Solved Mint-9 Isadora

[Brian Alex]

I have my second ever desktop computer from 2004 (?) with XP originally, but back some years ago I made a dual-boot with Mint-9 just for fun and to see if I could use it. Well, I ended up buying a Win-7 PC and kept the old 32-bit Compaq around for a back-up (meaning; a back-up means to reach the internet -no files involved) Needless to say, it isn't backing anything up any more. The only thing it reaches now is "Chat" which takes me to an xchat linux site. I went there last year and mentioned that I was on mint-9 but was called a troll and banned LOL! Well, I guess it was a temporary ban because I was able to access it later and even today once. Until last year, I was still able to reach a few sites but apparently now it is a dedicated chat machine for Linux. It is equipped with the powerhouse AMD Athlon XP2000+ CPU and boasts 1GB RAM and 32 GB storage which still works like new after 21 years. I actually don't know how to reach this xchat room from my main (Mint 22.3) machine. I'll figure it out. Does Linux.org have an actual chat room. Seems to be the way to go for discussing Linux IMO. Thanks! -BA

 

[Brickwizard]

xchat

if its the App for the mint x-chat you are looking for, you already have it, open menu open internet and find it on the list, I dont think we have one, we do have an X account, but i have never used it

 

[wizardfromoz]

Does Linux.org have an actual chat room.

If you look in the pane to your right, you should see links to Bluesky and Twitter/X.

I don't use them myself, but they may lead you somewhere?

HTH

Wizard

 

[Brian Alex]

Thank you gentlemen.

 

[KGIII]

I would start with a new, updated distro. From the looks of things, you'll need one that is 32-bit and lightweight. Some of those still exist, though it seems like 32-bit stuff is growing rarer by the day. (That's not necessarily a bad thing.)

 

[Brian Alex]

Thanks. The challenge is not only the 32 bit system but also, if memory serves, the cpu is not SSE2 (SEE2?) and I had to use and old version of FF browser. It was functional albeit very slow as of early last year. Now I can't reach any website (except the Xchat link included in Mint9 as mentioned). It was fun while it lasted. Maybe I will look for an updated distro and a browser that somehow can get me online (not worried about malware) but i'm thinking that this won't work without SSE2. I can always play pinball on XP. -BA

 

[KGIII]

Hmm...

Try to open: http://frogfind.com (note the lack of https, as it is intentionally not using a certificate).

It appears to be currently broken, but I want to see if you can access it before diving deeper.

Also, this might be a good candidate for one of the tiny distros that run straight off of an external drive (like a USB flash drive).

Something from here might be a good place to start:

Puppy Linux Discussion Forum - Puppy Linux Distro Collection

forum.puppylinux.com

 

[MikeWalsh]

@Brian Alex :-

With regard to your browser issue, the Athlon XP is a well-known 'problem-child' to us in the Puppy community.

A member of the Pale Moon browser community, going by the name of "Fenyo" has compiled & built a series of custom packages (which he has christened 'New Moon')....specifically for old SSE-only CPUs like yours:-

debian9newmoonsse-31.4.2.linux-i686-gtk2.tar directory listing

You'll want one of his Debian 8 builds. He hasn't posted any for a while, but the most recent - 33.8.1.2 - is barely 6 months old. I'm posting this from it now.....under Tahrpup64, via the 32-bit compatibility SFS package (Puppy's answer to 'multiarch').

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~​

You'll probably find, however, that a newer glibc will also be needed.....newer than Mint 9 would have provided, anyway.

I provide a 'portable', self-contained New Moon package of this SSE-only build for the Puppy community, including an 'encapsulated' newer glibc, which is used to run New Moon on older distros that may not have a new enough version to run the browser natively. (Remember, Puppy's primary reason for existing has always been to keep ancient hardware still functional AND 'useful').

You're very welcome to try this - in your case, I would suggest extracting it to & running it from your /home/user directory in 'Isadora' - though permissions will need to be changed, since Puppy runs everything as the 'root' user, y'see.

Let me know if you're interested, and I'll provide you a download link from my MediaFire a/c (which I've had for many years, and use solely for software I've built/packaged for the Puppy community). It'll be free of 'nasties', guaranteed.....and you'll also get a checksum for confirming it is what it purports to be.

Entirely up to you, of course.


Mike.

 

[Brian Alex]

Thank you so much KGIII and Mike Walsh. I just now tried to boot it from a Puppy Bookworm DVD and it got to the point where it said "sfs not found" "error too critical" "dropping out..." I'm taking a hint and dropping out myself.
So that's enough time wasted on this thing. I fire it up about once a year just for fun. Mike. I'll look into your suggestions at some point but for now I'm done. I really do have other machines that I could use. I just have fun as in "new hobby" or something (senile delusions?) Anyway, thanks again. -BA out

 

[wizardfromoz]

I can always play pinball on XP.

If that's the one I recall, that used to be a damn fine game. My stepson used to get several million on it, and he was always just ahead of me. Lol.

 

[Brian Alex]

Hi Wizardfromoz . Yeah it's a really good game but you don't need XP to play it. I just found this when I searched "XP pinball";

https://dos.zone/microsoft-3d-pinball-space-cadet/ Hold space bar to retract plunger, "z" key and "?/" keys for the flippers. -BA

 

[wizardfromoz]

1,600,500 - not bad for a first game, seems this old fella still has some reflexes...thanks for sharing.

And yes, that was the one, lol.

 

[Brickwizard]

that was fun, daughter use to have this on her spectrum [well looks the same to me] not a very good score [bloody paraesthesia] but fun all the same