<div dir="ltr">The video card was some generic onboard type. I don't have the motherboard in front of me, so I can't check. (We threw it away).<br>I don't know the specifics, only that one day after a kernel upgrade the screen did not work. At all. Not even a little bit.<br>
For a while we kept up with the upgrades, rolling back again when it became obvious that the new kernel won't support it. Eventually we gave up and stopped upgrading the kernel.<br>It could be the monitor itself though. That was a huge old cathode ray tube deal. We threw that away too, when the blue stopped working.<br>
Anyway, old hardware is fun to play with for a while, but it eventually dies its final death and we just move on.<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Jan 11, 2011 at 11:51 AM, Shlomi Fish <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:shlomif@iglu.org.il">shlomif@iglu.org.il</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;"><div class="im">On Monday 10 Jan 2011 17:18:22 Mordecha Behar wrote:<br>
> 1) Most hardware elements are pretty idiot-proof. There's only one way to<br>
> plug them in, and only one place they can go.<br>
> But you can skip this step if you want. A lot of people buy new computers<br>
> even when their old one isn't exactly broken, it's just not up to spec.<br>
> People want faster, more powerful computers, and they tend to throw away<br>
> slower, weaker ones. Ask around, I'm sure' you'll be able to turn up a<br>
> computer in good condition that is simple "too slow". Once Linux is<br>
> installed on it, that won't be a problem anymore.<br>
> 2) You could pick a distribution that has very good hardware support for<br>
> most of the "standard" components. Ubuntu and Mandriva are two that spring<br>
> to mind.<br>
> 3) Yes, it would be interesting. For the simple reason that they now have a<br>
> computer (or several) in their classroom that they can use. Furthermore,<br>
> there is the coolness factor. They took an old decrepit computer and turned<br>
> it into something useful, and rather powerful. All thanks to FOSS.<br>
><br>
> As to Ubuntu, I had a Pentium III with 128 MB of RAM that was running<br>
> Ubuntu for years. It recently died from simple wear and tear on the<br>
> physical components. It worked very well, faster even than my XP computer.<br>
> Of course it had a very old video card, and that prevented us from<br>
> updating past kernel 2.6.19, but still, it worked very well.<br>
<br>
</div>Out of curiousity, why didn't the very old video card work with kernels 2.6.20<br>
and above? Was compatibility dropped? Which video card was it? Didn't it<br>
support VESA mode? Finally - was it not possible to upgrade it to something<br>
newer and better supported?<br>
<br>
I'm asking because old kernels tend to accumulate many security<br>
vulnerabilities and are not recommended.<br>
<div><div></div><div class="h5"><br>
Regards,<br>
<br>
Shlomi Fish<br>
<br>
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