Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Running Linux on Pentium MMX 200 MHz, 32 MB RAM

Hi,

I have an old desktop with Pentium MMX 200 MHz 32 MB RAM. It has Windows 98 since it was bought. Ubuntu is my favorite distribution so I installed it first in dual boot with JWM window manager. Here is my post describing Ubuntu installation on this machine.

Later on I tried Damn Small Linux and did a frugal install. I added Opera from mydsl and found that it was faster compared to Opera on Ubuntu with JWM.

Then I fiddled with the sound card and found that it was Yamaha OPL3-SAx. I searched on many Linux forums including Ubuntuforums and learnt that I required alsaconf to configure it. I remembered that Puppy Linux Live CD had this utility.

I inserted Puppy Live CD and could configure the sound card without inputting any DMA or IRQ numbers by using alsaconf. I could test the sound through alsaconf at the end of the configuration.

Then I decided to play an audio CD and discovered that I could remove Puppy Live CD (although I had only 32 MB RAM) and insert and play the audio CD in the same drive. Amazing!

I also configured my network connection and saved all configurations on the hard disc at the end of the session.

Now whenever I insert Puppy Live CD the saved sound card and network configurations work. There is no need to do hard disc install.

I am looking for suitable Opera version for Puppy like I have in mydsl.

2 comments:

Ace of Spades said...

Hi Kamlakar,

Good to know someone still has a machine with the Yamaha sound card in it. I remember having nightmares a couple of years back when I tried a fresh install (non-dual boot) of Debian (slink) back in 1999 and had a tough time looking for drivers and information. Nobody was talking about it on the forums. Maybe you could post a bit more detailed how-to for the Opl3Sax cards for Linux.
Kudos again :)

Unknown said...

pReminded me of the days I had a machine with a lower config than yours. It was a Pentium 120MHz(no MMX), 8MB RAM, 1GB Seagate Drive and an ESS 1868 soundcard. I had installed Redhat 6.0 and Enlightnement WindowManger took a hell of a time to start up. So i experimented with FVWM, FVWM2, Afterstep, ICEWM, Window Maker and finally settled for WindowMaker as i liked it; being different from the default Windows Style.

Creating signed Form 15H file using pdftk and Drive app.

 I had invested in NCDs because there was no TDS on interest income on NCD. But from the current FY 2023-24 there is TDS on interest on NCD....