Lightweight Linux for old AMD Athlon x2 HP

[franekma]

I want to use an old computer I have lying around for internet browsing and streaming. Sadly Win7 seems a bit too strenuous, so I'm looking for a lightweight Linux to use instead. Disclaimer: I'm totally new to Linux, but have lots of experience with Windows & some with Mac.

I have a 2004 £250 store-bought computer lying around (HP a1108.uk), which had been put to rest in 2009 and resurrected in 2015 with the addition of a used Athlon 64 x2 4800+, purchased on eBay for peanuts. I had also found a cheap graphics card which helped it run Win7 nicely, however this was donated to a friend after I bought & upgraded an old Macbook Unibody a1342 for Uni work.

The old HP has the following spec:

Socket 939 Athlon 64 x2 4800+ @ 2.4GHz
4GB DDR RAM
ATI Xpress 200 Graphics
a number of 160GB Maxtor 3.5" Hard drive (1x WinXP; 1xWin7, two spare)​

The weakest thing about this computer is definitely the graphics; without a proper graphics card Win7 chugs along like a canal boat. The XP I have is virus infested, but has a certain sentimental value since this was my first computer and that hard drive contains everything I had when I was younger. I should still have my XP Install Discs for this computer somewhere, so should you recommend I install that, it's possible, but I'd prefer to broaden my horizons and learn something new.

I've done a bit of research, but I don't want to dive head-first into something that may not be the best solution. I'm just looking for any recommendations on an OS to run a browser which can stream films. I won't be using this for anything which requires bank details or anything like Skype.

Where to start?
Which Linux?
Any other advice?

Thank you in advance.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Puppy Linux? (There's another one based on Puppy that's more popular, I forget the name of it at the moment.)

 

[lxskllr]

I'd try Lubuntu. Puppy's nice, but can be a little tricky to setup. It's best for grandma that won't touch it after setup, or a techie familiar with linux. The middle ground can be rough due to the tools being a little more primitive to save resources. It's certainly worth a try though. It only costs you time and bandwidth to see what you think.

 

[JackMDS]

Put in an SSD and get rid of the Maxtor.

Get for $10 (ebay) nVidea 8400GS.(or 210).

It will run Win 7 very well and if compatible Win 10 will do good too.

 

[franekma]

Thanks for all of your advice.

So are Puppy Linux and Lubuntu the best options for lightweight & modern browser compatible? They came up a few times (among others) when I was doing my research in the first place. I shall do some more in-depth research into these tomorrow when I have time. It's a bit late now.

Last year when I resurrected the machine, I did purchase a new SSD for the computer. I didn't do a lot of research and simply chose based on normal reviews; a Samsung 850 EVO 120GB. Sadly, I was not able to use it as a boot device after a number of days of testing. I kept getting certain errors, but I cannot remember what they were anymore. I settled on the explanation that either the SSD was incompatible with the motherboard, or the SATA ports were faulty, despite the fact that I had never used them before. (Here's a link to the motherboard spec sheet from HP)​

Nevertheless, the Maxtor drives are simple noisy IDE ones. In addition to the CPU, RAM, Graphics and SSD I purchased (all for around £90), I had also purchased an overpriced Corsair CX600.

As it stands, the graphics were donated to a friend; the SSD and the PSU were used in an i3 LGA 1150 gaming machine I built for my brother. Yesterday I borrowed a fairly dangerous once-upon-a-time-perhaps-430W PSU, which I haven't gotten around to testing yet. The PSU originated from a friend's old custom built 2005 machine which had its internals gutted to fit different components. I tested the machine after it had resurfaced from the attic and it ran the old setup stably. I'm pretty confident it will manage with the HP, I'm just not sure how capable it will be when I have a graphics card installed.​

I've been checking eBay daily for cheap graphics cards in my area, but I've found no bargains yet.

As far as upgrading this computer further goes, I'd rather not spend more money on it. Right now she's a sturdy wench; yes she's a bit slow, but then I'm not expecting the world of her.

I will update this post tomorrow with the results of my research and testing and any new questions that surface.

Many thanks again for your replies!

 

[lxskllr]

"Best" is a subjective term. Both Puppy and Lubuntu are popular and well supported, but there's numerous other distros you could try. Those two would be a good starting point. You could try them, and refine your criteria based on what you liked or didn't like from those two. Run off usb for trying them out, and you won't waste a lot of time doing real installs. You'll have to keep the slow disk speed in mind when using though. Disk performance off a platter drive will be better.

 

[Compman55]

The speed lag is from the hard drive. That CPU was great in its day. FYI........that socket 939 redefine power sucking leaches. They use WAY too much electric to operate even as simple machine.

 

[xeleron]

That system can do Windows 10 as a simple machine,the only thing you have to do is to force the Vista driver to install.I've installed windows 10 anniversary on a Benq Joybook A52E with 2 gb ddr2 a 1.7 ghz dual core and an x200m and it works flawlessly.

 

[franekma]

Thanks for the replies and the advice.

I still haven't had a chance to play around with this computer; I should have a few hours spare tomorrow.

I don't have any other hard drives apart from the ones present inside the HP to test it. As mentioned before, I tried installing Win7 on a Samsung 850 EVO in the HP, but it would not run, either through incompatibility or faulty SATA ports. I'm not prepared to throw money at this machine beyond what had been invested last year, unless a bargain graphics card presents itself on eBay.

Yes, if the computer is compatible with Win10, it should run (much like Win7), but it's not a pleasant experience. Since I've had my MacBook with upgraded RAM and SSD, the OS X and Win7 installed on it are lightning quick; I just do not want to go back to a slow and unresponsive interface. In addition, I really do not like Win10. I tested it on the MacBook a year ago, but it didn't last a month; I hated it. Just personal preference, I suppose.

In reality, I do not need Linux, just like I do not need to use this computer. Having tested the Microsoft and Apple flavours, I would like to experience Linux as well, so long as the interface is fast and responsive. From what I have learned so far, there are a fair number of Linux distributions which can provide this.

I'll edit this post tomorrow to give you an update on my findings and pose any more questions.

Thanks again.

 

[bbhaag]

Give www.peppermintos.com a look. Puppy and Lubuntu always get recommended in these types of threads but Peppermint is definitely worth a look.

 

[VirtualLarry]

While we're discussing low-end Linux boxes... I've got a client with a Core2-era rig, G41 chipset, E5200-class CPU, 4GB DDR3, 500GB HDD (but could be upgraded with an SSD, if I'm going to re-format it for them). They got some sort of malware on their system, and I'm waiting for them to get back to me about re-formatting.

Rather than put Windows 7 64-bit back on there (Probably a 3-4 hour job, including all updates and drivers, if I add an SSD. Probably longer if they opt to keep the HDD installed), or putting on Windows 10 64-bit (if the free upgrade offer is still good), what about putting on a Linux variant?

Of course, they are a Skype user, which complicates things a bit, since MS, ever since taking over Skype, now handles file / picture sends differently in the Windows versus Linux version of Skype, and while you can still video-chat between Linux and Windows, they will have issues sending pictures over Skype, if I install Linux for them.

I'm just trying to look out for them, to help them not get malware. A few year ago, their machine was crawling with "System Optimizer" and "Free Download" and "Driver Scanner" crap programs. I cleaned it off for them, but I shudder to think what their machine looks like now.

 

[Azuma Hazuki]

That sounds like the desktop equivalent of my Thinkpad T500. With an SSD it'll run Linux great: Arch with the Xfce desktop will be perfect, or Trinity (KDE3 fork) if you don't mind hacking on it a bit.

 

[John Connor]

(There's another one based on Puppy that's more popular, I forget the name of it at the moment.)

Damn Small Linux?

 

[Hi-Fi Man]

I would recommend Ubuntu MATE. It uses an environment that is a fork of the old GNOME 2 environment, meaning you get the classic Ubuntu look from version 10.10 and prior. MATE is very light and very easy to use. In fact many (including me) prefer it over Unity which is what Ubuntu uses now.

Ubuntu MATE website

 

[accguy9009]

I would recommend Ubuntu MATE. It uses an environment that is a fork of the old GNOME 2 environment, meaning you get the classic Ubuntu look from version 10.10 and prior. MATE is very light and very easy to use. In fact many (including me) prefer it over Unity which is what Ubuntu uses now.

Ubuntu MATE website

I second the Ubuntu mate recommendation. I have 16.04 running on an old Lenovo core 2 duo with 4 GB of ram and an SSD. Pretty snappy for what it is

 

[franekma]

Wow, it's been a month. I've been caught up at work and only now have I had the chance to play with this machine again.

After trying and not being able to boot from usb a month ago I put lubuntu 14.04 onto a disc and installed it that way.

Getting around the UI seems fine and opening programs is also not a hassle, though Firefox is notably slow to load (no more so than Win7 on this machine). However, the main problem manifests itself in the cursor speed and responsiveness. The mouse is very laggy.

I have searched many times for a solution and found very little. Some people report that it is specifically a usb mouse issue: I have tried all the ports and different mice. Others report that it is a polling rate issue. I have attempted to adjust this through this simple guide, however my attempts to change the mousepoll value to "2" from "0", as recommended in those forum threads I had researched, have failed. When checking the mousepoll value, it always shows up as "0". I put this down to inexperience with linux.

Last year, when I had first resurrected this machine, I attempted to install Ubuntu (cannot remember the exact release), however this had exactly the same problem. Unresponsive and slow cursor - that's when I binned the idea and went to Win7.

Right now I don't have a usb to PS/2 adaptor to test the PS/2 vs usb mouse theory, but any thoughts and ideas are welcome.

As a bonus, I have a question regarding RAM. My machine has 4x1GB modules installed and the BIOS reports all 4. However, when viewing the memory from within lubuntu, it only shows up as 2.9GB, of which 200-something MB is being used by the OS. I remember Win7 telling me I only have 1.7GB RAM spare, which I assumed meant the OS was using 2.3. Any thoughts?

Many thanks for your help thus far!

 

[John Connor]

I remember Win7 telling me I only have 1.7GB RAM spare, which I assumed meant the OS was using 2.3. Any thoughts?

That is an awful lot of RAM for the OS to be using which means you more than likely had a lot of stuff starting up, etc. I'm only using 1.16 GB out of 3.5 GB right now in Windows 7 32.

 

[franekma]

Thanks for the reply. It says on the motherboard spec sheet from HP that actual usable memory may be less, though I just assumed this was a standard disclaimer pertaining to an OS' RAM usage. The BIOS definitely recognises all 4 x 1GB RAM modules.

I've since formatted the Win7 hard drive, so unless I reinstall it (which took forever the first time) I won't be able to troubleshoot. With regards to the RAM question on lubuntu, the Summary in System Information lists the memory information like so:

Memory - 2821MB (606MB used)
​

Bear in mind, I have since flown through updates, hoping this would fix my mouse lag issue. This has resulted in my system updating from 12.04 to 16.04.1 LTS.

In other news, success on the mouse lag front; I was able to find a solution to my problem. Following a guide suggested in a ubuntu forum thread, I created a file in /etc/modprobe.d called usbhid.conf containing "options usbhid mousepoll=2", which allegedly sets the polling rate to 500Hz. However, on startup I was prompted to add "irqpoll" to the launch commands (?). I did this and now it's working fine.

I would like to know whether this is a bad temporary fix and whether it will create more problems further down the line.

Many thanks!