9 months ago by christophe.
confirmed antiX frugaler, since 2019
Anonymous
I would use the full version since you have a 16gb usb stick. the difference
is in the number of programs and drivers not ram usage with full vs. base.
If you can make a swap partition on the hard drive of about 2gb.
I would stay with the 4.9 kernel on those old laptops.Brian Masinick
olsztyn
@ Kjellinux:
First I want to say this is a very interesting project to make antiX run well on this hardware, which as I understand is Acer Aspire 3100 with 512M ram…
The lowest specs machine I was using antiX was Thinkpad T23, made around year 2000 by IBM, although with slightly more memory – 768M.
My machine was much inferior to yours, but performed relatively nicely with antiX.
Your machine has significant better specs:
– CPU is AMD Sempron 3200, which benchmarks PassMark = 245. Mine was Pentium M, benchmarked PasssMark 145. Yours is about 70% faster.
– Your memory is DDR2. Mine was PC133. Your memory is much faster than mine.
– Your USB ports are USB 2, while mine was USB 1.1. Huge difference. USB 1.1 was so slow it took forever. I actually booted from CD and passed booting to Frugal install on hard disk. I commonly use USB 2 for antiX Live and I see no problem booting and operating, although nowadays my typical machines are later models, the lowest spec is T60, 32 bit, which runs fine from USB 2 stick.I am curious of your testing with such machine although I expect you should be successful with not much trouble.
If you decide to go for Live implementation, not actual installing antiX to hard disk then I would recommend the process Christophe outlined several threads back. If you have a hard disk and decide to use Frugal instance of antiX then it is a great solution and should be fast enough.
Better still, if you decide to use hard disk for Live installation vs. Frugal then Christophe outlined such process in a different thread recently, namely install Live instance of antiX directly on hard disk using Live-USB-Maker CLI version, to include hd as target. Installation is from terminal specifying parameter –force=usb.
If you are weighing whether to use antiX Full or antiX Base for such experiment I would suggest antiX Base, considering your limited memory.
My measurement of memory used after fresh boot with the same Boot parameter (disable=F) on the same machine:
Thinkpad X61:
– With antiX Full – about 227M
– With antiX Base after re-creating the same relevant composition of components as Full – 142M. By the same relevant I mean including Pulseaudio, Bluetooth, etc.Thinkpad T410:
– With antiX Full – about 286M
– With antiX base built-up as above described – about 192M.Of course ones you start we browsers, that memory use will shoot up…
Just my experience. You got lots of good advice from helpful forum members in preceding posts…Live antiX Boot Options (Previously posted by Xecure):
https://antixlinuxfan.miraheze.org/wiki/Table_of_antiX_Boot_Parameters
andyprough
There is a guy named Dolphin Oracle (DO) who has created a number of videos for antiX and MX Linux over the years.
We also have a few topics in this forum that are explicitly intended to help out first time users.Check out the main antiX page for the video(s). https://antixlinux.com/ has a video.
The topic: Short essential how-to list for the complete Linux newbie
is great; here is the link: https://www.antixforum.com/forums/topic/short-essential-how-to-list-for-the-complete-linux-newbie/I agree with @Brian – you need to immerse yourself in Dolphin Oracle’s youtube videos about everything related to antiX. I spent a weekend pouring over them when I first started with antiX, and it made a huge difference for me. Much faster learning process to watch him actually do each of these steps than asking us to walk you through the steps.
marcelocripe
Hello Kjellinux,
Welcome to the antiX Linux forum.
I don’t know how to write in English language and I send you my texts translated by internet translator, I hope you can understand everything.
Now you have specified what you really need information about.
What I need at this stage is very simple and basic answers to some very basic questions.
Seaken64 and Mr. Brian have posted the topics that are of extreme importance for all newcomers to antiX, regardless of the level of knowledge about GNU/Linux.
Short essential how-to list for the complete Linux newbie and How-to install applications – 2020 version.
Given the equipment described in my original post (Acer Aspire 3100 with 512MB RAM and a 16GB USB stick), what would be the best version of antiX to try first?
About your configuration, I found this information about your Acer Aspire 3100, if it is possible, try to increase your RAM to at least 1GB, this will help you to browse the internet with the graphical web browsers, such as Firefox. If it is not possible to increase the memory, the options will be to use Links2 (available in antiX) or Pale Moon (you have to install it if you want to use it).
I recommend you try the 32 bit Full ISO, as the full ISO comes packed with both GUI and CLI options, the CLI options are better for computers with low RAM and single core processor. Start antiX with one of the desktop options that has mini or minimal in its name (fluxbox, or JWM, or IceWM), prefer the one that consumes less RAM. To choose the desktop from the ISO options menu, press the F6 key and select one of several options named mini or minimal, then press the Enter key. If you do not have skills with the Rox Filer file manager, use the SpaceFM that is available with antiX from Menu > Applications > System > SpaceFM. The Base ISO, in my opinion, is for those who already know the antiX operating system and for those who know exactly what they need and how to prepare the system to be ready for use, the Full ISO brings everything any user needs in an operating system and has much more.
If directly to a USB stick, which program is best to use on Linux Mint 19.3 Cinnamon and Windows 10 respectively?
If preparing the USB stick on Linux Mint 19.3, use AppImage from Live USB Maker is the best program to prepare a USB stick to receive antiX. If it is on Windows 10, you can use Rufus, Ventoy or another program of your choice that can boot on your Acer Aspire 3100.
Are there any easy to follow step by step instructions for how to do this?
Besides the topics mentioned above, you can read a lot in the antiX wiki and in the FAQ online or consult the FAQ contained in the antiX ISO Help.
I hope this information can be helpful.
marcelocripe
(Original text in Brazilian Portuguese)– – – – –
Olá Kjellinux,
Seja bem-vindo ao fórum do antiX Linux.
Eu não sei escrever em idioma Inglês e te envio os meus textos traduzidos pelo tradutor da internet, eu espero que você consiga compreender tudo.
Agora você especificou o que você realmente necessita de informação.
What I need at this stage is very simple and basic answers to some very basic questions.
O Seaken64 e o sr. Brian postaram os tópicos que são de extrema importância para todos os recém chegados no antiX, independentemente do nível de conhecimento sobre GNU/Linux.
Short essential how-to list for the complete Linux newbie e How-to install applications – 2020 version.
Given the equipment described in my original post (Acer Aspire 3100 with 512MB RAM and a 16GB USB stick), what would be the best version of antiX to try first?
Sobre a sua configuração, eu encontrei estas informações sobre o seu Acer Aspire 3100, se for possível, tente aumentar a sua memória RAM para pelo menos 1 GB, isso te ajudará a navegar na internet com os navegadores de internet gráficos, como por exemplo, o Firefox. Caso não seja possível aumentar a memória, as opções serão serão utilizar o Links2 (disponível no antiX) ou o Pale Moon (tem que ser instalado caso queira utilizá-lo).
Eu recomendo você testar a ISO Full de 32 bits, pois a ISO full vem repleta de soluções (programas aplicativos) com interface gráfica do usuário – GUI e com opções com interface de linha de comando – CLI (em modo texto), as opções CLI são melhores para computadores com pouca memória RAM e processador com apenas um núcleo. Prefira inicializar o antiX com uma das opções de área de trabalho que tenha em seu nome mini ou minimal (Fluxbox, ou JWM, ou IceWM), prefira a que consumir menos memória RAM. Para escolher a área de trabalho no menu de opções da ISO, pressione a tecla F6 e selecione uma das várias opções com o nome mini ou minimal, pressione a tecla Enter. Se você não possui habilidades com o gerenciador de arquivos Rox Filer, utilize o SpaceFM que vem disponível com o antiX, no Menu > Aplicações > Sistema > SpaceFM. A ISO Base, na minha opinião, é para quem já conhece o sistema operacional antiX e para quem sabe exatamente o que precisa e como preparar o sistema para ficar pronto para uso, a ISO Full trás tudo que qualquer usuário precisa em um sistema operacional e possui muito mais.
If directly to a USB stick, which program is best to use on Linux Mint 19.3 Cinnamon and Windows 10 respectively?
Se for preparar o dispositivo USB no Linux Mint 19.3, utilize o AppImage do Live USB Maker é o melhor programa para preparar um dispositivo USB para receber o antiX. Se for no Windows 10, você pode utilizar o Rufus, Ventoy ou outro programa de sua preferência que consiga inicializar no seu Acer Aspire 3100.
Are there any easy to follow step by step instructions for how to do this?
Além dos tópicos citados anteriormente, você pode ler bastante no antiX wiki e no FAQ online ou consultar o FAQ contido na Ajuda da ISO do antiX.
Eu espero que estas informações possam ser úteis.
marcelocripe
(Texto original em Português do Brasil)After a week of watching YouTube videos, reading forum posts and various other material, I started testing.
At first, I used GParted to format a number of USB sticks with a DOS partition table, an 11GB main partition (ext4) with the boot flag set and a 2GB linux-swap with swapon activated.
Next, I used my Dell Latitude D610 (with 2GB RAM) running Linux Mint 19.3 Cinnamon to download and burn antiX 19.4 base to a CD. Since the D610 was powered up anyway, I booted antiX 19.4 base from the CD. It booted without problems and ran as well as could be expected with a 15-ish year old computer. Before turning off the D610, I also downloaded antiX 19.4 full and used the USB Image Writer included in Linux Mint 19.3 Cinnamon to create a bootable USB stick with antiX 19.4 full. The USB Image Writer overwrote the preformatted partitions, so I lost the 2GB swap partition.
After this, I switched over to my test rig, the Acer Aspire 3100 with 512 MB RAM. First I booted antiX 19.4 base from the CD. It booted and ran without problems. One strange thing was that according to the Task Manager, it idled at a RAM usage of 86 MB, while at the same time the RAM usage was 101 MB according to Conky. Next I booted antiX 19.4 full from the USB stick. As expected, it booted faster from the USB stick than from the CD. Most programs ran without problems, but when I opened the web browser (that turned out to be Firefox on full, as opposed to SeaMonkey on base), the system came to a halt, despite more than 100 MB unused RAM. I suspect it would have worked better with a Swap partition.
As a last attempt to get up and running with a Swap partition, I switched to my Dell Optiplex 990 running Windows 10. Here I downloaded antiX 19.4 base and used Rufus (as recommended on the antiX home page) to create a bootable USB stick. Much to my disappointment, Rufus also overwrote my preconfigured partitions.
This is about as far as I have come by now. During my testing of various versions of Puppy Linux, I was taught to create bootable USB sticks with Swap partition “manually” by extracting the content of the .iso file and copying all the files to the main partition of the preconfigured USB stick. Is this the way to go with antiX as well, or is there a better and more “correct” method?
I would like to find a solution to this problem before I start looking into persistence, so that I can compare test results with other distributions that I have tested.
- This reply was modified 1 year, 8 months ago by Kjellinux.
- This reply was modified 1 year, 8 months ago by Kjellinux.
- This reply was modified 1 year, 8 months ago by Kjellinux.
biggest ? is are you wanting to boot usb or cd and install to the computer. There are many options.
I would say install to the hard drive from a dvd or run from a usb stick. using 17.4.1 full as a start
based on hardware.reason for recommending 17.4.1 is having to use the older kernel for it and will
be easier to test it out and work/learn from there on where to go hardware wise.with 64-bit on a new setup …. realistic is a dual-core with 4gb ram for a decent experience on
an antix 19 or 21 install for the web .. can get by with less but then the struggle of what you
want of the machine is there.
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