Very Old IBM Thinkpad

[Member OldLap03]

Is there an antiX version that will run on an older IBM Thinkpad R40e currently running win XP?
Intel® Mobile Pentium® 4 Processor-M 1.8Ghz, Type 2684CVG motherboard, RAM 1GB, HDD 16GB 7GB Free.

I succesfully tested antiX 19.3 Base running from a DVD on a Dell OptiPlex GX270 desktop, Pentium® 4 2.4Ghz, RAM 2GB.

When I tried antiX 19.3 Base with the R40e latop. It tried to start but stopped at a blank screen. Did not get to the stage of offering me options.

Is the Thinkpad too old or are there any things I might have failed to do?
I was hopeful as antiX FAQ says “should run on most computers, ranging from 192MB old PII systems with pre-configured 128MB swap to the latest powerful boxes”.

I have almost no experience with Linux. The Thinkpad was tried with Linux Puppy 5.7.1 and 6.0.51 both ran succesfully but the included web browsers were not suited to current web sites.

Thanks in anticipation 🙂

[Moderator BobC]

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Try the 32 bit base version.

[Member OldLap03]

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Thanks for your reply

I was using the 32 bit base version on both the Dell desktop without any installation to HDD “Live” from DVD and tried the same with the laptop.

Just in case it is helpful to know:

1GB of RAM fitted is maximum that can be installed in laptop.

When I tested the Thinkpad with Puppy neither Xenial 7.5 nor Bionic 8.0, both 32 bit, worked.

Thanks.

[Member PPC]

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It may not work, but you can try a special antiX version Xecure built for very old computers, it’s completly unofficial and is available at https://drive.google.com/file/d/10uQsa4lMG00b4ja9vuLsDff3uzQYo5Rh/view?usp=sharing

I hope that works for you!

P.

[Moderator BobC]

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Tell us what kind of DVD you used, what file you burned to it, and how you burned it.

You said all you got was a blank screen, but didn’t say if anything else happens before that.

Were you able to boot a different pc with that same DVD?

Are there and distros it has been able to boot?

I saw your puppy works comment and looked up the specs, so it’s from 2009, not that old, and 1 gb is fine. Why not make a USB and boot from that? Maybe the DVD player is having trouble.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 5 months ago by BobC.

[Forum Admin rokytnji]

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Having a T-23 with even slower specs. 1.2 ghz Pentium M.

With a unsupported graphics chip 1/2 the time . Have you tried the vesa boot in AntiX options on boot screen?
Puppy probably worked with the xvesa option. Just a guess though from long distance.

https://downloads.tuxfamily.org/antix/docs-antiX-17/FAQ/boot-params.html

Safe Video Mode
Disable KMS (kernel mode set) video drivers and force the use of the vesa video driver. Try this option of the system seems to boot but the screen is blank.

Here is another helpful link

https://download.tuxfamily.org/antix/docs-antiX-19/Boot_Menu/antiX-gfxboot.html

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How to Search for AntiX solutions to your problems

[Member punranger]

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I have installed 32-bit antiX on several laptops with hardware like that, even antiX 21 (which I recommend because of better WiFi setup). The full version includes Firefox out of the box, which I think you may need, so I would actually go with that.

Your experience suggests that there may be a problem with the DVD drive or maybe disc. I would suggest booting from USB (may require a little BIOS fiddling). Much faster than DVD boot for me. If you set up persistence on the USB, you can save your setup when you exit, and have a complete working OS without interfering with your XP installation. (It works better than Puppy for me.) Ultimately I recommend wiping XP and installing antiX on the whole HD.

A word of warning: Even though antiX should run fine, and probably will with a little patience, you will have a problem with any browser being slow, because modern web sites require a lot of processing power. There’s no way around that. Good luck!

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

[Member OldLap03]

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Hello all again. Sorry for the delay in replying. I don’t get much free time to experiment with Linux and I have spent hours trying to find the CDs that I used to test the laptop and desktop computers, so far without success. Clearly I have put them “somewhere safe” but not yet remembered where that was!

I have some answers:
 As best I can remember I used Verbatim CD-R for ISOs that would fit and Verbatim DVD+R for larger ISOs.
 All of the discs that I made worked on either the laptop or the desktop but not all on both PCs. So for example, the antiX 19.3 Base disk worked with the desktop but not with the laptop. That tells me both the disk and the optical disk reader on the desktop were ok.
 The earlier Puppy versions (5.7.1 and 6.0.51) on CDs which I made from downloaded ISO files worked with the laptop optical disk reader as do other commercially made DVDs.
 All my testing was with “Live” versions. I have not tried persistence or installing to HDD yet.
 When I tried antiX 19.3 Base with the R40e laptop. It tried to start but I can not remember seeing any text message or similar before it stopped at a blank screen. Had I been able to find those disks I would have tried again and given a better answer.

@PPC Thank you for the suggestion I try the antiX Xecure version. I have downloaded it but not yet burnt a disk to try it out.

@rokytnji Thank you for your two links which I will follow up. If my memory is correct in suggesting I did not see any screen messages before it stopped with a blank screen would I have had an opportunity to try a vesa boot option? I don’t have any experience of installing Linux to inform me!

@punranger Thanks for your advice.
 For the reasons given below I think both my disc reader and the discs I made from downloads are OK.
 If I manage to get a useful to me Linux OS working I am likely to run it for some time and will use persistence
 Thanks for your comment re WiFi on antiX 19 and 21.

I was going to ask about their relative strengths and weaknesses because having taken on board the advice I received here and elsewhere about the difficulty with browsers in older machines and having experienced myself web sites that say “Load an up to date browser”. I have just bought a newer Dell desktop PC with a wiped HDD that I need to choose an OS for.

This newer device is a Dell Vostro 3650MT – i3-6100 @3.7GHz – 500GB HDD – 8GB RAM. Released in April 2017. It will replace my Dell GX270 desktop.

I am looking for a Linux OS with a light footprint easy to install and requiring no command line interventions.
Ones I have in mind include:
 Linux Mint 19.2 – Xfce – Obvious choice but not so lightweight. 20GB disk space
 Zorin OS, preferably Lite – WinXP like. 10GB disk space for lite
 antiX 19 or 21 – Good reviews. It ran live on the desktop PC without any problem. Needs 3GB disk space.
 MX-21 KDE x64 – Good reviews but some reservations about installer and configuration tools. Can not find disk space but I assume needs 10GB minimum?
 Q40S Gemini, Trinity – WinXP like. Lightweight, only 3GB disk space
 And of course Puppy of some variety as it just appeals to me

This doesn’t mean I have given up on re-purposing the Thinkpad R40e. It runs word 97 and other period software quite well enough on Win XP. Most youtube and similar videos run ok but videos on some commercial sites cannot be viewed. A few videos start ok but the image can freeze or break up intermittently. I guess the basic Intel graphics processor in the motherboard is struggling to keep up.

I will have to try whatever alternative browsers that are available with the Win XP it is running now to see if any work better than Firefox.

[Member seaken64]

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When you boot the CD of antiX-19 Base you are brought to a menu. There are two choices for you to try instead of the first one on the list. One will say something like Safe Video, the other will say something like FailSafe. Try them both.

You are probably having a video driver issue and that can lead to a blank screen due to how the X system in Linux works. If it chooses the wrong driver for your graphics card you get poor results. The Safe modes will choose a more generic video driver that will most likely work to get you a GUI desktop but may be less attractive than your hardware is capable of. Once we get to a desktop we can start playing with different driver modules to get the laptop to display it’s best video resolution.

When you load Puppy what video driver is it using? That can be a clue as to how to boot antiX or other Debian derivatives such as Q4OS or MX.

I run much older equipment than your R40e. I’m sure we can get antiX running on that equipment. I have antiX on an old ThinkPad 600e and an old Dell Inspiron 7500. My Thinkpad R61i is closer to your equipment and it runs MX.

Seaken64

[Member seaken64]

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The Pentium M mobile processor may not support PAE or SSE2 so that may make it harder to choose a browser that will work. AntiX still has Palemoon Non-SSE2 available. SeaMonkey is also available but you may have to downgrade to a non-SSE2 version which is no longer in the repos. I have done it many times and can help when we get to that. I also have had some success with the Otter-Browser, which works in antiX but is easier to install in MX.

I have been impressed with both Q4OS and Puppy in 32-bit. MX Fluxbox 32-bit is also suited to machines with only 1GB of RAM. MX shares some of antiX tools and visa-versa. Some software can be moved across from one to the other – but not everything. 32-bit can be a challenge.

Seaken64

[Member seaken64]

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I am looking for a Linux OS with a light footprint easy to install and requiring no command line interventions.

These are usually not compatible requirements. Light footprint will almost certainly require some command line intervention. But it is not hard and there are many good users in this forum who can help you at the command line if needed.

Seaken64

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