Radio Linux on a lesser computer

[Jack]

Is it somehow possible to run your software on a computer with a < 1GH speed and only 512MB of memory? I am not looking to run major but I have a Dell CPx machine currently with 128 MB of memory running DSL Linux, I want to change the OS to your software but I have concerns about the ability of the computer to handle it. If I have to lose something that's fine. I am using this as a springboard to learn Linux so I don;t need all bells and whistles right now. Just some directions.

[Andy Stewart]

Hi Jack,

My recommendation is to create a DVD or bootable thumb drive and see what happens. If you do, please keep us posted as to your experience.

Have a lot of fun, and 73,

Andy
KB1OIQ

[David Ranch]

Hello Jack,

If I remember correctly, a Dell CPx has a Pentium-M CPU which doesn't properly advertise having the PAE CPU instruction. There are work arounds for this (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PAE) so like Andy mentioned, try creating a bootable CD/DVD/USB-thumb-drive, read the above URL and give it a go. Beyond that, the RAM size and video card RAM size will really dictate what applications work properly or not. I personally had a Dell CPx but programs like Fldigi struggled to work but other GUI programs and most command line tools worked fine. If you're new to Linux and/or you're not willing to really dig hard to tune things to work, I would just recommend to get a newer computer. Most modern Linux distributions really require decently modern hardware now though there are other distributions that are geared to lowend HW (but that's not Andy's ISO) and you'll have to build up the HAM Application stack yourself.

--David
KI6ZHD