Suggest a USB-installable Linux distro to try on a 256MB RAM PC

Kernel_Sanders

esuhl wrote: »

Yeah - a standard Arch installation leaves you with a terminal prompt. From there, you install whatever you like. It might sound daunting, but the wiki guides you through every step, and it's worth doing because you get to know how everything is set up, and it just performs so well ('cos it's not being slowed down by stuff you don't need).

That does sound too daunting for a Linux newbie who has no idea what 'making yourself root' is supposed to mean

esuhl

Kernel_Sanders wrote: »

That does sound too daunting for a Linux newbie who has no idea what 'making yourself root' is supposed to mean

Well, it's the only Linux distro I've actually been able to get my head round (a bit -- I'm a perpetual newbie, really!).

And I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "making yourself root" either... Do you just mean "log in as the root user"? If so, that's exactly equivalent to asking someone to log in to Windows as the Administrator. It's not the hardest thing to do! I'm sure most people would understand how to enter a username and password to log on...

Anyway, if you just follow the wiki it carefully guides you through the process of installing a window manager or desktop environment

The only sort of thing that it would help to understand before installing Arch is how drive partitioning labels work (e.g. /dev/sda is usually the first HDD/SSD, /dev/sdb is the second, /dev/sdb2 is the second partition on the second drive, etc.). And that the "root" user is the superuser (like Administrator in Windows)... Okay, so perhaps a tiny bit of background knowledge would be helpful.

Oh -- another good reason for using Arch is that it uses a "rolling release" model. Most OSes are only developed to a point, then you're expecting to install a completely new version (e.g. upgrading Windows XP to Windows 7. or upgrading from Ubuntu's Feisty Fawn to Karmic Koala, etc.). Instead, you install Arch once, and as updated components are available, they are seamlessly upgraded on to your live system -- no need to format the drive and install a new OS...

Kernel_Sanders

esuhl wrote: »

And I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "making yourself root" either... Do you just mean "log in as the root user"? If so, that's exactly equivalent to asking someone to log in to Windows as the Administrator. It's not the hardest thing to do! I'm sure most people would understand how to enter a username and password to log on...

Sure they would, but would they know how to become the superuser? The terminology I used is also in here http://www.linfo.org/root.html
For example, to become root with su merely requires typing su.......By default, it is not necessary to be root to be able to read most configuration files and documentation files in system directories, although it is necessary to be root to modify them

esuhl

Kernel_Sanders wrote: »

Sure they would, but would they know how to become the superuser? The terminology I used is also in here http://www.linfo.org/root.html
For example, to become root with su merely requires typing su.......By default, it is not necessary to be root to be able to read most configuration files and documentation files in system directories, although it is necessary to be root to modify them

Hmmm... okay, then. In order to use Arch you probably need to know:

1. How partitions are referenced in Linux (/dev/hda2 etc.)
2. That the "root" user is the superuser (like the Administrator in Windows), and you can use the su or sudo commands to log in as root or run a command as root, respectively.
3. How the Linux filesystem hierarchy is organised (i.e. "/" is the root directory, like "My Computer" in Windows). Subdirectories use the forward-slash character /this/is/a/subdirectory instead of the back-slash in Windows C:\this\is\a\subdirectory)... And that other drives are mounted as a subdirectory in the root filesystem, so instead of A:\ being the root of the floppy drive, it will be mounted somewhere like /mnt/floppy or /media/floppy, etc.
4. Maybe a few other DOS-like commands ("cd" to change directory, "ls" for a directory listing, etc.) but all that is probably covered by the wiki anyway (just Google anything you don't understand and you'll pick it up very easily).
5. How to partition a drive.
6. How to read the wiki, RTFM and use Google! :-P

Seriously, I didn't know much more than that about Linux before using Arch, but by reading the wiki and setting up the system one step at a time, I've got an OS that performs brilliantly and learnt a little about how Linux works.

To be fair, I'd (very briefly) played around with a few other Linux distros (so maybe I picked up some of the basics) but Arch is the only one I find easy to use...

Linbox

If you are new to linux I would suggest Puppy or Mint LXDE Defiantly not Arch ( Which is a very good version of linux - But IMNSHO not ideal for a nube) or any of the other low spec distros. have a look on Distrowatch there's lots of info on diferent ones you can try.

pedrothefish

I posed a similar question a couple of weeks ago
I've managed to get Puppy 5.2.8 working on an old laptop after burning it to a cd, its very quick and it seems to have every thing I need.
It play videos, cds, video from a memory stick, it got onto the internet using a cable from the router no problems.
I haven't,tried it wirelessly yet as I not sure which wireless adapter to go for.
Terminology is the biggest problem I have ie copy and paste is not the same. its copy but there isn't a paste!
it says you can copy it to memory stick but I havent done it yet.
edit
tried a couple of times to get it to boot from a memory stick but it doesn't want to know

Linbox

pedrothefish wrote: »

I posed a similar question a couple of weeks ago
I've managed to get Puppy 5.2.8 working on an old laptop after burning it to a cd, its very quick and it seems to have every thing I need.
...
it says you can copy it to memory stick but I havent done it yet.
edit
tried a couple of times to get it to boot from a memory stick but it doesn't want to know

To get it onto a usb stick use unetbootin as its a OLD lappy you may need to use Plop Bootloader burn plop to a cd and this will allow computers that cant boot to usb to use the cd as an intermediary that allows usb booting.

Kernel_Sanders

Linbox wrote: »

If you are new to linux I would suggest Puppy or Mint LXDE Definitely not Arch ( Which is a very good version of linux - But IMNSHO not ideal for a nube)

Thank you for that, I was trying to work out just why I couldn't understand it! He lost me when he said one difference with Linux is that other drives are mounted as a subdirectory in the root filesystem, as if the drives in Windows weren't subdirectories of the directory named 'My Computer' :undecided

-TangleFoot-

Kernel_Sanders wrote: »

He lost me when he said one difference with Linux is that other drives are mounted as a subdirectory in the root filesystem

That's the funny thing about this kind of system - everything is in root.

Linbox

http://distrowatch.com/search.php?category=Old+Computers#distrosearch

9. Puppy Linux - always very good.
11. SliTaz GNU/Linux - this is REALLY FAST!!
14. TinyMe
2. antiX