I just tried installing Linuxmint cinnamon 18.2 on an old pc, only to find out that the onboard gpu "Sis Mirage 3 - 671" is not supported. Then I realized that the onboard audio "Realtek ALC660" is defective after reinstalling windows XP on it.
What really annoys me is that it doesn't really tell you about those issues. The only thing visible in the Driver manager window is the processor's intel-microcode driver. Unlike windows (pic related).
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The device manager only shows you which drivers are installed.
The Linux alternative is just "Yes"
>lspci
>lscpu
>ls*** -nnk
Decent way of looking at the hardware and identifying broken or missing stuff along with driver trouble.
This is the only thing indicated in the driver manager
Why wont it tell me that there's no available drivers for my onboard video.
Or that the onboard sound driver is already installed. So, that I know that my onboard sound is defective.
Try the original audio driver that shipped with the motherboard if a generic driver doesn't work. Check the manufacturer's website. The SIS 671 chipset hasn't been supported for years. Get a used radeon card if the motherboard has PCIe.
I installed Linuxmint. I'm a babby. Fiddling with the terminal is not something I want to do on day one.
If youre trying to get all the answers from the GUI I don't think linux is for you bucko...
You will have to decide if you are doing this or not. The curve is steep at the start.
The motherboard is ECS 671T-M3.
The onboard audio is defective (not a driver issue).
>The SIS 671 chipset hasn't been supported for years
I'm going to find a used soundcard and videocard to make this work. I'll post again in the future if works.
Why Radeon? Won't geforce work?
Welcome my fellow linux friend.
There is a misconception - or let me say a myth - floating around: Linux works on older hardware.
This is not true in general. It may be true in specific cases.
You should not expect a modern distro like Linux Mint 18.2 to run on your ~12 years old pc. You would not expect Windows 10 to run, would you?
...
that chipset has a faulty PCIe root hub implementation. geforce drivers dont like it.
>geforce drivers dont like it.
Okay. Got it. I trust you somehow.
I thought there are versions of linux that are not resource hungry. (Like mint?)
The idea is to not install windows xp on the old pc so that you can connect it to the internet.
One thing you'll have to get used to about Linux is that there is no cohesion. The kernel developers are in their own world, the DE devs are in their own world, the networking people are in their own world, and so on. On top of that, distro maintainers are trying to make all of these disparate components play nice together, but they are also in their own world.
Basically, nothing is standard. What you see in a particular window doesn't mean jack shit, because it was probably written by some fucking brazilian some years back and probably nobody bothered to update it to work with the latest kernel/coreutils stuff (as you spend time in the linux community, you will come to know that desktop environment developers are the most annoying hooligans of all the different types of developers, and make garbage decisions almost always). In windows, you just expect everyone to know about the device manager screen, because the desktop environment is made by the same people who make the kernel.
In linux world, the terminal is king. Since people who develop kernel APIs and command-line interfaces are less retarded than DE developers, you should always try to get data from the command line first. Ever wonder why all those noobs in linux forums are asked to post terminal output, and never to open a particular window and take a screenshot?
I remember a program named lshw on the system rescue cd (pic related), but when I tried installing (or maybe it was already built-in?) it on mint, it was just a command line.
Mint is not the most resource hungry distro out there. But it certainly is very modern. It will use lots of ram right after boot. You will not have any fun even if you get it to run on your already damaged machine.
Personally, I think this myth is one of the reasons why Linux on the desktop has such a bad reputation. People say "use linux on your old computer" - of course it does not work. You are using a modern distro that uses more ram than your computer is probably able to support. You may try to run Chrome or FF which need certain instruction sets that you CPU does not support (which is the reason for them to not support XP anymore...)
Also every Linux distro I know is way easier on resources than the recent Windows version at any time... just to clarify.
The actual Linux kernel may actually work. It is the userland that gets you into trouble.
IMO the best desktop computers for Linux are a almost always few years old. But not a decade or older
Not the guy you're replying to, but I agree with this fully.
I have an 15-year-old dell pos, and most i386 minimal linux installs seem to work fine. However, after installing xorg, I can only use tiling wms and openbox smoothly, and browsing the web is very annoying.
>terminal is king
I see.
But like I said, I'm a babby. Studying terminal stuff will take days. I don't mind studying the terminal, but the PC must be usable on day one, or at least it gives me some hints on what's wrong; this is my main concern.
The processor is 2ghz dual core E2180.
It can handle windows 7, but I'm not really sure since I only have 1g ram (so its slow). Maybe if I were to find 4gb of ram (maximum supported), maybe I'll switch it back to windows.
But if it can't handle windows 7 even with the ram. I'll keep linuxmint until it wont let me...
>browsing the web is very annoying
browse the internet properly anymore.
Then I'll just make it into an emulator/console or something.
The most recent version of Ubuntu and Linux Mint and frankly every distro will run far worse than W7 on 1 GB RAM and hardware that's old. Unless you specifically go for a minimalistic install with a lot of light software alternatives. That definitely will not "just werk" though and setting it up is mostly terminal work.
Actually your best bet is something like lubuntu.net
>distros with new demanding interfaces won't run on old pcs
God, people are idiots. You're comparing an OS with an interface equivalent to Win10 to an ancient version of Windows.
Dumb.
ill second lubuntu, it runs very well on a laptop of mine from 2002
Mint doesn't play well with older hardware. Lubuntu is what you're looking for.
Okay.
Maybe I'll try Lubuntu after trying out mint when I find the used parts that I need (sound card, video card, 4bg ram), since lubuntu is on the back on Sup Forums's OS guide.
It should run like a dream on your setup. I've used it on my old 2004 Compaq with single core AMD processor with 1gb ram and it was blazing fast compared to XP.
>Fiddling with the terminal is not something I want to do on day one.
that's just too fucking bad, buddy
fiddling with the terminal is shit you are going to have to do if you expect to use that OS. I am not joking or being hyperbolic. If you don't wanna use that just stay with Windows.
I think you need some more IQ points in order to fully understand what's going on inside your computer, maybe a chromebook is more your speed
It's up to you but I think it's a waste to spend any money at all on ancient computers.
>a waste to spend any money at all
If it's expensive, I'll just scrap the whole project; but for now, I can still see the benefits.