Arch Linux

Jorad

Member

Registered: 2008-08-03

Posts: 5

oldschool K6/200 Kernel Question [SOLVED] BUT MORE QUESTIONS

Ok so I've been playing around with the Idea of switching over to linux for awhile now. I've been told that Arch is a great distro to start learning on. That Being said I have an old calibri with a AMD K6/200 running an old red hat distro my father used to use. Well I looked through the documentation for ArchLinux and found this

"Arch Linux is optimized for the i686 processor and therefore will not run on any lower or incompatible generations of x86 CPUs (i386,i486,i586). A Pentium II or AMD K6-2 processor or higher is required. x86-64 architectures are also officially supported."

Posted in the "Official Arch Linux Install Guide" Great it should work on my computer. So I download the archlinux-2008.06-core-i686.iso burn it and boot from it.... says wrong Kernel for my CPU. I'm kinda stumped any help?

Last edited by Jorad (2008-08-03 21:12:27)

lucke

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2004-11-30

Posts: 4,018

Re: oldschool K6/200 Kernel Question [SOLVED] BUT MORE QUESTIONS

I don't think K6 is fully compatible with i686.

JGC

Developer

Registered: 2003-12-03

Posts: 1,664

Re: oldschool K6/200 Kernel Question [SOLVED] BUT MORE QUESTIONS

That information is wrong. A K6-2 is a 586-class CPU. The Athlon was the first AMD CPU to support all i686 instructions.

Jorad

Member

Registered: 2008-08-03

Posts: 5

Re: oldschool K6/200 Kernel Question [SOLVED] BUT MORE QUESTIONS

Correct. I does say later on in the guide that it does not support K6 Processor. However it does support the Pentium II or K6-2 processor. Is this an error in the wiki or is there another kernel i should download.

This is all pretty mind blowing for me as I thought this linux would be more compatible than windows... I can run XP fairly well on this machine

Last edited by Jorad (2008-08-03 21:07:15)

Jorad

Member

Registered: 2008-08-03

Posts: 5

Re: oldschool K6/200 Kernel Question [SOLVED] BUT MORE QUESTIONS

Oh ok I understand... The wiki is wrong my CPU is an i586 class instead of a 686 class... ok which distro would you guys recommend for this particular computer. I am just looking to try linux out.

SiC

Member

From: Liverpool, England

Registered: 2008-01-10

Posts: 430

Re: oldschool K6/200 Kernel Question [SOLVED] BUT MORE QUESTIONS

If you are just looking to try linux out for a bit, I'd recommend one of the debian based distributions, good package management. I personally used debian before switching to Arch.

On a machine of the age of a K6/2 it should install everything properly out of the box. I'd avoid Ubuntu and variants initially as they tend to use more eye candy, and thus memory.

Last edited by SiC (2008-08-03 21:18:23)

lucke

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2004-11-30

Posts: 4,018

Re: oldschool K6/200 Kernel Question [SOLVED] BUT MORE QUESTIONS

You might also start with FreeBSD - while it's not Linux, it's quite similar and it comes with a great handbook, explaining intricancies of a Unix-like system. Note that this approach requires some major willingness to learn, unlike getting some hands-on Linux distribution, which would probably crawl on that PC with all bells and whistles enabled.

Last edited by lucke (2008-08-03 21:48:23)

11010010110

Member

Registered: 2008-01-14

Posts: 284

Re: oldschool K6/200 Kernel Question [SOLVED] BUT MORE QUESTIONS

I use Gentoo on some pentiums here. Stuff becomes outdated bwefore it finishes to compile but otherwise this distro is okay

3 years ago it was really good kiss distro like what is Arch today

Gonzakpo

Member

Registered: 2008-05-17

Posts: 45

Re: oldschool K6/200 Kernel Question [SOLVED] BUT MORE QUESTIONS

I'd recommend Xubuntu. I'm not saying that is a good distro. The thing is that is very easy to start with.
Anyway, you have to read and play around _a lot_ to learn and understand how everything truly works. Also I'd recommend any basic UNIX manual. You should learn and practice the basic commands of file management (cp, rm, etc.) and how UNIX manages the permissions (root, users, etc.).

Then, once you feel you are ready, move to a more complex distro (but more fun at the same time). Then you'll be able to truly enjoy Linux.

Cheers!

Jorad

Member

Registered: 2008-08-03

Posts: 5

Re: oldschool K6/200 Kernel Question [SOLVED] BUT MORE QUESTIONS

Well thank you all very much. I think i'm going to try all of your ideas out. Possibly starting off with Xubuntu as it seems to be an easier transition. I currently have 3 of these machines and it seems this will be an enjoyable challenge. xubuntu's wiki does not seem to be as user friendly as this so it's going to take awhile for me to find the proper kernel lol. here goes nothing..... by nothing i mean XP

EDIT: Also the current Kernel of Xubuntu says that it supports 1386-class processors. I guess I'll find out sooner or later. Thanks again

P.S I'm getting the alt install anyway... hope installation isn't going to be a hassle lol

Last edited by Jorad (2008-08-05 03:34:22)

Jorad

Member

Registered: 2008-08-03

Posts: 5

Re: oldschool K6/200 Kernel Question [SOLVED] BUT MORE QUESTIONS

Ok one last Question my friends. I've scoured the internet for aid on this hardware/BIOS problem. This computer I'm using has a 99' BIOS on it and a 2000+ BIOS is required. I have the following BIOS information code "01/22/99-580VPX-SMC669-2A5LDE3BC" E3 means it's an EFA motherboard. I'm completely stumped at BC because all the sources that I have found say there is no such thing... All I need to Know is what motherboard i'm using... Using a program to find our is not an option as my current Redhat needs a password that we don't know... any help would be great