Arch Linux

Razien

Member

Registered: 2008-05-15

Posts: 34

Is arch suitable for old computers?

My church got some old computers, and is planning to use them to give typing lessons and stuff for the kids around here.

I'm responsible to see if they are working and put them in order.

There is a Pentium MMX 166MHZ with 64ram, and I don't know what am I going to use it with it =p

I think i should go with damn small linux, but since Arch allows me to make a clean install I thinking in wasting some really good time to configure each one of them.

And what about Arch on a Pentium III 600MHZ with 256ram, and a Celeron 600MHZ 256ram?

There are others PC's, but I didn't take a look at them yet.

So, what do you guys think? o.o

chris89

Member

From: Austria

Registered: 2008-03-18

Posts: 48

Re: Is arch suitable for old computers?

I installed it on an old IPC (one of the first P4s ever with 1,3GHz and 128MB RAM) without any problems and I use XFCE as desktop environment.

The RAM of the last two machines is enough I think. I don't know if Arch will run fast enough, but it will run

lucke

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2004-11-30

Posts: 3,682

Re: Is arch suitable for old computers?

Arch won't work on Pentium MMX (that's i586, if I'm not mistaken), but should work nicely on the other two, with some lightweight WM/DE.

elliott

Member

Registered: 2006-03-07

Posts: 296

Re: Is arch suitable for old computers?

I'm on a PIII 900 (running at 700 for battery life) with 384mb of RAM, running a full Xfce environment and Firefox3, no problems at all, it is reasonably responsive. I do notice a difference between 256 and 384mb of RAM, if I had the money I would put in 512, but this RAM isn't the cheapest stuff around.

Razien

Member

Registered: 2008-05-15

Posts: 34

Re: Is arch suitable for old computers?

my computer is almost the same, but a celeron (if i'm not mistake hehe)
Arch with openbox seens to be really fast so far.

-----------------------

Won't??

I thought it would not just run too light and fast
x.x

Why won't work? o.o

I'm going to use openbox.

Last edited by Razien (2008-06-07 19:04:20)

lucke

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2004-11-30

Posts: 3,682

Re: Is arch suitable for old computers?

Arch works only on i686 hardware, Pentium MMX is simply too old. Debian or any distro compiled for i586 or older will work.

wuischke

Member

From: Suisse Romande

Registered: 2007-01-06

Posts: 630

Re: Is arch suitable for old computers?

I use Arch on a 450MHz Celeron with 256MB RAM and it is usable with Openbox and Opera, albeit some programs (e.g. meld) will require more processing power.

Husio

Member

From: Europe

Registered: 2005-12-04

Posts: 359

Website

Re: Is arch suitable for old computers?

I have laptop PIII 500, 196MB RAM running awesome and firefox3. Booting in 16s

Rokixz

Member

From: Šiauliai, Lithuania

Registered: 2007-04-21

Posts: 248

Website

Re: Is arch suitable for old computers?

I have Pentium2 450mhz 128ram, xfce running good. Now I'm using it as server. Also I've tryed Puppy Linux, it's run very fast.

---

http://ispconfig.lt - ISPConfig 3 based hosting. Coming Soon!

Razien

Member

Registered: 2008-05-15

Posts: 34

Re: Is arch suitable for old computers?

Ok guys, i think this thread is kind of getting alway of the master question.

It's good to know that it works on yours machines, but what I trully wanna know is - since lucke already explained that Arch won't work with old processors -

What would be the best choice to machines like that on the first post??

There is a Pentium MMX 166MHZ with 64ram, and I don't know what am I going to use it with it =p

tigrmesh

IRC Op

From: Florida, US

Registered: 2007-12-11

Posts: 792

Re: Is arch suitable for old computers?

There is a Pentium MMX 166MHZ with 64ram, and I don't know what am I going to use it with it =p

What about debian?  Meeting Minimum Hardware Requirements:  http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i … 04.html.en

skottish

Forum Fellow

From: Here

Registered: 2006-06-16

Posts: 7,880

Re: Is arch suitable for old computers?

I've never used it, but Slackware seems like it would be good here.

Gullible Jones

Member

Registered: 2004-12-29

Posts: 4,863

Re: Is arch suitable for old computers?

Arch works fine on Pentium 2s. Plenty of RAM is obviously recommended, but if you don't have a lot things can still run decently.

rocktorrentz

Member

From: Southampton, England

Registered: 2007-08-05

Posts: 141

Re: Is arch suitable for old computers?

I would recommend debian for the MMX as it's my second favourite distro after Arch .

For all of the computers I would suggest icewm rather than openbox because it's generally easier to use for windows users and there are some really nice themes now (ThinBlack is nice and more here). A configuration guide is here.

I think that LXDE is also worth a look, although it might struggle under 64Mb RAM.

Barrucadu

Member

From: Hull, England

Registered: 2008-03-30

Posts: 1,157

Website

Re: Is arch suitable for old computers?

I would also suggest Debian. I dabbled with it for a bit before Arch and you can build it up from scratch to be whatever you want.

---

Website | Blog

The Arch Hurd Project

Husio

Member

From: Europe

Registered: 2005-12-04

Posts: 359

Website

Re: Is arch suitable for old computers?

There is a Pentium MMX 166MHZ with 64ram, and I don't know what am I going to use it with it =p

What about debian?  Meeting Minimum Hardware Requirements:  http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i … 04.html.en

IMO debian runs soooo slow. But what about Deli Linux? (http://www.delilinux.org/)

DeLi Linux stands for "Desktop Light" Linux. It is a Linux Distribution for old computers, from 486 to Pentium III or so. It's focused on desktop usage. It includes email clients, graphical web browser, an office programs with word processor and spreadsheet, and so on. A full install, including XOrg and development tools, needs not more than 750 MB of harddisk space.

Stefan Husmann

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2007-08-07

Posts: 955

Re: Is arch suitable for old computers?

BTW Deli Linux uses pacman now (release 0.8).

Razien

Member

Registered: 2008-05-15

Posts: 34

Re: Is arch suitable for old computers?

Cool <o

I'm gonna try this Deli ^^
Seems to be good.

The only problem, would be the fact that I'm Brazilian, the kids don't have any knowledge of english.
But they will probably just use a simple text editor, so I guess it's ok.

Last edited by Razien (2008-06-08 14:12:10)

Husio

Member

From: Europe

Registered: 2005-12-04

Posts: 359

Website

Re: Is arch suitable for old computers?

There's also uArch : http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=46303

arch linux for embeded and old machines

but don't know on what 'old machines' it works.

dunc

Member

From: Glasgow, UK

Registered: 2007-06-18

Posts: 549

Re: Is arch suitable for old computers?

For all of the computers I would suggest icewm rather than openbox because it's generally easier to use for windows users and there are some really nice themes now (ThinBlack is nice and more here). A configuration guide is here.

JWM's a good choice too - faster, if not as pretty. Same goes for the Mist GTK theme: basic, but blindingly quick. A custom kernel will help a lot too.

---

0 Ok, 0:1

underpenguin

Member

Registered: 2007-02-01

Posts: 116

Re: Is arch suitable for old computers?

I'm trying to use DeliLinux on a p2 32mb laptop right now. Mixed feelings so far, but Pacman is a plus and it definitely has potential.

Razien

Member

Registered: 2008-05-15

Posts: 34

Re: Is arch suitable for old computers?

Mixed feelings so far, but Pacman is a plus and it definitely has potential.

What do you mean by mixed feelings? XD

I downloaded gonna burn later.

underpenguin

Member

Registered: 2007-02-01

Posts: 116

Re: Is arch suitable for old computers?

Mixed feelings so far, but Pacman is a plus and it definitely has potential.

What do you mean by mixed feelings? XD

I downloaded gonna burn later.

Well, it has been a considerable hassle trying to compile MadWifi. Significant architectural changes have apparently occurred in the last update (.80), and there is little documentation detailing where everything is now.

Not everything is bad, though, I got X up and running quickly, and overall its a pretty nice system.

Last edited by underpenguin (2008-06-09 19:37:25)

11010010110

Member

Registered: 2008-01-14

Posts: 284

Re: Is arch suitable for old computers?

I used an MMX box with 128 m ram 2 years ago. And . . it worked. With KDE 3.4.1 !

The distro was Gentoo installed all from their precompiled stuff (I compiled only kernel and some system tools. Compiling kernel took 1 night)

Gentoo + any lightweight de will be ok. Find the 2005.1 install cd and package cd in P2P and use them. Newer versions seem to not have the package cd

The pentium 3 and the celeron will run Arch with no problem

I use pentium 3 450 MHz and 1000 MHz both with 256 ram and they run Arch with KDE 3.5 excellent

Use Konqueror for www

Razien

Member

Registered: 2008-05-15

Posts: 34

Re: Is arch suitable for old computers?

Now that you mention...

I live in Brazil, and here Kurumin maded linux really popular on past years, it uses KDE, I think I will look for a older version of it, since it is complete BR it is a lot better for the kids who are going to use it.

But anyway, I still gotta try this deli since one here only has 64mb XD