[altman]

How do you like the latest LL fellas .

[Scott(0)]

It's running like a dream in VirtualBox. I haven't upgraded my 2.0 systems yet but all news installs get 2.2 as well as anyone asking for a CD.

[altman]

Thanx for info Scott , have LL2.2 Beta installed , might just install some LL latests on it , I don t feel like reinstalling yet , unless I screw it up somehow .

[gold_finger]

Installed LL 2.2 Final on an old (circa 2002) test machine with P4 processor and only 512MB of RAM.  Was amazed at how well it runs on this system.  Until a month ago, this computer belonged to a friend who ran XP on it.  Performance of LL vs. that of XP is like night and day -- amazing how much better it is with Linux on it.  Aside from some noticeable lag when running a full-fledged browser like Firefox (especially when flash content is prevalent), it really is impressive to me how perfectly useable such an old computer still is with the right flavor of Linux on it.  Here are the machine's specs:

Code:

bill@Micron:~$ inxi -Fxz
System:        Host: Micron Kernel: 3.13.0-24-generic i686 (32 bit, gcc: 4.8.2)
                   Desktop: Xfce 4.11.6 (Gtk 2.24.23) Distro: Ubuntu 14.04 trusty
Machine:       System: micronpc.com product: N/A
                   Mobo: ASUSTeK model: P4PE version: REV 1.xx Bios: Award version: ASUS P4PE-MPC 1001 date: 11/06/2002
CPU:           Single core Intel Pentium 4 CPU (-UP-) cache: 512 KB flags: (pae sse sse2) bmips: 5078.45 clocked at 2539.226 MHz
Graphics:      Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] RV360 [Radeon 9600/X1050 Series] bus-ID: 01:00.0
                   X.Org: 1.15.1 drivers: ati,radeon (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: [email protected]
                   GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on ATI RV350 GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 10.1.3 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:         Card: Intel 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller
                   driver: snd_intel8x0 ports: 8800 8400 bus-ID: 00:1f.5
                   Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture ver: k3.13.0-24-generic
Network:       Card: Broadcom NetXtreme BCM5702X Gigabit Ethernet driver: tg3 ver: 3.134 bus-ID: 02:05.0
                   IF: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives:        HDD Total Size: 62.0GB (6.8% used) 1: id: /dev/sda model: Maxtor_6E030L0 size: 30.8GB
                   2: USB id: /dev/sdb model: DataTraveler_2.0 size: 31.2GB
Partition:     ID: / size: 9.8G used: 3.7G (40%) fs: ext4 ID: swap-1 size: 0.81GB used: 0.02GB (2%) fs: swap
RAID:          No RAID devices detected - /proc/mdstat and md_mod kernel raid module present
Sensors:       System Temperatures: cpu: 27.5C mobo: 27.0C
                   Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:              Processes: 149 Uptime: 2:49 Memory: 191.8/495.3MB Runlevel: 2 Gcc sys: 4.8.2
                   Client: Shell (bash 4.3.11) inxi: 1.9.17

Two Potential Issues:

Since it won't boot from USB in BIOS, had to use Plop Boot Manager to boot the install USB.  That worked easily.  Install was much slower than on more modern computers, but that was to be expected.  Didn't time it, but would guess it took 30-45 minutes.  I let the installer do its thing and wasn't paying any attention to it.  At some point, I looked at the machine and saw that it had what looked like a screenlocker displayed.  It was not the normal (small) end of installation window that asks if you want to reboot, shutdown, or continue testing the live environment.  It covered the entire screen and had a button for shutdown, reboot, and (if I remember right) an option to open an Xterm.  Nothing I did would get rid of the screen and get me back to the desktop to see if the installation was complete.  So, I left the computer like that for a while until I knew the install had to be completed, then I chose shutdown.  Luckily, upon restart everything worked.

After playing with system for a bit, I let it sit to see what the new screenlocker thing was that Jerry had said was added in this LL release.  It's screen looks exactly like the one that popped-up during installation except that I was able to click on my username (icon) and get back into the desktop.  That was not an option during installation (assuming that's what happened).  It might be a good idea to either disable that feature during live session (if possible), or issue a warning and instructions for disabling it before starting the installation.  For a newcomer, something like that happening during the install could result in a bad install if they shutdown/restart before the install is complete (which they can't confirm if they can't get back to the desktop).

The second problem I ran into has happened to me before, but seems to not happen to anyone else -- which is baffling.  (I did not have this problem with Beta 2.2, but it did happen on this Final 2.2, as it has on other 2.0 installations I've done.)  For whatever reason, both the Google and Steam repos end up pointing to the wrong URL and render updates impossible until the situation is fixed.  Here's the end of the output to sudo apt-get update:

Code:

W: Failed to fetch http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/dists/trusty/main/binary-i386/Packages  404  Not Found [IP: 74.125.224.72 80]

W: Failed to fetch http://repo.steampowered.com/steam/dists/trusty/steam/source/Sources  404  Not Found [IP: 199.117.103.59 80]

W: Failed to fetch http://repo.steampowered.com/steam/dists/trusty/steam/binary-amd64/Packages  404  Not Found [IP: 199.117.103.59 80]

W: Failed to fetch http://repo.steampowered.com/steam/dists/trusty/steam/binary-i386/Packages  404  Not Found [IP: 199.117.103.59 80]

W: Failed to fetch http://dl.google.com/linux/talkplugin/deb/dists/trusty/main/binary-i386/Packages  404  Not Found [IP: 74.125.224.72 80]

E: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.
bill@Micron:~$

Here's a screenshot of the repos in Synaptic after initial installation with problems outlined in red.



For Google repos, just need to change "trusty" to "stable".  Don't know what Steam repo is supposed to be.

Edit added later:  For Steam, change "trusty to "precise".

Other than those minor issues and (to be expected) performance hit of full-fledged Firefox, I have to say I'm stunned at how well LL 2.2 works on this ancient beast!  It's quite snappy for it's age now and LL is not just a little better than Win XP on here -- it's very noticeably better!  The machine's specs are horrible in comparison to modern systems, but it has no problem running standard programs like LibreOffice, VLC (even while streaming high quality videos), etc.  Firefox is only program that I've tested that noticeably eats up a ton of the minimal amount of RAM in computer.  Flash videos can not be played without serious lag issues in full screen mode, but work fairly well in normal mode.

To get around that I've tested two other browsers on the system:  Midori and Dillo.  (I started testing both of these on the Beta release and have continued now with the Final release.)  Both are noticeably less resource hungry.  Midori is perhaps easier to use and renders pages more closely to what the major browser do.  I like it for a low end system like this, but it has one major (for me) downfall -- it won't handle pages that use 256-bit SSL connections, which is what the LL forums use.  Have only had a problem with the LL forums so far, so it's not likely a major issue for most people.  Dillo is even better on resources and does not have a problem with displaying the LL forums -- but it is rather primative looking and somewhat difficult to figure out and use.  With some effort, I've gotten used to it and actually prefer using it for basic web browsing now on this older system.  (On new systems, I'll stick to Firefox.)  Midori will play flash videos.  Dillo doesn't -- at least I haven't figured out how to do it if it does.  Best solution to flash videos on this old machine is to stream them through VLC.  They can play in full screen mode perfectly well that way -- even high quality videos.

I've tested this machine with several programs running at the same time along with running either Midori or Dillo.  Most of the time RAM usage stays within the 300-350MB range.  With videos running at same time the old P4 CPU gets pushed close to max, but so far no crashes or lockups and things work impressively well.  If I do same thing with Firefox, there is noticeable lag effect -- but no crashing.

Tested new lite-cleaner, md5sum checker, install addition software program, etc.  All worked well.

Congrats Jerry, misko_2083 and entire LL community who's feedback contributed to this -- LL 2.2 is a winner in my book!


P.s.  In case anyone's interested, both Midori and Dillo are available for installation in standard repos -- so you can install them through Synaptic or the terminal like any other packages.

[Wirezfree]

Nice write up and good pointers... +1
It just shows that there is life left in machines that probably end-up in landfill

[altman]

Thanx for the review Gold_Finger , like the way it s written .

[gold_finger]

It just shows that there is life left in machines that probably end-up in landfill

Absolutely.  I've installed LL and other Xfce-based distros to quite a few older systems and they always end up feeling like they got a new lease on life.

Thanx for the review Gold_Finger , like the way it s written .

Thanks altman.  Don't know if you saw this, but posted it for you a few days back:  https://dfgkh547-jsdfv8.iyhkj.tk/forums/index...64#msg7864

[altman]

[quote author=Wirezfree link=topic=1257.msg8291#msg8291 date=1417900167]
It just shows that there is life left in machines that probably end-up in landfill

Absolutely.  I've installed LL and other Xfce-based distros to quite a few older systems and they always end up feeling like they got a new lease on life.

Thanx for the review Gold_Finger , like the way it s written .

Thanks altman.  Don't know if you saw this, but posted it for you a few days back:  https://dfgkh547-jsdfv8.iyhkj.tk/forums/index...64#msg7864
[/quote]

Ah , thanx fella ! Sorry about the late answer back .

[mpig]

LL 2.0 can detect my wlan from the start. But the LL 2.2 can't.

Code:

audi@audi-Aspire-3680:~$ dmesg | grep b43
[    2.412682] b43-pci-bridge 0000:03:00.0: enabling device (0000 -> 0002)
[   27.168913] b43-phy0: Broadcom 4311 WLAN found (core revision 10)
[   27.216578] b43-phy0: Found PHY: Analog 4, Type 2 (G), Revision 8
[   27.448462] b43 ssb0:0: Direct firmware load failed with error -2
[   27.448468] b43 ssb0:0: Falling back to user helper
[   27.575281] b43 ssb0:0: Direct firmware load failed with error -2
[   27.575288] b43 ssb0:0: Falling back to user helper
[   27.581758] b43 ssb0:0: Direct firmware load failed with error -2
[   27.581764] b43 ssb0:0: Falling back to user helper
[   27.594054] b43 ssb0:0: Direct firmware load failed with error -2
[   27.594060] b43 ssb0:0: Falling back to user helper
[   27.601984] b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43/ucode5.fw" not found
[   27.601991] b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43-open/ucode5.fw" not found
[   27.601994] b43-phy0 ERROR: You must go to http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware and download the correct firmware for this driver version. Please carefully read all instructions on this website.
audi@audi-Aspire-3680:~$

Can you guys fix this? I mean, make LL detecting wlan broadcom from the beginning like LL 2.0. The solution is simple but really annoyed me.

[altman]

Try this mate ;


sudo apt-get purge bcmwl-kernel-source broadcom-sta-common broadcom-sta-source ;

sudo apt-get install b43-fwcutter firmware-b43-installer



Hope it will do the job .