[SOLVED] OpenBox onto a Dell GX150 with 128Mb RAM

[Hootiegibbon]

Hootie:

Started with FBDEV and using the No ACPI kernel option added the additional bits. That took me to the log-in but startx is rejected and x does not start. It gave me a convolute list of reasons why and please don't ask me to copy them down! So I re-Puppy-ed the swap size up to 500Mb and used the install boot choice with mem= and have arrived at the install point where total size is being computed and it's frozen. At the moment I'm wildcatting with combinations of boot and kernel choices and heading for a terminal.
OK, couldn't do the grep because would you believe neither of the keyboards have a pipe key(!!!), so typed the command anyway without the last bit and arrived at a menu that means a lot more to you than to me. Just to push my luck, I did draklive-install. The drives whirred, no screen appeared, and it froze. 

OK so its not FBDev compatible, and as for no '| 'key is no biggie, just use the full lspci result and manually coy the VGA lin, I am looking at the link provided above to the 150

when you have logged in at the Text login and su'd to root type XFdrake, use tab + arrow keys and enter to navigate - change to teh Vesa option in xorg and set the screen size correctly and then change the resolution depth to 15bit, after setting this up use the startx draklive-install option 

If this fails to work we may have other options to try

Jase

[BJF]

Can you run me through from the beginning please. Your choice of boot option, kernel choice, additional wording like ide=nodma. Sorry to rehash this, but I'm overdue for some sleep here!

(edit) OK, did as I was told and I have a fruit-loop screen with something going on beneath the flashing and bars. Something (15 bit?) is off.

I'm going byes. Nodding off at the keyboard. Until tomorrow then?

[Hootiegibbon]

OK just for reference I decided to reinstall on what may be a very similar machine, the only additional piece of hardware is a wireless card, I have however replaced the hard drive that came with this "powerhouse" ok the post install specs from infobash -v3 in a sakura shell are.

Host/Kernel/OS  "OptiPlexGX1" running Linux 2.6.38.8-pclos3.bfs i386 [ PCLinuxOS-Light release 2011 (Iced-Latte edition) for i686 ]
CPU Info        Pentium III (Katmai) 512 KB cache flags( sse ) clocked at [ 498.785 MHz ]
Videocard       ATI 3D Rage Pro AGP 1X/2X  X.Org 1.10.4  [ 1024x768@75.0hz ]
Network cards   Atheros AR5007G Wireless Network Adapter
                3Com 3c905B 100BaseTX [Cyclone], at port: dc00
Processes 94 | Uptime 2min | Memory 34.1/121.0MB | HDD ATA Hitachi HDS72161 Size 160GB (15%used) | GLX Renderer Software Rasterizer | GLX Version Yes | Client Shell | Infobash v3.05

the results of lspci are

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX Host bridge (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX AGP bridge (rev 03)
00:07.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ISA (rev 02)
00:07.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 IDE (rev 01)
00:07.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 USB (rev 01)
00:07.3 Bridge: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ACPI (rev 02)
00:0e.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR5007G Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01)
00:11.0 Ethernet controller: 3Com Corporation 3c905B 100BaseTX [Cyclone] (rev 24)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc 3D Rage Pro AGP 1X/2X (rev 5c)

lscpu

Architecture:          i686
CPU(s):                1
Thread(s) per core:    1
Core(s) per socket:    1
CPU socket(s):         1
Vendor ID:             GenuineIntel
CPU family:            6
Model:                 7
Stepping:              3
CPU MHz:               498.785

free -m (with xxxterm running - posting this)

            total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:           120        106         14          0          3         44
-/+ buffers/cache:         58         62
Swap:         2078          0       2078

Take a look and see if this is comparable to your Dell

If so we should be able to get it installed once we have addressed the differences


Jase

[BJF]

Morning Jase,

Quickly before I owe, I owe, so it's off to work I go: P3 866MHz Level 2 256Kb integrated BIOS V. A11 2x HDD's and system memory 128Mb SDRAM @ 133MHz, Video Memory 1Mb, Display Cache 4Mb.

There's a bit of typing to do tonight to replicate my lspci return here, so see you in about 10 hours time?

[BJF]

Jase:

Infobash returns...

P3 Coppermine 256Kb cache flags sse clocked 863.905MHz
Videocard Intel 82815 Chipset Graphics Controller
X.Org 1.10.4 1024x768085.0Hz
Network cards...
Processes 81
Memory 62.6/118.9Mb
HDD's....
GLX Renderer Software Rasteriser
GLX Version Yes

lspci returns a heap of similar information including...

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82815 Chipset Graphics Controller (CGC) rev 02

free -m returns...

total: 118 used 114 free 4 shared 0 buffers 14 cached 37 -/+ buffers/cache: used 62 free 56 (and swap has zero's all the way)  

Can you make sense of that? Anything you need that I've left out?

  John.

[Hootiegibbon]

John,

I suspect one of two things atm, your swap partition is not being mounted hence all zeros.

Can you confirm if X is running from the LiveCD - if so you can use diskdrake to ensure the swap partition is fomatted and mounted, then exit ,followed by running the installer, if it is a case that you were running out of ram during part of the install - that should fix it. 

Otherwise I am thinking that there is some hardware issue we need to work-around I would suggest posting the cotents of dmesg over at pastebin and posting a link here  (use "dmesg > dmesg.txt" to generate a text file) .

Jase

[BJF]

Jase:

Did diskdrake, found the partitions and reformatted and mounted the swap. Then did startx draklive-install.

Returned...
xauth: file/root/,serverauth.3370 does not exist
fatal server error:
server is already active for display0
if this server is no longer running......... and start again
Consult the XOrg Foundation.....
xinit connection to x server lost

So x was running!

Did draklive-install
Returned...

(started the wizard and went to the point of computing the size, then..)
/media/ user
killed

...and back at the command prompt.

   

Cheers.

(edit) Any further commands like diskdrake and draklive-install get killed now too.

[Hootiegibbon]

John,

Lets try somthing from from a fresh start - I suspect that the install process is what I called a graphic install ram bottleneck, which I normally see when I try to install on systems with <96megs of RAM.

Reboot, load up the iso with the "ide=nodma nonetwork acpi=off noapic nolapic" bootline variables this should free up a little RAM (as it wont have any network ability), assuming it reaches a graphical login use ctrl+alt+F1 to drop into a tty login, then log in as guest and su to root.

then use the following commands

init 3

xinit /usr/sbin/draklive-install

and keep your fingers crossed the iso I linked to only has minimal services running - so I am not sure if stopping further services (other than network) would be of benefit .

let me know how it goes

Jase

[BJF]

Jase;

Did ctrl-alt-F1 and found a menu that offered no intuitive choice for a tty log. Chose first option and found a terminal. went su root and issued command init 3. Arrived at tty log-in. Logged as root and issued listed commands. The wizard proceeded to compute, offered to format, and is, as we speak, installing. A WOO-HOO is in order!
A nagging doubt, and this will sound sooo ungrateful at this point (I'm expecting the best of the install process of course!), but can I expect to be able to add a bell and a couple of whistles to your wee iso and have a desktop with wallpaper and icons and a taskbar, and access to Synaptic for updates, at the end of all this? Oooh, this is exciting!!

[Hootiegibbon]

John,

Once its installed , then synaptic is your playground, be sure to update the install first, then add what you wish to.

Because of your RAM (at 128megs) you will need to choose a light window manager - if you want somthing that can be made to look good then I would consider IceWM as it comes with a panel and is very light and configurable. You will find that FVWM is veru very configurable and may just wish to add a panel to it (I would suggest lxpanel) keep to the lighter apps and you wont go far wrong .

Regarding app choice, it was some time ago that I found myself in a position where my main PC was infact a P2 300mhz with 128+32 meg sticks in it, as a reesult I had to "down scale " my app choice , to this day I now use those apps (or similar ) for email I would suggest you try alpine (or if thats too minimal sylpheed is good - I tend to use plaintext emails only ) for irc you cant go wrong with either weechat or irssi or if you need a basic gui  lostirc is very good. the lighter the other apps the more processor ability is reserved for your browser (keep away from those beasts called Firefox. Chromium, and Opera)

I hope all goes well, enjoi

Jase

[BJF]

IT LIVES, IGOR!!

[Hootiegibbon]

Great Stuff!

Have FUN!

[BJF]

Jase, Mr Gibbon, Hootie, Sir:

I feel that you have not properly been thanked for your smarts and input to us lesser mortals who bravely go where perhaps necessity or sheer bloody-mindedness (can I use that adjective on a family Forum?) lead us. Down the track of keeping old and minimalist machinery running PCLINUXOS. Might you one day do a basic-with-explanations sticky for those who come after us, and include a link to your .iso or its decendants as a start-point?

And in marking this solved, I thank you sincerely for making my old Dell powerhouse a productive member of the stable again. Thank you.