Download and update with Xfce or just install PCLinuxOS Phoenix?

[csolomon]

I installed PCLinuxOS this weekend on an old computer (PII 850, 512 Ram, 32MB VRAM) and install was surprisingly easy for this linux newbie

However, I am thinking that I'd be better off with Xfce instead of KDE. I haven't done a single thing to the computer to customize or install anything else.  So I'm thinking that I might be better off just reinstalling with the Phoenix ISO rather than downloading the Xfce packages and trying to upgrade.  

Thoughts?

[T6]

hello and welcome to the forum

are you sure it is a PII?  at 850 mhz it should be a PIII

you can add xfce4 to the installation you have and remove(or leave forgotten) kde3 and this way is faster than download, verify, burn the livecd, reboot and install again the os

download the xfce4 packages represents a couple of minutes in a decent connection(5 or less) and the desktop will be available in the login screen so you can compare both desktops

[coffeetime]

Welcome to the forums csolomon!


Try also e17 or LXDE  

[csolomon]

hello and welcome to the forum

are you sure it is a PII?  at 850 mhz it should be a PIII

you can add xfce4 to the installation you have and remove(or leave forgotten) kde3 and this way is faster than download, verify, burn the livecd, reboot and install again the os

download the xfce4 packages represents a couple of minutes in a decent connection(5 or less) and the desktop will be available in the login screen so you can compare both desktops

Ah, you caught me. It's actually a Celeron overclocked to 850

Ok, I wasn't sure if two desktop environments could "live" side by side and how that would be controlled.  But if I understand you correctly, if I install 1 or more other environements, then I will be able to choose which I want when I login?

[T6]

i have had installed 7

fluxbox, gnome, kde4, xfce, lxde, icewm, e17

all will be available in the login menu under the session button, click on one and log in, log out and select another

you can have 2 or 3 loaded simultaneously if enough ram is available

celerons are some of the worst cpus i have use and overclok them makes them more unstable, in linux they perform way better than on windows but still overclock such cpu sounds like a bad idea but that is just my personal opinion

[csolomon]

i have had installed 7

fluxbox, gnome, kde4, xfce, lxde, icewm, e17

all will be available in the login menu under the session button, click on one and log in, log out and select another

you can have 2 or 3 loaded simultaneously if enough ram is available

celerons are some of the worst cpus i have use and overclok them makes them more unstable, in linux they perform way better than on windows but still overclock such cpu sounds like a bad idea but that is just my personal opinion

I think it's better to say that they are inconsistent.  If you were lucky and found one that was stable at an overclocked speed, it was a great value.  Mine is about 8-9 years old and has been overclocked and stable (never even crashed in Win2k) that whole time.  Best processor I've ever bought.

[csolomon]

hello and welcome to the forum

are you sure it is a PII?  at 850 mhz it should be a PIII

you can add xfce4 to the installation you have and remove(or leave forgotten) kde3 and this way is faster than download, verify, burn the livecd, reboot and install again the os

download the xfce4 packages represents a couple of minutes in a decent connection(5 or less) and the desktop will be available in the login screen so you can compare both desktops

I'm looking through the current Synaptic packages list.  I searched for 'xfce' and there's a bunch of results that start with 'xfce' but none of them jump out at me as the Desktop Environment XFCE package.  Any help with that?

[T6]

maybe i am blind, there was a task-xfce that installed all the required packages but i can't find it

however, you can install all the xfce4 packages, the libraries and other packages required should be installed

select the packages with the xfce4 on their names(except devel packages)

[Old-Polack]

hello and welcome to the forum

are you sure it is a PII?  at 850 mhz it should be a PIII

you can add xfce4 to the installation you have and remove(or leave forgotten) kde3 and this way is faster than download, verify, burn the livecd, reboot and install again the os

download the xfce4 packages represents a couple of minutes in a decent connection(5 or less) and the desktop will be available in the login screen so you can compare both desktops

I'm looking through the current Synaptic packages list.  I searched for 'xfce' and there's a bunch of results that start with 'xfce' but none of them jump out at me as the Desktop Environment XFCE package.  Any help with that?

In Synaptic Search, type task. Scroll down until you see the list of items starting with task. Task-xfce will install the complete desktop. Likewise for task-lxde, task-enlightenment, task-fluxbox, etc.

[csolomon]

In Synaptic Search, type task. Scroll down until you see the list of items starting with task. Task-xfce will install the complete desktop. Likewise for task-lxde, task-enlightenment, task-fluxbox, etc.

Cool, thanks found it!  But when I hit Apply, it timed out trying to download the packages.  Thinking it might have something to do with the specific repository, I went in and looked at them. I selected one that seemed better suited to my geographical location, then I noticed that the Distribution is set to:

pclinuxos/2007

Shouldn't that be 2009?

[Old-Polack]

In Synaptic Search, type task. Scroll down until you see the list of items starting with task. Task-xfce will install the complete desktop. Likewise for task-lxde, task-enlightenment, task-fluxbox, etc.

Cool, thanks found it!  But when I hit Apply, it timed out trying to download the packages.  Thinking it might have something to do with the specific repository, I went in and looked at them. I selected one that seemed better suited to my geographical location, then I noticed that the Distribution is set to:

pclinuxos/2007

Shouldn't that be 2009?

Were it me, I think I'd be looking at the 2010 beta, and the new 2010 repo that goes with it. The 2009 are frozen and will disappear after a short while, while the 2010 is new and will be updated regularly for at least the next three years.

[csolomon]

In Synaptic Search, type task. Scroll down until you see the list of items starting with task. Task-xfce will install the complete desktop. Likewise for task-lxde, task-enlightenment, task-fluxbox, etc.

Cool, thanks found it!  But when I hit Apply, it timed out trying to download the packages.  Thinking it might have something to do with the specific repository, I went in and looked at them. I selected one that seemed better suited to my geographical location, then I noticed that the Distribution is set to:

pclinuxos/2007

Shouldn't that be 2009?

Were it me, I think I'd be looking at the 2010 beta, and the new 2010 repo that goes with it. The 2009 are frozen and will disappear after a short while, while the 2010 is new and will be updated regularly for at least the next three years.

The field in Synaptic is a free form text field.  How do I know what are the valid options?  I mean, do I type:

pclinuxos/2010 beta?

pclinuxos/2010?

2010 beta?

Is using the 2010 beta repo safe?  Where can I read the descriptions about what each contains?

[Old-Polack]

In Synaptic Search, type task. Scroll down until you see the list of items starting with task. Task-xfce will install the complete desktop. Likewise for task-lxde, task-enlightenment, task-fluxbox, etc.

Cool, thanks found it!  But when I hit Apply, it timed out trying to download the packages.  Thinking it might have something to do with the specific repository, I went in and looked at them. I selected one that seemed better suited to my geographical location, then I noticed that the Distribution is set to:

pclinuxos/2007

Shouldn't that be 2009?

Were it me, I think I'd be looking at the 2010 beta, and the new 2010 repo that goes with it. The 2009 are frozen and will disappear after a short while, while the 2010 is new and will be updated regularly for at least the next three years.

The field in Synaptic is a free form text field.  How do I know what are the valid options?  I mean, do I type:

pclinuxos/2010 beta?

pclinuxos/2010?

2010 beta?

Is using the 2010 beta repo safe?  Where can I read the descriptions about what each contains?

You would need to d/l the just released public beta1 image, burn it to disk, then install it, in place of the one you now have installed. There is no proper upgrade path between the 2007/2009 upgraded images and the new beta release. Too many things were upgraded too quickly, in a single step, for Synaptic to understand the changes, and correctly install/uninstall all the proper dependencies. Every PCLinuxOS user will have to reinstall at this point, or at least once the final 2010 version is released, if they want to be able to upgrade their OS in a proper manner for the next 3+ years..

Being as you are reinstalling now, It might as well be the beta of the new release, rather than the old, soon to "disappear completely" version, that would need 700+ package upgrades immediately, then never have any more, because it's repo will be deleted once the 2010 final version is released.

A list of download sites are included in the release announcement.

http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,69097.msg565405.html#msg565405

[csolomon]

You would need to d/l the just released public beta1 image, burn it to disk, then install it, in place of the one you now have installed. There is no proper upgrade path between the 2007/2009 upgraded images and the new beta release. Too many things were upgraded too quickly, in a single step, for Synaptic to understand the changes, and correctly install/uninstall all the proper dependencies. Every PCLinuxOS user will have to reinstall at this point, or at least once the final 2010 version is released, if they want to be able to upgrade their OS in a proper manner for the next 3+ years..

Being as you are reinstalling now, It might as well be the beta of the new release, rather than the old, soon to "disappear completely" version, that would need 700+ package upgrades immediately, then never have any more, because it's repo will be deleted once the 2010 final version is released.

A list of download sites are included in the release announcement.

http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,69097.msg565405.html#msg565405

I'm concerned that the new release will cause problems with my old hardware.  Looking at some of the old threads, there is reason to think that older hardware might not be as well supported with the 2010+ release.  Is the 2010 package meant to have the same support level for older systems?  I mean, this is why I tried pclinuxos in the first place: it was recommended as a distribution that had good support for older systems.

[T6]

"it was recommended as a distribution that had good support for older systems."

in general i always had the opposite impression, pclinux works well with newer hardware and not that well with older hardware, i remember that we don't have support for amd k62 cpus

your hardware is on the limit, about to become older(as in older than dirt)

you should be ok with next release or at least will get help preparing a special kernel for your system if the one in the livecd doesn't work