• From: Scotland, Cold
  • Registered: 2009-01-17
  • Posts: 850

Topic: Minimum Requirements?

Hello everyone,

I was just wondering if anyone knew (or could take a reasonable guess) at the minimum system requirements to run #! or #! Lite?

Ex-KDE user.
Collects old PC's (Coz he can't afford new ones =P)
Crunchbang @ Distrowatch
My Blog (updated infrequently, and on the #! Planet too.)

Mehall's Website

  • From: Gig Harbor, WA, USA
  • Registered: 2008-12-16
  • Posts: 169

Re: Minimum Requirements?

Hi Mehall,

I'm actually not sure about this, but you can see some other systems (some quite old) running #! in this thread:
http://crunchbanglinux.org/forums/topic … ux-system/

Also, you can see the Ubuntu minimum requirements here:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Insta … quirements

If you meet those, you should do even better with #!. smile

sewmyheadon's Website

  • Registered: 2008-11-24
  • Posts: 2,087

Re: Minimum Requirements?

Hi Mehall,
Crunchbang is based on a minimal install of Ubuntu, so check out the requirements listed in Sewmyheadon's link under Xubuntu for a rough approximation of the system requirements.

Back in 8.04, I actually tested #! on virtual machines with different amounts of ram. I was actually able to get #! 8.04 Lite installed with 64mb of ram, though it was horribly slow! With 128mb it was tolerable, and with 256mb or above, it ran great. I have not repeated this experiment with 8.10.

Note that the Live CD might not run if you don't have enough ram, in which case you can install from an Ubuntu command line system using the alternate install script.

(edit) Not specific to #!, but in my experience, Pentium 3 with 256mb of ram is the minimum I would personally recommend for good performance with any "modern" Linux distro. Below that, I really recommend something like DSL or Puppy. smile

Last edited by snowpine (2009-01-19 18:10:46)

  • From: Scotland, Cold
  • Registered: 2009-01-17
  • Posts: 850

Re: Minimum Requirements?

I have an old Cyrix 333MHz with 64Mb of RAM (can't upgrade: no money, and none of my spare chips are compatible with the Mobo).

I figured It'd have to be ubuntu min install then the lite script.

Shouldn't #! have an alternate install disc so this is easier for users?

just looking for a way of making this half-way usable =P (Got Puppy Linux on it just now, but the packages you can add is restricitive at best)

thanks for the first link though, I see a nmber of people with similar speed Proc's running it, so I know it's just up to the RAM.

I might try installing alternate install or server install ubuntu w/o GUI and just x11 forward everything I want, but I tried to install server 8.04 and came across this bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/202959. Anyone know if it's fixed in 8.10? *goes and looks at bugfix details for 8.10*

Ex-KDE user.
Collects old PC's (Coz he can't afford new ones =P)
Crunchbang @ Distrowatch
My Blog (updated infrequently, and on the #! Planet too.)

Mehall's Website

  • Registered: 2008-11-24
  • Posts: 2,087

Re: Minimum Requirements?

Hi Mehall,
I am really curious to know the results of your experiment. I definitely remember the generating locales bug from the tests I ran with 8.04. Installing CLI Ubuntu literally took all night! And that was on a fairly fast computer (but in a 64mb virtual machine). I hope they fixed that bug in 8.10.

I would really recommend in your case avoiding the two biggest ram hogs (in my opinion) of modern Linux distros: xorg and firefox. If you use xvesa (which is used by Puppy, SliTaz, etc) and/or a different browser (kazehakase, links, dillo, etc) it will keep your ram usage down so you don't go into swap as quickly. You can "fake" having lots of ram by creating a big swap partition, but it will be slooooow!

I love CrunchBang, but being an Ubuntu-based distro, it does have a certain amount of "baggage" and will never be as light/fast as DSL, Puppy, SliTaz, etc. on ancient hardware. I personally think SliTaz is the most "Crunchbangy" of the lite distros (note however that you need the slitaz-loram "flavor" if you have less than 160mb) and would recommend it if, like me, you find Puppy to be too "dumbed down."

But, I hope you get CrunchBang Lite working and share the good news with all of us! That would be the best outcome...

  • From: Scotland, Cold
  • Registered: 2009-01-17
  • Posts: 850

Re: Minimum Requirements?

snowpine wrote:

Hi Mehall,
I am really curious to know the results of your experiment. I definitely remember the generating locales bug from the tests I ran with 8.04. Installing CLI Ubuntu literally took all night! And that was on a fairly fast computer (but in a 64mb virtual machine). I hope they fixed that bug in 8.10.

I would really recommend in your case avoiding the two biggest ram hogs (in my opinion) of modern Linux distros: xorg and firefox. If you use xvesa (which is used by Puppy, SliTaz, etc) and/or a different browser (kazehakase, links, dillo, etc) it will keep your ram usage down so you don't go into swap as quickly. You can "fake" having lots of ram by creating a big swap partition, but it will be slooooow!

I love CrunchBang, but being an Ubuntu-based distro, it does have a certain amount of "baggage" and will never be as light/fast as DSL, Puppy, SliTaz, etc. on ancient hardware. I personally think SliTaz is the most "Crunchbangy" of the lite distros (note however that you need the slitaz-loram "flavor" if you have less than 160mb) and would recommend it if, like me, you find Puppy to be too "dumbed down."

But, I hope you get CrunchBang Lite working and share the good news with all of us! That would be the best outcome...

I'm downloading ubuntu alternate install disc as we speak (slow connection though =[   ) and I'll try to get it working, but the plan was to use VESA, and it won't have a gui browser, just lynx. (I already install lynx on all my computers anyway)

The computer currently has a 5GB HDD in it, but I think I mgiht put a larger one in to allow for more swap, and also to save my current puppy install for later use. (I have two spare hard disks. I can't for the life of me remember what size one is, but I think it's 3GB, so I might use it as a swap drive =P)

And apparently the bug is an 8.04 bug (still being worked on) that shouldn't be present in 8.10. It's not so much fixed, just not there. Apparently.

Ex-KDE user.
Collects old PC's (Coz he can't afford new ones =P)
Crunchbang @ Distrowatch
My Blog (updated infrequently, and on the #! Planet too.)

Mehall's Website

  • Registered: 2009-09-21
  • Posts: 29

Re: Minimum Requirements?

...Please, let me know how the whole thing goes, I`m working on a old Pentium 3, 64 MB Memory and 4 GB HD, right now I running DSL from the live CD, not bad at all but I have no clue whatsoever on how to install it. I did tried Debian `cause I hear it can run on ancient PCs but something wrong with the partition and I`m not even sure how it happened. I will try again this week or next and I`ll let u know what happens...If u have any tips share them with me.

    Thank you all!!!

  • From: Scotland, Cold
  • Registered: 2009-01-17
  • Posts: 850

Re: Minimum Requirements?

I did try, for quite some time, to get something onto that Cyrix machine, but it's a 586era processor, so Ubuntu will not run well or at all.

I managed to get Debian to install, but depending on the speed of your P3, you may be able to get Ubuntu minimal install onto that system, as P3 was a 686, IIRC.

Good Luck!

Ex-KDE user.
Collects old PC's (Coz he can't afford new ones =P)
Crunchbang @ Distrowatch
My Blog (updated infrequently, and on the #! Planet too.)

Mehall's Website

  • Registered: 2008-11-24
  • Posts: 2,087

Re: Minimum Requirements?

hermitcrabred wrote:

...Please, let me know how the whole thing goes, I`m working on a old Pentium 3, 64 MB Memory and 4 GB HD, right now I running DSL from the live CD, not bad at all but I have no clue whatsoever on how to install it. I did tried Debian `cause I hear it can run on ancient PCs but something wrong with the partition and I`m not even sure how it happened. I will try again this week or next and I`ll let u know what happens...If u have any tips share them with me.

    Thank you all!!!

Hi there, 64mb is simply not enough ram for a modern linux distribution, in my humble opinion. My experiments with #! in a 64mb virtual machine were disasterous. Your only hope is a command line only install of some distribution for very basic server usage.