Linux mint 512mb ram

Linux Mint Forums

[SOLVED] Mint for Pentium-M 512mb RAM computer.

Forum rules
There are no such things as «stupid» questions. However if you think your question is a bit stupid, then this is the right place for you to post it. Please stick to easy to-the-point questions that you feel people can answer fast. For long and complicated questions prefer the other forums within the support section.
Before you post please read how to get help. Topics in this forum are automatically closed 6 months after creation.

Barbados99 Level 4
Posts: 350 Joined: Tue Mar 11, 2014 6:16 pm Location: Central Illinois

[SOLVED] Mint for Pentium-M 512mb RAM computer.

Post by Barbados99 » Tue Mar 18, 2014 11:46 am

A week ago I installed Mint-16 with Cinnamon on my newer laptop. I was so surprised by how much I really liked Linux. I also have an older laptop that I’d like to install Linux on, but it wouldn’t let me install the Mint-16 with Cinnamon. This is a Thinkpad laptop with a Pentium-M and 512mb RAM. It has Windows XP on it now.

I liked the Linux on my newer laptop because it was easy to install and use. I Googled my problem and received an overload of information on what to install on an old laptop, and much of it was conflicting information. Some of the Linux distros recommended seemed really really complicated.

I’m fine with a bare bones Linux running just a windows manager. I don’t need a fancy DE like Cinnamon. although I really like the Mint/Cinnamon. I just want to be able to run a browser and word processor. Do I have to go with something complicated for a newbie, or is there something a bit more friendly and easy like the Mint/Cinnamon install and use was — but more of a bare bones window manager type thing? Thanks in advance for the information. I was getting a bit overwhelmed by the Google trails.

Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.

Re: Mint for Pentium-M 512mb RAM computer.

Post by gold_finger » Tue Mar 18, 2014 12:44 pm

Most Pentium M CPU’s do not have PAE support, which is required to run most linux distros (including Mint). From what this article says, there is a chance yours supports PAE if it was built in 2005 or later. If that’s the case, two choices that would be good to try are:
Mint Xfce 13 32-bit
and
Linux Lite Os 1.0.8 32-bit
(Both of those are supported with updates through April of 2017.)

If your computer doesn’t have PAE-enabled CPU, then you should try one of these distros that will work on those older CPU’s:
antiX
CrunchBang Linux

Please add [SOLVED] to your thread if a solution is found. Go to your first post in the thread, hit «Edit» button and add [SOLVED] to the title of the post.

Barbados99 Level 4
Posts: 350 Joined: Tue Mar 11, 2014 6:16 pm Location: Central Illinois

Re: Mint for Pentium-M 512mb RAM computer.

Post by Barbados99 » Tue Mar 18, 2014 12:52 pm

Okay, thanks. That explains why none of the Mint 32 bit ISO’s would work. My laptop doesn’t have PAE. I tried the Crunchbang a few minutes ago, and it does boot from the DVD. But it requires a «Super+» key to use their menu. I Googled to find out what that key was, and it’s a Windows key. This old Thinkpad doesn’t have one of those. I feel like a monkey punching keys hoping for a banana

This is why I really liked the Mint Cinnamon so much. Stuff worked right out of the box for a dumb monkey like me
It was just wishful thinking that this older Thinkpad could work. I’ll just have to learn more about Linux and try again with one of these old Crunchbag things I guess. Google says there’s a way to map keys in Linux on old Thinkpads. Gotta love that I guess. Maybe I can map me an old Winder’z key and get a Crunchbag to work.

Re: Mint for Pentium-M 512mb RAM computer.

Post by gold_finger » Tue Mar 18, 2014 1:23 pm

Definitely try antiX on that machine! I’ve used that before and was pleasantly surprised by it. It is relatively easy to use and you won’t need to use the Windows key. To see applications menu, just right-click on the desktop (if I remember right). It will give you surprisingly good performance on that old system because it uses minimal resources.

No it won’t be as pretty out-of-the-box as Mint, but as you learn more you can tweak things to spruce up the appearance.

P.s. I’ve never tried Crunchbang myself, so can’t give insight on that one. It’s possible that the distro may be geared more toward experienced users who know how to get around various issues more easily.

Please add [SOLVED] to your thread if a solution is found. Go to your first post in the thread, hit «Edit» button and add [SOLVED] to the title of the post.

Re: Mint for Pentium-M 512mb RAM computer.

Post by gtsfer » Tue Mar 18, 2014 2:07 pm

PCLinuxOS and LXLE are also lightweight distros too and geared toward older hardware. Xubuntu might work too It did for me on a non-PAE laptop and it does NOT look like Ubuntu’s unity interface at all. It’s more XP-ish, taskbar at the bottom, start menu, etc.

I never tried AntiX but says it’s Debian based and I’m sort of biased in that direction myself. I did try booting a live DVD of CrunchBang and didn’t like it much for some reason I can’t remember.

Barbados99 Level 4
Posts: 350 Joined: Tue Mar 11, 2014 6:16 pm Location: Central Illinois

Re: Mint for Pentium-M 512mb RAM computer.

Post by Barbados99 » Tue Mar 18, 2014 2:30 pm

Thank you for giving me those ideas to run with. I’ll try them this afternoon and report back how it went. This forum is really good, and I appreciate it . Actually, the Crunchbang looked fine too (I wasn’t knocking it). I just don’t have a Windows key on this old laptop. But no problem, I’ll try some of those other suggestions.

xfrank Level 5
Posts: 616 Joined: Sat Nov 24, 2012 6:09 pm Location: Mexico City Contact:

Re: Mint for Pentium-M 512mb RAM computer.

Post by xfrank » Tue Mar 18, 2014 2:32 pm

I have a pentium M laptop that works fine with Peppermint. This is a lightweight distro based on Ubuntu with LXDE.

Barbados99 Level 4
Posts: 350 Joined: Tue Mar 11, 2014 6:16 pm Location: Central Illinois

Re: [SOLVED] Mint for Pentium-M 512mb RAM computer.

Post by Barbados99 » Tue Mar 18, 2014 5:17 pm

The antiX is amazing. Exactly what I was looking for. It was easy to install, and runs extremely well on the old Pentium-M with 512mb of RAM. It’s pretty zippy too (infinitely faster than the XP that I had been using). I kept a minimal XP installation on a partition for a dual boot option, just in case I’d ever need it.

gold_finger, you made my day with the suggestion for the antiX linux. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Re: [SOLVED] Mint for Pentium-M 512mb RAM computer.

Post by gold_finger » Tue Mar 18, 2014 6:02 pm

You’re very welcome — glad you like it.

Do give the suggestions by others a test run also if you have the time. I’ve tested Peppermint before and thought it was nice — if that works on the laptop (as xfrank suggests), you may prefer that one. Same goes for PCLinuxOS — well established and good distro for beginners too. (Haven’t used it in a few years myself and wasn’t aware that they offered a version using LXDE until gtsfer pointed that out. If it’s non-PAE compatible, definitely look at that. ) I assumed Xubuntu would have same problem as Mint, but if it doesn’t try that as well.

Please add [SOLVED] to your thread if a solution is found. Go to your first post in the thread, hit «Edit» button and add [SOLVED] to the title of the post.

• Important Notices
• ↳ Rules & Notices
• ↳ Releases & Announcements
• ↳ Main Edition Support
• ↳ Beginner Questions
• ↳ Installation & Boot
• ↳ Software & Applications
• ↳ Hardware Support
• ↳ Graphics Cards & Monitors
• ↳ Printers & Scanners
• ↳ Storage
• ↳ Sound
• ↳ Networking
• ↳ Virtual Machines
• ↳ Desktop & Window Managers
• ↳ Cinnamon
• ↳ MATE
• ↳ Xfce
• ↳ Other topics
• ↳ Non-technical Questions
• ↳ Tutorials
• Debian Edition Support
• ↳ LMDE Forums
• ↳ Beginner Questions
• ↳ Installation & Boot
• ↳ Software & Applications
• ↳ Hardware Support
• ↳ Networking
• ↳ Tutorials
• ↳ Other Topics & Open Discussion
• ↳ LMDE Archive
• Interests
• ↳ Gaming
• ↳ Scripts & Bash
• ↳ Programming & Development
• Customization
• ↳ Themes, Icons & Wallpaper
• ↳ Compiz, Conky, Docks & Widgets
• ↳ Screenshots
• ↳ Your Artwork
• Chat
• ↳ Introduce Yourself
• ↳ Chat about Linux Mint
• ↳ Chat about Linux
• ↳ Open Chat
• ↳ Suggestions & Feedback
• International
• ↳ Translations
• ↳ Deutsch — German
• ↳ Español — Spanish
• ↳ Français — French
• ↳ Italiano — Italian
• ↳ Nederlands — Dutch
• ↳ Português — Portuguese
• ↳ Русский — Russian
• ↳ Suomi — Finnish
• ↳ Other Languages
• ↳ Čeština-Slovenčina — Czech-Slovak
• ↳ Magyar — Hungarian
• ↳ 日本語 — Japanese
• ↳ Polski — Polish
• ↳ Svenska — Swedish
• ↳ Українська — Ukrainian

Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Limited

Источник