Linux on 64mb ram

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Installing Debian on Pentium II with 64MB RAM

Installing Debian on Pentium II with 64MB RAM

#1 Post by TheForsaken » 2010-11-07 20:46

This is my first post here. I have a bit of a problem and I’m looking for some help.

My story is:
There is a very old laptop (Pentium II, 64MB RAM, 4GB HDD — Windows XP) with a dead CD-ROM Drive and there’s no option in BIOS to boot from USB and I need to install Linux on it instead of XP as the owner of that laptop (my relative) installed XP long time ago and he’s not using that laptop anymore.

I’ve been searching over the internet for many days to find an OS which could be installed on that laptop (HP OmniBook 4150), a way to boot the installation media and how to install, etc.
I ended up with many OS’s that could be installed with such RAM (64MB) and I found a program called Plop (http://blog.brothersoft.com/2008/12/09/ . sing-plop/) and I was able to boot from the USB port and didn’t need the CD-Drive but my problem started when all the OS’s which I’ve tried didn’t work probably.

Anyway, I started to search more and more until I found some articles that recommended Debian.
Before that, I’ve never been able to install Debian on my main PC (P4, 2GB RAM, 500GB HDD) and I couldn’t do that with this old Laptop as well.

Problem is:
1)During the Installation, it keeps asking me for a CD-Drive which is dead.
2) Couldn’t detect my Wireless Adapter (Cable & Wireless).
3) That laptop has no LAN port so I’m totally stuck.

I’ve tried to install Debian:
A) Booting from USB Flash Drive with the Plop’s help
B) Running Setup.exe under Windows XP
C) From win32-loader

You see I’ve tried lots of methods and many many distributions but honestly the only one that worked out of many other was DSL but of course it couldn’t detect my Wireless Adapter too.
I’ve tried:
Gentoo (got a password in the middle of the booting process and I couldn’t skip that)
Vector (problem with the Graphics Card — ATI RAGE)
antiX — couldn’t boot
PapugLinux — couldn’t boot
Archbang — ditto
Slitaz — ditto
Slax — ditto
Lubuntu — I know it doesn’t work but I was just trying it
gOS — couldn’t boot
and other distros I can’t even remember now.

Debian sounded promising but as you can tell, I can’t skip the CD-ROM detection and the Wireless Network.

I don’t know what to do? is there any hope or it’s hopeless case?
I took that as a challenge but I feel so tired because I’m spending lots of time days and nights trying to install Linux but nothing happened.

I hope there’s a way to install Debian or any other OS on that laptop.

Re: Installing Debian on Pentium II with 64MB RAM

#2 Post by snowpine » 2010-11-08 01:14

The minimum hardware requirements for Debian are well-documented: http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i . 04.html.en

Your hardware is well below the «recommended» specs, which means installing on this particular machine is an advanced project. Add to it the fact that some of the hardware is broken, and you have a frustrating and time-consuming project indeed!

The obvious question is: are you attached to this particular machine for some reason? Depending on where you live, a more capable machine may be available at little or no cost. Here in New York, you can easily find a Pentium 4 era computer on Craigslist for under $100, and people are giving their Pentium 3 and older machines away for free. If you consider the value of your time, purchasing more capable hardware may be the economical decision.

Assuming for some reason your heart is set on this project (perhaps for you this is just a fun hobby exercise, which is perfectly valid!) here are my suggestions:

1. Find out which wireless card you have and tell us. Without this information, it is impossible to help you troubleshoot the lack of wireless connectivity, except to refer you to the excellent Debian Wiki: http://wiki.debian.org/WiFi

2. If possible, physically remove the hard drive and swap it into a «surrogate» machine that has a working CD drive, a wired ethernet connection to the web, and plenty of RAM. Do the Debian install on this machine, then swap the drive back to the laptop.

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Thread: Running Linux on ONLY 64 MB of ram (possible?)

First Cup of Ubuntu

Running Linux on ONLY 64 MB of ram (possible?)

Well, hello. I’m new here, this is my first post and I hope that I know enough to communicate my issues here. So here it goes.

Where I live, once a year or so, they put out collection bins for peoples old stuff. Now this wasn’t a garbage can or anything, just a big metal container full of dressers and mattresses and old bike and such. So, a friend of mine and I decided to go see what we could find that was worth anything. And, while he spent his time smashing things, I did. A painting, a stereo system and a painting, and most importantly, an old computer and a monitor. So I took those home, and to my surprise, with a little tweaking of some settings (I don’t know which ones) it worked! It had Windows XP installed, and wasn’t too slow as long as it wasn’t left on for too long. But, the tragedy of the story, while I think It was disk checking one day. well. it happened to turn off, let’s say. But, anyway, it got completely wiped. The Compaq logo would come up, and I would just be left staring a a flashing white underscore in the top left corner. So I tried both Ultimate Boot CD’s, neither of them worked (the first was DOS and on the other I got some error) So then I obtained a copy of Windows XP, but that told me that it couldn’t find txtsetup.sif, but that an entirely different issue (unless you’ve got any bright ideas!) But then I tried ubuntu, but for that you needed at least 256 ram, and this computer didn’t have enough for that of course. I also tried Mandriva but that was was just. something else.

And so, my question is: Is there any version of ubuntu, of linux, or any free operating system for that matter, that can run, you know, well at all, using only 64 MB of ram or is that just too far a stretch?

I have another computer in my household (shared) but, if for nothing else, I only want to use this one to run Audacity 1.3. Is that a deal breaker?

Note: This is just temporary. I plan to purchase more ram in the near future. But until then, I just want to know if I can get it running, and how well, and if I even need more ram. Thanks.

Model: Compaq Presario 5006US
Ram: 64 MB
That’s about it I suppose. So will anything work?

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Thread: which linux distribution 64MB RAM

A Carafe of Ubuntu

which linux distribution 64MB RAM

i have an old PC with
64MB RAM
celeron 733 Mhz

which linux distribution can be used for proper work (browsing mainly)
I need to attach a usb modem to that too, its supported with linux

Gee! These Aren’t Roasted!

Re: which linux distribution 64MB RAM

I’ve never tried myself but it should work even with a system like that.

I’m a human, so I can make mistakes. Therefore this post (which represents my view) may be mistaken or contain errors.
Oh, by the way, it may also feature some sarcasm. So take it easy.

First Cup of Ubuntu

Join Date Aug 2010 Location Orange County, California Beans 11 —> Beans 11 Distro Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx

Re: which linux distribution 64MB RAM

Ubuntu Member

Re: which linux distribution 64MB RAM

Originally Posted by julio_cortez

I’ve never tried myself but it should work even with a system like that.

the only issue here is that DSL is 2 years old but it might still work OK enough to do some browsing and such. dont’ expect too much though.

Otherwise there are slitaz and tiny core linux. as well as many more:

Read the easy to understand, lots of pics Ubuntu manual.
Do i need antivirus/firewall in linux?
Full disk backup (newer kernel -> suitable for newer PC): Clonezilla
User friendly full disk backup: Rescuezilla

A Carafe of Ubuntu

Re: which linux distribution 64MB RAM

the only thing is since i have to connect it using usb modem using this wvdialconf /etc/wvdial.conf

i want to make sure this thing will be working on which ever linux i installed..

Cake for coffee’s sake

Re: which linux distribution 64MB RAM

Have you looked at Slitaz?
«SliTaz GNU/Linux supports all machines based on the i486 or x86 Intel compatible processors. A minimum 192MB of memory is recommended to use the core LiveCD. 80MB is needed for the «slitaz-loram» flavor and 16MB for the «slitaz-loram-cdrom» flavor.»

Way Too Much Ubuntu

Re: which linux distribution 64MB RAM

Puppy has a low spec version:

I Ubuntu, Therefore, I Am

Re: which linux distribution 64MB RAM

You can find some good advice on very old hardware on this excellent blog (see especially the recent «How To Find an Old Computer» post):

With such low system specs, you are probably going to be browsing the web in text mode using a browser like elinks. Forget about youtube or facebook games. You are likely also looking at many hours of your time; is it worth it to you to rehabilitate such an old computer?

I would strongly recommend purchasing a more modern computer if at all possible. Depending on your budget and where you live, of course. Here in New York, you can get a used Pentium 4 with 512mb of RAM for about $50 on Craigslist, which is plenty capable of running Ubuntu, and lots of people are giving away Pentium 3 or older for free.

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