Dell Latitude X300 - any hope?

[Chris]

Dell Latitude X300 - any hope of getting Linux Mint onto it?
The DVD wouldn't boot from the DVD drive that came with the laptop.
(That drive plugs into a special USB port - bigger than normal.)

Haven't been able to boot from a USB stick.
I think the machine is not capable of it.

I wanted to put Mint 16 Xfce on it - but would accept any distro.
As long as Wi-Fi will work.

Any hope?

[Johnny]

Post by Chris
Dell Latitude X300 - any hope of getting Linux Mint onto it?
The DVD wouldn't boot from the DVD drive that came with the laptop.
(That drive plugs into a special USB port - bigger than normal.)
Haven't been able to boot from a USB stick.
I think the machine is not capable of it.
I wanted to put Mint 16 Xfce on it - but would accept any distro.
As long as Wi-Fi will work.
Any hope?

System requirements:
x86 processor (Linux Mint 64-bit requires a 64-bit processor. Linux Mint
32-bit works on both 32-bit and 64-bit processors).
512 MB RAM (1GB recommended for a comfortable usage).
5 GB of disk space
Graphics card capable of 800×600 resolution
CD/DVD drive or USB port


How did you make the DVD? Did you burn the image to the disk?

[Mike Easter]

Post by Chris
Dell Latitude X300 -

I don't have a dell latitude x300 so I don't know what hardware it is
and you didn't post a characterization of it.

If I search for the x300 on dell's pages, I'm given pages about the
optiplex 745 for some reason.

If I go to this old review page, I can learn more than you've told us here:

http://www.cnet.com/laptops/dell-latitude-x300-series/4505-3121_7-30468821.html


1.2GHz Intel Pentium M processor
Intel 855 chipset
standard integrated wireless
128meg ram standard (cnet tested had 640)

Post by Chris
any hope of getting Linux Mint onto it?

I would say YES (depending) -- here's a Ub testing page

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LaptopTestingTeam/Old/DellLatitudeX300 Dell
Latitude X300

There is a whole table full of Yes test results for the old Ub Feisty.

Post by Chris
The DVD wouldn't boot from the DVD drive that came with the laptop.
(That drive plugs into a special USB port - bigger than normal.)
Haven't been able to boot from a USB stick.
I think the machine is not capable of it.
I wanted to put Mint 16 Xfce on it - but would accept any distro.
As long as Wi-Fi will work.

In the test page linked above, both wired and wireless worked for Ub
Feisty which is 7.04 or July 2007 which was current when the tester checked.

I would be concerned about such an old LT laptop having little ram and
some other limiting factors.

One of the problems with very old or limited hardware resources is that
modern linux distros 'move on' beyond the older hardware; whereas Ub
7.04 might have worked back then, a 6.5 year newer distro might not.

[Chester A. Arthur]

Post by Chris
Dell Latitude X300 - any hope of getting Linux Mint onto it?
The DVD wouldn't boot from the DVD drive that came with the laptop.
(That drive plugs into a special USB port - bigger than normal.)
Haven't been able to boot from a USB stick.
I think the machine is not capable of it.
I wanted to put Mint 16 Xfce on it - but would accept any distro.
As long as Wi-Fi will work.

If you can't boot from USB (optical or thumbdrive) then you'll
probably have to do what Dell did in the factory to install WinCrap,
something like this. If it has enough memory.

http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux-HOWTO/Network-Install-HOWTO.html
or http://www.debian.org/distrib/netinst

[Mark Warner]

Post by Chester A. Arthur

Post by Chris
Dell Latitude X300 - any hope of getting Linux Mint onto it?
The DVD wouldn't boot from the DVD drive that came with the laptop.
(That drive plugs into a special USB port - bigger than normal.)
Haven't been able to boot from a USB stick.
I think the machine is not capable of it.
I wanted to put Mint 16 Xfce on it - but would accept any distro.
As long as Wi-Fi will work.

If you can't boot from USB (optical or thumbdrive) then you'll
probably have to do what Dell did in the factory to install WinCrap,
something like this. If it has enough memory.
http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux-HOWTO/Network-Install-HOWTO.html
or http://www.debian.org/distrib/netinst

Or, yank the drive, stick it in a machine you *can* get to boot from DVD
or USB, install to that drive (making sure you install the bootloader to
the MBR of that drive), then stick it back in the laptop.

Since the OP didn't give us any clue as to the specs of the thing, I can
only go by what Mike Easter found, and I have my doubts it would run
unless the RAM has been maxxed out to at least 1G. Even then, it would
probably be a dawg. As much as I like the fact that Linux allows you to
breathe life into old hardware, it won't run on a toaster. The best I've
been able to do is use MEPIS 8 (Debian Lenny with KDE 3.5) on my old
Dell Latitude PIII-700MHz/512MB lappy. It takes a while to boot up and
get going, but once it's there it does do email and Internet and basic
stuff okay, as long as there isn't any multimedia involved.

[Mike Easter]

Post by Mark Warner
what Mike Easter found,

If anyone including the OP want to dig further into the specs, I finally
got Dell's site 'straightened out'.

http://www.dell.com/support/my-support/us/en/04/product-support/product/latitude-x300/manuals
Manuals & documentation for your Latitude X300

Some snippages from wikipedia about the intel chipsets

Pentium 4-M/Pentium M/Celeron M mobile chipsets
855GM southbridge is ICH4-M released 2003 Mar
FSB 400 MHz DDR 200/266
Integrated Extreme Graphics 2 graphics core

Wiki on the 2003 graphics

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Extreme_Graphics#Second_generation
Intel marketed its second generation using the brand Extreme Graphics.

[Mike Easter]

Post by Chris
The DVD wouldn't boot from the DVD drive that came with the laptop.
(That drive plugs into a special USB port - bigger than normal.)

The latitude x300 has 1 normal USB2 ports and 1 D/Bay connector which is
a USB2+power plug.

Post by Chris
Haven't been able to boot from a USB stick.
I think the machine is not capable of it.

Probably not; you would find that in the BIOS.

Post by Chris
I wanted to put Mint 16 Xfce on it - but would accept any distro.
As long as Wi-Fi will work.

My first choice would be to test it with something like Puppy for older
computers such as Wary v. 5.3.

If that worked out OK; I would consider Lucid.

http://puppylinux.org/main/Long-Term-Supported%20WaryPuppy.htm
Long-Term-Supported WaryPuppy .. version 2.6.32.59 of the LTS kernel.

http://puppylinux.org/main/Download%20Latest%20Release.htm Lucid Puppy
(Ubuntu-Compatible Build) ... Lucid Puppy version uses kernel 2.6.33.2

[John B.]

Post by Chris
Dell Latitude X300 - any hope of getting Linux Mint onto it?
The DVD wouldn't boot from the DVD drive that came with the laptop.
(That drive plugs into a special USB port - bigger than normal.)
Haven't been able to boot from a USB stick.
I think the machine is not capable of it.
I wanted to put Mint 16 Xfce on it - but would accept any distro.
As long as Wi-Fi will work.
Any hope?

The Dell should boot from a USB drive if you configure the BIOS
correctly, at least the one I had some years ago would.

I've installed several "Mints" on various computers and certainly 10
and 13 (which I have on three computers) and LMDE (on two) will detect
and use Wi-Fi without any help from the operator.

[Chris]

In article <AZkwxkAA+ysSFwyP@[127.0.0.1]>, Chris <nospam@[127.0.0.1]>
writes

Post by Chris
Dell Latitude X300 - any hope of getting Linux Mint onto it?
The DVD wouldn't boot from the DVD drive that came with the laptop.
(That drive plugs into a special USB port - bigger than normal.)
Haven't been able to boot from a USB stick.
I think the machine is not capable of it.
I wanted to put Mint 16 Xfce on it - but would accept any distro.
As long as Wi-Fi will work.
Any hope?

Thanks for all the replies.
I have been away for a while and so have only just seen them.
I am overwhelmed and grateful for the help you have given.

This X300 has the max RAM of 1.25GB.
It is 9 years old.
It runs Widows 7 perfectly.
It looks from the BIOS that it should boot from USB.
I am probably doing something wrong.
I've not made a bootable usb stick before.
The latest MINT failed because of lack of PAE in the CPU.
I am told that MINT 13 LTS should be OK and have just downloaded it.
Will give it a go.
Can Wi-Fi work when using a live CD - or do you have to install MINT
before setting up Wi-Fi?

[Chris Whelan]

On Sat, 21 Dec 2013 10:41:31 +0000, Chris wrote:

[...]

Post by Chris
It looks from the BIOS that it should boot from USB.
I am probably doing something wrong.

Not necessarily.I've always found that with you have a combination of
machine, USB stick, and distro that works, if you change any one thing it
may not. If you fail with one USB stick, try another if possible

Post by Chris
The latest MINT failed because of lack of PAE in the CPU.
I am told that MINT 13 LTS should be OK and have just downloaded it.

Yep, I can confirm it works with non-PAE machines.

Post by Chris
Will give it a go.
Can Wi-Fi work when using a live CD - or do you have to install MINT
before setting up Wi-Fi?

Yes, wifi will work from running live, and Mint is very good at
recognising most wifi hardware.

If you get it installed (and you should),do read all the information
about configuring a new install.

Chris

[Johnny]

Post by Chris
writes

Post by Chris
Dell Latitude X300 - any hope of getting Linux Mint onto it?
The DVD wouldn't boot from the DVD drive that came with the laptop.
(That drive plugs into a special USB port - bigger than normal.)
Haven't been able to boot from a USB stick.
I think the machine is not capable of it.
I wanted to put Mint 16 Xfce on it - but would accept any distro.
As long as Wi-Fi will work.
Any hope?

Thanks for all the replies.
I have been away for a while and so have only just seen them.
I am overwhelmed and grateful for the help you have given.
This X300 has the max RAM of 1.25GB.
It is 9 years old.
It runs Widows 7 perfectly.
It looks from the BIOS that it should boot from USB.
I am probably doing something wrong.
I've not made a bootable usb stick before.
The latest MINT failed because of lack of PAE in the CPU.
I am told that MINT 13 LTS should be OK and have just downloaded it.
Will give it a go.
Can Wi-Fi work when using a live CD - or do you have to install MINT
before setting up Wi-Fi?

How can I install on a non-PAE CPU? (error “Kernel requires features not
present on the CPU: PAE”)

http://askubuntu.com/questions/117744/how-can-i-install-on-a-non-pae-cpu-error-kernel-requires-features-not-present

[John B.]

Post by Chris
writes

Post by Chris
Dell Latitude X300 - any hope of getting Linux Mint onto it?
The DVD wouldn't boot from the DVD drive that came with the laptop.
(That drive plugs into a special USB port - bigger than normal.)
Haven't been able to boot from a USB stick.
I think the machine is not capable of it.
I wanted to put Mint 16 Xfce on it - but would accept any distro.
As long as Wi-Fi will work.
Any hope?

Thanks for all the replies.
I have been away for a while and so have only just seen them.
I am overwhelmed and grateful for the help you have given.
This X300 has the max RAM of 1.25GB.
It is 9 years old.
It runs Widows 7 perfectly.
It looks from the BIOS that it should boot from USB.
I am probably doing something wrong.
I've not made a bootable usb stick before.
The latest MINT failed because of lack of PAE in the CPU.
I am told that MINT 13 LTS should be OK and have just downloaded it.
Will give it a go.
Can Wi-Fi work when using a live CD - or do you have to install MINT
before setting up Wi-Fi?

On two different desk-tops and two different model Lenovo laptops when
the live CD had booted and I had a desk top I was able to log onto an
existing Wi-Fi server with no problems what so ever. The two laptops
had internal Wi-Fi and the two desktops were using a USB Wi-Fi stick.

[Chris]

Post by John B.

Post by Chris
writes

Post by Chris
Dell Latitude X300 - any hope of getting Linux Mint onto it?
The DVD wouldn't boot from the DVD drive that came with the laptop.
(That drive plugs into a special USB port - bigger than normal.)
Haven't been able to boot from a USB stick.
I think the machine is not capable of it.
I wanted to put Mint 16 Xfce on it - but would accept any distro.
As long as Wi-Fi will work.
Any hope?

Thanks for all the replies.
I have been away for a while and so have only just seen them.
I am overwhelmed and grateful for the help you have given.
This X300 has the max RAM of 1.25GB.
It is 9 years old.
It runs Widows 7 perfectly.
It looks from the BIOS that it should boot from USB.
I am probably doing something wrong.
I've not made a bootable usb stick before.
The latest MINT failed because of lack of PAE in the CPU.
I am told that MINT 13 LTS should be OK and have just downloaded it.
Will give it a go.
Can Wi-Fi work when using a live CD - or do you have to install MINT
before setting up Wi-Fi?

On two different desk-tops and two different model Lenovo laptops when
the live CD had booted and I had a desk top I was able to log onto an
existing Wi-Fi server with no problems what so ever. The two laptops
had internal Wi-Fi and the two desktops were using a USB Wi-Fi stick.

Mint 13 LTS installed perfectly on the X300.
Wi-Fi worked immediately both on live and installed OS.
A friend has suggested that installing libglx drivers would improve
graphics.
The graphics seem OK right now though.
Any opinions about libglx?

[Mike Easter]

Post by Chris

Post by Chris
This X300 has the max RAM of 1.25GB.
It looks from the BIOS that it should boot from USB.

Mint 13 LTS installed perfectly on the X300.
Wi-Fi worked immediately both on live and installed OS.

Good.

Post by Chris
A friend has suggested that installing libglx drivers would improve
graphics.

I wonder where he is getting that and I wonder exactly what he said.

Post by Chris
The graphics seem OK right now though.
Any opinions about libglx?

My searching on libglx and libglx.so just leads me to nvidia related
drivers, but your graphics is Intel -- so I didn't find anything to tell
me why your friend would say whatever he said.

My AMD system with SiS chipset and drivers has its libglx.so here:

/usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions/libglx.so

I would think that your old Intel graphics are handled quite adequately
by the kernel.

[Mark Warner]

Post by Chris
Mint 13 LTS installed perfectly on the X300.
Wi-Fi worked immediately both on live and installed OS.
A friend has suggested that installing libglx drivers would improve
graphics.
The graphics seem OK right now though.
Any opinions about libglx?

Good to hear. Wouldn't have expected anything different, really.

A good rule of thumb is the kernel needs to be six months or so older
than the hardware, and the hardware can't be ancient, and most any full
featured "user friendly" distro will work OOTB.

If your graphics are okay as is, then leave it alone. (libglx may not
even come into play on your hardware.) If it ain't broke, then don't fix
it.