Linux for an idiot with a 560X ?

[parangles]

This was, and is, a very nice and small and compact and light old computer.
OK, bad res, no CD- no floppy- No usb in the boot sequence. But I'll get it on.
What Linux do you recommend as easy to learn and a low consumer for this old girl ?
233 Mhz Pentium, 64 Mb Ram.
Thanks !!

[Superego]

Here's a few distros I'd look at:

Puppy Linux: Very small, very lightweight, pretty popular. With 64 MB RAM you'll probably need to look at versions prior to 1.0.2

Dam Small Linux: Only 16 MB RAM required 64 MB recommended, so it may be a good fit for your specs.

TinyMe: Sorry, don't know much about it, but I've heard good things

Xubuntu: The RAM requirements (128 MB I think) put this out of reach, but if you did upgrade to more memory, this might be a good fit. Still fairly lightweight and (IMO) Ubuntu is fairly good starting point for Linux.

Regarding install, I think you're basically stuck with either using PCMCIA or a network boot. Whichever distro you go with, I'd check out their wiki/FAQ/etc. to see if they have any tips. Also, I'd look at http://www.thinkwiki.org for help on installing with older hardware. It *should* be as simple as downloading an image of the distro to a PCMCIA device and then booting from it, but it may depend on your distro of choice.

[parangles]

Thanks lots ! I'll work on those and get back after
the weekend.

[sb102]

If you are considering an upgrade of the memory to 96 MB, than I could recomend Vector Linux and Debian (with Xcfe desktop) - I was using them on a similar 560X (only I had 96 MB of RAM).

Regarding install, I think you're basically stuck with either using PCMCIA or a network boot.

Not necesary - providing that you have another machine with Linux you can use a program called UNetbootin - http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/ you can boot the instaler of a hard disk (of course you will need a network card to complete the instalation, as UNetbootin places only the network instalation versions of various Linux distros)- just read the instructions on the page (do not use the Windows version of the tool to do this trick - you need to create Linux partitions on the hard drive and windows cannot see those).

[parangles]

Thanks- I've tried two different sticks of ram to upgrade it
but they were rejected. I am going to try DSL on a usb drive.
Took forever to find an old one that has drivers for W98.
I found a tutorial and installers here:

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/all-in-one-usb-dsl/

I hope it doesnt need to boot from the pendrive cause I don't think
it will.

[GomJabbar]

I'm not really up on the 560X, but I think it might require low-density RAM. I know some of the older ThinkPads are very picky about RAM. Check in the ThinkPad Legacy Hardware forum for specifics.

[sb102]

The problem with RAM on the 560X is that it requires older EDO RAM, and parangles probably used ordinary SDRAM memories (they fit in the SO-DIMM slot). Also, the 560X does not boot from USB, so I wouldn't even bother with the flash-disk DSL distro. Either you transplant the disk into another machine and install linux from there, or you use the method I posted earlier (alternatively if you have a floppy disk drive, you could find a linux network installer on floppies - I think Debian still has them).

[parangles]

Thanks to all for your help - I've decided its not worth it.
I want to try Linux but I'll do it on something else.