will arch run smoothly on my system?

el_ricardo · 2007-05-21 01:50:40

I'm resurecting an old computer, it has a 700MHz celeron CPU, 320MB of RAM, and a geforce 440 graphics card. Will arch run OK on these specs? I'm not planning on using the computer for any CPU intensive tasks, mainly playing media, (videos, DVDs, mp3s, and perhaps streaming media over a network) I've tried other lightweight distros, like DSL, slax, puppy etc but these are all live CDs, and even after a HDD install any changes that i make are lost unless i do some stupid backup process or CD remastering!

some other questions:

what window managers are included in the ISO?

is ndiswrapper included in the install and if not is wireless networking well supported?

thanks a lot

edit: also, what is included in the base CD ISO as opposed to the full one?

Last edited by el_ricardo (2007-05-21 01:51:54)

ozar · 2007-05-21 02:02:30

Welcome to the forums!

I generally download only the base ISO then use pacman to get the rest of what I want online. It keeps the system much leaner that way.

Have fun with Arch...

oz

skottish · 2007-05-21 02:03:42

My laptop has much lower specs than your system, and Arch runs perfectly on it.

el_ricardo · 2007-05-21 02:04:40

if i use the base iso, how easy would it be to configure my wireless adapter in order to use pacman? would i need to compile ndiswrapper first for example?

murffatksig · 2007-05-21 03:30:08

el_ricardo wrote:

if i use the base iso, how easy would it be to configure my wireless adapter in order to use pacman? would i need to compile ndiswrapper first for example?

I don't use the ndiswrapper, I use the madwifi drivers. So my setup is slightly different, but a quick search shows the ndiswrapper is in the extra repository. After installing Arch from the base iso, you would only need to "pacman -S ndiswrapper" to install it.

ozar · 2007-05-21 03:48:56

Read through the docs at these links for lots of good installation tips:

http://www.archlinux.org/static/docs/ar … -guide.txt

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Wireless_Setup

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners_Guide

davin · 2007-05-21 06:43:38

Install base ISO and then add only those applications which you gonna to use. Dont install everything.

detto · 2007-05-21 12:44:06

murffatksig wrote:

After installing Arch from the base iso, you would only need to "pacman -S ndiswrapper" to install it.

Which might be a problem if he cannot access internet

el_ricardo · 2007-05-21 13:33:32

OK i installed the base ISO, and i i installed ndiswrapper and configured my wireless card. I used the tarball from ndiswrapper, because i had no network insterface for pacman to connect with. although i now have a problem! iwconfig shows my wlan is up, i'm connected to my wireless network, but everything else suggests not! ping tells me that my network is unreachable and pacman can't connect to anything I edited my /etc/rc.conf according to the arch wireless wiki to this:

HOSTNAME="arch"
wlan0="dhcp"
INTERFACES=(wlan0)
gateway="default gw 192.168.0.1"
ROUTES=(!gateway")

is this correct?

Mikko777 · 2007-05-21 14:00:27

ummmmmm, might be a stupid question but... did you load the wifi driver?

el_ricardo · 2007-05-21 15:07:25

removed the exclaimation mark, and still nothing

I decided to reinstall, i had nothing to lose after all, only this time i selected network tools in the package selection of the install, then when i used ndiswrapper everything got configured correctly and i now have a net connection

thanks alot for your replies, i'm sure i'll be back soon with some other noob problem

Arch Linux

#1 2007-05-21 01:50:40

will arch run smoothly on my system?

#2 2007-05-21 02:02:30

Re: will arch run smoothly on my system?

#3 2007-05-21 02:03:42

Re: will arch run smoothly on my system?

#4 2007-05-21 02:04:40

Re: will arch run smoothly on my system?

#5 2007-05-21 03:30:08

Re: will arch run smoothly on my system?

#6 2007-05-21 03:48:56

Re: will arch run smoothly on my system?

#7 2007-05-21 06:43:38

Re: will arch run smoothly on my system?

#8 2007-05-21 12:44:06

Re: will arch run smoothly on my system?

#9 2007-05-21 13:33:32

Re: will arch run smoothly on my system?

#10 2007-05-21 14:00:27

Re: will arch run smoothly on my system?

#11 2007-05-21 15:07:25

Re: will arch run smoothly on my system?

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