Rescuing old laptop with Linux

[JonnyFoxtrot]

Morning all,

I trying to put life back into a really old Dell laptop for a down on luck mate but need some advice on setup, upgrades etc.

Specs:

1.2ghz celeron 3 cpu
512mb RAM (apparently this is the max that it can be upgraded)
10GB hard drive (this can be upgraded to a max 120gb 2.5" IDE)
No boot from USB
CD reader only, no write
Basically a right pig of a machine.

The not booting from USB and CD reader only problems aren't much of an issue, I've got a home desktop I'm going to use to burn a copy of Linux Mint onto.

Regarding the Linux distro, from what I've read I think I'm going to go for Linux Mint 9 Xfce due to not needing a lot of resources and the best of all worlds for compatibility, stability, performance. My mate isnt a dunce, and should be fine going to Linux (he has dabbled before), he's just skint and recently moved out from his missus

Any tips for setup? I've already read about getting a good partition setup so if I cant upgrade the hard drive I'm thinking the following:

1GB Swap (2x 512mb RAM)
5GB /
2-3GB /home

That seem ok? He isn't going to need it for much at the moment, mostly just browsing the net (looking for a flat, ebay, banking etc), perhaps the odd bit of office work and loading stuff to and from his android, so I'm thinking the limited space shouldnt be too bad, though its pushing the limits of tight should he need to download anything.

And on the subject of the shit old hard drive, anybody willing to donate a bigger one? Anything up to 120gb 2.5" IDE would be amazing. Nathan (my mate) is willing to put some money towards it if needs be. There doesn't seem to be much we can buy new or used for extortionate money (I guess thats antique hardware for you).

And to sum it all up, is the LM 9 Xfce even going to help? Or are we flogging a dead horse with the whole thing and we should just keep scouring egay for a better spec bargain laptop? It did have XP on it, but ran like a bit of a dog and was forever suffering security issues.

TIA
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'89 Honda NS125F (SOLD) -> '92 Suzuki GS500E (SOLD) -> '03 Kawasaki ZX6R B1H (SOLD) -> '96 VFR 750 RC36 (SOLD) -> '02 Honda CBR1100XX Blackbird

[Seb]

I've run/sold Ubuntu on worse and from all reports Mint is quicker afaik?

Chuck it on there and see how it runs imo, 512mb ram is a bit of a squeeze for a modern web browser but then again you've got no AV chewing up a big chunk of that either.
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2010 Triumph 1050 Sprint ST

[doggone]

I think you'll struggle a bit with only 512RAM, I tried something similar and it would do a lot of brief freezing which eventually got so annoying I gave up trying to use it.
Basically it could only do one thing at a time.

There are 'lighter' versions than mint someone will recommend perhaps.

[Pernig]

Personally I wouldn't bother with separate partitions for / and /home on such a small hard drive, there is too much risk of one of the partitions running out of space, especially as your mate might not be used to where things will be situated to start with. Like you said, one big download and you will start to have problems (although it may be possible for him to mount his phone and download straight to the SD card).

My Dad's netbook ran bog standard Ubuntu ok but a bit choppy with 512MB RAM. I've not tried Mint but i'd say it will be ok. Xfce ran nicer than gnome 2 and unity and I think it's prettier, too.

As for other light distros, I find Puppy runs really well but the choice of available software is pretty small. I find that when I start to use puppy for a while, I soon find limitations. That some of the versions are Ubuntu based doesn't make any difference, I find; installing Ubuntu packages rather than pet/pup ones doesn't often work.

I will look in the shed for spare hard drives today.
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H100 Breaking for spares

[stinkwheel]

My eeepc netbook runs the full version of ubuntu no problem at all with 512mb of RAM and an 8GB SSD. Faster processor mind.

It'll even run 3D graphic acceleration.

I would just go with the recommended partitions on the installer (ie, use the whole disc, unless you want to hang onto windows for some reason). You'll need at least as much swap as you have RAM to allow hibernation.

Use USB sticks for data storage.
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“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[Andy_Pagin]

Slap LinuxMint on it & see how it goes. I put it on the missuses' laptop last week and she loves it, at least twice as fast as Vista, and it works properly.

Regular screams of FUCKING VISTA! are now a thing of the past.
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the men in white coats are coming to take me away.
Yamaha Vity -> YBR125 -> FZS600 Fazer -> FZ1-S Fazer

[P.addy]

Its crap but I had gOS running on 256 ram and an 800mhz processor to get me out of the shit.

Ubuntu, probably 2 or 3 releases back will run fine on it, Mint is also pretty good

[JonnyFoxtrot]

Ta all, seems like its just a case of suck it and see!

I'll download a few different distros and DE's and see what they're like off the LiveCD's.
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'89 Honda NS125F (SOLD) -> '92 Suzuki GS500E (SOLD) -> '03 Kawasaki ZX6R B1H (SOLD) -> '96 VFR 750 RC36 (SOLD) -> '02 Honda CBR1100XX Blackbird

[Pernig]

Don't be too disconcerted if you find a lot of the distros run badly from a live CD. They will be a lot faster once you've installed to the hard drive.
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H100 Breaking for spares