Arch Linux

mac57

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From: St. Somewhere

Registered: 2006-01-06

Posts: 302

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Minimum HW Req'ts: Arch on Pentium Pro 200?

I have just built a vintage Pentium Pro 200 PC from a lot of parts I had lying around. It is quite the machine for its time - dual Pentium Pro 200 CPUs, 128 MB of RAM, a big hard drive (I had a 120 GB drive so I used it!), SCSI Zip and Jaz drives, etc.

I have loaded Windows NT 4.0 on it - Win NT 4.0 and the Pentium Pro 200 were natural running mates at the time each was current - but I am wondering if I could load Arch Linux on it instead. Arch is 686 optimized, and the Pentium Pro is the original 686!

What are the minimum hardware requirements to run Arch? I have searched both these forums and the Wiki with no luck. Will it run on a 200 MHz processor with 128 MB of RAM?

If it could, I would use the lightest of lightweight software I could find - IceWM, Sylpheed, XMMS, etc. hoping to build a usable system.

What do you think? Can this work on this hardware base?

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Cast off the Microsoft shackles Jan 2005

thepizzaking

Member

From: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Registered: 2006-03-13

Posts: 46

Re: Minimum HW Req'ts: Arch on Pentium Pro 200?

I had arch running fine on a pentium II 250MHz (196MB RAM).  I even had KDE running on it fine (though it was a bit slow).

Kenetixx

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From: /unvrs/mlkywy/earth/aust/home

Registered: 2006-09-09

Posts: 258

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Re: Minimum HW Req'ts: Arch on Pentium Pro 200?

Yep your Specs will run it pretty well, use fluxbox or some other light WM and you will be fine.

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iphitus

Forum Fellow

From: Melbourne, Australia

Registered: 2004-10-09

Posts: 4,927

Re: Minimum HW Req'ts: Arch on Pentium Pro 200?

if arch won't, nothing will.

mac57

Member

From: St. Somewhere

Registered: 2006-01-06

Posts: 302

Website

Re: Minimum HW Req'ts: Arch on Pentium Pro 200?

Thanks guys, I will give it a whirl and report back to you how it goes.

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Cast off the Microsoft shackles Jan 2005

mac57

Member

From: St. Somewhere

Registered: 2006-01-06

Posts: 302

Website

Re: Minimum HW Req'ts: Arch on Pentium Pro 200?

Hi all, just reporting back to let you know that I have Arch 2007-05 (Duke) up and running nicely on a two CPU Pentium Pro 200 box, in only 128 MB of RAM. It seems to run pretty well, although it *is* slow to launch big heavyweights like Firefox and Thunderbird. I have hunted down an older, lighter web browser (Opera 6.11) and moved to Sylpheed for email. All in all, an excellent result. This post is being made on this new Arch install, through Opera 6.11.

I have set Arch up two different window managers, XFCE4 and IceWM. On a 200 MHz box, XFCE4 is the "big heavy but full featured" window manager and IceWM is the small fast one. In both cases, I am using Rox as the desktop (created my own ~/.config/XFCE4/xinitrc to configure Rox instead of XFCE4 desktop). Rox makes an excellent lightweight, fast desktop manager. I actually like it better than XFCE4 desktop, and the inherent Rox file manager is way, way faster than Thunar (and nicer looking too, once you pick up a nice theme like Noia or even just the supplied Gnome theme - Rox's default is just plain ugly!).

The only real issue I have left is that it continually complains that my locale is not correct. I have just done the stock install and haven't changed anything in this regard. Where/how do I set the locale? I would like to make these messages go away!

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Cast off the Microsoft shackles Jan 2005

mac57

Member

From: St. Somewhere

Registered: 2006-01-06

Posts: 302

Website

Re: Minimum HW Req'ts: Arch on Pentium Pro 200?

Fixed the locale problem. The wiki is great! I should have checked there first!

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Cast off the Microsoft shackles Jan 2005