donated computers lab setup

[Norm]

Kam Leo wrote:
> On 12/29/06, Norm <maillist at sios.ca> wrote:
>> Kam Leo wrote:
>> > On 12/29/06, john s. <john at johnsdesign.net> wrote:
>> >> jim tate wrote:
>> >> > Alan wrote:
>> >> >>> Good Will Industries used to slap FC3 on theirs, in Roanoke VA. 
>> Great
>> >> >>> people to do so. They'd sell an entire outfit for $100. I doubt
>> >> FC5 or
>> >> >>> FC6 would install though. Happy New Year to you, too. Ric
>> >> >>>
>> >> >>
>> >> >> A small FC6 install will drop fine onto a 128MB box although for a
>> >> small
>> >> >> box its quicker to set up an image on a larger box, make sure it
>> >> has the
>> >> >> right i586 etc kernel/glibc installed and then rsync it using an
>> >> >> external
>> >> >> disk caddy
>> >> >>
>> >> >> A base system with X, xfce, sylpheed, abiword should be quite
>> >> >> acceptable,
>> >> >> just avoid all the heavy gnome/kde stuff.
>> >> >>
>> >> >> Alan
>> >> >>
>> >> >>
>> >> > Yeah, will I can't FC6 to install on a HP omnibook laptop because 
>> of ,
>> >> > only 128meg of memory.
>> >> >
>> >>   Noticed the same thing with mine. Installed okay with 384mb.
>> >>
>> >
>> > Since version 10.1 OpenSuSE requires 384 MB of memory to run in live
>> > mode. It's really a crying shame: There are so many old boxes with 256
>> > MB or less memory and I cannot demo either of the top Linux distros on
>> > them.
>> >
>> > How do you convert people if they cannot try out the product? What
>> > other live distros are in the same boat?
>> >
>>
>> I ran Core 5 successfully on 128 of RAM; slower than I would have liked,
>> but then the box was free   So I could not complain at the speed.  I
>> found another 128 RAM and run core 6 on the same box, once again faster
>> would be nicer but it works well enough in most cases, the only stumble
>> is when I use Yum and the box seems to have a tendency to hang  the Yum
>> process, don't know if this is hardware or a Yum issue but not really
>> more than a minor inconvenience.
>> I have also successfully installed SUSE 10, Ubuntu 6.10 and Debian Sarge
>> on the same box all work well enough that I would not hesitate to
>> install on a box that is to be donated.
>> Currently I am using the box as a dual boot Ubuntu/core 6  (also bumped
>> the hard drive to 30 gig and installed a newer cd rw drive))as my prime
>> box rather than a newer faster and better box contaminated with XP (wish
>> I could upgrade the box to  any Linux version but business interest
>> require I stay with an inferior system on one box)
>>
> 
> I was referring to running the "Live" DVD; i.e. trial/test/demo,
> nothing installed on HD. Let me know if you can find a recent disto
> that will run on your 128 and 256 MB boxen.

I checked  out Ubuntu  6.10 (the most recent) as a live cd first and 
then installed it for my dual boot on the box with 256, give me a few 
moments and I will test the live disk with 128, should give the live FC6 
disk a try as well but don't feel like downloading it at this time.
I did find one issue when I was testing a number of newer Live CDs after 
the initial boot sequence my monitor would go dead or not receive input 
but the CD drive would still be working, if I gave things a few minutes 
and then the screen would display correctly - this may be an issue 
related more to my LCD monitor than the actual box but as it did not 
affect things in the long run who cares.