Linux distro for really old laptop?

[starhawk]

Got a laptop here, Digital Equipment Corporation put this thing out as part of its death throws in the mid-1990s. Oh my...

This one is a DEC HiNote VP, specifically the TS31D submodel. It has an original Pentium I running at 120MHz (no MMX or anything!), forty megs of RAM (eight onboard, plus a 32mb stick), and a just-larger-than-a-gig (1083mb) hard drive that appears to be in fine condition for its age.

As the RAM is maxed to the gills here (!), I really don't see this running a Pup, hence my placement of this thread in Off Topic...

I do have a floppy drive for it, and it has a pair of PCMCIA (not CardBus! *real* PCMCIA, which is ISA-based stuff) slots. I have a PCMCIA SCSI CD-RW drive (HP) and the drivers for it.

The power adapter is strange, though -- it uses a special cable (detachable) to go between the computer and the adapter, or it plugs straight in instead of the floppy drive. Guess what the one cable I *don't* have is...? I've got a way around it but it'll take me a bit of time to get it going, I've got to do a little simple solder work to replace the cable socket with a compatible cable which I've got off a Dell brick... fun fun fun

Once I get that done I'm in serious biz. I don't fancy using Win95 on this old tin can tho -- so what Linux can I put on here that will fit in it and run? (I will say I do not like DSL one tiny bit. Too dang ugly.)

@goingnuts -- I don't know if you'll see this but if you do -- can you post up somewhere a *not* corrupted image of XWOAF? I have a copy but it fails its own CRC check and won't fully boot I'd love to try it on this thing...

[darry1966]

http://www.retro-pc.net/musei/notebook/ ... dex_ru.htm

I believe the above is what this new machine looks like. Man Starhawk that is a nice styley piece of kit. I look forward to reading more about what you get to run on it.

Some images of it in this search https://www.google.com/search?q=DEC+HiN ... A1#imgrc=_

[mikeb]

NT4

10MB ram, 80MB install, no crappy DOS limitations/instability., no IE insecurity bloat... made for it

mike

[starhawk]

@darry -- that's the one!

@mikeb -- sorry, no windows in this building

[amigo]

Slackware-11.0, the last one with 2.4 kernel -could even be (painfully) upgraded to 14.1.

[grump]

In a past life I was a laptop support person in a small school - I always had several old lappies to play with. I can't help with puppies but one like that DEC would run an early Xandros quite well, or maybe an early 'buntu.

It would be great with NT4 Workstation or even Win2000.

Whoever thought you'd need a HDD bigger than 1 Gb?

[bigpup]

What can you do with an old laptop computer.

[bigpup]

I would look at really old versions of Linux that were developed around the time this was the latest hardware.
Puppy 1.0 may run on it.

[mikeb]

NT4 works nicely with the older Operas...before they licked the botty of google.... a fast light mean system that outperforms puppy 1...the latter would still be a squeeze in that ram.

Whats the one about suffering for ideological reasons that mr linus came out with ?

mike

[darry1966]

Hi Starhawk,

Suddenly remembered about this may be the answer and still being developed: http://delicate-linux.net/

[rokytnji]

Having kinda been and done that.

http://yatsite.blogspot.com/2008/10/dam ... ompaq.html

http://yatsite.blogspot.com/2008/09/com ... ws-95.html

Back in 2008 or so

http://yatsite.blogspot.com/2009/07/fix ... -gear.html

My mission statement for that old door stop would be to try and maybe run

http://womp.sourceforge.net/

Hook a in line rca jacks like this to the headphone jack on that laptop
http://www.amazon.com/3-5mm-Mini-Plug-C ... B000LMFS7M

The rca jacks plug into the input section of a old throw away stereo boom box or amp.

Run a online streaming radio receiver out of it. KISS, Done and Done. I have one linux desktop that does this already in the motorcycle shop with a old Sansui tuner/amp combo box with a bunch of speakers hanging from the ceiling. Cuz Linux Roks.

You asked. That is how I would roll with it.

[starhawk]

Iiiiiiiinteresting.

Alas, I have no use for such a distro as WOMP... I already have a multitasking-capable computer quite well able to make loud noises come out of my speakers

[rokytnji]

Alas, I have no use for such a distro as WOMP... I already have a multitasking-capable computer quite well able to make loud noises come out of my speakers

Fair enough.

Those old links I posted earlier. My selling points when I sold them. And I did sell them for my asking price. Was the media center files like .pls and m4a. that I had on there.

Nothing sells a laptop quicker than having some internet radio station booming out of a boombox. Then a movie playing through a TV off a .avi file.

Just saying.

@darry, thanks for the deli link. I learned something new today.

[darry1966]

@darry, thanks for the deli link. I learned something new today.[/quote]

Hey Roky,

Nice to hear from you.

[Bindee]

Nanolinux

*Edit - Maybe not *

Minimal configuration: The Live CD version without swapfile requires 64 MB of RAM and 14 MB of disk space.

[mikeb]

Why not go for the truly miserable experience and use DOS?

mike

[Bindee]

tiny core linux

1. Minimum System Requirements
CPU-i486DX
RAM-48Mb
CD Drive
Wired Internet Connection
TinyCore CD

[cthisbear]

" Why not go for the truly miserable experience and use DOS? "

""""""""

Better with Quikmenu.
Between that and Xtreegold was how I learnt a little about computers.

http://www.files32.com/QuikMenu-III--fo ... i74784.asp

QuikMenu III (for DOS) is a Windows-like graphical desktop environment
for DOS systems.
QuikMenu has a highly cusomizable interface complete with icons,
fonts, buttons and wallpaper.

http://www.files32.com/godownload/74784.asp

Chris.

[mikeb]

May the memory allocation nightmare be with you Luke....

kolibreOS or similar... all in ASM ..fits on a floppy.

real coding not that IBM shite...

mike

[Bindee]

Shame they don't do Raspberry conversion kits for old laptops.