Installing mepis on old pc

When you start your machine, do you see something about hitting either 'Esc' or 'F10' to enter 'Setup'?
What this will do is take you into the BIOS configuration. Here (among other things) you can set your boot order for devices. You'll want to make sure that your CD (or DVD) drive is ahead of your hard drive.
Hope this helps.

Another consideration is going to be the amount of RAM you have in that machine.

You will need at least 128MB (256MB would be even better) as an absolute minimum to run contemporary KDE releases (3.3+).

Home of the Point-N-Click Help Files
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

http://www.mepis.org/docs/index.php/System_Requirements

I am running four boxes with 3.3.1-1 all have 64meg of ram
and running very well and standable screen speeds.

Just need to update mepislite to bring up to date without
losing that nice older ver speed.

hehe

Try using smartboot manager

http://linux.simple.be/tools/sbm

first of all thanks for the reply's.

@ baldass_newbie
- I see F2 and ESC, wich are for running cmos (bios) and POST.
in my bios version I do not have a menu in wich I can choose to boot from cd.

@Enigma one
- I knew of this, but I read that with an other desktop environement than KDE it would be possible to run the system with only 64ram.

@burdicda
- That is exactly what I need... but it doesn't work. I try to figure out why. (it does not find the cd in the drive when I scan for all boot records)

Is that the one that does double-duty as an automotive anti-theft device?

Have a look here: http://www.gabston-howell.org/tech/gateway.bro.shtml so's you know (generally) what to expect...

...and, if you need another couple 64MB DIMMs, let me know. I'm swimming in the things, and can shoot you a couple of 'em--free (as in beer).

Home of the Point-N-Click Help Files
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

"Is that the one that does double-duty as an automotive anti-theft device?"

Are you serious? Or do you mean that it is a slow computer? (it actually is, but like i said, it's just for learning for now)

"Have a look here: http://www.gabston-howell.org/tech/gateway.bro.shtml so's you know (generally) what to expect..."

I read it, but I bought mine new some years ago and now I want to give it new life. It still work greats on win98 is isn't to slow on internet as well. I'm sure with the right tools I can manage to install mepis on it, that is if I find those tools.

"...and, if you need another couple 64MB DIMMs, let me know. I'm swimming in the things, and can shoot you a couple of 'em--free (as in beer)."

Actually I can use 1, but this will recuire you coming to europe. (We do have beer here though, and lots of it)

Anyways,

I now have created a smartbootdisk and if I put it in I can use the menu and all that, but it does not recognise my cd rom drive or the disk in it.

It would be perfect if I could use this disk and then boot from the cd. But then I need it to find my dvd/cd drive.

Anyone ever had the same problem or knows what the problem could be?

What kind of drive usb or ide type and does the bios see it? I use the smart boot manager disk all the time with normal internal optical drives without any problems so it makes me wonder what you have going on there.

jim

Not heeled that well, at the moment...too many ARs left on the books for this quarter.

If you give me a PO Box, or something like that, I'll drop one in the mail to you. (Use the contact form on the website, if that's what you decide you want to do.)

That was just one of my signature bad jokes. For a while, in the USA, there was an automotive anti-theft device marketed under the name "The Club".

Home of the Point-N-Click Help Files
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

This is what my AMIBIOS easy setup utilities ver 1.17 reads:

MAIN
- floppy a: 1.44mb 3.5inch
- floppy b: not installed
- primary ide master and slave both: auto
- secondary ide master and slave both: auto

ADVANCED CMOS SETUP (these are standard)
- 1st boot: floppy
- 2nd boot: ide-0
- 3th boot: cdrom

I tought auto was ok. In windows both the dvd and the cd reader works. I my opinion the cmos setup is good as well.

This is what my AMIBIOS easy setup utilities ver 1.17 reads:

MAIN
- floppy a: 1.44mb 3.5inch
- floppy b: not installed
- primary ide master and slave both: auto
- secondary ide master and slave both: auto

ADVANCED CMOS SETUP (these are standard)
- 1st boot: floppy
- 2nd boot: ide-0
- 3th boot: cdrom

I tought auto was ok. In windows both the dvd and the cd reader works. I my opinion the cmos setup is good as well.