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From: RayLopez99 on 3 Jun 2010 15:52
Some background on me: programmer in C#, some of my programs are run
commercially, own my own business, heavy Windows user, very
knowledgeable about PCs (built about a dozen for myself and friends
from scratch, all Windows machines) hand RedHat Linux dual booted
about 12 years ago with NT.

I have an old Pentium II (1996 or so) with a tiny amount of RAM (about
26 MB!I think it says on bootup).

Installed over a year ago DSL (ver. 4.2.5) on this old Pentium, which
stands for Damn Small Linux. System was running Windows 2000 fine,
but it turned into a paperweight when DSL failed to recognize the CD-
ROM. But, at that time, I thought I had it running OK. Turned it on
now, over a year later, since I want to familiarize myself with Linux
again (the myth is that all versions of Linux share a common ancestor,
and since I might install Linux on another old machine for a lady who
is computer illiterate, I figured this would be a good way to
reacquaint myself with Linux). CD-ROM *is* now being recognized, but
now the mouse is not.

But in fairness to Linux, it might be a hardware problem. I have at
the moment one of those automatic A/B switches (since my Windows XP
machine and this old puter that has DSL share keyboard, while only the
XP machine has internet access), and there may be leakage between the
PS/2 mouse ports on this switch.

But I notice online that others also had problems with Linux DSL and
the mouse.

As I type this I am downloading Puppy Linux--I'll let you know if it
works better.

But annoying in DSL is that after you get the prompt for login, it
goes directly to the "Dillo" GUI, rather than a command prompt. Don't
know how to turn off this behavior. Interestingly, if I unplug the
mouse, it sometimes does not do this, but goes to a command prompt
after login.

I'll tell you one thing: DSL may be small, compact, etc, but it
doesn't seem stable. Not unlike Linux in general. Hobbyware. Trust
me on this folks--I code and I know what I'm talking about. The look
and feel of Linux (DSL version) is cute, "almost like Windows, just
like", but hobbyware nonetheless.

Any suggestions appreciated...but by the time I read any replies here
I'll probably already have installed Puppy Linux.

BTW sometimes, if I cold reboot (since with no mouse it's very
difficult to exit gracefully from the Dillo GUI, though a couple of
times I somehow managed it), I get messages like "fsck failed: please
repair manually and reboot... #mount -n -o remount, rww/ " etc. Like
Fdisk in windows or something...implies a corrupt hard disk...but
might be Linux's tendency to "mount" and "unmount" hard drives and all
drives--a needless exercise IMO.

Like I say, the system was a few years ago working fine with Windows
2000. Unless you assume that a PC sitting dormant for a couple of
years will randomly develop errors in the hard drive (which I suppose
with atmospheric radiation is always possible), then the hardware is
not that much to blame (other than the on again / off again CD-ROM, as
I said).

RL

From: RayLopez99 on 3 Jun 2010 18:20
On Jun 3, 10:52 pm, RayLopez99 <raylope...(a)gmail.com> wrote:

Just tried to run Puppy Linux...latest distro...it also failed to
recognize the optical mouse. It might be because the mouse runs off
the video card port, via this A/B switch. I'll get a USB mouse
instead and see if that helps...

So far Linux is not impressing me with the installation process...but
that's part of the "fun" ain't it?

Linux is installation-ware... Are we having "fun" yet?

RL

From: Mike Easter on 3 Jun 2010 18:39
c.o.l.s only

RayLopez99 wrote:

> I have an old Pentium II (1996 or so) with a tiny amount of RAM (about
> 26 MB!I think it says on bootup).

Wait a minute.

I want a full and accurate report on the hardware seen by the BIOS, or
if the bios doesn't give you enough information about something, use
some kind of dos tool on a boot cd like hwinfo or whatever.

There's a hwinfo on Hiren's, along with a lot of other system id tools
to choose from.



--
Mike Easter
From: RayLopez99 on 3 Jun 2010 19:44
On Jun 4, 1:39 am, Mike Easter <Mi...(a)ster.invalid> wrote:
> c.o.l.s only
>
> There's a hwinfo on Hiren's, along with a lot of other system id tools
> to choose from.
>

Trouble is, as of the moment my mouse is not being recognized (like I
said I'll get a USB mouse tomm). Now I'm in man pages for Puppy Linux
(running off the CD only--DSL is still on the HD), command prompt
only, but I cannot get out of the command prompt. So I type whatever
and it just keeps scrolling... very frustrating. I did type Help and
it gave me a list of commands but how do you break out? I tried ESC,
Control-X, etc the usual Window keyboard escapes and nothing.

Linux is...frustration-ware.

Signing off...until tomm.

RL
From: Nico Kadel-Garcia on 3 Jun 2010 20:25
On Jun 3, 7:44 pm, RayLopez99 <raylope...(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> On Jun 4, 1:39 am, Mike Easter <Mi...(a)ster.invalid> wrote:
>
> > c.o.l.s only
>
> > There's a hwinfo on Hiren's, along with a lot of other system id tools
> > to choose from.
>
> Trouble is, as of the moment my mouse is not being recognized (like I
> said I'll get a USB mouse tomm).  Now I'm in man pages for Puppy Linux
> (running off the CD only--DSL is still on the HD), command prompt
> only, but I cannot get out of the command prompt. So I type whatever
> and it just keeps scrolling... very frustrating.  I did type Help and
> it gave me a list of commands but how do you break out?  I tried ESC,
> Control-X, etc the usual Window keyboard escapes and nothing.
>
> Linux is...frustration-ware.
>
> Signing off...until tomm.

This isn't "Linux". This is trying to run modern software, even
stripped modern software, on antique and obscure hardware. Laptops, in
particular, have always been flakey about proprietary drivers and
unusual chipsets designed to save a few pennies, a watt of power
there, or a square inch of board space somewhere else. I've helped
design and build enough server and mini-system hardware to have some
handle on the issues. If the manufacturer didn't provide drivers, it's
unreasonable to ask another vendor or a user support community, unpaid
and unthanked, to make it work for you.

For the amount of time you've just burned, you can invest in a very
modestly priced, far more powerful system capable of running the OS of
your choice. In fact, you could even experiement and try a micro-
system if you need small operating systems for expertise. But chipsets
15 years old? *Laptop* chipsets 15 years old, when you haven't even
named the model number of the laptop? That's unfair to expect of any
OS.

Go ahead. Try and install a contemporary Windows OS on it, without the
manufacturer's installation media and drivers. I'll bet that at least
two components won't work.
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