Migrating to a Past Version

[Mol_Bolom]

  Hello...

  I was searching for a Linux OS for my computer, and wanted to test a few of them out, and I find this one quite interesting.  So I was wondering how about moving to an older version?

   FIrst off, the reason I downloaded version Vector version 5.9 Standard Gold was because I figured it might have Wireless USB drivers on it, which it did, else wise I wouldn't be writing this now...
   None the less it works and everything seems to be OK, except for the graphics, but there's probably no decent fix for that.  The driver I was using with windows XP was Intel 82810E and everything I've read on it says that it pretty much sucks.

   Anyhow, My system is

HP Pavilion 511w
CPU: Celeron 1.20mhz Pentium III
RAM: 256mb
Networking: Belkin Wireless USB Adapter (Which I guess is unimportant considering it works)

  When I installed Vector 5.9, I formatted the harddrive in the old linux format (Unfortunately I forgot what it was called).  So I presume I wouldn't have to reformat the hard drive if I found a much better version of Vector, or whichever version of Linux that would work on this system.

  Also, if I were to install an older version, or a different version of linux, would I need to create another CD Rom or could I just download and install from Vector?

  Thanks...

[caitlyn]

Why would you want an older version?  Why would you think that would work better?  Generally hardware support has only improved in Linux.  Vector Linux Light 5.9 may be a bit faster than Standard, but that's lighter, not older.  What kind of video problem are you having?  I suspect we can tweak your X configuration to resolve most issues. 

If you formatted your hard drive with ext2 it will work fine with any newer Linux distribution.  You'll get better performance by moving to something newer, though.

[Mol_Bolom]

Well, actually I was skeptical about needing an older version, also.  But I figured since this computer has much older hardware installed on it that the older ones would have been built for it than any newer ones which need the newer hardware functionality.

  The Video problem...Well, pretty much when I watch video's from Youtube, the music plays fine, but the video is like watching a slide show.

  I haven't quite tested it out on a game yet...Except for the Mario game, which ran pretty darn good...Which leads me to think the problem might be something else than the Graphics...I don't know...I have only had it for a few hours, still working on it...

  As for a newer computer, eh, This one has been through hell and still runs pretty darn good.  It's extremely reliable, and it doesn't cost me 500 to 1000 dollars, Ha ha...Besides, I'm not looking for anything special...Just as long as I can get it to work on this computer good enough that I can eradicate my windows XP, that's fine enough for me... ...

[phreon]

Hi,
I am a new user as well. (See the post just before yours.) I am using an old HP PIII 550Mhz computer with 380MB ram. It has an old 32MB NVidia vard that came with HP PIII's at the time. I had the same problem with UTube or DVD play or anything requiring graphics. It was so slow it was unusable.

The solution for me was to reinstall Vector and when it got to the video driver questions during install, I chose the optional NVidia proprietary drivers that are part of Vector. It runs much faster now. I can watch videos.

There is a way to turn on the other drivers after you have installed but I am too new at this to know how. (I bet Caitlyn knows.) Look up your video hardware and make sure you have the right drivers.

[newt]

If you formatted your hard drive with ext2 it will work fine with any newer Linux distribution.  You'll get better performance by moving to something newer, though.

From what I understand, ext2 is about the best "performance" you will find with the native linux file systems - granted you lose all peace of mind you get from a journaled file system.  I think that a newer file system is preferable since you still maintain good performance that's close to ext2 AND you gain the benefits from a journaled file system (i.e. less data corruption and/or lost data).

Intel 82810E: I remember reading about some intel 82810 chipsets being problematic, but there should be some that you can experiment with to see if you get better performance.  I think the 'intel' driver would be a good place to start.  This would entail re-configuring xorg which should be able to be handled via VASMCC.

[caitlyn]

If you formatted your hard drive with ext2 it will work fine with any newer Linux distribution.  You'll get better performance by moving to something newer, though.

From what I understand, ext2 is about the best "performance" you will find with the native linux file systems - granted you lose all peace of mind you get from a journaled file system.  I think that a newer file system is preferable since you still maintain good performance that's close to ext2 AND you gain the benefits from a journaled file system (i.e. less data corruption and/or lost data).

Not so.  xfs benchmarks as much faster than ext2 and is a first class journaling filesystem.  The same is true for jfs but it has more overhead than xfs and is really designed for large filesystems.  What you say is only true for ext3 and reiserfs.

[caitlyn]

Well, actually I was skeptical about needing an older version, also.  But I figured since this computer has much older hardware installed on it that the older ones would have been built for it than any newer ones which need the newer hardware functionality.

Not necessarily true.  Vector Linux Light is specifically designed for machines with limited resources, including older hardware.  That would likely be the best choice for you.

The Video problem...Well, pretty much when I watch video's from Youtube, the music plays fine, but the video is like watching a slide show.

That's likely simply due to the fact that YouTube requires significant resources to work well.  I have 512MB of RAM and that is marginal for YouTube to work.  My processor is similar to yours. 

Which leads me to think the problem might be something else than the Graphics...I don't know...I have only had it for a few hours, still working on it...

Maybe, maybe not.  As phreon correctly pointed out, not all video drivers are created equal and sometimes adjusting settings or changing an option in /etc/xorg.conf can make a huge difference.  What kind of a video chipset does your system have?

In addition, do all you can to reduce memory consumption and CPU cycles while trying to watch a video.  That could include running a lightweight window manager instead of Xfce (JWM is particularly good for this), using VL-HOT instead of hal since hal continually polls the hardware, making sure unnecessary daemons/services are disabled (a good idea for security anyway), and simply closing any applications you don't need running at the time.  All of that can make a difference.

HTH,
Cait