Upgrading Old H.P.Laptop.

[alchresearch 213]

34 minutes ago, Kidorry said:

Where do I buy a disc to install Antix and how much will it cost? Will it be easy to use for a none techy like me?

Its free to download here.  You usually put it on a USB stick and boot from that.

 

https://antixlinux.com/

 

But if you need a CD making I'd be happy to help.

[apelike 10]

I tried antilinux on one of my old laptops and it would not boot at the native 1366x768 screen resolution, tried to resolve it but failed and gave up. Several other lite Linux distros would not boot either because of the same problem.

Edited December 10, 2019 by apelike

[swarfendor437 14]

Hi Kidorry, sorry been busy. It is very straightforward to install. I've installed it once on an old Dell D600  which does not have P.A.E. (Physical Address Extension) and that only has 512 Mb of RAM in it. If you like I could put Antix back on it and you could give it a try. Happy to drop off but busy this weekend. (It's currently got a really old distro on it (Epidemic 3.1.2 Beta) complete with spinning cube effects.

 

 

 

Here are some shots of standard AntiX desktop - the first is the default one that I'm used to - It does have 'normal' menu similar to Win2K and if you don't like the 'Conky' to the right of screen you can turn it off (the menu's shown appear if you right-click on the desktop - context menus). This is AntiX 17:

 

 

Good video on most recent release, AntiX 19:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[apelike 10]

Hi swarf.

 

Can you confirm that this works at 1366x768 as it would not on my old laptop and the one Kidorry has is the same native resolution.

[swarfendor437 14]

I've downloaded the AntiX 19 iso and run it in Virtual Box and I think it does a default low res but once in the desktop you can access the higher res settings - not tested this yet on the old D600 yet. But on this 16 Gb Rig, allocating the same RAM as the Dell (512 Mb) and allocating 94 Mb for Graphics, the VM of it launched in under 3 seconds - like you click on launch VM and the Desktop is pretty instant - how it will fair in real life is a different kettle of fish - also made the Hard drive only 8 Gb in the VM. The drive in the D600 is 30 Gb. The only downside as such is the wallpaper choice is not brilliant but there are plenty out there that you can download. The theming available is really cool.

Edited December 13, 2019 by swarfendor437

[swarfendor437 14]

OK, so got it running sluggishly as only 512 Mb RAM. As for graphics it is only an XGA screen on checking elsewhere so it is showing its maximum correct resolution of 1024 x 768. My 94 Mb of RAM was over optimistic as it is 32 Mb ATi/AMD Radeon 9000!

[swarfendor437 14]

OK, running Antix 19 in Live Mode on D830 i'm getting correct resolution of 1600 x 1200 (Intel Centrino with 2 Gb RAM and Intel Graphics.)

Edited December 18, 2019 by swarfendor437

[fools 447]

ssd's and different operating systems are not required. It will boot in 30 seconds once you reinstall windows 7.

 

[walkertelecoms 16]

On 19/11/2019 at 15:59, Kidorry said:

I have an old H.P. G60 214 EM laptop with 3Gb of RAM, 64 Bit O/S an AMD Athlon dual core QL-62, 2.00 GHz. Is it worth putting in SSD and running Linux on it just as a back up laptop? At the moment it has got W 7 on it and it takes forever to load up even if it is wired to the router.

Was a 256gb SSD that gave my laptop the boost it needed. From cold to a usable Chrome browser window went for 3 minutes to about 20 seconds

It's the cloning of the old drive that took me a while. Downloaded an app, bought a USB to SATA adaptor (£3) and the whole process took about 15 minutes in the end.

Edited December 22, 2019 by walkertelecoms
Addition

[zach 234]

1 hour ago, walkertelecoms said:

bought a USB to SATA adaptor (£3)

Such a handy cable, it should be standard kit for those that tinker or backup/store to 2.5" drives and don't want to use a caddy.

[swarfendor437 14]

Well just installed MX Linux 19 on the cover of the current Linux Format Magazine and it is phenomenal! It even installed on a D600 even though it is a pae based distro and never baulked at live mode or installing. What I liked about this distro is that:

 

1. You can use the customised partitions you setup on a different distro!

2. Any changes you make in the live desktop have the option of being saved at point of install.

 

My only concern is that during installation the CPU was maxing out at 100%. On reboot it seemed to shoot up to 100% activity when looking at installing updates but then hovered around 2-5% being idle. Will have to test some more but it is looking far superior to even AntiX (MX Linux is actually a combination of Mepis and AntiX combined. Outstanding distribution. 🆒