Old computer. Need help with HP Pavilion 8550c.

[kaldor]

I found the first computer my family owned; an HP Pavilion 8550c with 96 MB of RAM, 20 GB hard drive and 500MHz processor. OS is Windows 98.

I plan on using it as a small storage server, but I of course want to run Linux or at least some other *nix. The Windows 98 install is  pretty well useless, as it takes up to 30 minutes to boot up, turning the computer off results in a freeze. To put you in perspective of how old this computer is, the most up-to-date browser on it is Netscape 4, which is also connected to the e-mail service we had long ago. Very old

What OS should I load on this? Live CDs will not work due to the RAM (I assume). Does anyone have any experience/links to Linux on this computer? I'd like to be able to set up an SSH server or similar. I'd like to run Wolvix, but I highly doubt even Cub would support these specs.

Thanks

[HugoC]

nice computer  I believe it can support an installed Wolvix - can't run Firefox nor OpenOffice, surely... but if you want to make a server of it, it will be a perfect use

Said that, you'll probably can't use a live CD/USB on that computer - too old for USB, surely; and the live CD probably won't even boot. You may remove its hard disk, try a HDD-install on other computer, and then put that disk back on its place.

[kaldor]

If I wanted to try installing a distro, are there any ways besides CD/network that can be done? If not, can you give me a link to a guide to remove hard disk and install Linux on it?

But, I did not think Wolvix would work on such a small amount of RAM. Would cub work??

Thanks

[phap]

you could try tiny core, it's only 10MB!

http://www.tinycorelinux.com/

[kaldor]

I put DSL on it last night. I wish I saw Tinycore before, because DSL seems to be a bit too outdated

What could I do with Damn Small to make it more usable? There's no internet connection to it yet. How would Abiword run on 96 MB of RAM, for example.

[Warren Watts]

I did some quick research on your PC and determined that it will support up to 256MB of RAM (2x128MB 100MHz SDRAM).  Another quick search on ebay easily located (2) 128MB 100MHz SDRAM for under $8 USD, "Buy It Now", INCLUDING SHIPPING!

Spend $8 and upgrade the RAM to the max 256MB the PC will handle.  It will make the computer a million times more usable, and allow you to experiment with a much larger selection of "small footprint" Linux distros/

Code:

Introduction
This document provides technical information about your HP Pavilion 8550C PC.

Intel Celeron 500 Megahertz (MHz) processor


Memory
Component Attributes
RAM (standard) 96 megabytes (MB) SDRAM standard
Maximum 256 MB (2 x 128 MB DIMM)
Speed 100 MHz synchronous
Sockets Two 168-pin DIMMs
Size 16, 32, 64, and 128 MB DIMMs
Pairs required No
Type supported SDRAM, 100 MHz,

[kaldor]

I was thinking about doing this, actually. I wanted to try running Wolvix Cub, Zenwalk, Crunchbang, etc. DSL is nice, but it feels too stuck in the past.

What about the processor? 500MHz is not much.

[HugoC]

Could try SliTaz, small and light
And 500 MHz could be good enough if you don't have need of 3d games 

[brotherinbluejeans]

if you're wanting a UI on that then my vote goes to DSL. sure, it might be a little behind the times.. but then so is your machine so no worries. you can always update the necessary packages manually (web browser, media player etc.)  with debian packages. being debian based you can adapt from any deb/ubuntu gear.  also, DSL has stood the test of time. there are new toys like slitaz and tinycore which are evolving but DSL is solid.

having siad that; i think wolvix cub would work on that machine as long as you install from an external source (the install tends to choke a slow machine.)  when i monitored ram usage on cub it ould typically show me in the area of 50mb (+25 for ff, +25 for gimp.)

-but if you can going to use this old heap as a server then why even bother with X? why not just do a minimal debian install (kernal + filesystem +basic CLI tools) and then apt LAMP?  -and you have a up to date and exteamly light server.

[kaldor]

I might give it a shot, but I want that old PC to be as efficient as possible. It only shows about 10% RAM usage, and 25% total with Firefox running; that's pretty good for this thing.

I am considering buying a 256 MB card to replace the 96. If I can do that, I will try out Cub, SliTaz, Zenwalk, etc. I do not want to try Puppy though.. something about Puppy does not appeal to me

[Warren Watts]

I am considering buying a 256 MB card to replace the 96.

If you look at the stats I listed above for your motherboard, you can see that you will have to buy (2) 128MB Sticks (256MB Total)   That particular motherboard WON'T RECOGNIZE a single 256MB Stick of RAM!

[kaldor]

I haven't bought the RAM yet, so thanks for the info !

[Midnight]

What about the processor? 500MHz is not much.

Hoy, I had Wolvix 1.0.2 running on a 255MHz Pentium MMX! It originally ran Win95/98/ME while in use, but I screwed the vfat partition and ran it with a Wolvix 1.0.2 livecd. It was awesome, even ran Fluxbox with XChat really nicely. My problem was that I would need a recompiled kernel for anything newer than Wolvix 1.0.2 to run on the old CPU.

I used Puppy in the past; I could recommend it, but seeing as you'd prefer staying away from it, that's fine. SliTaz, Wolvix Cub 1.0.4/-5 (or maybe even Cub 2.0.0b1), etc, should do fine.

Oh, and if you get it running -- don't forget to switch out Firefox with something lighter, like Swiftweasel/Swiftfox or whatever, and use a light WM, like Fluxbox, awesome, or the likes. Lots of possibilities in the GNU/Linux world