I got my hands on an old HP Compaq DC 7900. 4x512 DDR2 and a core 2 duo E4600, no graphics card.

I know I should first upgrade the HDD to an SSD and expand the ram, I will do that later. For now, I need help with this issue

I’ve tried to install Linux in this thing for the past week and every image I try, be it mabox, zorin, Linux lite, Mint xfce. Everything ends with the same message or a black screen (though from how my keyboard shuts down as well on the black screen, I guess it was the same message but without sending any image)

Does anyone know if it’s somehow hardware related? Something like the components being so proprietary and old that Linux can’t handle them?

I’m relatively new to Linux, but I read that it could be a flipped bit in the image but that’s unlikely from how it happens with each image I try.

I’m now running it on MiniOS10 (I’m not going anywhere near the monstrosity that is 8.0) but it’s still pretty slow

  • mvirts@lemmy.world
    0·
    8 months ago

    Hmm i would start by removing all nonessential peripherals, reseating the ram and running memtest. Looks like init crashed. also I would check that your kernel and system arent built for cpu features not available on that chip.

    does the machine boot any other os?

    edit: missed the last bit

    Maybe dig up an old iso from when the machine was new

    • Nova_Exxi@lemmy.worldOP
      0·
      8 months ago

      I don’t know how to check for that. On the other hand, do you have any distro recommendations from Q4 2008?