Main > Software Forum
nLited XP installs for a cab
quarterback:
--- Quote from: spystyle on November 05, 2006, 11:52:42 am ---Max out the RAM on those - If TinyXP uses nearly 50 MB RAM you will need more RAM for MAME32 to use. If the said computer had 256 MB RAM (cheap to buy) I bet it would work.
Also consider 95 and 98, they use less than 25 MB RAM
--- End quote ---
Yeah, I'm running 98 now on my emachines with MAME .55, they work fine for the classic verticals I'm running.
I'd run DOS except I don't like the front ends. They just look so.... DOSsy. I was a MameWah guy but after too many struggles I switched to MALA and I'm hooked! I'll probably just stay with 98, but I may try out this XP beast just for grins.
Thanks for all the info. This is a great thread.
RXII:
I have wanted to try these on my 333mhz AMD-K6 machine but I cannot get them to boot up. With the help of Spystyle I could get his boot CD to boot but only after using a WIN98 boot disc to install the CDrom drivers so it would recognise the CD drive. Then the install was riddled with "Invalid Drive Specification" errors, which would render the install useless. This is driving me insane, I also wanted to try the TinyXP but I have no idea what to type in to get that to boot up. I have also tried several different settings in the Bios to boot off the CD etc..no go. PLEASE HELP!
Cheers,
Simon.
IG-88:
You shouldn't have to type anything in to get TinyXP to boot as long as you have your computer set to boot from the CD-Rom first in the bios. Also make sure you have the .iso burned onto a cd correctly, I had probs with that earlier until I used that Burn4Free program that SpyStyle talked about. It was the only one that seemed to work for me. If you have both of these things done all you should have to do is pop the cd in and watch.
Or maybe try a different cd-rom drive if you have one. I know some of my real old machines won't read cd-rw's....if you are using one of those discs. It just might be a faulty drive too. :dunno
spystyle:
If you can get your PC to boot from floppy but not from CD, boot from the floppy, go to the cd's i386 directory and type netsetup.
I think that will do it
If not see this:
http://www.tech-recipes.com/windows_installation_tips578.html
spystyle:
OK, for more comparative data I installed "Damn Small Linux" on a 200mhz Pentium with 32 MB RAM and 500 MB HDD.
I found that it uses 9.4 MB RAM (when set to JWM window manager)
(it looks exactly like the attached pic, only the pic is not mine, it's from the web so the ram usage shown is different)
It looks like it would turn an old PC into a nice workstation, I am unsure how to make it useful for MAME but I would imagine you could install XMAME on it.
Below is the install guide I used
Cheers,
Craig
-------------------------------------------
preparing the hard drive
I booted the DSL CD with boot option dsl 2.
From the command line I typed:
fdisk /dev/hda
(This brings up the Linux version of "Fdisk") I made two partitions hda1 type 82 100Meg for swap and hda2 type 83 for the rest.
Then I typed mkswap /dev/hda1, mkfs.ext2 /dev/hda2, and swapon /dev/hda1
Installing DSL linux to the hard drive
1. Boot the computer from DSL Linux CD, at the prompt press enter
2. Once DSL linux has started and you see the desktop - right click the desktop, choose Apps > Tools > Install to hard drive
3. When asked what partition type hda2, answer yes to start install
4. after install is done it asks if you want to install the boot installer > yes
5. When asked what boot loader press "L" and enter
5. after that it asks if you want to reboot > yes. Remove the DSL Linux CD from the CD-ROM drive
Once booted from hard drive I right clicked the desktop and chose "window manager > switch to JWM"
It changed the desktop to JWM and shows the RAM usage as 9.4 MB (out of 32 MB)
Done :)
----------------------------------------
Here are some advanced instructions to turn the PC into a better workstation :
When it reboots, you have a very simple machine. A few web clients, VI (a crippled Vim), several other apps. Enough for simple computer usage, but not what you'd call a real desktop machine.
The installation does not have a functional apt-get or dpkg. You need those if you want to do anything more than browse the net and get email. To enable them, be sure your Internet connection is working and connected, then right click the desktop, then Apps->Tools->Enable Apt. The computer will take quite a bit of time downloading more stuff.
Installing IceWM
The Fluxbox window manager is nice, but if you're like me you prefer a taskbar and start button. The IceWM window manager is almost as efficient as Fluxbox, and it has a start button, task bar, and network and CPU monitors on the taskbar. Install IceWM as follows:
apt-get install icewm
The computer will download and install IceWM. To enable IceWM, edit the /home/dsl/.xinitrc file. Comment out the line that runs fluxbox, and substitute the following:
# set mouse speed
xset m 5 2
# start xterm by default
xterm &
icewmtray &
# silently check if icewm is in your $PATH and start icewm when found
# or a red colored xterm when not found or execution of icewm fails
which icewm >/dev/null 2>&1 && exec icewm || exec xterm -bg red
The result is a rather hard to see black version of IceWM. You need to change the theme. Do so by creating a .icewm directory under the home directory, and creating a preferences file containing the following:
ShowThemesMenu=1 # 0 / 1
Theme="Nice/default.theme"
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version