Laptop

Johnny2003 · n00b Joined: 03 Jan 2004 Posts: 8

Can gentoo be installed with pretty good functionality on an older laptop with a 3 gig hard drive? It's mostly for experimentation and getting used to Linux. Thank you.

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2004 9:16 pm Post subject:

Johnny2003,

Tell us about the CPU, memory, graphics, CD drive and networking.
Also tell us about your asparations. i.e. what does

D. M. P. inc · Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2004 3:25 am Post subject:

hard drive will be good tho but the rest no one knows yet but u so post ur spec and let people see it
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olav · Apprentice Joined: 24 Aug 2003 Posts: 194 Location: Norway

Gentoo wil most probably install withouth a hitch. Slightly old hardware is usually good in term of compatibility, but if it's very old, you should choose a stage3 install. A stage1 install will have your box compiling for days if it's an old PIII or less.

dedeaux · Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2004 12:17 pm Post subject:

don't expect miracles as far as speed. Just warning you. You are, as advised earlier, better off using stage3 as the build of a system on a slow machine will take ages.

Once again, specs of the machine would be helpful.

!db! · Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2004 4:29 pm Post subject:

I'll add my thoughts ...

I'm finalizing a stage 1 install (2.4.22-gentoo-r2) on a PII 266MHz IBM Thinkpad 600 (I bought it second-hand a year ago, and I think it was made in 1998 - so it's pretty 'old'). I used to run Redhat 9.0 on it before switching to Gentoo - boot took forever. If you don't mind 'emerging' for a little less than a week, go ahead and try a stage 1. The only serious challenge I was faced with was figuring out the right kernel options (this frustrating trial and error process did take some time ...). But now everything is working fine. My wifi card is recognized, but sound remains an issue (this is an old, well documented Thinkpad 600 problem - I'll get to that after finalizing my kde installation). I guess it depends also on well you know your hardware ...

Johnny2003 · n00b Joined: 03 Jan 2004 Posts: 8

I have a Dell PII, 300 MHz, 64 MB ram w/ cd drive currently running WinXP pro. It is networked thru my Host computer running dual-boot of WinXP and Mandrake 9.1. I can get on the internet and see back and forth when my main computer is booted into the WinXP. I cannot yet when I have the main in Linux but I'll mess with that later. I want to play with Gentoo for right now.
I want to say thank you for the quick responses from everyone. I hope this is enough information to get me started. I have a set of Gentoo disks already. I was thinking either stage 3 or stage 3 with GRP. What do you think.

Thanks again.

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2004 6:49 pm Post subject:

Johnny2003,

You want to stay away from GNOME and KDE with just 64Mb RAM but a stage 3 will be OK. I'm not sure what you get with the GRP.
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Johnny2003 · n00b Joined: 03 Jan 2004 Posts: 8

I want to thank everyone for their quick responses and help. This weekend I believe I will try and install Gentoo to my laptop. I enjoy a windows like environment though. Without KDE or Gnome as suggested is there an environment I can install that will be close to windows?

Thank again.

Tamerz · Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2004 4:26 am Post subject:

Memory is pretty cheap now so why don't you just bump it up?

khel · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 07 Mar 2003 Posts: 80

Johnny2003 · n00b Joined: 03 Jan 2004 Posts: 8

Does XFCE come in Gentoo? As for buying memory. I would buy a new computer first. Only becuase that is where I am leaning anyways. I just want a little taste of Gentoo first. The laptop I intend to use is just sitting there idle for the most part. I installed WinXP pro on it just to see if I could. It had Win98 on it originally.

venom600 · n00b Joined: 26 Nov 2003 Posts: 41

VolcomPimp · Posted: Mon Mar 22, 2004 7:41 am Post subject:

I have an Omnibook 4150b (400mhz or 450mhz, 192mb ram, 6gig hd)
and Im runnin slack 9.1, and Im considering switching over to gentoo
so I can have another machine to troubleshoot and pimp out w/ gentoo...
everyones sayin to start w/ stage 3 but Im wonderin how long it will probly
take from stage 1?
I always hear it will take a week but then again I heard the same thing about regular
comps taking a week. My other system took roughly a day from the point of starting
the install...
I don't mind the long install but how long will it roughly take to install nothing more
than the base gentoo system? (basicly everything in the handbook, not xfree
and other packages)

slycordinator · Advocate Joined: 31 Jan 2004 Posts: 3065 Location: Korea

Godfather · n00b Joined: 21 Mar 2004 Posts: 17 Location: Canada

Well i'm going to purchase a laptop, most likely from maybe Dell.
Anyways, it will include the following:

2.0 - 2.5 gh speed
256-512
30-50gig
Microsoft XP Home

Now, this is not a bad laptop eh? Well it comes with XP. And i know its good enough to run Linux on it

Now, should i keep both XP and put Gentoo on it and keep it bootable, or should i completely wipe out XP?
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Godfather · n00b Joined: 21 Mar 2004 Posts: 17 Location: Canada

*bump*
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"One cannot know that which is not - that is impossible - nor utter it; for it is the same thing that can be thought, that is." - Parmenides

slycordinator · Advocate Joined: 31 Jan 2004 Posts: 3065 Location: Korea

No one is going to be able to answer your question; it depends on what you want. I personally, kept Windows XP because there's still some stuff I use that works best in Windows. But lots of people go down the road of getting rid of Windows altogether. It's personal preference. If you like Windows enough: keep it. If you don't: don't keep it.

PheonixRising · n00b Joined: 23 Mar 2004 Posts: 5

Ive got KDE running fine under an OLD pen. pro 180 with 64mb of ram, though it does get a little sluggish if I open too many things at once.

Im trying to install gentoo onto my old presario laptop.. but cant get past chroot.. damn errors

Oh well, 3rd times a charm I hope

Rainmaker · Posted: Tue Mar 23, 2004 10:57 pm Post subject:

I've got gentoo 1.4 installed on a really old Dell latitude 233mx.

This thing has only got 233 mhz, 32 megs of RAM and (I could be a couple of MB's of) 2.5 Gb of harddisk space.

Gentoo runs quite beautifull. Did a stage3 install, because compiling would take to long. Updated and compiled glibc after that, which gave a notable speed boost.

Gentoo is about the only distro I got working with an X Windows system. I run enlightenment, which is very light. Gnome also runs, but takes about 3 minutes to start (enlightenment only 10 seconds).

Harddisk is a bit full though. I deleted the portage tree, because I don't need any more packages than are installed now.

Speed is quite good, but Gentoo is a real space hogger for your harddisk. Battery life is quite good. (about the same as in windows)

Rainmaker · Posted: Tue Mar 23, 2004 11:00 pm Post subject:

Godfather · n00b Joined: 21 Mar 2004 Posts: 17 Location: Canada

well, i'm thinking of getting a laptop from Dell. If so, it automatically comes with XP?
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"One cannot know that which is not - that is impossible - nor utter it; for it is the same thing that can be thought, that is." - Parmenides

slycordinator · Advocate Joined: 31 Jan 2004 Posts: 3065 Location: Korea