Compaq D510 E-PC & Others

[Evil-Dragon]

Just bought this small computer off ebay for me to run Ubuntu Linux on it:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=290038391647&ssPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT&ih=019

Seller has a few bad feedback points but if anything goes wrong then i'll just talk to my bank (i used a bank cheque)

We used these systems where i used to work and they are fantastic little boxes. With a P4 2.0Ghz CPU, 256mb RAM and a 20GB HDD should make an excellent machine for linux.

Will primarily use it for learning more about Linux and some Linux DC projects.

Also buying a Compaq EN P3 1Ghz with 128MB RAM (i have some spare 512mb RAM i will use to upgrade it) and 20GB HDD to replace my old firewall running on a Compaq P2 350Mhz with 128mb RAM. I'll mean it'll be able to cope better with running on a 10mb connection and also might run a few low requirement DC projects.

They might not be the newest machines in the world but I have my other 2 systems for the power crunching!! :icon_razz:

[NeoGen]

And having Linux machines means good chances to get in closed alpha projects before the rest of us! :icon_smile:
They always need Linux & Mac folks to test the applications.

[Evil-Dragon]

Would anyone suggest Ubuntu or Fedora Core?

I have briefly used Red Hat/Fedora Core in the past. Are there any Linux distributions that anyone here would recommend?

I saw that Fedora Core 6 is due out soon (it is delayed due to some bugs)

A GUI would be preferable, although i can use shell/bash to do some of the basics (install, configure, navigate, edit, etc..) from my shell account days.

[Strongbow]

You should try OpenSUSE, 10.1 is great, I haven't tried the 10.2 out yet though!

http://en.opensuse.org/Download

[Evil-Dragon]

Thanks, i shall have a look into it and download the ISO. It certainly looks popular.

[drezha]

I prefer Ubuntu.

Don't get me wrong, Suse and FC5 were and are good, except they had bugs I couldn't fix and no one online seemed to want to help. FC5 was great but I couldn't use it as a main OS because Flash was being buggy, Java support was awful etc. Suse just didn't like some of my hardware and didn't like the web.

Ubuntu installed, started like a dream and I've only had one problem with it and now thats sorted. (well fairly...the closed source nVidia drivers were causing blackouts at times that I had to restart from). There's LOADS of help and documentation online for Ubuntu.

Some people I know scorn Ubuntu as being the "easy" option, but I'm sorry, If I want to move over to Linux, I don't want hassle. I've now moved 100% over to a linux main rig. My laptop still runs windows (A promised my dad I wouldn't, B Don't know if the recovery discs are that and C Gotta have something to play games on everynow and then :lol:)

[Evil-Dragon]

I have got some Ubuntu discs that they sent me via ShipIT. Got 32bit, 64bit and Mac discs. I think when it comes to it and i've got the machine then i will try some out and see what i like and see what likes the machine. Hopefully i'll get the machine sometime next week... maybe.

[Brucifer]

If you are new to the linux world, I would suggest giving Mepis a try. Can try it off the cd, and if you like it you can install off the cd also. Very easy install, and very good at scanning your hardware for correct drivers. I'm primarily a slackware user myself for my working systems, I use opensuse 64-bit for my X2 systems, and Mepis for my desktop. I tried Ubuntu before, and it's a decent distro and all, but I prefer the Mepis, or Simply Mepis. for my desktop. To date it has been extremely stable.

[Evil-Dragon]

There are so many distros these days :dontknow:

Well i got this system through the post today: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=300037469624&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=020

It's bloody huge! Upgraded it this morning with the 512mb of RAM i had sitting around, replaced cd-rom with spare cd-writer, changed onboard graphics to an old voodoo3 16mb AGP gfx card and put in a 3com NIC card. All these parts didn't cost a penny since they were all sitting around at home going to waste.

Not a bad spec for a firewall and might even run a few DC projects on it as well :D

[drezha]

:lol:
Thats almost better than my mates new £600 Compaq laptop.

Mepis looked good but I've never downloaded it and tried it.
How do you add packages? apt-get? And what file is it I actually want? the website is awful for telling me. And whats the difference between SimplyMEPIS_3.4-3.iso and SimplyMEPIS-DVD_6.0-1_i386.iso?

[Evil-Dragon]

Finally, i heard back from that guy selling the Compaq Evo D510 E-PC. It's now on route to me via next day delivery. It's only taken 1 week and two days... The guy's communication skills suck, no wonder he's got bad feedback. I just hope the damn thing works when i get it or i'm gonna be mega pissed off.

I guess once i have confirmed it works then i gotta decide on which distro to install. I got down Fedora Core 6 and Ubuntu 6.10 in the last two days... both new and both looking particularly good. Fedora comes with the new Gnome desktop interface and i believe it includes XGL as well (from the screenies i've seen today)

[drezha]

Might give FC another chance. I have a FC6 minmal install VMware image. (All because I want to run Gnucash on a Windows PC :p)

[Evil-Dragon]

OpenSUSE has severly annoyed me today. Tried installing but keeps messing up with GRUB and causing me headaches. Moving on to Ubuntu...

[daddygeek]

OpenSUSE has severly annoyed me today. Tried installing but keeps messing up with GRUB and causing me headaches.I've used SuSE for over 6 yr's and the one I keep going back to.(and headaches is standard installed software for all OS's) I like all the *buntu distros too and I think Kubuntu is the one I would recommend. Easy to start and loads of forums for help. I think I'm going to use Edubuntu and XP for my girls computer. Just use http://distrowatch.com/ for the linux fun.

[Evil-Dragon]

I think i found the problem, after many hours. Apprently it's GRUB hanging at stage 2. Cannot find a fix for it either since apprently it's something to do with the keyboard or something weird like that. Perhaps it's because the keyboard is USB? Very confusing.

Gonna try new Fedora Core 6 now. Shame i liked the look of OpenSUSE as well :(

[drezha]

Just used FC6 on a VMware image earlier and was impressed with it. Not sure if it's worth reinstalling over my current Ubuntu distro though.

Prefer the Gnome desktop over the KDE so it's Ubuntu for me ;)

[Evil-Dragon]

I found FC6 a little laggy on my system. Perhaps i need more RAM. I found out more about that GRUB issue, apparently the keyboard not being plugged in is a separate issue causing GRUB to hang. Apparently the real cause is the compaq D510's BIOS not giving out correct HDD device details. I still have no idea why some distributions that use GRUB have been happily working on the same system. Maybe i need to learn more...