So I’m trying to install a Linux Distro on an old Compac Presario V6500, and I’m having problems even running a lot of different distros. Some of them get kernel panic and stops. Manjaro 21 KDE works if I don’t use the proprietary option for installing, it stops at the graphics. If I take the first option and install in, which I did. I end up with another problem… There’s more graphical artefacts and geometric shapes then I have ever been through with in any distro before. I also noticed Linux Mint having some problems when I installed Brave.
The WiFi isn’t working and I haven’t found a solution for that, haven’t been using linux for years now, trying to soften myself into it.
I don’t even know where to begin with this right now. "/ It has a AMD Turion64 x2 processor and nVidia graphics, broadcom wireless which disables itself.
How am I going to fix these problems? Or is there a specific distro that could be used for older laptops? Should I go with XFCE instead of KDE? Am I going to have the same problems?
That isn’t just an old laptop, it’s almost vintage. Something that old is probably going to have a very limited amount of RAM, and a Turion is a very, old slow processor. SO I have to ask: what’s the purpose of reviving this old thing? If it’s just as a Linux refresher, then that’ll probably work. For production, no way.
Anyway in this scenario I’d recommend a very light weight desktop environment like XFCE or LXDE, or even i3 (I think that’s what it’s called.) For a distro, I’d suggest starting with one of the variants of Puppy Linux. There are certainly other super light distros, so hopefully others chime in with suggestions.
Try booting in single user mode (i.e. no graphical environment) and see how well stuff is working. At least you can solve things without fighting the display. Broadcom drivers are notoriously bad for Linux, so you may want to try a USB WiFi dongle.
What display manager are you using? GDM? SDDM? Maybe try disabling the display compositor, or switching to lightdm
During the age of these… old PCs there was a Ubuntu version specifically for the old netbooks but i think it was merged into the desktop ISO when 19.4 released? i could be wrong. xfe or lightdm would be preferred to keep the ram usage down. As far as the wifi there maybe a switch to turn that off and on on the side of the laptop.
Given the hardware in that laptop is 10-15 years old maybe try a distro from that era.
It is too old to run modern Linux at any sort of acceptable level of performance imho.
Panics could also be hardware failure or cooling system related.
If this is to get back familiar with Linux I’d suggest consigning it to the bin and finding a secondhand machine from at least 2011 or so onward with intel in it.
Sandy bridge is still reasonable performance and now quite cheap.
Alternatively maybe try one of the BSDs. They need far less hardware.
It’s even older then that. It’s not a 6500… It’s a 6000…
My sister got it from a family friend, and she wants it fixed so that her son can sit on it and watch youtube video’s. I changed the ram from 2 to 6 gb and the cpu is a 1.9 ghz dualcore. It’s not really what I would want near me at all, the biggest problem is actually that the wifi isn’t starting, I have tested multiple distros, and it’s the same two problems, either it’s graphical artefacts or and wifi-malfunction.
I have installed Manjaro XFCE on it, and that works, but it’s still slow, so I was thinking maybe I should install CrunchBang++ on it, since it could load firefox almost instantaneously on my old laptop, which has a much stronger cpu though, but that’s a good test, the bigger problem is to teach the little monster English, since I couldn’t find a way to change the system language to Swedish. "/ And it’s basically blackbox, so I have no Idea if he is going to be able to sit with it. hahaha
Installed Manjaro XFCE, and all the graphical problems stopped. I don’t think that my sister will go and buy that, she will probably use the ethernet cable for it. Thanks anyway.
Broadcom sucks, not going to fix the wifi at all. I had some ram laying around so I switched it up from 2 to 6 GB… 667 and 800 mhz though, so maybe it should only have like 4GB 800mhz for the best result. ^^ haha
XFCE Manjaro atm, but thinking of switching to CrunchBang++ since it’s so damn slow right now.
I actually tried to get my broken laptop to function, for the purpose of giving that away and throwing this in the trash, but It was too broken, so it will have to act as something else for my friends computer instead. Spare parts. haha
Well, It’s a bit slow to use Manjaro on it, but it’s acceptable when it’s on. Only XFCE though. I did find out about CrunchBang++ yesterday, so I’m thinking that it might be a good distro.
Regarding the wifi, most older laptops have replaceable mini-PCIe cards. You might be able to buy a cheap one on eBay or Ali Express, but do your research first: some laptop manufacturers prohibit the use of 3rd party wifi and won’t even boot up if the BIOS detects an ‘unapproved’ wifi card.