Salix Forums

Hi, what are the minimum hardware requirements to run Salix 13.1?

Same as Slackware?

I have an old Compaq 7463 pc with an AMD K6-2 processor, 128 MB RAM, running Slackware 11.0 and I want to install Salix-Fluxbox 13.1, but I do not know if it's a good idea.

Thanks in advance for your advice.

Saludos...

Fluxbox requires at least 90MB of RAM. I guess what you have, plus a good amount of swap memory (at least 256MB), you would be covered. Also you can make use of the salixtools, and disable those services you don't need, and voila, you can run the system without problems.

I test salix on a similar PC. You can try IceWM or WindowMaker as lightweight "desktop environments" (They are window managers like Openbox, JWM, fvwm, e16, which are also suitable for that machine). Many of these you can find in the repository of Salix, less jwm and icewm.

JWM: http://slackware.schoepfer.info/13.1/sl ... 6-1jsc.tgz (Package)
IceWM: http://slackbuilds.org/repository/13.1/desktop/icewm/ (SlackBuild script)

Another tip: use a display manager lighter than gdm, as xdm or slim (included in the repository).
Greetings.

Thanks for the reply.

Is your PC using the K6-2? I have read that the K6-2 has a much lower performance than Pentium 2 with recent kernels. This is what worries me.

But I may not understand this well. English is not my native language.

Anyway, I need to get a new cd drive for this pc, just broken, for putting on salix.

I will keep you informed.

Saludos.

hmedellin wrote:Is your PC using the K6-2? I have read that the K6-2 has a much lower performance than Pentium 2 with recent kernels.

Why?
The K6-2 has a slower floating point unit than a Pentium 2 but this is only relevant for some multimedia stuff and 3D action games. But IMHO I have to say that using any recent Linux distribution on such an old computer is no fun, try at least to upgrade your RAM. Swapping to the disk is ultra-slow.

Is your PC using the K6-2? I have read that the K6-2 has a much lower performance than Pentium 2 with recent kernels. This is what worries me.
But I may not understand this well. English is not my native language.

Don't worry, my native language is Spanish (Castellano, o "Español"). That's why I write here using a translator to improve my rough English. I have a PC with an AMD K6-2 for testing with different distros, software, etc. Installing modern distros as Salix is perfectly possible, but you have to configure a lot to work well on older hardware. As I told you, one way is disabling system services that are unnecessary. Another way is to install lightweight software (Example: Midori instead of Firefox, Abiword and Gnumeric instead of LibreOffice, Xmms instead of Exaile, and so on.). Anything that allows you to save ram

But there is something that thenktor is right, and is in the fact that the performance of the machine will not be "ultrafast". But it's always good to test yourself to see if the experience satisfies you. In this area, I have tried other distros that are optimized for older hardware (kernels for i486 architecture.), mostly based on Debian (except PuppyLinux, i think):

GALPon Minino (i486 version runs ok on K6. i686 version requires Pentium II or III. This distro uses kernel 2.6.27.2, it is based on Debian 5.0 "Lenny". The next version will be based on debian 6, probably.)
antiX (i486 version runs ok on K6)
DSL - Damn Small Linux (based on Debian and Knoppix, for older...older...PCs than 486, pentium I and AMD K5).
Molinux Zero (Spanish version of Puppylinux 4.3.1)

And there are some based on Slackware like:

Vector Linux Light edition 6 (with JWM and IceWM as window managers. The installer can set all the services, software and tools you need.You choose.)
Absolute Linux (I have not thoroughly tested. I could not make it go on that machine. You may need a Pentium III onwards)
Delli Linux (discontinued)

Basically you have problems with those distros that only provide a kernel optimized for i686 architecture. With the i486 architecture and generic kernels will not have problems. In Salix, the kernel for old hardware is called "huge.s". In short, you should do the test because it does not work, you can always use the pc for any other use: test machine, asleep terminal, server, firewall, among other uses.

Greetings,

Antid Oto wrote:As I told you, one way is disabling system services that are unnecessary. Another way is to install lightweight software (Example: Midori instead of Firefox, Abiword and Gnumeric instead of LibreOffice, Xmms instead of Exaile, and so on.). Anything that allows you to save ram

IMHO there aren't unecessary services running and usin less meory hungry applications is a good idea but won't be sufficient for 128 MB. E.g. Midori won't save so much RAM as you may think. If you have 6 tabs open there is not much difference left to Firefox. This is why I've said buy some RAM for 5 € at eBay, it's worth the few bucks

Antid Oto wrote:But there is something that thenktor is right, and is in the fact that the performance of the machine will not be "ultrafast". But it's always good to test yourself to see if the experience satisfies you. In this area, I have tried other distros that are optimized for older hardware (kernels for i486 architecture.), mostly based on Debian (except PuppyLinux, i think):

The K6-2 is i586, but you won't notice a difference if you use a i486 kernel.

PS: I've got a mainboard with a K6-2 300 MHz at home, too. No idea how much RAM and I did not use it for quite a while But I still remember that it rocked in Quake 2 with the Voodoo 2 and the 3dnow! enabled Voodoo drivers

Thanks for the responses.

thenktor wrote: The K6-2 has a slower floating point unit than a Pentium 2 but this is only relevant for some multimedia stuff and 3D action games. But IMHO I have to say that using any recent Linux distribution on such an old computer is no fun, try at least to upgrade your RAM. Swapping to the disk is ultra-slow.

Thank you. Now I see the issue more clearly.
In fact I was mistaken, the machine has 256 MB RAM.

Antid Oto wrote: But there is something that thenktor is right, and is in the fact that the performance of the machine will not be "ultrafast". But it's always good to test yourself to see if the experience satisfies you. In this area, I have tried other distros that are optimized for older hardware (kernels for i486 architecture.), mostly based on Debian (except PuppyLinux, i think):

GALPon Minino (i486 version runs ok on K6. i686 version requires Pentium II or III. This distro uses kernel 2.6.27.2, it is based on Debian 5.0 "Lenny". The next version will be based on debian 6, probably.)
antiX i486 version runs ok on K6)
DSL - Damn Small Linux (based on Debian and Knoppix, for older...older...PCs than 486, pentium I and AMD K5).
Molinux Zero (Spanish version of Puppylinux 4.3.1)

And there are some based on Slackware like:

Vector Linux Light edition 6 (with JWM and IceWM as window managers. The installer can set all the services, software and tools you need.You choose.)
Absolute Linux (I have not thoroughly tested. I could not make it go on that machine. You may need a Pentium III onwards)
Delli Linux (discontinued)

Basically you have problems with those distros that only provide a kernel optimized for i686 architecture. With the i486 architecture and generic kernels will not have problems. In Salix, the kernel for old hardware is called "huge.s". In short, you should do the test because it does not work, you can always use the pc for any other use: test machine, asleep terminal, server, firewall, among other uses.

Greetings,

Gracias amigo.

I am interested in derivatives of Slackware, which is what I used for a long time.

Vector installed some time ago but I did not like it.

Absolute, I remember clearly that they did not recommend installing it on a K6-2.

Zenwalk liked much at first, then not so much. Back to good old, trusted Slackware.

And now I'm interested in Salix

thenktor wrote: IMHO there aren't unecessary services running and usin less meory hungry applications is a good idea but won't be sufficient for 128 MB. E.g. Midori won't save so much RAM as you may think. If you have 6 tabs open there is not much difference left to Firefox. This is why I've said buy some RAM for 5 € at eBay, it's worth the few bucks

The K6-2 is i586, but you won't notice a difference if you use a i486 kernel.

PS: I've got a mainboard with a K6-2 300 MHz at home, too. No idea how much RAM and I did not use it for quite a while But I still remember that it rocked in Quake 2 with the Voodoo 2 and the 3dnow! enabled Voodoo drivers

I supposed that. Open a youtube video on that machine would not be very pleasant.

The machine was turned off for long, and actually works well with Slackware 11.

I want to install a wireless card in the machine easily. So I want to install Salix.

Or install Slackware 13.x, who knows?

Un abrazo...