Can I have problems with this old videocard? Xorg and VESA how-to request.

[OSMIUM76]

Hi to all, I'm new on this place!!! Forgive my English. Let's talk about my problem. I have Ubuntu on my notebook and I have to say I like Linux. I heard about the possibility to install optimized Linux versions for very old hardware. Well I have an old machine (you can see its specifications in my sign) and a friend of mine told me about Vector: it can run on 386 systems so it should run on it. Before of trying Vector on my secondary machine I tried Linpus live (it needs 128 MB of RAM so I gave it a try... I have the live distro) and I had a black screen with band artefacts: the only working thing I saw was the pointer. I fear to have similar problems with Vector, but having no live distro how can I ensure that? On the Internet I red it's possible to install the Vesa drivers (that are universal) using Xorg... but I don't know how to do it! Infact I found some infos but they're difficult for me, I understood I have to edit a configuration file... or something like... please help me! My videocard is a Palit SiS based on the SiS 6326 GPU. Thanks in advance, I hope I had explained the question correctly.

[Dweeberkitty]

Hi and welcome to Vector!

Vector already has the Vesa drivers included, and when you install, it should correctly edit the file for you automatically. All you have to do is choose the Vesa option.

EDIT: There is a live version of VL: http://vectorlinux.osuosl.org/veclinux-5.9/iso-release/VL5.9-STD-LIVE.iso

Hope that helps!

[The Headacher]

a friend of mine told me about Vector: it can run on 386 systems

You won't be able to pull that off, VL is optimized for i586 (pentium) and higher.

On the Internet I red it's possible to install the Vesa drivers (that are universal) using Xorg... but I don't know how to do it!

I think it's possible to choose vesa driver during install. If not you have boot to TUI (text user interface), log in as root, edit the configuration file and change the driver manually:

mcedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

look for a section "Device", in it, change the line "Driver" from whatever it was first saying to "vesa".

ps. You'll want to get the VL light version.

[OSMIUM76]

There are many versions of Vector. The standard versions and the one optimized for 386 or faster systems. I knew of the live distro of the standard version, not of the light! Thank you very much, I'm downloading it!

P.S.: the link you provided me is broken but I found the working one anyway!!! Thanks, thanks and thanks!

[wcs]

the one optimized for 386 or faster systems

Like the headacher said above, you mean 586.
So far as I know, all vector versions are for Pentiums or better, and packages in the repository are also for i586.
(and VL64 for 64-bit machines).

But I see from your signature that your secondary machine is a Pentium II 266 with 128Mb, so you should be fine with Vector Light.

[OSMIUM76]

So the friend of mine was wrong! He said i386... I'll make fun of him, hehehe!!! Then I have to search for other distributions because I think I'll be able to find a system so old and I'm very curious to run Linux on it!!!

[tomh38]

Heck, you can install Linux on just about anything.  I even installed it on a toaster one time.  I built my own distro for it, called it ToasterNix.  The last version was 0.1.0.7.  When you put a piece of bread in the toaster with ToasterNix installed, the toast would come out looking like this:



 

[budulay]

LMAO

Is there a live cd version so that I could try it on my toaster without toasting my current system up?

[tomh38]

budulay,

Sorry, bud, I had a good thing going but you-know-who got word of it and now all of the toasters have Windows CE installed on them.  That's why toast takes so much longer to make now.

For a while there, a lot of toast came out looking like this:



That was back in the 90s.  But then the US Justice Department sued them, and they had to make take the logo off the toast.

Nowadays, in order to put a different OS on any toaster, you have to buy a special modchip, probably an illegal one, and then do a bunch of stuff like compile a special kernel.  I probably shouldn't be telling you all this, because of the non-disclosure agreement from the settlement.  Can't distribute ToasterNix anymore though.

 

[M0E-lnx]

LMAO

[budulay]

Actually that's fine - I just realized I do not have a cd drive on my toaster, so I can't install it, anyway...
But now I am happy about one thing:
My toast does NOT look like this:

:-)

[The Headacher]

I'd feel much happier devouring the Windows logo than that poor old smiling Tux..

I happen to be a vegetarian.

[budulay]

I will not have much appetite if I saw windows logo on all my toasts, though.

I'd feel much happier devouring the Windows logo than that poor old smiling Tux..
I happen to be a vegetarian.

Yeah, but eating these toasts doesn't mean eating penguins.(I'd definitely not do that)
It's just means having a note on each toast that it's made with care and does not contain any viruses and other crap.

BTW, I used to be vegetarian, too.

[tomh38]

I forgot to mention ... back when I was working on the ToasterNix project, I got a nasty email from none other than Richard M. Stallman.  He said I should really call it GNU/ToasterNix, y'know, because of all the people from the GNU project who had contributed code to the whole thing.  I told him no way, so he got some undergrad at MIT to fork their own project.  I don't think many people ever installed it, but a few might have.  Some time ago, I heard that somebody put a page up on sourceforge saying they were working on GNU/ToastHURD, but I don't think anything came of it.  Anyway, if you installed the GNU version of my distro your toast would come out looking like this:



I got an email not long ago from somebody saying they were using my GPL code for a graphically rich OS with a state-of-the-art GUI called BeToast.  I guess we'll see.

Tom

[OSMIUM76]

I have a little problem with Vector light. I tried the live version anc my P II gives me a black screen: the monitor doesn't support the mode and ask to set the output in 1280x1024x60Hz (if I remember well). I tried all of the boot modes without effects. So I think I should give some commands via terminal... can you help me? Thanks in advance!

P.S.: I too am vegetarian since ten years... it's hard but I'm happy, animals should be petted not eaten.