Fast GUI distro for x40? ez install and wifi setup

[lightweightthinkpad]

I saw an old thread on this same subject but it was from 06 ( http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=23790 ) so I thought I'd ask again.
I tried installing lubuntu because I have that on an older desktop pc and it was better then ubuntu. However to install lubuntu on the x40 is not a simple https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Lubuntu-fake-PAE at least from my perspective at the moment.

What Fast GUI distro for x40? ez install and wifi setup. i'd like to be able to program, word processing, and web browsing.

tinycore ? scientific linux? [censored] small linux? granted i'd like something ez to install

[Neil]

On my X40, Fuduntu was great, but the project is dead, so now my X40 is running Manjaro XFCE. Another, even lighter GUI distro is AntiX, based on Debian testing and using either the Fluxbox or JWM window managers instead of a DE. If you want newer packages there is any flavor of LinuxBBQ based on Debian Sid. All 32-bit BBQ flavors run on a non-PAE kernel which is a necessity on a P-M CPU machine such as the X40.

Scientific might work for you, I've never used it so can't really comment. DSL has been abandoned, but the same developer is on Tiny Core, which I have used and might serve your purpose well also.

[lightweightthinkpad]

On my X40, Fuduntu was great, but the project is dead, so now my X40 is running Manjaro XFCE. Another, even lighter GUI distro is AntiX, based on Debian testing and using either the Fluxbox or JWM window managers instead of a DE. If you want newer packages there is any flavor of LinuxBBQ based on Debian Sid. All 32-bit BBQ flavors run on a non-PAE kernel which is a necessity on a P-M CPU machine such as the X40.

Scientific might work for you, I've never used it so can't really comment. DSL has been abandoned, but the same developer is on Tiny Core, which I have used and might serve your purpose well also.

ack i'm running into some problems due to the PAE issue

I've tried installing Lubuntu , Xubuntu and have received

"this kernel requires the following features not present on the CPU: pae Unable to boot - please use a kernle appropriate for your CPU"

I'm looking for a fast distro that installs as I'm not really too handy as to how to get one of these fake pae lubuntu or manjaro systems to work.

i'm going to give tinycore and puppylinux a try.

[Cigarguy]

Really enjoying Linux Mint Debian Edition on my T42. I was looking for a good lightweight distro that plays with non-PAE machine and have some eye candy.

[Tasurinchi]

I'm running Lubuntu 12.04 on one of my X40's plus on other older machines like my A31 without any problems Which version did you download?

[Neil]

Tasurinchi, there was a non-PAE kernel version of 12.04 available (still is BTW), but it has been abandoned in the more recent versions of Ubuntu including LXDE and XFCE.

lightweightthinkpad, simple solution is to look elsewhere than Ubuntu based distributions. Debian still offers a non-PAE kernel, that's why I mention a couple of Debian based distros above. Some of them are available with LXDE, if that's the DE you want. Or just install native Debian, and go from there. On the other hand, Puppy is a good choice too. It's probably the easiest to use, but there are some things it doesn't do, or that are difficult to do with it. That's why I didn't stay with Puppy on my X40, even though I really like the frugal install that runs totally in RAM, since I boot my X40 from a CF card.

[Tasurinchi]

Thanks for the info Neil. I also learned a while ago that Lubuntu 12.04 is a non-LTS version (I thought all 12.04 were LTS) I think I'll need to check for another light, non-PAE option...

[ThinkRob]

Honestly, I'd just bite the bullet and learn to install/setup Debian. It won't be a "one click" installation, but once it's installed you'll be set for the life of the hardware (given proper maintenance) and there's very little that's as flexible as Debian can be...

[CometCKO]

I can wholeheartedly recommend Peppermint Three, which is a branch off Lubuntu (see Peppermintos.com). i don't have the patience for patching distros to get them to work, so I was very pleasantly surprised to find this one worked out of the box. I've been using it for a couple of weeks now and I'm very impressed!

You can download and try the Live CD version. in fact, that's the best way to install it -- boot the Live CD to get wireless working and then do the install from there. I put it on a USB stick and booted that after some fiddling with the BIOS (have to enable USB boot and then get the right device first in the boot order).

Highly recommended! (see my post above for more specifics -- SSD install, wireless card, etc.)

[lightweightthinkpad]

I have two x40 laptops one with the sticker saying Pentium M and the other with the sticker saying Intel Centrino

for some reason and i haven't figured out precisely why Lubuntu 14.04 installs on the Centrino X40 but not on the pentium M.

I get the error non pae cpu for the Pentium M stickered X40.

On the x40 with the Centrino sticker lubuntu installs no problem and boots up extremely quickly.

I googled around looking for info on wether or not the pentium m stickers had no pae, versus the centrino stickers having pae. I didn't find any information but I wanted to return to post my info in case someone else ran into the same problem.

[Neil]

The Centrino brand represents Intel Wi-Fi and WiMAX adapters. It's got nothing at all to do with the CPU and/or PAE.

As far as I know, all X40 have either Banias or Dothan LV or ULV Pentium M processor, and I didn't think any of them would support PAE. Interesting that one of yours boots the PAE kernel...hope someone comes along that can tell us why.

[brchan]

Lubuntu is easy to install and relatively quick. However, if you want a bit more responsive system, I recommend installing and using a light window manager such as JWM or ICEWM, as opposed to the more full-blown LXDE desktop environment. Here is a memory comparison of different window managers and desktop environments: http://l3net.wordpress.com/2013/03/17/a ... -desktops/

[axur-delmeria]

The Centrino brand represents Intel Wi-Fi and WiMAX adapters. It's got nothing at all to do with the CPU and/or PAE.

That's what it is now, but before that, "Centrino" represented the Intel mobile platform comprised of an Intel CPU, its associated Intel chipset, and an Intel Wifi adapter.

Basically, it's a marketing term for an "All Intel" build-- take note that at the time VIA, SiS, and ATI were capable of making chipsets for Intel CPUs.

As far as I know, all X40 have either Banias or Dothan LV or ULV Pentium M processor, and I didn't think any of them would support PAE. Interesting that one of yours boots the PAE kernel...hope someone comes along that can tell us why.

The Banias Pentium M's do not have PAE, while most (not all) of the Dothans do. PAE is associated with the NX (No eXecute) or XD (eXecute Disable) bit, so if your CPU has NX, there's a fair chance it also has PAE.

You can use CPU Identification tools to check.

[axur-delmeria]

@lightweightthinkpad
Try Crunchbang Linux or maybe Debian's LXDE CD.

[rumbero]

Since you will need a non-PAE kernel combined with a low memory consumption window manager, i would like to point you to my own personal project named Window Maker Live. I have already announced it in this forum at Window Maker Live wmlive_0.95.6-1 released, and just added an update about a newer version fixing the shellshock bug.

Window Maker is listed in the article about a memory comparison of different window managers and desktop environments mentioned by brchan as one of the least memory hungry options, consuming a mere 7MB (at least according to the article).

Let me know what you think about it should you ever try it out.

[axur-delmeria]

@rumbero

Nice work.
Looking at the screenshots, it looks like WindowMaker has an extensive set of configuration tools, which most other small window managers lack. That's a good thing.

I'm currently in the process of fine-tuning an installation of Debian Jessie (Testing) on a Thinkpad X61 Tablet with only 512MB of RAM, so things need to be as light as possible. I'm currently using JWM as my window manager, and I have to say I've gotten a bit tired of editing text files.

What I don't like about WindowMaker are those large space-eating boxes along the edges.
I was looking for a battery meter, and tried a WindowMaker battery plugin, but the screen space it ate, oh my!
Is that a 64 x 64 pixel box in the upper-left corner? I've only got an XGA screen.

Do those have have an auto-hide option? If yes, I'd seriously think of trying out your Live CD.

The long story of the "fine tuning" -- You don't have to read this.

I actually started with razorqt, but noticed it's not as light as I thought it would be.
So I replaced the openbox WM underneath with oroborus, then removed razorqt's desktop, appswitcher, and runner components.
I was planning to replace razorqt-panel with tint2 when I discovered tint2 didn't have a root menu.
Deskmenu, which was built to work with oroborus, doesn't work well, so I installed aewm just to try its root menu program.

At this point i thought "Screw this" and went to straight JWM, and got xbindkeys for application shortcut keys and fbautostart to handle the XDG-compliant autostart folders.

All that's left are:
1. task switcher -- JWM's task-switching behavior isn't my cup of tea.
2. restart/shutdown commands on the root menu
3. little stuff, mostly to become functionally comparable to my main system, which has Xfce installed. I've been an Xfce user since I switched to Linux with Debian Etch, and have been spoiled with its features.

[rumbero]

Do those have have an auto-hide option? If yes, I'd seriously think of trying out your Live CD.

Indeed, you have more options available for those icons than a static screenshot can reveal:

* simply turn that icon feature completely off.
* move those icons off-screen
* scale the icon size down to a minimum of 24x24 and a maximum of 96x96

This can all be configured via the WPrefs GUI configuration tool shown in the screen shots, no config file editing is ever required.

In fact, the extent of configuration options via the WPrefs utility might be daunting at first, but you'll get used to it. See windowmaker.org/guidedtour/prefs.html for an overview.

There are also some shortcomings like the requirement to use a mouse pointer, e.g. for scrolling through lists, but these are not really important.

Since its usage patterns are based on vintage NeXTSTEP heritage, it might take a while to get used to the Window Maker handling.

Just give it a try to find out what you get.