Linux on the X31

[thinkx31]

Hi we have had an x31 for two years now and have just got another one and Linux runs good on them. At the moment Ubuntu 1010 is fine but does anyone recommend any other flavor of Linux that would make them even faster

[Harryc]

Well, xubuntu would run faster, simply because it uses an XFCE desktop environment. GNOME is a pig by nature .

[jronald]

Im running uBuntu on X30's with less than 1 gig of memory. It is darned impressive. 10.04 anyway. I cant help but think it will run like a Bat out of Hades on X31. I chose the X30, because you can normal pick them up for less than $50.00. The cheapest I have done one for is $23.00 shipped!

Ron

[Neil]

Try CrunchBang Statler. I believe it to be the fastest implementation of XFCE you will find. This makes Xubuntu feel downright bloated and lethargic. If you want an even faster set up, use the OpenBox version of CrunchBang. Makes me smile every time I boot my 600X.

[j-dawg]

I posted this just recently in another thread, but I have yet to be convinced that Xubuntu actually runs any faster than vanilla Ubuntu. On my X24, I can't tell a difference.

[ThinkRob]

Well, xubuntu would run faster, simply because it uses an XFCE desktop environment. GNOME is a pig by nature .

XFCE (as shipped in Xubuntu) isn't really much lighter than GNOME. Xubuntu is not a very lightweight distro at all, but it is one of the friendliest XFCE-based ones.

Debian tends to be pretty light out of the box, and it's great if you want to do a minimal install and add stuff as you see fit.

[bloovis]

I run Linux on all my ThinkPads, from the 380z on up to the R61. In my experience, the most important thing for good performance is to ensure that you have enough RAM. Gnome and KDE tend to use a lot of RAM, but you can get by with 512 MB. If you have 1 GB, I doubt you'd notice huge differences in performance between the various desktop environments, since the underlying kernels are likely to be similar, and there'd be more than enough room to run typical apps and still have RAM left over for disk cache. (You can discover RAM usage by using the 'free' command from a shell prompt.)

If you have less than 512 MB of RAM, installation could be a problem. Ubuntu, for example, will run with less than 512 MB, but the installer won't. I recently revived our local library's ancient Pentium III system with 384 MB of RAM by installing CrunchBang 9.04 on it. The resulting system runs Firefox quite nicely, and certainly much better than the slow-as-molasses virus-scanner-laden XP that was there before. So this looks like a decent distro for lesser machines, though it's not nearly as friendly to novices (i.e., former Windows users) as Ubuntu.

For machines with even less RAM, I've used D*** Small Linux (the *** stands for "amn"; this bulletin board software censors the full word) in the past. I've also heard good things about Puppy Linux but haven't tried it.

[PizzaandWine]

Try CrunchBang Statler. I believe it to be the fastest implementation of XFCE you will find. This makes Xubuntu feel downright bloated and lethargic. If you want an even faster set up, use the OpenBox version of CrunchBang. Makes me smile every time I boot my 600X.

I've run Crunchbang Statler (which is Debian based) without a hiccup on both a x31 and T60. I prefer the openbox. I think its overall aesthetic meshes nicely with thinkpads. Its installation is as easy and complete as Mint's. Highly recommended.

[ThinkRob]

I love #!. It's not for everyone, but if it is for you it's probably one of the best Debian derivatives out there.

[thinkx31]

Thanks for all the suggestions.
The machine is a 1.7GHz with 1G or ram and a 40G hard drive partitioned into 10G for windows 10G for Linux and 15G for data can't seem to get the other 5Gig to show up on Gparted.

I tried CrunchBang ,#Linux and Mint and they worked fine but didn't notice any difference in speed.
Also had a go at Kbuntu but it was not so stable but lots of nice eyecandy.

Ubuntu 10.10 was the longest test and after 3 or 4 weeks it started to slow down like a virus infected windows so it's now deleted and I am downloading Debian squeeze as I type I will let you know how it works out.

[ThinkRob]

Ubuntu 10.10 was the longest test and after 3 or 4 weeks it started to slow down like a virus infected windows so it's now deleted and I am downloading Debian squeeze as I type I will let you know how it works out.

Come again?

Linux installs don't spontaneously "slow down", at least not in my experience.

Also, if you tried CrunchBang Statler, you've already tried Squeeze. With the exception of some of the desktop packages, Statler shares most of its userland with Squeeze (upon which it is based.)

[tpg]

I am trying to get a Linux distro to run on my X31, along w/ XP (XP is my fallback until I get Linux running). I don't know Linux very well, but I have played around with Ubuntu and liked it, so I thought I'd install 10.10 on the X31 (I use the X31 as the front end for all internet traffic ... it uses an EVDO card for access to the internet). Anyway, in both desktop 10.10 and Netbook 10.10, I burn the ISO, install via the CD (it has a docking station) and each time, I just get locked up in the Ubuntu purple screen ... I've waited as long as 15 minutes and nothing happens, so I am forced to do a hard re-boot). It's a 1.4 GHz w/ 2 GB RAM ... the disk is a small 20 GB disk and w/ Ubuntu installed, it only has 2 GB left ... but I figure that's enough. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

BTW: I'm plenty XP smart, but Linux dumb, so don't say stuff like "just SUDO the ginchwhistle and life will be great" cause it's greek to me (and yes, I've been to Greece !!

cheers

tpg

[ThinkRob]

I am trying to get a Linux distro to run on my X31, along w/ XP (XP is my fallback until I get Linux running). I don't know Linux very well, but I have played around with Ubuntu and liked it, so I thought I'd install 10.10 on the X31 (I use the X31 as the front end for all internet traffic ... it uses an EVDO card for access to the internet). Anyway, in both desktop 10.10 and Netbook 10.10, I burn the ISO, install via the CD (it has a docking station) and each time, I just get locked up in the Ubuntu purple screen ... I've waited as long as 15 minutes and nothing happens, so I am forced to do a hard re-boot). It's a 1.4 GHz w/ 2 GB RAM ... the disk is a small 20 GB disk and w/ Ubuntu installed, it only has 2 GB left ... but I figure that's enough. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

Have you tried 10.04? 10.10 is a little buggy in my experience.

[jonbad1000]

Something that might (possibly?) run faster is Jolicloud - but it might also not work completely depending on the laptop... I'm having issues with getting it to work completely with my X40 but even if this were easily fixable, nobody has offered any help as yet. Am not a Linux man as a result of being "burned" when at uni and forced to use it and it was... well... rubbish! But now, I love the idea of it, especially on a nice and compact X series IBM where it makes total sense to run a fast and responsive OS instead of a bloated and largely unused and ugly Windows OS.
My thread for the issues am facing are on: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=92603

In essence they're just wifi, bluetooth (maybe) and sound problems, so might be easy for anyone familiar with [any] Linux OS to help fix since Jolicloud is just a program that runs on the front end of a Redhat based linux OS (I think?) and so can still get to the Kernel and file browsing etc.

[jronald]

Im not much older than a Linux newb but Joli is off of uBuntu, which is off of Debian.......

That said:
10.04 will run on both the X30 and X31, neither gave me issues with set up.
I have 1 X31 (I think) running Joli now. At less than 1 week messing with it, I dont like it. But, I did not like uBuntu until I forced myself to use it for 30 days. After that I really just grab whichever X series is closest to me to do what I need to.

I can see myself switching almost exclusively over to uBuntu in the future. I have no intentions of upgrading the XP machines I have now to Vista or 7. There is no good reason to do so.

Ron

[automobus]

Anyway, in both desktop 10.10 and Netbook 10.10, I burn the ISO, install via the CD (it has a docking station) and each time, I just get locked up in the Ubuntu purple screen ... I've waited as long as 15 minutes and nothing happens, so I am forced to do a hard re-boot).

Did you check the CD integrity? It takes maybe ten minutes. When you know you have a valid disc, the next thing to try is "safe graphics mode".

I have no intentions of upgrading the XP machines I have now to Vista or 7. There is no good reason to do so.

I had no intentions of upgrading my Windows 2000 machines to Vista or 6.1. Although, I did replace XP with Vista on my tablet: the improved handwriting recognition is a good reason.

[granular]

.

[ThinkRob]

I would try a rolling release distro, like Gentoo, or Arch. Or enable rolling release on your distro of choice, although i've never tried this (i hear you can do this with ubuntu?).

A word of warning: I would be hesitant to do this I were not an experienced user. Many (most?) rolling release distros have a much higher rate of breakage than more periodic ones. I've never had a Debian update cause a piece of software to spontaneously stop working. I *have* had this happen on multiple occasions with Arch. Rolling release distros have a lot of advantages, but reliable, "hands-off" operation is not one of them.

[granular]

.

[j-dawg]

There's always that temptation when you're new to Linux to want to go in as hardcore as you can. My roommate insisted on trying to build a Gentoo system based on his time in the Terminal on his MacBook...that went out the window real quick

[automobus]

There's always that temptation when you're new to Linux to want to go in as hardcore as you can. My roommate insisted on trying to build a Gentoo system based on his time in the Terminal on his MacBook...that went out the window real quick

So true!

[ThinkRob]

Personally, I'm a big fan of Debian. They value stability and reliability over most everything else, and they maintain their releases quite well. I've never seen them break something with an update, and they support old releases for a full year after a new release. When you want a system that you can install and configure once and depend on for years to come, I'd recommend Debian.

[godling]

How well do these releases handle SSDs? Is there any advantage to these OS's over Windows flavors?

Essentially, I'm looking at uninstalling Win7 from my x31 because I have an old SSD, and the PATA SSDs don't seem to handle TRIM ... therefore, after some time, performance degradation becomes significant. I've heard rumor that unix / linux "doesn't need TRIM because it does X" ... is this true or false, and what is the X that it does?

Thanks,

-J

[ThinkRob]

How well do these releases handle SSDs? Is there any advantage to these OS's over Windows flavors?

Essentially, I'm looking at uninstalling Win7 from my x31 because I have an old SSD, and the PATA SSDs don't seem to handle TRIM ... therefore, after some time, performance degradation becomes significant. I've heard rumor that unix / linux "doesn't need TRIM because it does X" ... is this true or false, and what is the X that it does?

Several things:

1) Linux supports TRIM just fine.
2) Linux (can be) a lot more conservative about writes than Windows.
3) Performance degradation is only really an issue on bad SSDs, and on the ones where it is an issue, there's not a whole lot you can do about it.