Thanks Will and Felix
-----Original Message----- From: Felix Miata [mailto:mrmazda@earthlink.net] Sent: April-13-12 6:00 PM To: opensuse@opensuse.org Subject: Re: [opensuse] Upgrade query
On 2012/04/13 16:15 (GMT-0400) Ted Byers composed:
I had bought a copy of SUSE Linux several years ago, version 10.1, and installed it just a couple weeks ago on an even older PC (with a CD reader, no USB ports and no DVD). It DOES have connection to the internet.
Since this machine is crippled by modern standard, I am wondering if I can use it to visit one of your websites and upgrade the whole system to the latest SUSE Linux live, without having to burn any disks. This machine is just a basic unit, with a slow NIC, basic processor, small drive and CD reader, but I would like to be able to use it to re-familiarize myself with Unix.
If the HD on your old PC isn't truly tiny, there's no reason you can't install more than one version, thus reducing to virtually nil the risk involved from "upgrading". Most of my systems have upwards of 3 installed operating systems even if the HD is as little as 13GB. My openSUSE test / (root) partitions are as small as 4GB, though most are 4.8GB, and I use a separate /home as small as 1.6GB. If you plan to install more than one X desktop environment, I suggest you don't go that small, but 8GB or more should be enough for experimenting with the common DEs like XFCE, LXDE, Gnome and KDE. If you plan to include a development environment or install "everything", then boost available space on / another 50% or more.
Actually, it may not be as crippled as I thought. I started to disassemble it and noticed there are a couple USB ports, albeit on the least assessable part of the back of the case (it is a mini-tower). But SUSE's System Monitor tells me that there is 1.5 GiB of memory and about 36.3 GiB of space on the hard disk.
Installation to any newer, still-supported release is possible by downloading only modest sized files (linux and initrd), and using them to begin an HTTP installation directly off the internet by loading them with the Grub bootloader that came with 10.1. If your CD drive is bootable, you can download a small netboot iso to burn to CD to make HTTP installation a bit easier to get started.
Many old motherboards came with USB ports that were never connected to anything. It may pay to open it up and see, so that if you find you need USB you may only need no more than a female case port and cable to connect it to
motherboard.
As mentioned upthread, enough RAM is important. Without it, you'll spend a frustrating amount of time waiting. If the motherboard can't support at least 512MB, you probably want to find something else to play with, if not now,
I don't have any CD writers. But the CD must be bootable since I booted from the original SUSE 10.1 CDs. the then
soon.
Given that this system appears to have lots of space and memory, relative to the minima you mentioned, and that I actually found USB ports that I thought weren't there, what do I do? I have 2 2GB and 1 4 GB memory sticks, so they ought to take any data I ought to load onto them. But I'd bet dollars to donuts that this system can boot from a memory stick plugged into a USB port. Speaking of which, I have three 1TB external hard drives that presently see little use. I have no idea if you can boot from such a device, but they plug into a USB port also. And, I have two servers whose drives failed, so I am wondering if they can be forced to boot from one of these external drives, and if I can do an install of Linux on a couple of them, and have each server boot from them. Those servers would become rather slow, but at least they might be made usable again, if that is feasible. So, I guess my question is expanded a bit. Given these other resources that I have available, and that the machine in question has enough capacity and well hidden USB ports, what would be the best way to proceed (I have a colleague that wants me to put Ubuntu on a machine, 'cause he's a fan of that distribution, and I'd like to try OpenBSD...)? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Ted -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org