Please suggest an OS

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anpr22
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Please suggest an OS

Post by anpr22 »

Hi, I have desktop assembled pc having 1.5 gb ram and amd athalon 64 processor. windows 7 works fine but I am unable to install any linux based OS including xfce mint, cinnamon mint, elementary , debian, slacko, manjaro, fedora, android x86 etc ( some don't install or hang )

please suggest basic daily use OS which will run properly
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Moem
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Re: Lightweight distros for old computers

Post by Moem »

anpr22 wrote: Thu Apr 26, 2018 3:58 am please suggest basic daily use OS which will run properly
MX17. Or Lubuntu.
But Mint XFCE should work too. What happens when you try that one? 'Doesn't install or hangs' is much too vague, but if we know more, it might be fixable.
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Cosmo.
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Re: Please suggest an OS

Post by Cosmo. »

I suggest to install more RAM. With an self assembled device this should not be a problem.
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trytip
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Re: Please suggest an OS

Post by trytip »

when you say you can't install does that mean you are able to boot all the OS you mention?
maybe using a 32 bit http://antix.mepis.org/index.php?title= ... #Downloads
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sleeper12
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Re: Please suggest an OS

Post by sleeper12 »

As said, more info would help. But, you can try LMDE, only thing that works properly on my old Thinkpad laptop. If all else fails, you might be able to run a Puppy Linux without actually installing it.
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Re: Please suggest an OS

Post by lsemmens »

Does Linux run from a LIVE USB or CD? I had issues when UEFI mode was enabled on my machine only after installing Linux as my own OS. When I changed my BIOS to legacy mode and tried a new install again, all was well.

I agree , more RAM will help, but I do have one old machine with only 2Gb of RAM running mint here with no issues.
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Re: Please suggest an OS

Post by kc1di »

While the ram is not optimal it should still work with xfce. So I think your problem may be video related. If it has Nvidia graphics then you need to read the release notes and follow the advise of entering nomodeset in the boot parameter. Release notes found here:
https://linuxmint.com/rel_sylvia_xfce.php

MX and other lightweight distros should run on that machine, though it may be slow, if nothing else puppy linux should be able to run on that machine.
good luck.
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jimallyn
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Re: Please suggest an OS

Post by jimallyn »

MX and antiX are good, but that computer should be able to run Mint XFCE. The suggestion that it may be a video problem is a good one, and you should definitely look into that. More RAM would be good, and you can get it pretty cheap these days. But I have installed Mint and other distros for friends on computers that only had 1 or 1.5 GB of RAM, and while they're no speed demon, they are usable.
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Re: Please suggest an OS

Post by sleeper12 »

jimallyn wrote: Thu Apr 26, 2018 1:20 pm MX and antiX are good, but that computer should be able to run Mint XFCE. The suggestion that it may be a video problem is a good one, and you should definitely look into that. More RAM would be good, and you can get it pretty cheap these days. But I have installed Mint and other distros for friends on computers that only had 1 or 1.5 GB of RAM, and while they're no speed demon, they are usable.
Agreed...none of my 4 old laptops have more than 2 GB's of RAM, have Mint 18 on 2, LMDE & Puppy on other 2. All run fine. So, while more RAM would be good, it's probably not his problem.
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Re: Please suggest an OS

Post by Hoser Rob »

Mint Xfce would definitely run in 1.5 G ... I am typing this on a 1G netbook running Mint 17.3 Xfce. With an old computer the graphics card may be the issue. What's the card?
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Re: Please suggest an OS

Post by anpr22 »

Thank you all for the replies.

To describe the problem a little more I would say installation file on desktop did not start or crashed soon (1 or 2 steps later ) when live media of mint xfce, mint cinnamon, debian , linux lite , elementary etc was run. also display rendering issues in cinnamon of mint and debian was observed giving me message that it will use more cpu. Also shutting down did not work. I must mention all these live systems showed plenty of errors while booting up e.g. ata1 slow to respond, giving up..

slacko puppy OS after changing my monitor (from smart tv to samsung sync master 510n ) is the only one worked well and smooth. I installed it but could not configure grub for it.

My PC is very old 2004 model with no graphics card and has legacy bios. I want it to give a fresh lease of life without investing more as my parents would be using it just for basic net surfing, document editing and video calls for which current Windows 7 seems stable and delivers enough.

I remember in 2004 Red Hat Linux used to run smoothly along with xp. May be ealier version of mint xfce can install and work.
any further questions or suggestions please do revert back.

Thanks a lot again to all of you
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Re: Please suggest an OS

Post by sleeper12 »

Try Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) just to see if it works or not. If not, you should be able to run Puppy from flash (or cd) without installing it. Just save session at shutdown and any changes you make will be saved & used on next boot. Best I can suggest, others may have something else.
Last edited by sleeper12 on Mon Apr 30, 2018 10:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
anpr22
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Re: Please suggest an OS

Post by anpr22 »

Okay I will give LMDE a try.
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Re: Please suggest an OS

Post by sleeper12 »

anpr22 wrote: Sat Apr 28, 2018 8:07 am Okay I will give LMDE a try.
I'd suggest LMDE Mate
https://linuxmint.com/download_lmde.php

Again, if no luck, go with Puppy. No need to install to HDD, just run from flash each time. Save session & any changes will be saved to flash. Hope one of those work for you. :wink:
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Pierre
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Re: Please suggest an OS

Post by Pierre »

since it's an older machine,
then a more lightweight DE like Mate or even Xfce would be best suited.

so - try LinuxMint Xfce or anti-X even
8)
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    wcpython
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    Re: Please suggest an OS

    Post by wcpython »

    I have an ancient (12 years old) laptop with a Turion 64 cpu and 2Gb ram. It came with Win Xp and I did have Win 7 Pro installed on it but it became so slow I decided to try a lite Linux Version. I tried Mint 18.2 which worked but was still fairly pokey so I followed a suggestion to try Bodhi Linux and it is speedy enough for lite web browsing using Chromium Browser. I had to find a driver for the old wireless card and disable the wifi on/off button on the pc. The audio was a bit fiddly at first but got it working by adjusting settings in the Pulse Audio app. Video, however is another thing, it will just barely stream NetFlix but mostly hangs up. I haven't tried video calling like Skype but that would probably not work too well. I just wanted this laptop to be able to surf a bit as a backup to my other pcs and for the challenge of making it usable again. I also use Bodhi Linux on an atom powered net book and it works well and even plays NetFlix just fine. 8)
    anpr22
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    Re: Please suggest an OS

    Post by anpr22 »

    sleeper12 wrote: Mon Apr 30, 2018 11:00 pm
    anpr22 wrote: Sat Apr 28, 2018 8:07 am Okay I will give LMDE a try.
    I'd suggest LMDE Mate
    https://linuxmint.com/download_lmde.php

    Again, if no luck, go with Puppy. No need to install to HDD, just run from flash each time. Save session & any changes will be saved to flash. Hope one of those work for you. :wink:
    actually, slacko puppy is already working well from the flash drive and saves the session on the hard disk so I think it is a better choice. anyway, I want it for my parents so want it as straightforward. (Note: My yumi multiboot has stopped booting as I had reset boot entry with easybcd with usb plugged in. Now it is stuck at windows no OS screen. I need to recover this first before I try LMDE mate )

    also, tell me is there chance mint Xfce will work well if directly installed without running live cd may be due to appropriate driver install?
    anpr22
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    Re: Please suggest an OS

    Post by anpr22 »

    Pierre wrote: Mon Apr 30, 2018 11:04 pm since it's an older machine,
    then a more lightweight DE like Mate or even Xfce would be best suited.

    so - try LinuxMint Xfce or anti-X even
    8)
      thanks but as mentioned before mint Xfce live session was a failure as install file did not start from desktop and it did not shut down.
      If Windows 7 runs pretty well that I can watch non-stop youtube it is strange my fav Linux is a failure. I would have loved Xfce just because of its panel customization, powerful whisker menu and being so light.
      anpr22
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      Re: Please suggest an OS

      Post by anpr22 »

      now only anti-x, bodhi linux, MX yet to be tried but i doubt any installer based on ubuntu ubiquity will succeed but I want ubuntu based system due to familiarity
      DAMIEN1307

      Re: Please suggest an OS

      Post by DAMIEN1307 »

      Try "Peppermint 8" OS...its ubuntu/deb based and hasnt failed me yet in installing it in older under powered systems where nothing else would install...xfce style desktop...DAMIEN
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