WattOS-LXDE - R9 -32 bit - CDROM - ISO File Too Big for CD

[clive]

Greetings Everyone,
The laptop which I want install on (HP Compaq nx 9040 Celeron 330 M 1.4 GHz 256 MB RAM) only has a CD reader. Is there anything that I can strip from the .iso in order to be able to burn onto a CD (700 MB)? In the meantime I'll try Microwatt.
Thanks in advance

[tukoz]

Depending on the software used to burn the CD and your burner, 711 MB could well fit on a "700 MB" (80 min) pancake.
K3B does overburn *well*. Or e.g. ImgBurn from Windows®.

[teejay]

Welcome to wattOS, clive.   

To address your question directly :
Can your laptop boot from USB ?   If so, you'll find plenty support for using that route.

Depending on how easy/difficult it is to remove the HDD, users here have installed wattOS to the HDD while in another machine then transferred the HDD back to the minimalist machine. 


On a different tack, 256MB RAM will probably not give the best of results with mainstream wattOS R9.   Especially if you browse anywhere near graphics-rich webpages. 
I'd suggest you d/l and install microwatt, which WILL fit on a CD, watch the video Biff made about using microwatt/i3wm, and go from there. 
Expanding/changing your software inventory from there can be done by command line or Synaptic, as the video shows.    You can install another browser if Midori proves problematic; I suspect you can add LXDE if you want (but I haven't tried that). 
And if the HP will accept more RAM, so much the better.

Good luck.

[clive]

Thanks to both of you for your assistance and advice. Perhaps this needs to be in a different post, but I've tried running Microwatt R9 32 bit and it fails to run in Live Boot. The boot screen appears, automatic boot in 1 second appears, 7 lines of dots appear across the screen, then nothing further. Perhaps Microwatt isn't ideal for machines as old as this?

[leenie]

Hi Clive and welcome to the forum,

You will need to get PLOP burned to a cd, if your old pc will not boot from usb. Use unetbootin to make your usb with microwatt. Boot pc with PLOP and you can choose where to boot from.

get PLOP here: https://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager/download.html

get Unetbootin here: https://unetbootin.github.io/

[clive]

Leenie,
Thanks very much for sharing your knowledge. I'm looking forward to the challenge of learning about PLOP & Unetbootin.

[teejay]

I doubt that your nx9040 is "too old" for microwatt.
The boot observations you make are concerning.   I don't have an instant solution, but there are things to check.

A list of checks for failed liveCD boot would include the downloaded iso (did you check the MD5 sum ?).
I think the boot has reached the stage of checking for graphics processing (but someone more tech-able might disagree). 
The i855GM chipset in the 9040 did give issues with Ubuntu 14.04 (the base for microwatt R9).  My quick look online suggests this was primarily for users with "heavy" desktops (eg Unity), not lightweight releases such as microwatt; however, there could be some issue there I didn't come across.
Your onboard graphics shares memory - that is, it uses some of the 256MB RAM.  Whether/how this affects boot is beyond my competence, but history suggests more RAM is better for older machines.  DDR 266 SODIMMs are inexpensive these days, and your nx9040 will take 2GB total.   
The nx9040 should have a switch and LED indicator for wireless - if that's on when booting, switch it off.  Use ethernet cable. 

Historically, some laptop users (and others) have needed to add the boot option   nomodeset   to get beyond a black screen.  When the screen is saying automatic boot, press [space] and look to edit the boot parameters ..... add nomodeset       then continue

Not an instant solution, but some checks to make.  Again, good luck.

[clive]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I've been made to feel very welcome.
Teejay, a question based on your comment "DDR 266 SODIMMs are inexpensive these days". I've pulled the RAM from machine and it's 333 MHz (not 266 as you recommend). I'm wondering if 2 GB of a slower RAM would still be a good investment? The price of equivalent 333 MHz RAM is too expensive to consider on such an old machine.
To everyone else I will work through and attend to your suggestions. I'm determined to give it my best shot.

[cheiron]

One thing with ram is that you must use modules of the same speed if combining....


if say you had a pc3400 and a pc4200 .. the ram module would only run at pc3400 speed and you would actually lose performance as a result of the faster ram being in.


so if you were to consider the lower speed.. you must use modules of same speed and type.


if the machine is compatible, remember

[clive]

After I figured out how to overcome the No PAE error I have been able to run WattOS-LXDE - R9 -32 bit by using PLOP & Unetbootin as suggested by Leenie. I'm a very happy noobie. Thanks everyone for your help and for making me feel so welcome at your forum.

[teejay]

Congratulations - a just reward for perseverance.

re RAM and speeds
I looked at the HP QuickSpecs doc on the nx9040.  There are several, one of which outlines the range of cpu fitted as standard.   For all models, apparently, the spec is :
 Two 266-MHz DDR memory slots with support for up to 2048 MB (configurations offered up to 1024 MB) 
So I assumed you had 266MHz RAM.

For pricing, I did the very quickest of looks on eBay for DDR 266 and saw 1GB SODIMMs at inexpensive prices.  (Not profound research, I know.  I gave 333 no thought at all.) 

Was your 333 SODIMM fitted standard ?  Quite possibly.   The following comment appears later in the spec doc.
  Standard   Configurable from 128 to 1024 MB 266-MHz DDR
  Maximum   2048-MB 266-MHz DDR SDRAM 
NOTE: Uses PC 2700 DDR 333MHz memory module but system runs at 266MHz.

Apart from HP reckoning that you would be best to choose HP RAM (surprise !), there is no further note in the spec on this topic. 
The HP website has notes on upgrading RAM, here :  https://h20566.www2.hp.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?sp4ts.oid=428120&docId=emr_na-c00820047&docLocale=en_US
If they do have a definitive view on 266 v 333, then it might be in this area.  (It needs your specific model number to start.) 

Hope that clarifies, and saves you some searching.

[clive]

Thank you Teejay. As you observe the "slower" modules are super inexpensive so I intend to purchase a pair and see how that improves performance. It does seem that the 333 MHz was standard according to the manual: 256-MB DDR synchronous DRAM (SDRAM) at 333 MHz,
expandable to 2.0 GB or 1.0 GB, varying by notebook model