What is too old for Mint? [SOLVED]

[Totally Infected]

Hi,

I'd like to install Bianca KDE (Mint 2.2) on an old Pentium III Dell Dimension (c. 2001) I have. It's got only 256 MB of RAM but I have been able to install from the same disc on an old Compaq laptop running a 'slightly' faster PIII with 256MB as well.

I've checked out the troubleshooting - didn't see anything really for me.

The Dell currently has Win 2000 (can't stably handle XP).

Boot shows the Dell splash screen then a blinking cursor. I've tried pretty much all of the Mint versions I have on disc.

Basically I'm looking for a solution or somebody to tell me it's a lost cause.

Thanks

[Husse]

256 MB is too little, but it is just about possible to use it
See this:
http://www.linuxmint.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3447
that I just answered.

Boot shows the Dell splash screen then a blinking cursor.

I don't really understand that - you mean that's what happens if you try to boot with the live CD?
Then there's something wrong with that computer - the CD player or what not.
Check options in BIOS to see if something is odd, and perhaps set the memory at a slower rate (not frequency, but RAS, CAS etc)

[Totally Infected]

Vintage Dell Dimension (2001) now has Bianca KDE <del>running</del> walking on it.

It was a combination of bios settings killing it

[KernelJ]

I ran Linux Mint Bianca on a PII 350MHz and it was pretty alright. 512MB of RAM.

[Husse]

It's the amount of RAM, not the CPU that is the limiting factor (until you try to use Pentium 90 or something )

[davidwillis]

I am running it on a celeron 400 with 160 Megs of ram. I did have a 500 Meg swap file already made before booting up the live cd though. The xfce version actually does pretty good.

[Husse]

@ davidwillis
That is the solution - the live CD obviously uses the swap
I think you'd need (without swap) maybe 350 MB to run the live CD and install, but much less to run Mint. My Celena beta 017 uses between approx 140 and 240 MB in "normal" use