[Solved] Cannot install Mint 18 Xfce on IBM ThinkPad 600E

[hrmcrm]

I’m unable to install Mint 18 Xfce on an IBM ThinkPad 600E. It has a 500 mHz Pentium, 544 MB RAM, a CD drive and a USB 1.1 port. It curently dual-boots Windows 98SE and openSUSE 13.1. The openSUSE installed from a net-install CD. I’d like to replace openSUSE with Mint. I tried a Mint USB stick in the 1.1 port. It seemed to start, but leaving it overnight got nowhere. Plop will boot to a bootable USB Mint 18 Xfce stick in a PCMCIA adapter. The correct Mint start screen shows, but after the four dots coming and going, and lots of activity on the hard-drive, CD drive, and USB stick, system responds with:

Code: Select all

Unable to find a medium containing a live file system.
Busybox v1.22.1(Ubuntu1:1.22.0-15ubuntu1) built-in shell (ash)
Enter ‘help’ for a list of built-in commands.
(initramfs)

On the Mint boot window, pressing Tab on the top line to edit it shows:

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/casper/vmlinuz file=/cdrom/preseed/linuxmint.seed boot=casper initrd=/casper/initrd.lz quiet splash --

What can I change there to get it to continue using the USB stick in the adapter card?

The stick is fine and works in other machines.

Thanks,
Howard

[richyrich]

I suggest that you take a look at VectorLinux. I have the Standard version on a Pentium II 600mhz Thinkpad. Fast & stable.

Standard Edition: Pentium 200 or better, 96MB RAM, 2.1GB hard drive space for system only, more for your data.
SOHO Edition: Pentium 750 or better, 512MB RAM minimum, 5GB hard drive space for system only, more for your data, video and monitor capable of 1024x768 resolution at 24 bits color.
Light Edition: Pentium 166 or better, 64MB RAM minimum, 1.8GB hard drive space for full system - more for your data.
Live Editions: Pentium 750 or better, 256MB RAM minimum, video and monitor capable of 1024x768 resolution at 24 bits colour. For the Beryl version you will need a modern video card.

[hrmcrm]

I suggest that you take a look at VectorLinux. I have the Standard version on a Pentium II 600mhz Thinkpad. Fast & stable.

The standard 7.1 VectorLinux is a bit too big to fit on a CD, so it would present the same installation problem as Mint.
VectorLinux 7.1 Light does fit a CD. I've burned it and will install.

I'd hoped to use Mint 18 on all our machines, but cannot find a way to get it onto this 600E.
Thanks,
Howard

[gold_finger]

AntiX is another distro you may want to test out -- very nice lightweight distro. It uses only window managers instead of a desktop environment / window manager combination. Here is download page for the ISO's: https://sourceforge.net/projects/antix- ... /antiX-16/.

Below are the two 32-bit ISO's you should concentrate on. The first "full" version include 4 different window managers (wm's) and 2 file managers (fm's) -- (if you don't like default environment, you can choose a different wm and fm combo to use). I believe the "base" version is same as "full", less one pre-installed wm. I think you may need to use the "base" version if you want to boot straight from the CD because size of "full" version may be a little bigger than fits on a CD. (Think size limit is around 700MB for a CD.) Otherwise, you could put "full" version on USB stick and use PloP CD to boot it.

antiX-16_386-full.iso -- size=728.8MB

antiX-16_386-base.iso -- size=531.6MB

Here's a youtube video about the latest AntiX: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8Aw2zzBE-g. That same youtube channel has several videos about using AntiX, so you may want to bookmark it if you do end up using AntiX.

[richyrich]

VectorLinux standard edition DOES fit onto a CD. I have one in my hand.

[anticapitalista]

antiX-16-full also fits onto a 700MB cd.

[hrmcrm]

VectorLinux standard edition DOES fit onto a CD. I have one in my hand.

What version is that? 7.1 standard is 719MB, and Brasero reports that it will not fit on a CD.

[Neil Edmond]

I'd hoped to use Mint 18 on all our machines, but cannot find a way to get it onto this 600E.

Would it be possible for you to remove the HDD from the 600E and put it into a machine that will boot from USB, or has a DVD drive?

[hrmcrm]

Would it be possible for you to remove the HDD from the 600E and put it into a machine that will boot from USB, or has a DVD drive?

Yes, that can be easily done. After installation, what has to happen on the drive to make it work in the 600E?
Thanks,
Howard

[Neil Edmond]

Shouldn't be anything more to do. Just plug the drive in and go.

[jimallyn]

I'll second the motion for antiX. I've tried both Vector and antiX. I haven't spent a great amount of time with either one, but from what I've seen so far, I prefer antiX. Maybe try them both?

[hrmcrm]

Shouldn't be anything more to do. Just plug the drive in and go.

You're right, it worked. I put the 600E's drive in an external USB enclosure, plugged it into my desktop machine, and booted the Mint installation DVD. Things happened leisurely on USB 2, but proceeded. After installation, I moved the drive back to the 600E and booted. GRUB had dutifully scouted the two drives in my desktop during installation, so there were extra menu entries, but the new Mint boots fine. Its updates are underway now.
Thanks,
Howard

[hrmcrm]

I'll second the motion for antiX. I've tried both Vector and antiX. I haven't spent a great amount of time with either one, but from what I've seen so far, I prefer antiX. Maybe try them both?

I tried them both briefly, not much past installation. I too prefer antiX. It gave a nicer installation experience, and most importantly, recognized and ran the Netgear WN511B PCMCIA wifi adapter. Vector did not. I did get Mint 18 Xfce installed (see previous post). It is expectedly slow on this hardware. I'll try it awhile, then may again go with antiX.
Regards,
Howard

[hrmcrm]

After seeing how slow Mint is on this 600E, it's back to antiX. I had some other learnings along the way.
1. Don't use unetbootin with Windows 98SE. It did just enough to mangle the boot loader, but did not start a Mint installation. When I uninstalled unetbootin, Windows got so scrambled that GRUB would not run.
2. Plop can start booting from USB sticks in a PCMCIA adapter, but the installation won't go. This happened with both Mint and antiX.
3. Backup before big changes. With things a mess, I restored a hard disk image to get Windows 98SE and all its programs back, then installed antiX.
TTFN,
Howard