[Solved] REAL slow install of full-monty desktop (newbie, be kind!)

[NoMicrosoft4ME?]

I want to put together a high-end computer and preferably run just linux but will dual-boot if I have to. Before I take the "leap" I decided to do a trial run on an old computer. It is bare bones... 2 pentium III processors (1G), 1G ram, 1 60G HD with nothing but the formatted "/"  "/home" and "/swap" partitions, and a cd/dvd writer. The install took just about an hour (did finally finish). Rather than being "lightning fast", running pclinux was painfully akin to running the original windows. Click and wait...Click and wait....etc. Also, I could only run 800x600 resolution (my only option) even though windows will run 1024x768. I booted the system with a different HD to find out. My question is.. Was it my inexperience with linux, or the pc, or the package I tried to install, or a combination of the above??  I downloaded and burned the iso file twice and tested the media with no better outcome.  Thanks for any suggestions.

[gandy]

Full Monty uses more resources than the regular KDE install. This quote is from the Full Monty page:

suggested minimum HW-requirements: 1 GB RAM, 20 GB harddisk, (3D-graphic card – not mandatory but strongly recommended).

1 GB of RAM is minimum so that may be the problem. The  video card may also be a bottleneck. It should run fine on a modern system with faster everything.

Hopefully Pinoc will see this and respond with more info.

[T6]

pclinux is meant to be used with p4

it can be used with pIII but fullmonty is for a bit better machine

you mention resolution and speed issues, tell us more about video card and the rest of the hardware

to be honest, i wouldn't bother using a old pIII(slow hardware will remain slow, ram included), especially with newer kernels that could not work well with it

[NoMicrosoft4ME?]

Thanks for the response! I now know that there are some pc's that even pclinux can't fix!!!! Encouraging to know that it wasn't my fault! Thanks again.

[Meemaw]

Hey, I'm glad you are experimenting!  I started with KDE as well (6 years ago)...

I suggest you try XFCE or LXDE on that older PIII and see if you have better luck. My desktop is now 6 years old and runs very well with XFCE.

Have fun!!!!

 

[Vorteggs]

My desktop is now 6 years old and runs very well with XFCE.

+1

My desktop is 11 years old and runs very well with LXDE. I'm using it at work.

NoMicrosoft4ME?,
KDE is the default PCLOS desktop environment but there are other flavours of PCLOS for different tastes or weaker machines.

[Just17]

I want to put together a high-end computer and preferably run just linux but will dual-boot if I have to. Before I take the "leap" I decided to do a trial run on an old computer. It is bare bones... 2 pentium III processors (1G), 1G ram, 1 60G HD with nothing but the formatted "/"  "/home" and "/swap" partitions, and a cd/dvd writer. The install took just about an hour (did finally finish). Rather than being "lightning fast", running pclinux was painfully akin to running the original windows. Click and wait...Click and wait....etc. Also, I could only run 800x600 resolution (my only option) even though windows will run 1024x768. I booted the system with a different HD to find out. My question is.. Was it my inexperience with linux, or the pc, or the package I tried to install, or a combination of the above??  I downloaded and burned the iso file twice and tested the media with no better outcome.  Thanks for any suggestions.

You picked the largest and resource heavy of all the PCLOS ISOs to try on old hardware.
IMO, that is the main cause.
There is a LXDE Mini ISO available which might be better suited to that hardware.

On a 60GB HDD, I would not have /home as a separate partition.

[T6]

you can run kde4 but not fullmonty, it is the desktop effects used in fullmonty that asks for a better video card, probably you have a intel 815 or older, those are not video cards for what fullmonty wants to do

you can disable the effects but i think fullmonty won't work or loose the meaning to be without it, basic kde uses less or comes with it disabled

you can try disabling it but you never mentioned what video card you have to set drivers and resolution properly

[Meemaw]

My desktop is now 6 years old and runs very well with XFCE.

+1

My desktop is 11 years old and runs very well with LXDE. I'm using it at work.

You probably bought yours with much more memory and processor than I could afford at the time...
(Mine's an Intel Celeron, I think, with only 1 G ram)
 

[T6]

my machine also has 1 gb of ram and i loaded kde4

i know that kde4 can work with a 1.2 ghz cpu decently, not fast but not really slow

i'm sure that if i still had my old amd duron at 950 mhz i could run kde4 there too but probably slower than i wanted it

lately the limitation on what you can run on what hardware is the video card and the cpu technology

a couple years ago the kernel supported pentium II but if i remember correctly the current kernel doesn't support it

some old video cards are abandoned by the manufacturers and no official drivers exist for them anymore, or never existed and that is ok, the problem comes when xorg stop supporting them too, i have one in that situation, lots of workarounds to make it work as it should(or closer to that)

other than that, you can work with a old 20gb ide hard disk and old pc133 ram if you have it, it will be slow but usable

sometimes what you should ask yourself is if you should keep using your time trying to revive old slow hardware or just recycle it and get something more contemporary, form he last 5 years, not more than 10

[Vorteggs]

My desktop is now 6 years old and runs very well with XFCE.

+1

My desktop is 11 years old and runs very well with LXDE. I'm using it at work.

You probably bought yours with much more memory and processor than I could afford at the time...
(Mine's an Intel Celeron, I think, with only 1 G ram)
 

The processor there is 1.3 GHz AMD, memory 512+256 megabites.

And I'm truly satisfied with LXDE on that machine

[pinoc]

you can run kde4 but not fullmonty, it is the desktop effects used in fullmonty that asks for a better video card, probably you have a intel 815 or older, those are not video cards for what fullmonty wants to do

you can disable the effects but i think fullmonty won't work or loose the meaning to be without it, basic kde uses less or comes with it disabled

you can try disabling it but you never mentioned what video card you have to set drivers and resolution properly

just to correct: once loaded, FullMonty is virtually identical in performance with the default KDE. FullMonty also does NOT use any desktop effects, you can enable them but they are disabled by default. FM does not need a 3D graphic card either but some of the preinstalled applications do need one and for that reason such a graphic card is strongly suggested. FullMonty = normal KDE + different desktop layout + more applications preinstalled.
Old hardware runs better with LXDE/XFCE because these two require fewer resources compared to KDE/FM.

[T6]

"FM does not need a 3D graphic card either but some of the preinstalled applications do need one and for that reason such a graphic card is strongly suggested."

that explains what it says on the download link of the iso, thanks for clarifying

[NoMicrosoft4ME?]

Thanks for the suggestions to try LXDE or XFCE. I'll give them a look.  I guess the reason I was surprised that full-monty didn't work well with this old system is because I swapped the HD for an old one running windows xp and had almost no problems at all.  It ran as fast as it ever had and at 1024x768.  The video card is an older (obviously) ATI radeon 9250 agp card. Interestingly, though, windows (in this HD swap) "choked" on the SB Live card, but pclinux recognized it right away and it worked just fine. In my next try, How I go about removing the full-monty from the 60G HD and re-install some other version using LXDE or XFCE.  Thanks.

[bloomer]

How I go about removing the full-monty from the 60G HD and re-install some other version using LXDE or XFCE.  Thanks.

You can simply install & have it reformat that HD with another distro.  My system is considered really old but XFCE works really fast.  The only thing I don't like about it is the method to change wallpaper, and installing a printer.