I tried V4.4.3 of DSL on the old hardware,<br>and the PS/2 mouse worked. Alas, DSL is <br>still using the 2.4 version of the kernel, so I<br>expected as much. Even V4.4.10 is using <br>version 2.4.31 of the kernel. <br>
<br>So far the only consistent theme is that a<br>distribution with a 2.4 kernel works on my<br>old motherboard, and one with a 2.6 kernel<br>does not. This is just for fun, since the end<br>result would be a very limited system in any<br>
case. At most it's interesting to the extent<br>that "Linux" is embodied in the kernel, not<br>the endless apps that are hung on it. So <br>perhaps somewhere deep down the drivers<br>do not completely support the chipset in the<br>
old motherboard? As pointed out by someone<br>here, PS/2 mice have been around for a long<br>time now, and are ubiquitous.<br><br>I can still try to see whether a USB mouse <br>works....<br><br> -- Bob<br><br><br><br><br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Dec 31, 2008 at 2:20 PM, Lee Forest <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:lee8oi@gmail.com">lee8oi@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
a 166mhz processor would definitly be testing the lower limits of<br>
linux. If I was using a computer that old. I'd try going with a distro<br>
along the lines of Damn Small Linux, or Puppy Linux. TinyME 2008.1<br>
droplet was awsome on mysystem, but the repositories are in sore need<br>
of updating(based on PClinuxOS which hasn't been very productive)<br>
Course that comes from my distro hopping experiences(I know some are<br>
against that, but how do you really get a feel for your ideal distro<br>
if you don't try a few?). The first two distro's especially seem to do<br>
pretty well on older systems, and they claim to be able to run on<br>
systems with 486 processors. And I've never had any mouse problems<br>
with either of them. their hardware support is as good as any other<br>
linux can be. As for having problems with running linux on any modern<br>
computer I do agree with trying other distros. if you insist on red<br>
hat based ones theres still more alternatives, like CentOS, and berry.<br>
I browse distrowatch at least a couple times a week checking out the<br>
latest releases of linux. And I always find myself in favor of the<br>
Debian based distros for many reasons. A big one being that I've seen<br>
more applications available in deb, then rpm. Course rpm based distros<br>
seem to be oriented in more commerical directions, and debian being<br>
more for the general user.<br>
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