# breathing life into an Pentium 1 pc



## akuma (May 19, 2011)

hey,

     i have an old Pentium 1 pc, i want to install linux in it. Please suggest a linux distro that supports P1 architecture.


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## krishnandu.sarkar (May 19, 2011)

If you are new into Linux, I highly suggest Ubuntu or Linux Mint.

Otherwise I'd have installed Arch


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## nims11 (May 19, 2011)

krishnandu.sarkar said:


> If you are new into Linux, I highly suggest Ubuntu or Linux Mint.
> 
> Otherwise I'd have installed Arch



wouldnt ubuntu and mint be too heavy on a P1?
Arch is a good choice. but for someone new to linux, install puppy linux or damn small linux(but the initial functionality will be limited with these two!). for more functionality, you can opt for crunchbag or fluxubuntu or any distro with a lightweight desktop manager.


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## Rahim (May 19, 2011)

Any popular distro with XFCE/LXDE would be fine. Are you the adventurous kind?


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## thetechfreak (May 19, 2011)

Try damn smalll Linux. It should work on a Pentium 1


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## akuma (May 19, 2011)

i tried ti install both arch as well as ubuntu . Arch didn't workout it was for i686 machines. with ubuntu (the server version) apparently the kernel doesn't support the older P1 processor. will give DSL a try in a couple of days..


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## Sarath (May 19, 2011)

May i ask what is the speed of your processor?


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## cute.bandar (May 19, 2011)

puppy would be perfect! it is designed for old systems.


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## Vyom (May 19, 2011)

Wow.. a P1 really?
Are those still around? 
Have you considered installing Win 98 or something on it? Or else you would have to find a Really old Linux to be installed on it. Maybe you can try old digit DVD's for those!


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## krishnandu.sarkar (May 19, 2011)

Besides take a look at DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD. in the mean time


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## NucleusKore (May 20, 2011)

Vectorlinux would work fine. See here

VectorLinux Editions &mdash; VectorLinux.com


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## akuma (May 20, 2011)

Sarath said:


> May i ask what is the speed of your processor?



its 133 Mhz proc with a 256mb sd ram..

going to try puppy, vector and dsl. if i am not satisfied(btw which one of these has better package management?).


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## Liverpool_fan (May 20, 2011)

You can also consider Slitaz.


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## deathwish (Jun 15, 2011)

Pentium I???! I wish I could get my hands on one of those!


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## doomgiver (Jun 15, 2011)

i'd use one as a 24x7 download box

please keep us informed about how its woking out for you, i wanna try this too


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## Rahim (Jun 15, 2011)

How is the process going akuma? Please keep us updated.


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## iinfi (Jun 16, 2011)

my first pc was a pentium 1 .. 100 Mhz ... 8MB RAM ... i think in 1999 ... after 1 year i upgraded it to 16mb RAM .... that was the fastest PC in town ... 
who said 256 here? dont think my board supported beyond 64mb

I think i ran DOS and windows 3.1 on it ... 
 ... FOXPRO ... C ... lotus123 .... hmmm...

forgot to mention ... 1.1 GB HDD


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## sygeek (Jun 16, 2011)

I would suggest OpenBSD/NetBSD.

Even if you want a Windows-like environment, you might want to try Windows FLP, though it may not work.


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## Rahim (Jun 16, 2011)

iinfi said:


> my first pc was a pentium 1 .. 100 Mhz ... 8MB RAM ... i think in 1999 ... after 1 year i upgraded it to 16mb RAM .... that was the fastest PC in town ...
> who said 256 here? dont think my board supported beyond 64mb
> 
> I think i ran DOS and windows 3.1 on it ...
> ...



IIRC, i got my 1st PC in 2002 and it was P3 with 256 MB RAM with 20 GB HDD. Was P1 the rampant norm in 1999?


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## ico (Jun 16, 2011)

Intel: *Pentium II* (97-98), _Pentium III_ (99-01), Pentium IV (01-06), *Core 2* (06-09), *Core i3/5/7* (09- )

AMD: K6 (97-98), K6-2 (98-99), K6-III] (99), _Athlon_ (00-01) *Athlon XP* (01-03), *Athlon 64* (03-06), Phenom (07-08), Phenom II (08-11)

Bold = Winner. Italics = tie. Underline = Fail.


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## deathwish (Jun 16, 2011)

ico said:


> Intel: *Pentium II* (97-98), _Pentium III_ (99-01), Pentium IV (01-06), *Core 2* (06-09), *Core i3/5/7* (09- )
> 
> AMD: K6 (97-98), K6-2 (98-99), K6-III (99), _Athlon_ (00-01) *Athlon XP* (01-03), *Athlon 64* (03-06), Phenom (07-08), Phenom II (08-11)
> 
> Bold = Winner. Italics = tie. Underline = Fail.



Very well put!! Although I thought that Pentium IV did reasonably well.


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## Skud (Jun 16, 2011)

Nicely summed up.


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## rajeevk (Jun 16, 2011)

Please change the processor because whatever you will install on that, will give only headache to you.


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## Vyom (Jun 16, 2011)

Disagree with Ico.. on "Pen 4 being FAIL" issue!
I think they were The best of their times. Still using Pen 4, and it reasonably works. Even runs Win 7 after a little tweak!


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## ico (Jun 16, 2011)

Compared to higher clocked Athlon 64, even Pentium 4 Extreme Edition used to fall short. And I have not even mentioned Athlon 64 FX. A 2.0 Ghz Athlon 64 used to outperform Pentium 4 3.0 Ghz. P4 mainly sold because idiots didn't know what to buy and got fooled by the Ghz myth. Intel exploited that to the core.


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## Skud (Jun 16, 2011)

Regarding P4, I would say the Northwood performed pretty well but before (Willamette) and after (Prescott) there were only disaster. So 1/3 = FAIL.


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## rchi84 (Jul 6, 2011)

I think with a P1, you will have to restrict yourself to a command user interface, as desktop environments need a P2-266 Mhz CPU as the very least...


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## Saurav2007 (Jul 14, 2011)

Install Dos on it and enjoy

Problem with all old PCs (i got a p3 and p4) is the lack of support for SATA hard drives. Brand new IDEs are almost extinct from the market and you have to rely on refurbished ones which are not value for money

Anyone got a working 486?. I wish I could get one and install DOS on it and play old games the way they were meant to instead of running DOSBOX. Any ideas where to find one?


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## MetalheadGautham (Jul 14, 2011)

Installing FreeDOS IS actually an option. Also consider an OS like MINIX3.

I've a TwinHead Slimnote with an Intel 486E


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## Tech&ME (Jul 15, 2011)

I have a Via C3 machine, still working with windows XP heh heh 
64 MB RAM


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## Deleted member 118788 (Jul 15, 2011)

You Can Try Xpud Very Good distro. nearly 60 mb.
xPUD - Shortest Path to the Cloud


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## lastdefenda (Jul 30, 2011)

if you serious go for BSD. its hard to install but worth it.


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## agyaat (Jul 31, 2011)

Tech&ME said:


> I have a Via C3 machine, still working with windows XP heh heh
> 64 MB RAM



XP working fine on 64 MB & 800 MHz ?!!

XP sp3 is doing an agitation on 192 MB & P3 1GHz. 

Exploring options like puppy/Arch/mint/buy a 512MB stick and review once more/ buy a very old usb stick and use it as a dedicated boot/etc.


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