Repositories for PCLinuxOS 2010.12

[bigaltx]

To make a long story short, the only thing I could get to load on an old Dell laptop was 2010.12. I've tried a few of the repositories on the list and none of them seem to work. Whats the best to update this older distro?

[Old-Polack]

To make a long story short, the only thing I could get to load on an old Dell laptop was 2010.12. I've tried a few of the repositories on the list and none of them seem to work. Whats the best to update this older distro?

Install from the current 2012.12 image. There is no way to upgrade from an image that old

[sling-shot]

To make a long story short

I would like to hear your full story. May be someone will then be able to tell you how to get a newer .iso running.

[YouCanToo]

To make a long story short

I would like to hear your full story. May be someone will then be able to tell you how to get a newer .iso running.

Short stories are better

[P38Lightning]

I would suggest you do what I did for an old Dell laptop.  I basically manually updated everything I use.  Took a while, but it worked.  I would download the program from the internet, then I would find the program folder on the computer and replace it with the new program.  I never did update the Kernel I wouldn't try that because the laptop liked the older Kernel it was running. Hope this helps, if you want any help with how to manually update just ask me.

[kjpetrie]

At the end of which you will have a non-standard, unsupported install which could give all sorts of problems. When O-P says there is no way to upgrade a system that old he means it. Too many intermediate steps are no longer available. With a huge amount of work and knowledge you might get round it, but it really would be easier to investigate why the current ISO will not load and work round that. It's probably a video card issue or a kernel issue which can be worked on by selecting different boot options. Once the correct options are found they will be used to install and things will then work.

I appreciate P38Lightning might have managed it, but we don't know how well he succeeded, or how recently that was. Pclos keeps moving and there have been many big changes in the last few weeks. The repo is also in (or about to enter) a state of flux where mirrors will be non-functional for days or even weeks depending how efficient their administrators are, so this is not a good time to attempt complicated upgrades. By the time it recovers thing will have moved on even further.

It would be far easier to attempt help with the precise problem to install the current version. Start with the laptop's spec and a full description of the problem.

[bigaltx]

I tried to install LXDE, but if I did a direct install it would hang, and never at the same spot. I tried booting into the Live CD then installing from there, but it would hang when installing files. I've tried no ACPI, and safe settings, neither seemed to make a difference. I'm trying to install on a Dell Precision M70, it has a Nvidia Quatro FX 1400 video card, Pentium R 1.86G CPU and a 60G hard drive.

[kjpetrie]

If you can get to a livecd session, open a konsole, su to root and type "draklive-install" to start the installer. Do you get any error message in the terminal when it hangs?

You might also want to experiment with video drivers in PCC. Don't reboot in a live session, though, or you'll lose what you've just done. Log out and in again instead.

[P38Lightning]

I tried to install LXDE, but if I did a direct install it would hang, and never at the same spot. I tried booting into the Live CD then installing from there, but it would hang when installing files. I've tried no ACPI, and safe settings, neither seemed to make a difference. I'm trying to install on a Dell Precision M70, it has a Nvidia Quatro FX 1400 video card, Pentium R 1.86G CPU and a 60G hard drive.

How much RAM do you have?  That can make a huge difference.  And in response to someone above, I am happy to say the laptop that I did my manual update on is still running fine, and the owner is very happy with it, I have also done the manual update on another computer, with Fedora 14 which I really liked and didn't want to upgrade so I manually updated that as well, also worked fine.  The reason I recommended that the OP do this is because, I have done a lot of work with older hardware, and in my experience the new linux distros are leaving the older slower hardware behind, either in drivers or in that they are way to resource heavy to run on it.  Have you ever tried to load a new distro on a Dell C600?  That thing is way to slow to run them, but it runs many of the older distros quite well.  With the OP's computer, he may be better off running an older version just for performance sake, even if he did manage to install a newer one, it would be pretty slow.  Just my two cents.

[johnmart]

Some very competent folks have responded here, but I have a question re. P38's advice.
In the short-term this sounds fine. You make it work & never update. But over a period of time wouldn't the upgrading going on in the general computer environment eventually catch up with you? Example - a flash upgrade that requires an updated browser that doesn't run on an older system. Or LibreOffice makes a patched version that requires an updated JRE etc. you get the picture.

I don't mean to be nitpicky---cause it could take a really long time before that scenario hits you & in the meantime you squeeze a year or more use out of that old laptop. But at some point it will catch you, I think. 

[taelti]

To make a long story short

I would like to hear your full story. May be someone will then be able to tell you how to get a newer .iso running.

Short stories are better

And are easier to read too.

[Neal ManBear]

If installing a newer ISO appears to 'hang,' swapping could be the cause. That is, if your RAM is too low, the system may have started using swap. Swap is slow at the best of times, but swap from a live session makes a tortoise seem fast.     

The solution is to wait.     

[Tony]

I'm trying to install on a Dell Precision M70, it has a Nvidia Quatro FX 1400 video card, Pentium R 1.86G CPU and a 60G hard drive.

How much RAM do you have ?

I tried to install LXDE, but if I did a direct install it would hang, and never at the same spot. I tried booting into the Live CD then installing from there, but it would hang when installing files. I've tried no ACPI, and safe settings, neither seemed to make a difference. I'm trying to install on a Dell Precision M70, it has a Nvidia Quatro FX 1400 video card, Pentium R 1.86G CPU and a 60G hard drive.

It does sound like the Software, LXDE, is struggling with Memory, (Hardware) otherwise you would get an installation. Personally I'd take the advice of Old-Polack, kjpetrie, johnmart, and Neal who are experts.
kjpetrie said:

It would be far easier to attempt help with the precise problem to install the current version. Start with the laptop's spec and a full description of the problem.

bigaltx, I've three P4 type Computers. CPU, 2.6 to 3 GHz, 750MB to 1 GB Ram, 40 GB HDD's.
They all fly using PCLinuxOS LXDE 2013, if that helps any.

That doesn't mean you shouldn't spend a heap of time doing as P38Lightning has, you'll be stuck in time unable to roll on though unfortunately having to manually update constantly.

Check your CD/DVD Drive, and Memory.

[horusfalcon]

Just a couple of quick observations:  The Pentium R is a Pentium-III class processor.  The M70 is a fairly old model in the Precision Mobile Workstation lineup, and may have quite a low RAM store by today's standards.  (This machine was first designed to run Win2000...)

That said, with proper RAM this machine should be capable of running PCLinuxOS, but would probably do better with a lighter desktop environment such as LXDE or XFCE.  I'm glad to see you're trying LXDE.

Something that may help:  look in the BIOS and see if the optical drive is set up to use DMA.  If not, set it up and try again.  (I had to do this for an old Compaq at work to get LXDE loaded - I'm not sure why...)  Of course, knowing how much RAM is available is worthwhile here.

Hmm... according to a Dell spec sheet I'm looking at, the M70 uses DDR2 533MHz, and can load up to 2 GB max. This RAM should still be available at very reasonable prices (I'm just sayin'...).  They also list the CPU as a Pentium M, but stranger things have happened (and the M is still a P-III class machine...).

Here's hoping you get it running.  Listen to Neal, kjpetrie, and Old-Polack - they'll get you there if it's at all possible.

Later On,
D

[P38Lightning]

I just wanted to say, I am not trying to contradict what others have said in this thread, I was just throwing out what I did as yet another option, I know that you guys know a heck of a lot more about this than I do.