Dell latitude D600 & D610
- Thread starter gogetta
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Brickwizard
Well-Known Member
welcome to the forums
the dell D600 range has been around since the early 2,000's so it Depends on the age and spec, if they have 64 bit processors and at least 2gb ram they will run most distributions, albeit a bit slow on the heavy builds,try Linux lite, or mx -64 bit, if they have 32 bit processors then you have limitations to Debian 32 bit based builds, peppermint-respin ,mx-32,debian-32 spring to mind
the dell D600 range has been around since the early 2,000's so it Depends on the age and spec, if they have 64 bit processors and at least 2gb ram they will run most distributions, albeit a bit slow on the heavy builds,try Linux lite, or mx -64 bit, if they have 32 bit processors then you have limitations to Debian 32 bit based builds, peppermint-respin ,mx-32,debian-32 spring to mind
Core2Duo, 2 GB RAM, nVidea graphics -- I ran D610s for about three years ubtil upgrading to Latitude 6540s.
My best Linux experiences on D610s were with antiX and PCLinuxOS openbox Community edition.
I took one D610 into a PC shop and had them max out RAM at 4GB and put in a small SSD. I then ran a flavor of xubuntu 20.04 and used the ZFS option for install. It worked well with such a distro and performance was good after the RAM upgrade and SSD.
The nVidea Legacy driver shown on this screenshot is not familiar, I used the 340.xx driver. One can download the drivers onto a USB stick and see what works best.
Another distro that I found myself falling back to is Puppy Linux Fossapup
Best wishes!
My best Linux experiences on D610s were with antiX and PCLinuxOS openbox Community edition.
I took one D610 into a PC shop and had them max out RAM at 4GB and put in a small SSD. I then ran a flavor of xubuntu 20.04 and used the ZFS option for install. It worked well with such a distro and performance was good after the RAM upgrade and SSD.
The nVidea Legacy driver shown on this screenshot is not familiar, I used the 340.xx driver. One can download the drivers onto a USB stick and see what works best.
Another distro that I found myself falling back to is Puppy Linux Fossapup
Best wishes!
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I've just bought myself a pre-owned D630 off eBay. I needed summat to replace the anciente Inspiron 1100 - a 2002 original! - as she finally shrugged off this mortal coil the other day. (It WAS time to move on; we're talking about a 32-bit P4 and only 1 GB RAM. Even the addition of an SSD only goes so far with something that primitive.
I only ever use it outside in the summertime. With a 64-bit Core2Duo, 4GB RAM and a 120GB SSD, the D630 will be a prime candidate for a single install of Fossapup64.....finally, I should be able to watch vids / stream NetFlix outside in the summer. Yay!
Apparently, according to the listing. it's saddled with an install of Win 10. Yeeuch! That'll be the first thing to go.....seriously. I may take a look at it - just for the hell of it - when it turns up in the next few days (never tried Win 10).....but it will rapidly be wiped out with extreme prejudice!
We will see how it goes.
Mike.
I only ever use it outside in the summertime. With a 64-bit Core2Duo, 4GB RAM and a 120GB SSD, the D630 will be a prime candidate for a single install of Fossapup64.....finally, I should be able to watch vids / stream NetFlix outside in the summer. Yay!
Apparently, according to the listing. it's saddled with an install of Win 10. Yeeuch! That'll be the first thing to go.....seriously. I may take a look at it - just for the hell of it - when it turns up in the next few days (never tried Win 10).....but it will rapidly be wiped out with extreme prejudice!
We will see how it goes.
Mike.
Brickwizard
Well-Known Member
it is the way of the world according to microcrap, it would have originally come with W7 or possibly W8 depending on age, so don't expect W10 to blow you away.. My old [2010] core 2 duo Insperon runs Mint quite well with its max 4 gb of ram, it runs Debian better, MX better still and is fine with Parrot [don't bother with puppy, never liked it]
@Brickwizard :-
Our Pup's not to everyone's taste, I'll be the first to admit that. I, personally, loved it from the first day; I'd wanted to try something - anything! - that would get me away from the truly asinine "sudo" crap that permeated every mainstream distro I'd ever tried.
For a single-user running a single PC that absolutely nobody else had access to, I could never see the point in having to ask permission to do things on my own machine..! Especially given that the only stuff sudo supposedly "protects" - the system files - are paradoxically the very easiest to replace in the event of meltdown. Makes far MORE sense to spend time protecting your personal data.
OS's come & go, and are easy to re-install. Try replacing stuff you may have retained 20-odd years ago, and which now cannot be found anywhere for love or money. I know which is more important to me.
I DO agree that sudo, etc, make perfect sense in a corporate, multi-user environment. But for the average home user, meh......not so much.
Mike.
Our Pup's not to everyone's taste, I'll be the first to admit that. I, personally, loved it from the first day; I'd wanted to try something - anything! - that would get me away from the truly asinine "sudo" crap that permeated every mainstream distro I'd ever tried.
For a single-user running a single PC that absolutely nobody else had access to, I could never see the point in having to ask permission to do things on my own machine..! Especially given that the only stuff sudo supposedly "protects" - the system files - are paradoxically the very easiest to replace in the event of meltdown. Makes far MORE sense to spend time protecting your personal data.
OS's come & go, and are easy to re-install. Try replacing stuff you may have retained 20-odd years ago, and which now cannot be found anywhere for love or money. I know which is more important to me.
I DO agree that sudo, etc, make perfect sense in a corporate, multi-user environment. But for the average home user, meh......not so much.
Mike.
You'll be satisfied, mostly, @MikeWalsh -- it's the 304 nVidia driver that's getting hard to find if required, nowadays.
is my friend!
Code:
sudo passwd rootAha! .RUN FILES!
I would like to see you, @MikeWalsh and @KGIII discuss the merits and usability of nVidia run files! I used them for years and had little problem with them.

KGIII, on the other hand, seems to feel they come from hell. I say, if they work, use them!
I would like to see you, @MikeWalsh and @KGIII discuss the merits and usability of nVidia run files! I used them for years and had little problem with them.

KGIII, on the other hand, seems to feel they come from hell. I say, if they work, use them!
@forester :-
We've got shinobar (a member of the Japanese Puppy users group) to thank for getNvidia. He built it years ago; it's been updated a few times, but shinobar is a perfectionist when it comes to scripting. If he publishes something, you just know it'll work.....because he won't release it until it DOES.
However, I shan't know what I'm dealing with until the D630 turns up.
Mike.
We've got shinobar (a member of the Japanese Puppy users group) to thank for getNvidia. He built it years ago; it's been updated a few times, but shinobar is a perfectionist when it comes to scripting. If he publishes something, you just know it'll work.....because he won't release it until it DOES.
However, I shan't know what I'm dealing with until the D630 turns up.
Mike.
No, I think it's pointless to use them if you have a choice in the matter. Otherwise, you have to configure it every time you update the kernel, instead of just having that done automatically with dkms as properly configured by your distro maintainers.
@KGIII :-
For a mainstream distro, which gets regular updates - including kernel upgrades - yes, it would indeed be a pain. But you have to remember; Puppy doesn't DO regular updates or anything like that.......and we definitely don't worry about 'must always have the very newest versions of everything'. Puppy development is so continuous, and Puppy so small and easy to install, that if Puppians feel the need to update stuff, they simply install a newer Puppy.
Each Puppy release tends to retain the exact same kernel it starts out with. We have a number of members who compile new kernels on a regular basis, however, so for those Puppians who ARE bothered about such stuff, Pup's modular build makes replacing the kernel a 2-minute job.
I, personally, only update to a newer kernel if I feel it's warranted. And I won't install the Nvidia driver until I know it's a kernel I'm going to stick with.
Remember; Puppy is specifically a single-user distro, developed for and intended to be used by, "tinkerers".
If that lowers your opinion of Puppy, well.....
Mike.
For a mainstream distro, which gets regular updates - including kernel upgrades - yes, it would indeed be a pain. But you have to remember; Puppy doesn't DO regular updates or anything like that.......and we definitely don't worry about 'must always have the very newest versions of everything'. Puppy development is so continuous, and Puppy so small and easy to install, that if Puppians feel the need to update stuff, they simply install a newer Puppy.
Each Puppy release tends to retain the exact same kernel it starts out with. We have a number of members who compile new kernels on a regular basis, however, so for those Puppians who ARE bothered about such stuff, Pup's modular build makes replacing the kernel a 2-minute job.
I, personally, only update to a newer kernel if I feel it's warranted. And I won't install the Nvidia driver until I know it's a kernel I'm going to stick with.
Remember; Puppy is specifically a single-user distro, developed for and intended to be used by, "tinkerers".
If that lowers your opinion of Puppy, well.....
Mike.
That is indeed my point.
If you have a distro that handles the drivers for you and still use the .run file, it's like walking 20 miles to work a couple of days each month because you have to tinker with the timing - when you have a working car available.
Well. Now then :-
The D630 turned up day before yesterday, mid-afternoon. By bedtime, it had Win 10 exterminated, re-partitioned & re-formatted, and Fossapup64 installed and fully customized.....set up almost entirely with portable apps.
It's in remarkably clean condition. The odd bit of grime in awkward corners and edges where the cleaning cloth missed, but that's pretty much par for the course. What IS remarkable is how few scratches it has on it....
Despite that the battery pack seems okay ATM, I've ordered a new, high-capacity one for tomorrow. The existing 6-cell pack gives about an hour before it's shouting "Critical!" at me.....it was completely flat when it turned up, which is not good for a litthium-ion battery.
As for the graphics, I HAVE got the Nvidia NVS-135M chip. However, it's running perfectly with the 'nouveau' driver, so I really don't see the need for the official one.
I'm quite pleased with it, so far!
Mike.
The D630 turned up day before yesterday, mid-afternoon. By bedtime, it had Win 10 exterminated, re-partitioned & re-formatted, and Fossapup64 installed and fully customized.....set up almost entirely with portable apps.
It's in remarkably clean condition. The odd bit of grime in awkward corners and edges where the cleaning cloth missed, but that's pretty much par for the course. What IS remarkable is how few scratches it has on it....
Despite that the battery pack seems okay ATM, I've ordered a new, high-capacity one for tomorrow. The existing 6-cell pack gives about an hour before it's shouting "Critical!" at me.....it was completely flat when it turned up, which is not good for a litthium-ion battery.
As for the graphics, I HAVE got the Nvidia NVS-135M chip. However, it's running perfectly with the 'nouveau' driver, so I really don't see the need for the official one.
I'm quite pleased with it, so far!
Mike.
@forester :-
Mmm.....possibly, possibly.
I'll have a go at compiling the Nvidia driver, though Fossapup is known to have some 'issues' with compiling these. If I brick it, it won't be a problem.....the 'backup' will take less than 5 minutes to re-install, so.....we shall see.
The 340.108 .run file is all set and ready to go...
Mike.
I guess you're like me, Darren. As Puppy users of long-standing, we both know the value of keeping old hardware useful.
Perhaps I'm weird, but unlike many 'geeks' I've never been that interested in new hardware anyway. I've always used second-hand, elderly hardware as far back as I can remember. (With the exception of this 'new-ish' HP Pavilion rig - I kinda broke my personal rule there!)
That said, I have of course researched loads of hardware over the years. The Latitudes have always been well thought-of. I don't recall ever seeing anyone who's had a bad word to say about them. And that's a good recommendation in itself.
Okay, so they're not as plentiful on eBay as they were pre-pandemic (I think all the decent second-hand gear got snapped-up along with all the new stuff when that started).....and those that ARE still about are a bit more expensive than they were. When I first looked at these around 3-4 years ago, most were around the £50 mark; now, it's more like £75-£90 (depending on condition/spec).
But to my mind, this was a well-spent £80.
Mike.
