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    Best Linux Distro for old Laptop???

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General Discussion and Gaming
    linuxdistroold computers
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    • ClydeC
      Clyde @Used2BeRX
      last edited by

      @used2berx See https://retropie.org.uk/download/#Installing_on_top_of_an_existing_OS for more information.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
      • V
        VictimRLSH @mitu
        last edited by

        @mitu Does retropie work with Knoppix?

        System Config: Retropie 4.4 with full desktop, RPi 3B, 256gb SD, 5v 2.1A 5,200 mAH USB battery. EasyMSX controller mounted with Pimoroni Hyperpixel 4 (non touch). Also running 4.6 on a 4gb Pi 4 serving as my primary desktop computer now.

        mituM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • mituM
          mitu Global Moderator @VictimRLSH
          last edited by mitu

          @victimrlsh Didn't try it, but it should work, since it's Debian based. But since Knoppix is a 'live' distro - there's no persistent installation. Do you want to have a portable installation ?

          Used2BeRXU V 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • Used2BeRXU
            Used2BeRX @mitu
            last edited by

            @mitu I wouldn't have a problem on Lubuntu, would I? Not a big deal if I have to install a new OS, but would be cool if I can just try it on the one I've already got. It took me a while to figure out how to get the Wi-Fi working on it. That kind of surprised me since the Pi Zero figured out my USB network stick immediately.

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            • mituM
              mitu Global Moderator
              last edited by mitu

              @used2berx said in Best Linux Distro for old Laptop???:

              I wouldn't have a problem on Lubuntu, would I

              If you're using the at least 16.04, I don't think so. If you search the forums, there's plenty of users installing RetroPie on Lubuntu. Get the lastest LTS (18.04) and it should work fine.

              Used2BeRXU 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • Used2BeRXU
                Used2BeRX @mitu
                last edited by Used2BeRX

                @mitu Nice. I've got 18.04. I'll update this thread when I get a chance to try it out.

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                • V
                  VictimRLSH @mitu
                  last edited by

                  @mitu That was the idea, something to cart around on a USB stick and use on other computers. You CAN install Knoppix, I have done so on many machines.

                  System Config: Retropie 4.4 with full desktop, RPi 3B, 256gb SD, 5v 2.1A 5,200 mAH USB battery. EasyMSX controller mounted with Pimoroni Hyperpixel 4 (non touch). Also running 4.6 on a 4gb Pi 4 serving as my primary desktop computer now.

                  mituM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • mituM
                    mitu Global Moderator @VictimRLSH
                    last edited by

                    @victimrlsh said in Best Linux Distro for old Laptop???:

                    You CAN install Knoppix, I have done so on many machines.

                    Sure it can, but why don't install a normal distribution, which is more suited for this purpose ? As the Knoppix FAQ says:

                    Knoppix is based on the Debian "distro" of Linux, but it isn't Debian. Knoppix is a live DVD and is intended to run right from the DVD or from a flash drive after "Install KNOPPIX to flash disk".

                    Nowadays running a distro from an USB/removable drive is supported by all major distros - Raspbian itself runs from a SDHC card.

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                    • Used2BeRXU
                      Used2BeRX
                      last edited by

                      So far the laptop is outperforming the Pi Zero by quite a bit. :)

                      Star Fox and Super Mario RPG seem to run at or near 100%. Quake I and the two expansions will run with the biggest screen and all the video tweaks at 60fps without any lag in lr-tyrquake.

                      I've even managed to get decent emulation on Super Mario 64, although unless I can further tweak it I'd never play it there when I have other options like the XBox that play it at 100%.

                      The best thing is when I set everything up right, all of my configs and gamelist.xmls worked with the media I already had set up on the Pi Zero as well. I'm going to have to see if there is any way I can get the audio and video to output to my ancient projection screen TV. This still isn't as good as emulation on the XBox, but it's a lot better than the Pi Zero was.

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                      • Used2BeRXU
                        Used2BeRX
                        last edited by

                        So.... I was thinking.

                        Is there a way to boot directly into EmulationStation and completely bypass the Lubuntu load?

                        I know that there is an option to load directly into it, but does that mean that it loads Lubuntu first and then starts it automatically once Lubuntu is loaded? Or is this an EmulationStation load that has more resources available to it?

                        If that's possible, does anybody know how I could add an additional load option to the GRUB menu for that? So I could have options to load into Win7, Lubuntu or EmulationStation direct?

                        I was hoping this would be possible and maybe I could get PSX and N64 running better this way.

                        Thanks!

                        mituM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • mituM
                          mitu Global Moderator @Used2BeRX
                          last edited by

                          @used2berx said in Best Linux Distro for old Laptop???:

                          If that's possible, does anybody know how I could add an additional load option to the GRUB menu for that? So I could have options to load into Win7, Lubuntu or EmulationStation direct?

                          No, it's not possible.

                          Used2BeRXU 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • Used2BeRXU
                            Used2BeRX @mitu
                            last edited by

                            @mitu

                            Okay. Is there a better option than Lubuntu? What I mean is, what is the absolute minimum Linux build out there that I could run the latest RetroPie setup on?

                            mituM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • mituM
                              mitu Global Moderator @Used2BeRX
                              last edited by

                              @used2berx I thought that Lubuntu is pretty minimal - it has a good balance between minimalism and usability. The absolute minimum is the pi, but you already got that.

                              Used2BeRXU 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • Used2BeRXU
                                Used2BeRX @mitu
                                last edited by Used2BeRX

                                @mitu lol.. yeah. The Pi Zero is pretty minimal.

                                What I mean is what would be the absolute minimal Linux distro that I could install on my laptop and then put EmulationStation on top of it? All of the options I see out there load into a GUI desktop first, and I can't help but think that there are a lot of resources being wasted before EmulationStation is even started up because of that. Is there a text based Linux distro out there that would use barely any resources. Something similar to the good old days of DOS?

                                I'm a bit disappointed with the performance of my laptop with PSX and N64 games. Given the specs of the laptop, I would have figured that it should at least perform as well as the Pi 3 does, but that's just not the case. I think that the choice of Linux OS I have installed is the reason for this.

                                Used2BeRXU dankcushionsD 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • Used2BeRXU
                                  Used2BeRX @Used2BeRX
                                  last edited by Used2BeRX

                                  I tried changing my runlevel to 3 following instructions here: http://chousensha.github.io/blog/2018/02/08/lfcs-prep-runlevels-and-bootloader-configuration/

                                  This actually seemed to be what I was looking for, but after I did that I got an SDL error whenever I tried running emulationstation:

                                  lvl0: Error initializing SDL!
                                  (I don't remember what it said here.  It was something about "Video")
                                  lvl0: Renderer failed to initialize!
                                  lvl0: Window failed to initialize!
                                  

                                  Changing back to runlevel 5 and everything works as it did before.

                                  Back to square one, I guess.

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • Used2BeRXU
                                    Used2BeRX
                                    last edited by

                                    Well I've totally screwed up my Lubuntu install now by doing some tweaks that were supposedly safe. Guess I'll use this opportunity to try out other distros and see if I can come up with something better.

                                    Used2BeRXU 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • ClydeC
                                      Clyde
                                      last edited by

                                      @used2berx Have fun finding "your" Linux distribution, and don't forget to make Backups (not only) before doing supposedly safe tweaks. ;)

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                                      • meleuM
                                        meleu @Used2BeRX
                                        last edited by

                                        @Used2BeRX
                                        I didn't read all the suggestions above, but would like to share my personal experience.

                                        I have many RL friends that see me as "the tech guy" and come to me commenting/complaining that their computers are laggy and stuff.

                                        Most likely the conversation goes this way:

                                        me- What OS are you using?
                                        friend- Windows 7/8/10
                                        me - Really important question: Do you use AutoCAD, or video editing software, or some of very specific software (like those tools to create RetroAchievements :P )?
                                        friend - Nop. I basically use it to browse the web. Maybe Word/Excel from time to time...

                                        With this usecase and with a configuration like yours:

                                        3GB ram (probably DDR2, doubtfully DDR3)
                                        AMD Athlon 1600Mhz single core, x64 based

                                        I would instantaneously install Linux Mint MATE edition as the only OS (NO DUAL BOOT).

                                        Trust me, as a Linux enthusiast I tried a bunch of distributions. And I came to the conclusion that Linux Mint has the most comfortable look&feel for users with a MS Windows background.

                                        The MATE edition seems to be the best choice for your specs. Some people may say that the XFCE edition is lighter, but I tested both and didn't see any difference performance-wise. Then I choose MATE because it seems to be more comfortable for Windows users.

                                        I installed it for 5 or 6 friends and all of them are very happy with it. Even my mother-in-law, an over 60 years old lady, use Linux Mint with no issues. All of them say stuff like "Wow! I didn't know my computer was that fast!".

                                        Then, that's my suggestion: Linux Mint MATE edition.

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                                        Used2BeRXU 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                        • Used2BeRXU
                                          Used2BeRX @Used2BeRX
                                          last edited by

                                          I installed a minimal Lubuntu distro and added the following additional software packages:

                                          Ubuntu Cloud Image (instance)
                                          DNS Server
                                          LAMP Server
                                          Lubuntu Desktop
                                          PostgreSQL Database
                                          OpenSSH server
                                          Basic Ubuntu Server

                                          Immediately after installing the RP/ES image and updating everything but the kernel, I tried Super Mario 64 and without even tweaking any of the Video/Audio settings I saw marked improvement. After changing Video to dispmax, Audio to alsa-thread and putting the Render Resolution to 320x240 I have it running at nearly 100% with no audio stutter at all. :)

                                          I'm still trying to get Lunar on the PSX running good. I realized that I don't have the BIOS in the folder yet, so that's the first thing I'm going to do. Hopefully I have some good news there to report as well.

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                                          • mituM
                                            mitu Global Moderator
                                            last edited by

                                            @used2berx said in Best Linux Distro for old Laptop???:

                                            After changing Video to dispmax

                                            There is no dispmanx outside the PI hardware, it's a specific Broadcom API for the VC4 GPU found on the Pi.

                                            Used2BeRXU 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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