Another old Laptop thread

[ratdude747]

Well, I was going through stuff at my old hose and found an old laptop... and unlike the others there, which are junk and and have smashed screens, this one actually may be usable!

what we have here is a gateway solo 2150.

it has a celeron 433mhz

it has 96mb of RAM (32 soldered, 64 on a module)

this poor thing has a plastic cover where the LAN should be... but luckily, 6 months ago I recieved a 3com PCMCIA 10/100 card (the kind with the pop out xjack), which fixes that

I also was missing half the HDD caddy (must have stolen it for soemthing), but lucky me again, as I had a beat up caddy from a dead HP nc6000, which a was able to cut and file to fit.

I also had an old 4200RPM 20gb Hitachi travelstar for it...

I am installing debian testing on it...

also, I wish I had a 128mb module for it... once I have some 256mb modules for my dad's IBM thinkpad t22, then maybe I can move a module or two...

I know, , but I gotta have my fun...

[ratdude747]

Re: Another old Laptop thread

one change- I will use debian testing with LXDE... that will run better than gnome 3... I hope...

[dood]

Re: Another old Laptop thread

I'm pretty sure I have some 256mb PC133 in a box around here, if you're looking.

Looks like the Solo will only take 1 128mb stick, maximum.

[ratdude747]

Re: Another old Laptop thread

I'm pretty sure I have some 256mb PC133 in a box around here, if you're looking.

Looks like the Solo will only take 1 128mb stick, maximum.

umm... the thinkpad t22 is PC100 only. stupid intel chipset. (I have pc133 256mb modules too). If you had Pc100 256mb modules, then that would be helpful.

what i was saying Is I have a t22 in the house as well with 2 128mb pc100 modules, and it needs a ram upgrade. If I upgraded it, I would then have 2 128mb modules freed up, which I could then take one of and put in the gateway solo this thread is about.

[shovenose]

Re: Another old Laptop thread

128MB isn't enough, even for something like Lubuntu

[ratdude747]

Re: Another old Laptop thread

128MB isn't enough, even for something like Lubuntu

lubuntu?

the ubuntu part is the issue. bloated.

debian's core is a lot lighter... we'll give it a try i guess

[shovenose]

Re: Another old Laptop thread

256MB and you're good to go but 128 is a bit low either way You coudl always overclock the CPU :P

[ratdude747]

Re: Another old Laptop thread

overclocking will not fix memory size issues.

I read that on a PII 266mhz with 128mb of ram, lxde ran fast-moderate. I have 96mb. surely it will at least run until I can max it out at 160mb.

source:

http://lxde.org/lxde

[dood]

Re: Another old Laptop thread

I've got 1 256mb PC100 and one 128mb PC100. I'll poke around at work and see if there's another 256mb PC100 stick there. I might still have one on the discard pile...

[ratdude747]

Re: Another old Laptop thread

I've got 1 256mb PC100 and one 128mb PC100. I'll poke around at work and see if there's another 256mb PC100 stick there. I might still have one on the discard pile...

even if that is all you end up having, its better than zilch, which is what I currently have.

[ratdude747]

Re: Another old Laptop thread

time for another ghetto idea...

I noticed that the modem is connected as a mini-PCI card...

I also happen to have a random atheros b/g/a card and a set of wifi antennas out of a gutted netbook lid.

for laughs I booted the laptop with the wifi card in place of the modem... and lscpi from a live cd says that the card was functional.

so, would it be epic, stupid, or ghetto to hack into it a set of antennas and install the atheros card?

[shovenose]

Re: Another old Laptop thread

Epic, for sure
Stupid, not at all
ghetto, maybe, but who cares

[dood]

Re: Another old Laptop thread

Depending on how far away from the router you're going to be, you may not even need antennas...

[ratdude747]

Re: Another old Laptop thread

well, there is something else to keep in mind...

the battery is 100% dead in the unit

I also have 4 powerline adapters that I recently modded and fixed.

me thinks that using a powerline adapter with it may be a better option. it will not see use outside of my property.

[shovenose]

Re: Another old Laptop thread

Depending on how far away from the router you're going to be, you may not even need antennas...

I've tested this several times and have come to the conclusion that you have to be about 6 feet or less to even see it (at low signal strength)

[ratdude747]

Re: Another old Laptop thread

my G router is on the upper floor of the house in the attic... not close to much.

[ratdude747]

Re: Another old Laptop thread

lxde runs, but I hate it... trying debian-stable with gnome 2 instead.

[shovenose]

Re: Another old Laptop thread

lxde runs, but I hate it... trying debian-stable with gnome 2 instead.

You don't like LXDE?
Ah well to each his own I guess lol!

[ratdude747]

Re: Another old Laptop thread

well, it was an unholy mess and trying to do the simplest of tasks was a PITA. heck, i wasn't even able to install a .deb graphically. fail.

[shovenose]

Re: Another old Laptop thread

xD Lubuntu works well, so that's my defense :P