OS for Thinkpad T42??

[Beartooth]

Some years ago, I bought an
         IBM-refurbished Thinkpad T42, meaning to
         devote it to use with a Garmin UPS, under
         Linux of course. It turned out not to be
         suitable for that.

I put it into the guest room, where
         it also got little or no use. Until last
         week, it still had Fedora 22. I've been
         trying for days to get F26, or 25, or even
         24 onto it.

It demanded an i386, 32-bit .iso;
         and I did finally manage, after a lot of
         grief, to get it to seem to finish an
         installation. Upon rebooting, it says only
         that it can't boot what it has!

As a last resort, I've been looking
         for a Puppy Linux version. The download
         page offers versions for Ubuntu (which
         affects me like sand in the teeth),
         Slackware (which I've never even seen
         running), and M$. Oh, and also for the
         eeePC.

Is there hope??
 -- 
Beartooth Staffwright, PhD, Neo-Redneck Linux Convert
What do they know of country, who only country know?

[Rick Stevens]

On 08/15/2017 10:32 AM, Beartooth wrote:
>      Some years ago, I bought an
>      IBM-refurbished Thinkpad T42, meaning to
>      devote it to use with a Garmin UPS, under
>      Linux of course. It turned out not to be
>      suitable for that.
>
>             I put it into the guest room, where
>      it also got little or no use. Until last
>      week, it still had Fedora 22. I've been
>      trying for days to get F26, or 25, or even
>      24 onto it.
>
>                    It demanded an i386, 32-bit .iso;
>      and I did finally manage, after a lot of
>      grief, to get it to seem to finish an
>      installation. Upon rebooting, it says only
>      that it can't boot what it has!

What did you install, where did you get it and what, specifically, are
the error messages you're getting? There are LOTS of Fedora 26 spins
that have 32-bit live images you can try out if you have a DVD drive
or can use a USB flash drive on that machine (some old machines can't
boot USB drives).
>             As a last resort, I've been looking
>      for a Puppy Linux version. The download
>      page offers versions for Ubuntu (which
>      affects me like sand in the teeth),
>      Slackware (which I've never even seen
>      running), and M$. Oh, and also for the
>      eeePC.
>
>             Is there hope??

I believe so but we need more details to help.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Rick Stevens, Systems Engineer, AllDigital    [e-mail] -
- AIM/Skype: therps2        ICQ: 226437340           Yahoo: origrps2 -
-                                                                    -
-"Jimmie crack corn and I don't care." What kind of a lousy attitude -
-                 is THAT to have, huh?   -- Dennis Miller           -
----------------------------------------------------------------------

[Patrick O'Callaghan]

On Tue, 2017-08-15 at 17:32 +0000, Beartooth wrote:
>      Some years ago, I bought an
>      IBM-refurbished Thinkpad T42, meaning to
>      devote it to use with a Garmin UPS, under
>      Linux of course. It turned out not to be
>      suitable for that.
>
>             I put it into the guest room, where
>      it also got little or no use. Until last
>      week, it still had Fedora 22. I've been
>      trying for days to get F26, or 25, or even
>      24 onto it.
>
>                    It demanded an i386, 32-bit .iso;
>      and I did finally manage, after a lot of
>      grief, to get it to seem to finish an
>      installation. Upon rebooting, it says only
>      that it can't boot what it has!
>
>             As a last resort, I've been looking
>      for a Puppy Linux version. The download
>      page offers versions for Ubuntu (which
>      affects me like sand in the teeth),
>      Slackware (which I've never even seen
>      running), and M$. Oh, and also for the
>      eeePC.

I have F25 on an eeePC. It even runs KDE which probably not the best
choice at this size, but it does work (the machine has 2GB of RAM).

poc

[Kenneth Marcy]

On 08/15/2017 10:32 AM, Beartooth wrote:
>      Some years ago, I bought an
>      IBM-refurbished Thinkpad T42, 

Since you did not mention how much RAM it contains, I assume the least
usually supplied -- 256 MB.

I suggest you remove that memory module and replace it with two modules
each containing 2048 MB.

That will supply the machine with 4 GB RAM, of which something over 3 GB
will be available to use.

I suspect your operating system will then find sufficient room to boot
itself into operation.

Ken

<[snip]>

[Porfirio Andrés Páiz Carrasco]

2017-08-15 11:32 GMT-06:00 Beartooth :
>                    It demanded an i386, 32-bit .iso;
>      and I did finally manage, after a lot of
>      grief, to get it to seem to finish an
>      installation. Upon rebooting, it says only
>      that it can't boot what it has!

Hi,

I'm running Fedora 26 with Openbox on a X40. To install Fedora in it I
used the 32bit Everything Netinstall iso [0].

I only installed the Custom set of packages, later after the minimal
install I pulled all the other packages required to have a graphical
session.

I have to mention this machine has a SSD with 30GB, 1GB on RAM (512MB
soldered to the Mother Board and 512MB on a slot).

[0] https://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora-secondary/releases/26/Everythi...

[George N. White III]

On 15 August 2017 at 14:32, Beartooth  wrote:
>      Some years ago, I bought an
>      IBM-refurbished Thinkpad T42, meaning to
>      devote it to use with a Garmin UPS, under
>      Linux of course. It turned out not to be
>      suitable for that.
>
>             I put it into the guest room, where
>      it also got little or no use. Until last
>      week, it still had Fedora 22. I've been
>      trying for days to get F26, or 25, or even
>      24 onto it.
>
>                    It demanded an i386, 32-bit .iso;
>      and I did finally manage, after a lot of
>      grief, to get it to seem to finish an
>      installation. Upon rebooting, it says only
>      that it can't boot what it has!
>
>             As a last resort, I've been looking
>      for a Puppy Linux version. The download
>      page offers versions for Ubuntu (which
>      affects me like sand in the teeth),
>      Slackware (which I've never even seen
>      running), and M$. Oh, and also for the
>      eeePC.

I have an old i486 PowerEdge server with IDE disks and
a serial port that I use to mainly to manage a room full of
Ferrups UPS's and to clone IDE drives for use with an
old industrial PC running Win2K.

I settled on debian with a lightweight X11 configuration
which has been fine for my needs:

https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/ch03s04.html.en
>             Is there hope??

If you need internet access you should stick with a current
distro, but such old hardware is rarely worth the effort as
you end up dealing with failing hardware.  RAM, disk drives,
and cooling fans are prone to age-related failures.

[ChunYu Wang]

I will also recommend debian as George N. White III said in another mail...

- Chunyu

On Wed, Aug 16, 2017 at 1:32 AM, Beartooth  wrote:
>      Some years ago, I bought an
>      IBM-refurbished Thinkpad T42, meaning to
>      devote it to use with a Garmin UPS, under
>      Linux of course. It turned out not to be
>      suitable for that.
>
>             I put it into the guest room, where
>      it also got little or no use. Until last
>      week, it still had Fedora 22. I've been
>      trying for days to get F26, or 25, or even
>      24 onto it.
>
>                    It demanded an i386, 32-bit .iso;
>      and I did finally manage, after a lot of
>      grief, to get it to seem to finish an
>      installation. Upon rebooting, it says only
>      that it can't boot what it has!
>
>             As a last resort, I've been looking
>      for a Puppy Linux version. The download
>      page offers versions for Ubuntu (which
>      affects me like sand in the teeth),
>      Slackware (which I've never even seen
>      running), and M$. Oh, and also for the
>      eeePC.
>
>             Is there hope??
>
> --
> Beartooth Staffwright, PhD, Neo-Redneck Linux Convert
> What do they know of country, who only country know?
>
> users mailing list -- [e-mail]
> To unsubscribe send an email to [e-mail]

[Robbi Nespu]

I recommend Fedora 26, but need to tweak a lot. Because hardware spec are 5
years behind. If me, i maybe use openbox or i3. Use netinstall for minimal
installation. I saw few post this laptop has kernel issue and unbootable,
where you live? It better find someone new to make a custom kernel for your
usage.

On Fri, Aug 18, 2017 at 2:28 PM, ChunYu Wang  wrote:
> I will also recommend debian as George N. White III said in another mail...
> Chunyu
>
> On Wed, Aug 16, 2017 at 1:32 AM, Beartooth  wrote:
> >      Some years ago, I bought an
> >      IBM-refurbished Thinkpad T42, meaning to
> >      devote it to use with a Garmin UPS, under
> >      Linux of course. It turned out not to be
> >      suitable for that.
> >
> >             I put it into the guest room, where
> >      it also got little or no use. Until last
> >      week, it still had Fedora 22. I've been
> >      trying for days to get F26, or 25, or even
> >      24 onto it.
> >
> >                    It demanded an i386, 32-bit .iso;
> >      and I did finally manage, after a lot of
> >      grief, to get it to seem to finish an
> >      installation. Upon rebooting, it says only
> >      that it can't boot what it has!
> >
> >             As a last resort, I've been looking
> >      for a Puppy Linux version. The download
> >      page offers versions for Ubuntu (which
> >      affects me like sand in the teeth),
> >      Slackware (which I've never even seen
> >      running), and M$. Oh, and also for the
> >      eeePC.
> >
> >             Is there hope??
> >
> > --
> > Beartooth Staffwright, PhD, Neo-Redneck Linux Convert
> > What do they know of country, who only country know?
> >
> > users mailing list -- [e-mail]
> > To unsubscribe send an email to [e-mail]
>
> users mailing list -- [e-mail]
> To unsubscribe send an email to [e-mail]

[Beartooth]

On Fri, 18 Aug 2017 15:15:26 +0800, Robbi Nespu wrote:
> I recommend Fedora 26, but need to tweak a lot. Because hardware spec
> are 5 years behind. If me, i maybe use openbox or i3. Use netinstall for
> minimal installation. I saw few post this laptop has kernel issue and
> unbootable, where you live? It better find someone new to make a custom
> kernel for your usage.

Ouch! I was planning to give it away, if once I get it working 
well again. Netinstall I've done before, and can hope to succeed again. 
But kernels are way over my head, and I doubt my intended recipient even 
knows Linux. Methinks I better try the memory upgrade and netinstall, and 
if both fail, I'll offer it to anyone on my local LUG who can give it a 
good home ...

[Rick Stevens]

On 08/18/2017 10:47 AM, Beartooth wrote:
> On Fri, 18 Aug 2017 15:15:26 +0800, Robbi Nespu wrote:
> > I recommend Fedora 26, but need to tweak a lot. Because hardware spec
> > are 5 years behind. If me, i maybe use openbox or i3. Use netinstall for
> > minimal installation. I saw few post this laptop has kernel issue and
> > unbootable, where you live? It better find someone new to make a custom
> > kernel for your usage.
>
> Ouch! I was planning to give it away, if once I get it working 
> well again. Netinstall I've done before, and can hope to succeed again. 
> But kernels are way over my head, and I doubt my intended recipient even 
> knows Linux. Methinks I better try the memory upgrade and netinstall, and 
> if both fail, I'll offer it to anyone on my local LUG who can give it a 
> good home ...

My guess is yeah, it'll need more memory--regardless of what "modern"
OS you manage to install on it. I think even Windows 10 has a minimum of
1GB for a 32-bit environment and 16GB of disk. Fun, fun, fun!

Do you remember when Gates said we'd never need more than 64K of RAM?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Rick Stevens, Systems Engineer, AllDigital    [e-mail] -
- AIM/Skype: therps2        ICQ: 226437340           Yahoo: origrps2 -
-                                                                    -
-  "Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick"  -
-     themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened."       -
-                                  -- Winston Churchill              -
----------------------------------------------------------------------

[Patrick O'Callaghan]

On Fri, 2017-08-18 at 10:55 -0700, Rick Stevens wrote:
> Do you remember when Gates said we'd never need more than 64K of RAM?

It was 640K, but yeah. Of course I ran a 12-user PDP-11/45 with 256K of
RAM, but that was then.

poc

[Ralf Corsepius]

On 08/18/2017 07:55 PM, Rick Stevens wrote:
> My guess is yeah, it'll need more memory--regardless of what "modern"
> OS you manage to install on it. I think even Windows 10 has a minimum of
> 1GB for a 32-bit environment and 16GB of disk. Fun, fun, fun!

Well, installing Fedora 26 on x86ers with less than 1GB RAM definitely 
is possible. Installation may require some tricks (e.g. manual 
partitioning to add swap), but it definitely is possible

At least, I have Fedora running on a PIII w/ 512 MB RAM:
# cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor	: 0
vendor_id	: GenuineIntel
cpu family	: 6
model		: 8
model name	: Pentium III (Coppermine)
...

# cat /proc/meminfo
MemTotal:         505976 kB
MemFree:          201332 kB
MemAvailable:     388100 kB
...

# cat /etc/fedora-release
Fedora release 26 (Twenty Six)

However, due to the tight RAM constraints, using a DE on it requires a 
certain amount of "patience". With xfce, the desktop performance is OK 
for "rare" and "occasional", "light" use (email, browsing, ...), but not 
for much more - Gnome and KDE are beyond limits ;)

Finally, I do not recommend to use Fedora on x86ers anymore, because of 
Redhat and Fedora's Leaders politics against 32bit. I am considering to 
switch to Mageia or Debian.

Ralf

[Ian Pilcher]

On 08/18/2017 01:28 AM, ChunYu Wang wrote:
> I will also recommend debian as George N. White III said in another mail...

Did Debian ever get their act together on SELinux (i.e. ship a
functional policy post-Jessie)?