OLD Hp

[aintnothang]

I have an old Hp 6645c just collecting dust. Its really slow and has xp installed. Any suggestions as what to do with it?

[Tavarin]

See if anything on the inside is worth salvaging, recycle whatever isn't, and use the case for a custom mod.
Or if you feel like being generous you could donate the rig to a hospital, or school.

[aintnothang]

The case really isn't worth modding. It does have an mx400 graphics card, I don't know much about linux, but is there a version that would suite this pc best?

[Raz1r]

What are the specs on it? Linux runs well on older hardware.

My personally favorite is Slackware, but Ubuntu is really good for noobs.

[aintnothang]

What are the specs on it? Linux runs well on older hardware.

My personally favorite is Slackware, but Ubuntu is really good for noobs.
SPECS (http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?product=59366&lc=en&lang=en&cc=us&dlc=en&docname=bph05434)I've only used Yellowdog, on my ps3.

[Quakken]

Run superpi before linuxing. I want to see this...

[aintnothang]

Its not hooked up at the moment...

[aintnothang]

So once I pull my old stuff off. How should I go about installing ubuntu? and is there linux drivers for the mx400 gpu?

[xmastree]

is there linux drivers for the mx400 gpu?Yes, any Nvidia card should work out of the box.
As for installing it, just download (http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download) and burn (http://cginternet.net/ubuntu/burn/) the CD, then boot from it.

Before you hit that Start Download button, see that checkbox below for the alternate desktop CD? Use that one if the system has low (128 or less) RAM as the regular one might not run well.

[aintnothang]

Do I need to get rid of xp? The pc is just too slow for it.

[xmastree]

Might as well start with a completely clean disk.

[Aero]

if you wanted to stick with XP you probably could. I would guess if you've never installed XP fresh on the system since you got it you might try that. You would be surprised how well XP runs on older hardware on a fresh install. I run it daily on my 600 mhz PC. Sure Linux runs faster, but Windows isn't too bad for just surfing the web and school work. But if you want to get the most out of it you should run linux. But you'll have to dedicate some time to learning how to use it if this is your first time.

[SgtM]

BTW.. Linux won't read/write from NTFS drives natively. You'll have to format that drive before trying to let linux do it. I like to use dban (http://dban.sourceforge.net). Be careful with it though.. it will destroy any and all data on any and all disks it finds with extreme predjudice.

[aintnothang]

Be careful with it though.. it will destroy any and all data on any and all disks it finds with extreme predjudice.
Sound like a good program. I don't have the xp disk, a computer shop did it. I forget why, it was a long time ago.

[aintnothang]

I'm using dban and its destroying everything:) Now(after dban is done) do I just put in the linux cd and it shall boot and run through set-up?
edit: I changed the boot order and put the disk in and still nothing.

[Ap1thy]

try a different cd drive perhaps? a bunch of old drives I have are notorious for not booting from burned CD's

[FuzzyPlushroom]

I've got one of these actually, with a 533 Celeron. Gonna drop in either a 733 or an entirely different 'board, replace the junk PSU with a larger, 185w Delta out of a 'real HP' (Pavilion 87x0C), and put lights behind the translucent plastic of the front panel. Probably stick a fan in there as well.

I mean, it's either that or blow it up.

[aintnothang]

try a different cd drive perhaps? a bunch of old drives I have are notorious for not booting from burned CD's
I have no other cd drives! I have tried to make the smart boot manager floppy but when that comes up it shows no cd-rom drive. Is there a version of linux that will boot of a floppy without a cd-rom drive?

[aintnothang]

Can anyone help me?

[FuzzyPlushroom]

Could always try booting to DOS (MS-DOS, FreeDOS, OpenDOS, etc.) off a floppy. That, or try another IDE cable, or borrow a friend's optical drive - is the CD drive detected at boot? If it is, does it have a proper name: For example, I had some weird issues (here (http://fuzzyplushroom.blogsome.com/2007/07/12/making-use-of-old-computers-1-k6-2333-mhz/)) with a K6 machine that turned out to be the cable, not the drive. It doesn't matter whether it's a 40- or 80-wire cable, for the record.

If you don't like DOS, here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini_Linux#Floppy_disk_distributions)'s a list of floppy-based Linux distros designed for server, firewall, rescue/repair/recovery, and testing purposes.

Good luck!

[weazel6265]

What I have had success with problem case computers:
download DSL (damn small linux) and boot from a usb thumb drive so you can access internet, etc
use that to download unetbootin, with whatever flavor you want.
Success!

This is assuming you have an old ethernet card to throw in it, based on the specs you have usb but no ethernet.

Hope that helps

[aintnothang]

Thanks!!!!I will have to buy one of those cards and try that. Hope it boots from the thumb drive though...

[chaksq]

It is true Linux handles old hard well some of the time. The new releases of the popular distros such as Ubuntu or Fedora do not run well on older hardware out of the box. They are more geared to taking advantage of newer hardware. If you are fairly new to linux I do recommend those distros but not on older hardware. You may be able to get away with using Xubuntu which is a somewhat lighter version of Ubuntu but packaged with the Xfce window manager rather than gnome. Although I have Xubuntu on some older dual P3 server machines and it runs slow even with 2gb of ram (which was a lot back when the system was made).

If you want a system to run clean and be fairly easy to use I recommend using XP Professional with SP2. Fresh installs run great.

[weazel6265]

I'm not quite sure why, but I have had much more success with the unetbootin, instead of an install cd. When I tried various ubuntu versions from 5.10 to the current, on three different systems, the cd install came out buggy (using a burned cd, and also using a cd from the mail). After several attempts, I was about to give up, but then I tried the unetbootin, which has come off clean every time. I don't attempt to explain it.

And by the way chaksq, the systems are respectively 512mb, 768mb, and 1 gb, each of which are running fine on a full install of ubuntu. The 512 is definitely older hardware, and there hasn't been a problem after a network install.

[chaksq]

And by the way chaksq, the systems are respectively 512mb, 768mb, and 1 gb, each of which are running fine on a full install of ubuntu. The 512 is definitely older hardware, and there hasn't been a problem after a network install.I know it works on older hardware but it can run quite a bit slow, my server takes 10 min or more to boot. When I popped a drive with XP im it booted considerably faster.

[aintnothang]

I go to the link to download dsl and the boot floppy and they won't work. Any alternate sources?

[weazel6265]

If it supports booting from usb I would suggest the guide I used:
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/2007/01/02/all-in-one-usb-dsl/

I'm not sure if you mean the links don't work, or the programs don't work (on your machine).
If it is the links, just go to:
http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/download.html
and find a different mirror.
If you are attempting to boot from usb you are looking for a file that has embedded in the filename, otherwise I think you want the normal version

[aintnothang]

For some reason earlier the links wouldn't work. I will have to get the boot floppy to make it boot from the usb drive...hope it works!