Question

Sony PCG-C1XD pentium II 400 - What flavour do you recomend?

Asked by: pelsonrose

I'm semi new to *nix, and I have this old picturebook lying around, thought I'd install linux on it, just to use as a kiosk browser for the living room, only problem is that I have no idea what version of what distro to use... Answers on a postcard please ;)

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Asked On
2005-08-30 at 14:59:56ID21545548
Tags

linux

,

pentium

,

ii

Topics

Linux Setup

,

Slax / Slackware Linux

Participating Experts
3
Points
500
Comments
17

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Answers

 

by: kronostmPosted on 2005-08-31 at 01:35:07ID: 14791720

well, normally ANY distribution would work, if you'll install a light X interface. I'd suggest fluxbox, instead of KDE or Gnome.

Try Fedora Core 4 with fluxbox, and you'll have no problems installing and running a web-browser. Make sure you'll only install the packages you really need, selecting then one by one is a good idea.

 

by: pelsonrosePosted on 2005-08-31 at 02:00:29ID: 14791825

does fedora come with fluxbox?

 

by: kronostmPosted on 2005-08-31 at 02:27:39ID: 14791956

FC4 does not include fluxbox, but you can download it from  ftp://rpmfind.net/linux/fedora/extras/4/i386/fluxbox-0.9.13-3.fc4.i386.rpm in RPM format - easy to install

then

vi /home/your_username/.xinitrc

write there:

exec fluxbox

then save and quit

startx

 

by: rindiPosted on 2005-08-31 at 04:45:07ID: 14792683

You don't need to install anything if the PC has a CD Rom it can boot from. Just get knoppix and boot with the CD. Since you won't be able to save anything on the CD, it'll run similarly to a kiosk system. The default KDE GUI should run as long as you have approx 128MB RAM, Otherwise fluxbox is included, you just have to tell it to boot into fluxbox when you boot from the CD.

http://knoppix.net/

knoppix includes a script which transfers it to the HD if you think that to be necessary.

 

by: kronostmPosted on 2005-08-31 at 04:58:39ID: 14792761

Well ....as far as I can see, there's a strong Knoppix trend around here :)

Not that it is a bad OS, but anyway, the flexibility is doubtful just because it runs from the CD. As far as this guy HAS a harddrive he doesn't use for anything else, why wouldn't he install a distribution on it?  It will certainly run faster than Knoppix from  CD.  If you disagree rindi, please feel free to tell me :)

P.S. I am also a fan of Knoppix, but it has it's certain limits touygh

 

by: xDamoxPosted on 2005-08-31 at 05:08:03ID: 14792802

Hi,

I would also recommend Fedora core 4 as its easy to use, configure and implement good security
when you install Fedora at command line type:

yum install fluxbox

and thats it fluxbox will be downloaed and installed. If you want a direct link to fluxbox goto:

http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/extras/4/i386/fluxbox-0.9.13-2.fc4.i386.rpm

To install software after you have Fedora Core installed just use yum in a console as its very easy to use

yum search <packagename> <-- search for a package
yum install <packagename> <-- install the package

if you want to see all packages that you can get goto:

http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/extras/4/i386/

 

by: rindiPosted on 2005-08-31 at 05:28:19ID: 14792944

There's no installation overhead if using knoppix off a CD, And if you want the speed, you can still install it on HD. This again is a very simple and fast procedure, you just need to start the script, answer a few Q's, and the installation starts. It basically just copies the CD to HD, which works faster than a normal installation.

 

by: pelsonrosePosted on 2005-09-06 at 03:54:00ID: 14828028

I have tried knoppix, as it has fluxbox already, and support for my wireless card out of the box (aparently) but it can't find the source, and drops me to a (very limited) shell - I'm using the PCMCIA sony CDROM that i got with the unit. Any ideas?

 

by: xDamoxPosted on 2005-09-06 at 03:57:41ID: 14828052

Hi,

have you tryed su - to become super user?

 

by: kronostmPosted on 2005-09-06 at 04:15:22ID: 14828128

what's the error message you're getting?

 

by: rindiPosted on 2005-09-06 at 04:23:36ID: 14828165

How far does it get when it loads knoppix?

 

by: pelsonrosePosted on 2005-09-06 at 05:13:55ID: 14828411

at the first prompt i type:
knoppix lang=uk desktop=fluxbox

then i get the penguin
and the green text saying "accessing knoppix at ..."

it scans through all the locations that it can see, and then says that it cant fond the source and drops me to a console with about 6 availiable commands.

I'm guessing taht i need to manually specify the location of the pcmcia cdrom at the first prompt.

 

by: kronostmPosted on 2005-09-06 at 05:25:18ID: 14828459

it can be solved, but some work is needed. Better go with fedora, installed on HDD in the old fashion.  I'm so stubborn ;)

 

by: rindiPosted on 2005-09-06 at 05:53:09ID: 14828583

try including the switches noapic, noscsi etc at the first prompt. And first also test the CD in another PC, sometimes the CD might be bad.

 

by: xDamoxPosted on 2005-09-06 at 06:21:48ID: 14828765

Hi,

Have you checked out slax?

http://slax.linux-live.org/

slax is like knoppix a Live cd but of Slackware Linux it has the following windows managers: fluxbox and kde
check out slax its easy to use.

Form your oridional post you said you were semi new to linux, I still recommend going with Fedora Core
or CentOS.

 

by: pelsonrosePosted on 2005-09-08 at 12:05:54ID: 14847155

OK, i got fedora installed. Thanks guys.

 

by: rindiPosted on 2005-09-08 at 12:16:41ID: 14847225

Thanks too.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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