Looking for informations and advices

[Member captain-plant]

Hi :),

I am a bit new to Linux and I’ve installed Lubuntu on an old computer. Long story short, it seems Lubuntu is still too greedy for my setup and I’m looking for a lighter Linux distribution. I think AntiX could work well on my computer but I haven’t been able to find the video card memory minimum requirement. Could it work with a NVIDIA G86M [GeForce 8400M GS] (rev a1) that has 128 Mo of GDDR3 ?

Could you tell me what is the :
– minimum video card memory requirement ?
– Recommended video card memory requirement ?

Which desktop is the lightest ?

Will I be lost coming from Lubuntu ?

Also, I wanna use this computer for web developpement. So I need to be able to install a bunch of software like Codium, PgAdmin, Node, Postgres, Redis, Mongo… Is it possible on this distribution ? is it hard ?

My computer config is :

I have found 2 names for the computer, I think both are ok :
– Computer Name : Samsung SR70S
– Computer Name : Samsung NP-R70A002/SEF
– Type : x64
– Processor : Intel Core 2 Duo CPU – T7300 – 2.00 GHz
– BIOS : Phoenix Technologies LTD TrustedCore NB Service Pack 3B Version 0.0 04AB – 08/06/2007
– Hard Drive MBR/MSDOS : 935 Go
– RAM : 3072 Mb
– Video Card : NVIDIA G86M [GeForce 8400M GS] (rev a1) with 128 Mo of GDDR3
– Memory BUS : 64 Bit

Thanks a lot 🙂

[Member punranger]

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I can’t answer all those questions specifically, but:

I’m able to run antiX comfortably on a 17 year old laptop with integrated graphics.

antiX does not use a regular desktop environment by default, it uses a combination of a file manager and a window manager. The default is Rox-IceWM, but you can install something like xfce on it if you wish. I never tried that, though.

Coming from Lubuntu shouldn’t be a problem – but it’s a little different.

antiX is based on Debian, which is what Lubuntu is based on. Debian packages work just fine. Not updated on snaps/flatpaks – I don’t use those.

What I recommend is try the Live USB, and set up persistence. Then you can test everything. Greatest live distro I tried. If you’re happy with the test, just install regularly.

Just my two cents.

antiX linux: The best way to revive an old computer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCTaUAP6sSg

[Moderator caprea]

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antiX21 will run very good on this hardware.I would recommend the 64-bit Full version.
Coincidentally it’s the same graphic card as on my laptop, it was even possible to install the nvidia legacy driver.
After installation of antiX it is might better to boot into the older 4.9 kernel over the advanced options.antiX comes with two kernels installed per default, one modern and one older kernel.

icewm is the default desktop (and light enough for your hardware), but is is extremely easy and comfortable on antiX to try another desktop, just one click.So you can look yourself which one fits your needs and to the hardware.

I can’t tell you the details about the software you mentioned, but don’t think you’ll have any problems. There is all the software from the Debian sources available for installation and some extra packaged sotware from the antiX and MX Linux sources.

[Member marcelocripe]

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Hello captain-plant.

Welcome to antiX Linux and the forum.

I don’t know how to write in English and I send my texts translated by the internet translator. I hope you can understand everything, if your native language is not English, please translate my original Brazilian Portuguese text directly into your language with the help of internet translators.

Regardless of your level of knowledge about GNU/Linux, I recommend you read these excellent tutorials created by @PPC:

What is antiX and how to try it out or install it.
Short essential how-to list for the complete Linux newbie.
How-to install applications – 2020 version.
How to: correctly use antiX forum.

When I first started using antiX, I read the tutorials that PPC created, these readings saved me a lot of time and I think it saves time for any new antiX user. Your time will not be wasted with these readings, everything will seem to be much easier than you could imagine. You won’t waste your time searching the internet or even creating new topics, on the contrary, you will gain a lot of time with these readings.

I recommend you try out desktops that have “zzz” in their name. I usually use zzz-IceWM or zzz-JWM or zzz-Fluxbox (each of these desktops has its own characteristics and consumes more or less resources), zzzFM will be the default file manager for your desktop, it it is very similar to the other file managers of other GNU/Linux distributions and Windows XP. To access other antiX workspaces, click on Menu, Desktop, Other Desktops and click on the workspace name, instantly the workspace will be loaded.

Whenever you need to ask for help or technical support, post the output of the terminal command $ inxi -Fxz, copy and paste it in the message of the topic you are going to create in this forum.

When you start a topic or participate with a post, remember to check the option “Notify me of follow-up replies via email”, by checking this option, you will receive a message in your email box whenever there are replies from topic in question.

…it seems Lubuntu is still too greedy for my setup and I’m looking for a lighter Linux distribution.

The creator of antiX wrote:
We will try to keep CPU and RAM usage at idle down to a minimum. We mainly achieve this through not running unnecessary services on boot.

With antiX, I revive Pentium 4 computers with 1 GB of DDR I RAM.

marcelocripe
(Original text in Brazilian Portuguese language)

– – – – –

Olá captain-plant.

Seja bem-vindo(a) ao antiX Linux e ao fórum.

Eu não sei escrever em idioma Inglês e envio os meus textos traduzidos pelo tradutor da internet. Eu espero que você consiga compreender tudo, caso o seu idioma nativo não seja o Inglês, por favor, traduza o meu texto original em idioma Português do Brasil diretamente para o seu idioma com a ajuda dos tradutores da internet.

Independentemente do seu nível de conhecimento sobre GNU/Linux, eu recomendo você ler estes excelentes tutoriais criados pelo @PPC:

What is antiX and how to try it out or install it.
Short essential how-to list for the complete Linux newbie.
How-to install applications – 2020 version.
How to: correctly use antiX forum.

Quando eu comecei a utilizar o antiX, eu li os tutoriais que o PPC criou, estas leituras me pouparam muito do meu tempo e acho que poupa o tempo de qualquer novo usuário do antiX. O seu tempo não será perdido com estas leituras, tudo parecerá ser muito mais fácil do que você poderia imaginar. Você não perderá o seu tempo com pesquisas na internet ou até mesmo em criar novos tópicos, ao contrário, você ganhará muito tempo com estas leituras.

Eu recomendo você experimentar as áreas de trabalho que possuem “zzz” em seu nome. Eu costumo utilizar o zzz-IceWM ou zzz-JWM ou zzz-Fluxbox (cada uma destas áreas de trabalho possuem características próprias e consomem mais ou menos recursos), o zzzFM será o gerenciador de arquivos padrão da sua área de trabalho, ele é muito semelhante aos outros gerenciadores de arquivos das outras distribuições GNU/Linux e do Windows XP. Para acessar as outras áreas de trabalho do antiX, clique no Menu, Área de Trabalho, Alternar Entre as Áreas de Trabalho e clique sobre o nome da área de trabalho, instantaneamente a área de trabalho será carregada.

Sempre que você precisar solicitar ajuda ou suporte técnico, poste o resultado do comando do terminal $ inxi -Fxz, copie e cole aqui na mensagem do tópico que você for criar neste fórum.

Quando você iniciar algum tópico ou participar com alguma postagem, lembre-se de marcar a opção “Notify me of follow-up replies via email”, marcando esta opção, você receberá uma mensagem na sua caixa de e-mail sempre que houver respostas do tópico em questão.

…it seems Lubuntu is still too greedy for my setup and I’m looking for a lighter Linux distribution.

O criador do antiX escreveu:
We will try to keep CPU and RAM usage at idle down to a minimum. We mainly achieve this through not running unnecessary services on boot.

Com o antiX, eu revivo computadores Pentium 4 com 1 GB de memória RAM I DDR.

marcelocripe
(Texto original em idioma Português do Brasil)

[Forum Admin rokytnji]

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Not sure about yours

$ inxi -G
Graphics:  Device-1: NVIDIA GF108 [GeForce GT 430] driver: nvidia v: 390.147 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.11 driver: loaded: nvidia 
           unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,nouveau,vesa resolution: 1366x768~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: GeForce GT 430/PCIe/SSE2 v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 390.147 

Your card is newer than mine and I got the nvidia driver working. Using the antiX control center. You will find it when you run it., Nouvue driver is what you will be running till you manually do what I did. It sufficed well enough and my nvidia install was done as a self learning lesson.

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

[Member captain-plant]

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Hi 🙂

Thank you all for your warm and detailled messages. It helps a lot and it’s nice to know there is a nice community to help :). I have a some readings to do, it’s gonna be very useful.

I don’t know if you asked me to post this, but here is my configuration right now on Lubuntu (I just changed the “nouveau” driver for the nvidia-340 and it seems to work much better, but it’s not crazy though):

/$ inxi -Fxz
System:
  Kernel: 5.15.0-33-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.2.0
    Desktop: LXQt 0.17.1 Distro: Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish)
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: SAMSUNG product: SR70S/SR71S v: 04AB
    serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: SAMSUNG model: SR70S/SR71S serial: <superuser required>
    BIOS: Phoenix v: 04AB date: 06/08/2007
CPU:
  Info: dual core model: Intel Core2 Duo T7300 bits: 64 type: MCP
    arch: Core Merom rev: A cache: L1: 128 KiB L2: 4 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1982 high: 1995 min/max: 800/2001 boost: enabled cores:
    1: 1995 2: 1970 bogomips: 7979
  Flags: ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA G86M [GeForce 8400M GS] vendor: Samsung Co driver: nvidia
    v: 340.108 bus-ID: 01:00.0
  Device-2: Z-Star Micro Vega USB 2.0 Camera type: USB driver: uvcvideo
    bus-ID: 1-2:2
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.3 driver: X: loaded: nvidia
    gpu: nvidia resolution: 1: 1280x800~60Hz 2: 1440x900~60Hz
  OpenGL: renderer: GeForce 8400M GS/PCIe/SSE2 v: 3.3.0 NVIDIA 340.108
    direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 82801H HD Audio vendor: Samsung Co driver: snd_hda_intel
    v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.15.0-33-generic running: yes
  Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 15.99.1 running: yes
  Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.48 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan] Network driver: iwl3945
    v: in-tree:s bus-ID: 03:00.0
  IF: wlp3s0 state: up mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Marvell 88E8039 PCI-E Fast Ethernet vendor: Samsung Co
    driver: sky2 v: 1.30 port: 3000 bus-ID: 04:00.0
  IF: enp4s0 state: down mac: <filter>
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 931.51 GiB used: 16.18 GiB (1.7%)
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST1000LM024 HN-M101MBB
    size: 931.51 GiB
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 48.91 GiB used: 15.86 GiB (32.4%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 512 MiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) file: /swapfile
  ID-2: swap-2 type: zram size: 1.46 GiB used: 506 MiB (33.9%)
    dev: /dev/zram0
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 70.0 C mobo: 70.0 C gpu: nvidia temp: 69 C
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Info:
  Processes: 222 Uptime: 2h 18m Memory: 2.91 GiB used: 2.15 GiB (73.7%)
  Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 11.2.0 Packages: 1912 Shell: Bash
  v: 5.1.16 inxi: 3.3.13
/$ 

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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@captain-plant: I hope your system is still working OK. The CPU temperature and the NVIDIA temperature your inxi output displayed show higher settings than the warmest or hottest system I’ve used. I’ve seen between 50-60 C a few times; the newer system I have runs between 45-50 C even with a fair number of activities going. Keep an eye on that so you don’t overheat your components.

--
Brian Masinick

[Member madibi]

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@captain-plant:
I’ve installed various linux distro on some Macintel.
Once I burnt 2 Gb memory on a MacbookPro from 2008 (3.1), using Ubuntu 12.04.

From then on I always verified the Temp of the Mac(s) where I installed linux.

You can use macfanctld, that was thought for MacbookPro.
Once I used it on a Mac Pro from 2009 (may be 4.1, I’m not sure) but with the above mentioned utility the fan were always at the max speed.

There I preferred to use Psensor.

In this very same machine there were both El Capitan and Peppermint 10: the same task (you tube with Cranberries “Zombie”) with MacOS/Safari the temp was about 45-50°C, with linux/Firefox was about 60-65 °C.

good luck 🙂

m

• This reply was modified 11 months, 1 week ago by madibi.
• This reply was modified 11 months, 1 week ago by madibi.

[Member captain-plant]

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Thanks for pointing out this problem, I didn’t realise the temperature was too high.
@Brian Masinick, my system seems fine for now. But I don’t really know how the computer react to high temperature and what are the signs before breaking for good. I will keep an eye or try to change for a lighter distribution.
@Madibi, you advise me to install “macfanctld” even though I don’t have a mac ?? Or should I install “Psensor” ?

And maybe I have too many processes ? 222 seems crazy no ?

Thank you for your answers 🙂

• This reply was modified 11 months, 1 week ago by captain-plant.

[Member madibi]

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sorry, I made confusion between the posts: I was convinced you have a Macpro

I any case Psensor is good for every system 🙂

• This reply was modified 11 months, 1 week ago by madibi.

[Member stevesr0]

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On my system, the current temp according to gkrellm was 70 C + (core 1 70/core 2 72) until I started playing a YouTube video, when it goes up to 78/82 respectively. When I looked up the maximum temperature for an intel core 2 cpu like mine, I recall it was 100 C.

I also noted a site (just now) which states that temperatures above 90 C are for long periods of time are to be avoided and notes that auto throttling occurs when the temp goes to/above 100 C.

I have used this old computer in the same fashion for a long time and it doesn’t seem to be deteriorating grossly (fingers crossed).

It is NOT my main machine.

Don’t know what my usual CPU temperatures are on my other systems.

Obviously, you might want to check on what the maximum is for your CPU and when to look into factors that might be driving up the CPU temperature that can and should be addressed to maximizeperformance and avoid damage.

stevesr0

[Forum Admin anticapitalista]

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captain-plant wrote:

And maybe I have too many processes ? 222 seems crazy no ?

You would have to ask Lubuntu users about that.
antiX defaults to less than half that.

Philosophers have interpreted the world in many ways; the point is to change it.

antiX with runit - leaner and meaner.

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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I guess my systems are quite OK then. I have a buddy who likes to get the latest and greatest systems.
He has something like 5 fans, specific to various specific locations, and he has components that are worlds faster than what most of us here use.
His temperatures were consistently under 30 C, usually 25-28 C. Not only that, this guy lives in a HOT desert region.

Today I’m running on my Dell Inspiron 5558 laptop; I downloaded antiX-21-runit_x64-full; I have antiX-21-runit-base already installed here.
Looking at my operating temperature, right now it’s pretty reasonable,
System Temperatures: cpu: 45.0 C mobo: 25.0 C sodimm: SODIMM C
Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 2200

So the motherboard area isn’t hot at all, and the CPU is certainly in a reasonable range; yet, compared to this friend with his fancy system, the CPU is running almost 20 C warmer than his ultra-cooled system.

--
Brian Masinick

[Member captain-plant]

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Thank you all for your help and advices, they are precious. I realise I’m a bit out of subject since I’m not using AntiX yet, so sorry for that 😉

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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captain-plant wrote:

Thank you all for your help and advices, they are precious. I realise I’m a bit out of subject since I’m not using AntiX yet, so sorry for that 😉

While there are many other good Linux distributions available, when you have the opportunity, I highly recommend that you take the time and effort to download and try out one of our images.

Right now I am using antiX-21-runit_x64-full with the “legacy” 4.9.0-279-antix.1-amd64-smp kernel. I’ve used many other types and forms of this distribution; lately I’ve been using mostly antiX 21 with the ‘runit’ scheduling method and the “Base” style, which allows me to select my own choices for software. This is the “full version”, which is still quite lean, but it has a complete, useful set of default applications. I added the Google Chrome Web browser to the collection using the Package Manager and I’m running Live from the USB I wrote this image on.

The ‘runit’ versions are “relatively recent” in our overall collection and choices. The rationale behind adding this particular one dates back a few years. There WAS a very aged, well working, but perceived “out of date” process handling or “job scheduling” component called SysVinit that Debian, Red Hat, and quite a few distributions adopted called SystemD that led to an outcry in the free software community, and had many people scampering, looking for other alternatives. Runit is a scheduling method previously adopted by the Void Linux community, along with a few others; antiX has added it during the past couple of releases, and with Version 21, it has been significantly improved.

I don’t even use half of the scheduling capabilities of ANY job scheduling service, but we all use SOME of the capabilities. The runit method has nicely matured and it is a good choice. I’ve probably been using it for a couple of years now and I can eagerly endorse it, especially since I’ve now used it in both Base and Full installation models, and in the antiX 19 and 21 series.

Anyway, I recommend most people install the “Full” version of antiX and use the Package Installer to add anything else of interest. This one is great; you can find it under the runit-bullseye/ directory; This site usually has decent download capabilities, for those who are wondering about a good site to use:

http://mxlinux.csail.mit.edu/mxlinux-iso/ANTIX/Final/antiX-21/runit-bullseye/

Once you get there, choose the image you want. I chose the antiX-21-runit_x64-full.iso image.

--
Brian Masinick

[Author]

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