Micron Millenium a candidate for Archlinux?

9nine9 · 2009-09-24 21:12:37

I have an old Micron Millenium XKu that came with Win95 installed.

Pentium II MMX

I'd kinda like to give Arch a shot.

I'd probably have to put a new hard drive in the box because I think the one that's in there is only 8 GB.

I'm not familiar with the whole 'architecture' thing.

Would this computer be a viable candidate for Archlinux?

Ashren · 2009-09-24 21:22:10

It'll probably work. Go for openbox or a similar low ressource wm. I'd stay clear of a DE with such old hardware.

How much ram does the computer have?

filoktetes · 2009-09-24 21:26:51

Ram is more important than hard disk space. I usually have just 8gb for my root partiton, and a normal arch install with all the programs I use, takes less than 5gb, so you'll have a little space left. It'll be usable for many things, if you install light weight programs, at least if it has 128Mb RAM.
Arch is a good choice for such a machine, I think

Xyne · 2009-09-24 21:31:32

According to the install guide, it should work.

This might be tangentially interesting as well. I found it when checking if a Pentium II was an i686 processor.

Once you have your system set up, you should post about it here.

Garns · 2009-09-24 21:37:55

"Official Arch Linux Install Guide wrote:

Architectures
Arch Linux is optimized for i686 and x86_64 processors and therefore will not run on any lower or incompatible generations of x86 CPUs (i386,i486 or i586).
A Pentium II or AMD K6-2 processor or higher is required. Before installing Arch Linux, you should decide which installation method you would like to use.

So you are save regarding the architecture. If you have 128MB RAM you are good to go, if you have less it might get hairy.

What do you want to do with it, if you stick to light applications 8GB of disk space could be enough.

Damn Xyne beat me, but I have a quote so I'll post anyway.

9nine9 · 2009-09-24 23:41:49

Ashren wrote:

How much ram does the computer have?

I'll have to check that later. It's been so long, I can't remember.

Thanks for the input, everybody.

See ya later.

Renan Birck · 2009-09-25 01:11:56

8GB is more than enough if you stick only to lightweight apps (my laptop has lots of apps and is at 10GB used), which you will likely have to do considering this machine.

That means: no GNOME/KDE, no Firefox, no OpenOffice...

It will likely be useable with something like Openbox/IceWM/dwm/wmii/ratpoison, a browser like Arora/Midori/uzbl and Abiword/Gnumeric.

Wintervenom · 2009-09-25 01:52:30

Renan Birck wrote:

8GB is more than enough if you stick only to lightweight apps (my laptop has lots of apps and is at 10GB used), which you will likely have to do considering this machine.
That means: no GNOME/KDE, no Firefox, no OpenOffice...
It will likely be useable with something like Openbox/IceWM/dwm/wmii/ratpoison, a browser like Arora/Midori/uzbl and Abiword/Gnumeric.

I have Openbox and Pytyle with OpenOffice, four web browsers, including Firefox and Opera, GIMP, LMMS, a ton of games, Wine, and all the space usage for the entire system is only three gigabytes. So, I think you will be fine with eight gigabytes.

9nine9 · 2009-09-25 17:27:43

I checked the ram in my Micron (mentioned in the first post) and it does have 128MB.

But it only has a modem and no NIC, so I'll have to either cannibalize one from one of my other older computers or perhaps use one of them instead of the Micron for the Arch install.

I notice that some of them have Celeron processors. If these computers are similar in age to the Micron (I think they are), would they be viable candidates too?

Thanks again for your input.

9nine9 · 2009-09-25 17:53:45

Ashren wrote:

Go for openbox or a similar low ressource wm. I'd stay clear of a DE with such old hardware.

I was kinda under the impression that a wm and a DE were about the same thing, but evidently not. Obviously, I have some reading to do.

Garns · 2009-09-25 17:55:40

9nine9 wrote:

I checked the ram in my Micron (mentioned in the first post) and it does have 128MB.
But it only has a modem and no NIC, so I'll have to either cannibalize one from one of my other older computers or perhaps use one of them instead of the Micron for the Arch install.
I notice that some of them have Celeron processors. If these computers are similar in age to the Micron (I think they are), would they be viable candidates too?
Thanks again for your input.

Since the first Celeron was based of the Pentium II, they should be. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_P6. But if we are really talking about a first generation Celeron, then I hope you have lots of time .

9nine9 · 2009-09-25 18:10:59

Garns wrote:

But if we are really talking about a first generation Celeron, then I hope you have lots of time .

I don't know if it's first generation or not.

If so, I should probably stay away from it because I have a feeling this is going to take a lot of time to set up even with the most ideal processor.

I'm not exactly a complete Linux newbie but I've never gone this far before so if I get Arch installed on the first try, I'd consider it a very good day.

But at least I've taken the first step and downloaded the iso.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-09-24 21:12:37

Micron Millenium a candidate for Archlinux?

#2 2009-09-24 21:22:10

Re: Micron Millenium a candidate for Archlinux?

#3 2009-09-24 21:26:51

Re: Micron Millenium a candidate for Archlinux?

#4 2009-09-24 21:31:32

Re: Micron Millenium a candidate for Archlinux?

#5 2009-09-24 21:37:55

Re: Micron Millenium a candidate for Archlinux?

#6 2009-09-24 23:41:49

Re: Micron Millenium a candidate for Archlinux?

#7 2009-09-25 01:11:56

Re: Micron Millenium a candidate for Archlinux?

#8 2009-09-25 01:52:30

Re: Micron Millenium a candidate for Archlinux?

#9 2009-09-25 17:27:43

Re: Micron Millenium a candidate for Archlinux?

#10 2009-09-25 17:53:45

Re: Micron Millenium a candidate for Archlinux?

#11 2009-09-25 17:55:40

Re: Micron Millenium a candidate for Archlinux?

#12 2009-09-25 18:10:59

Re: Micron Millenium a candidate for Archlinux?

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