pleasant Linux for a 503+?

Folks,

Any good experiences out there with a Linux distro on a 503+?

I have a 503+ that's never been used, and I'm thinking about giving Linux a
try, if it's not going to be too painful. I tried Linux years ago, and
give up in frustration. Maybe Linux is now more pleasant.

Thanks for your thoughts.

- Dave

Just for grins, try booting up a knoppix live Line CD on your 503+,
you might just be thoroughly impressed. Google for knoppix and Linux

--
Best regards,
Kyle
"Boon" <> wrote in message
news:Xns99919A398BDF0ddboonastrawebnet@216.151.153 .13...
| Folks,
|
| Any good experiences out there with a Linux distro on a 503+?
|
| I have a 503+ that's never been used, and I'm thinking about giving
Linux a
| try, if it's not going to be too painful. I tried Linux years ago,
and
| give up in frustration. Maybe Linux is now more pleasant.
|
| Thanks for your thoughts.
|
| - Dave

Kyle wrote

>Just for grins, try booting up a knoppix live Line CD on your 503+,
>you might just be thoroughly impressed. Google for knoppix and Linux
>
Can I imagine device drivers for Socket 7 era kit have been mostly
already been written? (ATI Rage Pro, ... er, that sort of thing)
--
Roger Hunt

"Roger Hunt" <> wrote in message
news:...
| Kyle wrote
|
| >Just for grins, try booting up a knoppix live Line CD on your 503+,
| >you might just be thoroughly impressed. Google for knoppix and
Linux
| >
| Can I imagine device drivers for Socket 7 era kit have been mostly
| already been written? (ATI Rage Pro, ... er, that sort of thing)
| --
| Roger Hunt

ATI enjoyed early support on Linux, would imagine such drivers do
exist.
--
Best regards,
Kyle

"Kyle" <> wrote in
news::

> Just for grins, try booting up a knoppix live Line CD on your 503+,
> you might just be thoroughly impressed. Google for knoppix and Linux
>


Kyle,

Thanks for the tip. I Googled Knoppix and found
https://www.getlinuxfast.com/
where I ordered Knoppix for 75 cents.

It was so cheap I got some more, running up a total, with shipping, of
$9.91 for this:

1 x Ubuntu 7.04 Desktop CD () = $0.75
1 x OpenSUSE 10.2 CD Set () = $5.50
1 x DamnSmallLinux 3.4 CD () = $1.10
1 x Knoppix 5.1.1 Live CD () = $0.75

Thanks again for your suggestion.

- Dave

Boon wrote
>"Kyle" <> wrote in
>news: :
>
>> Just for grins, try booting up a knoppix live Line CD on your 503+,
>> you might just be thoroughly impressed. Google for knoppix and Linux
>
>Thanks for the tip. I Googled Knoppix and found
>https://www.getlinuxfast.com/
>where I ordered Knoppix for 75 cents.
>
>It was so cheap I got some more, running up a total, with shipping, of
>$9.91 for this:
>
>1 x Ubuntu 7.04 Desktop CD () = $0.75
>1 x OpenSUSE 10.2 CD Set () = $5.50
>1 x DamnSmallLinux 3.4 CD () = $1.10
>1 x Knoppix 5.1.1 Live CD () = $0.75
>
>Thanks again for your suggestion.
>
I know that all these distros will be available via download and/or
bitorrent, but for that kind of money it does look quite tempting, and
saves the hassle of burning a CD etc ...

<small rant>
However, I see that IE wants to talk to the website on https, port 443,
and won't let me in unless I allow secure communication.
I know there is nothing in this apart from preparing for a transaction,
but I prefer to have this kind of thing only initiated after I have been
able to browse the site, and not before I have decided to do business
with them.
Sorry, just a small personal niggle.
<rant finished>
--
Roger Hunt

On Sun, 19 Aug 2007 19:10:33 +0000, Boon wrote:

> Any good experiences out there with a Linux distro on a 503+?
>
> I have a 503+ that's never been used, and I'm thinking about giving
> Linux a try, if it's not going to be too painful. I tried Linux years
> ago, and give up in frustration. Maybe Linux is now more pleasant.
>
> Thanks for your thoughts.

I am running Ipcop (http://ipcop.org) on mine, a powerful linux firewall
distribution. I've installed it for several newbies and they have had no
trouble administering it through the web interface. With Ipcop a truly
serious firewall, VPN support, transparent proxy caching, intrusion
detection, etc., are just mouse clicks away.

If you'd like a fully modern, easy to install and use linux that will
still run on a 503+, then I'd suggest Xubuntu (http://xubuntu.org). It's
Ubuntu Linux but with the faster, leaner XFCE desktop. It really is quite
nice, and is what I use on my personal PC. I have a modern computer and
don't need to run it, but it is my favorite linux distro at the moment.

If you want a really lean, fast linux on a 503+ you could try DSL Linux
(http://damnsmalllinux.org). It really is damned small, yet fast and
surprisingly featureful. DSL will run entirely in 128 MB RAM, providing
excellent performance basically any remotely modern PC.

Some observations:

You can download all these distributions for free.

I'd suggest 256 MB RAM if you're considering Xubuntu. You don't strictly
need it but the desktop experience will be better. I'd avoid the Gnome and
KDE desktops. They are pretty but too bloated for a 503+.

Finally, Linux has gotten a lot easier to use over the years. I would
suggest a trip to http://Ubuntuguide.org if you install Xubuntu to learn
how to install mp3 support and various other multimedia goodies.

Linux really is quite painless these days. I bet you'll be surprised.

Carbon,

Thanks for your advice. I'm looking forward to trying a couple of the
distros you recommend. But first I have to get my 503+ up and running. I
broke the seal on the mobo Wednesday, and I thought I'd have it up in a few
hours, but it's still not working.

Bad battery, maybe, although its voltage looks OK, and the bios remembers
the settings I give it. But it won't go past the first screen - the one
with the memory check. I'm in the process of swapping out the floppy,
video card, cables, etc. I hope it's not a DOA motherboard.

My CPU is a K6-2+ 450, the one with L2 cache. Can anybody tell me whether
the mobo cache should be disabled? I tried disabling it, but it still
won't go past the memory test screen. I have two other 503+ computers
running fine, but with the K6-2 550. A couple jumper settings are
different, but there are enough similarities that I can't believe that I'm
stuck.

Well anyhow, Carbon, thanks again for your Linux suggestions.

- Dave

Wait, wait, don't tell me.

503+ BIOS JE439 won't support the K6-2+ CPU. Have to first flash to BIOS
JE4333, then it will work.

- Dave

Boon wrote
>Wait, wait, don't tell me.
>
Mums the word then.
>503+ BIOS JE439 won't support the K6-2+ CPU. Have to first flash to BIOS
>JE4333, then it will work.
>
FIC, as I remember, had a marvellous unique numbering system for the
503+ BIOSes, and with prefixes of such similarity I managed to screw
Royally the BIOS chip on mine by using a .bin designed for the 2013.

Also, the jumpers seem mostly labelled upside-down and often back to
front as well, and one or two need advanced tweezer design to get at
them easily (when overclocking the CPU of course).

Have fun!
--
Roger Hunt