EPIA
EPIA Mini ITX Computer
"del" is magic key for BIOS
File:EPIA+V+Operating+Guidelines+Version+1.30.pdf
OS Install Attempts[edit]
0903119
- Windows XP Pro SP3 - WXPVOL_EN.iso 637,568 KB (trying with single monitor RGB & 1600x1200 set in BIOS)
On boot, resolutions show up to to 1400x1050- and worked. Installing drivers from WINXP_NEW_EPIA_INSTALL_090219.
After chipset & reboot - 1400x1050 resolution is still there, and works.
After VGA & reboot - Highest driver resolution got knocked down to 1280x1024. Second, ghost monitor appears. In device manager, three new splats: Planar PL2011M (monitor, can do 1600x1200 in theory), and two "Unknown Device" items (could one of these be the ghost monitor?) Ok... what the. While searching for a monitor driver (apparently there are none), the splats resolved themselves in device manager. Disappeared. A 1600x1200 digital flat panel, generic television, & plug & play monitor are all listed in monitors under device manager. Going to try seeing what i can stomp down in the bios. Changed PNP OS to yes. Reboot. Nothing changed. Removed the generic monitor & tv from device manager. Rebooted. Monitors came back into device manager. I removed every item under add/remove programs- all /Display Driver related as far as I could tell (S3, Univision). Rebooted. Resolutions up to 1400x1050 were brought back. Ghost monitor gone. Refresh rate seems laggy.
16.94.44.11 appear to be the most recent VGA driver on the VIA chipset page. Trying those. To make things more complex, "cle266-16-94-44-11.zip" extracts into three more .zip files: CLE266_Win2KXP_16944411_Rotation.zip, CLE266_Win2KXP_16944411_Simult.zip, and CLE266_Win2KXP_16944411_WIShld.zip.
And this note:
"VIA/S3G Graphics driver formal release version
wIshld : default setting with InstallShield Setup Launcher
default support SAMM(different content on different display) with dual IGA engine
default support TV Large Font
default without display Rotation function
Rotation : default setting with display Rotation function
default setting with InstallShield Setup Launcher
default support SAMM(different content on different display) with dual IGA engine default support TV Large Font
Simult : default Simultaneous support the same content on different display with single IGA engine.
default setting with InstallShield Setup Launcher
default support TV Large Font
default without display Rotation function
PS: Simultaneous driver will use the same timing on two display device since just using one IGA engine, so if you display device CRT+TV the CRT will be compress "
I am going with "CLE266_Win2KXP_16944411_WIShld.zip" just becuase. Let's see. rebooted. Annnd we're back to having a ghost monitor and max 1280x1024 resolution. Removed drivers (this time there was only one item in installed apps, the S3 driver). Rebooted. Next try: rotation version. Same exact results. Let's go nuts & swap out the vga cable just for "fun". Nope. Same. Lastly, trying the Simul version. Same exact. Removed, rebooted. Trying driver from the EPIA factory CD. Same deal. Trying CLE266_XP2K_16943209_wIShld_logod.zip. Same result. Trying CLE266_16-94-44-45_XP_Rotation_logod.zip. Same result. Just for fun I'll keep the version above since it may be the latest. Moving onto audio. And... NO SOUND. This board has produced sound before, I am almost sure of it. installed 700b drivers. NO AUDIO. WHAT THE FUCK. Switched out RAM just to try it. Nope. NO audio. Tried removing the display driver, went back to the fallback via web driver from WINXP_NEW_EPIA_INSTALL_090219. Rebooted and nothing- no sound. Updated the BIOS just in case.
Replaced Motherboard- everything's fine. The audio portion of that board just... died. That's about all I can say. It's now happened twice.
- note- to add to driver cd: 700b vinyl drivers, asio4all.
Tried running ACID 7.0c and... whew. DX drivers barely played, ASIO4ALL not at all (lag/no play.) Disabled AC97 audio (and modem) in bios, installed Audigy 2 card, ran SBAX_PCDRV_LB_2_18_0017.exe. Card installed fine, but no driver I found could play the demo track in ACID (Audigy, Creative ASIO, ASIO4All, Direct Sound, etc.) To be fair, Acid Pro 7 was released in 2006, a bit too new to expect it to run on already underpowered hardware from 2002/2003.
0902119
- Windows XP Professional SP3 x86 - Integral Edition 2019 8 17
This time, we'll use the "WINXP_NEW_EPIA_INSTALL_090219" directory files only & see what happens. Setup will also happen with a "CRT" and "1600x1200" setting in the BIOS. Install seems to be sitting on the 2-color blue & white WinXP logo screen with a "please wait" window for awhile. Also waited for awhile on registering components. Came down after a couple of hours, it was on a light blue screen. Rebooted, turned off IR & usb keyboard in bios. Booted- back into the light blue screen with a moveable pointer. ctrl-shift-esc launches task launcher... but that's it. Rebooted, started in safe mode. Some errors, 'run as dll' problem, 'dr. watson' error reporter or similar failed. Rebooted. Setup seems to be continuing... Personalized settings... a window with Kilroy in ascii and "DriverPacks Finisher" 11.09.012 http://driverpacks.net/ "Each DriverPack is a package of drivers for a particular category of hardware. There are for example DriverPacks for Sound devices and for Graphics devices. For each of these DriverPacks we include every device driver of that category. On top of that, we solve tricky problems — such as driver conflicts — for you."
Interesting... I wonder if driverpacks is fucking with the graphics driver at some low level & preventing higher resolutions. -*** Wrong- because this is a version that I did not think I was installing: see below.
- AHHH Shit. I thought I had been installing the former version (WXPVOL_EN.iso). No wonder this install was weird, and I'm surprised it's going all the way through.
New screen with options for the 'integral apps' or features. Left all checked. It'll be interesting if this whole thing installs.
One by one the options are installing... 7-zip... .NET framework.. etc. lots of installer errors, seems to be crashing over & over on the .NET portion. msiexec.exe
Quit the installer. Got to desktop, but still the error loop/installer crash, as if it keeps trying in the bg. Had to hard reset. 11PM, heading to bed.
9/3/19 Resuming, boots into 640x480. Here comes the 'integral apps' panel again. Removing the .NET option & trying again. One install crash, but it's moving along to powertoys etc. The msiexec.exe keeps crashing & asking if it can send an error report. Now sumatrapdf v 3.1.2 crashed, modname gdiplus.dll. Now killpot.exe has an error. Now a 'real' error with an ok box- PotPlayerMini.exe Application Error, failed to initialize properly. Of the 14 apps from the panel I requested this time around, I'm guessing at least a few failed (I didn't look at the details of every crashed installer but should have to know what to avoid in the future.) Crashy programs to avoid in the future: .NET, .7zip (can do my own), sumatraPDF, PotPlayer. Is Basilisk (a browser) needed? All through the panel app install process, a command window "CLI: WinXP-IE" hung around, running through a script to install/register items. Finally at the desktop post-install. Lots of explorer.exe crashes & DrWatson warnings. Mouse pointer moves but can't interact with anything (l/r mouse clicks do nothing). Windows key, ctrl-esc do not pop the start menu. Let it sit for awhile, screen saver came on, now it won't exit that mode. Frozen.
STOP THE INSANITY. This thing is way to crashy to deal with. Trying it again by accident anyway. Moving on.
0829119
- Windows XP Pro SP3 - WXPVOL_EN.iso 637,568 KB (install to Sandisk 16GB SD card)
Installed fine. Neat, Windows XP running from an SD card!
On bootup, before installing any drivers, video modes up to 1400x1050 are selectable, but the resolution stays at 1024x768. "Multimedia Audio Controller" and "Video Controller (VGA compatible)" show up in device manager with yellow splats.
Now let's try something different. I'm going to go with newer drivers, taking into consideration the notes & suggestions from http://download.viatech.com/en/support/driversSelect.jsp, and & see what breaks.
VIA 4 in 1: "VIA_4in1_443v.zip" is recommended for 'older' systems, going with that ("Drivers (Windows XP 32-bit)" dir in dropbox)
Installed, Interestingly higher monitor resos up to 1400x1050 showed up after chipset install. Trying them appeared to grow the resolution offscreen (screen is cut off) but moving the mouse to screen borders did not scroll anywhwere.
Also, windows recognized a USB 2.0 drive it hadn't recognized before the VIA drivers were installed.
Graphics: "CLE266_16-94-44-45_XP_Rotation_logod" are undated, but likely 2005/2006, and are the highest up for CLE266 motherboards. Graphics driver worked but max 1024x768 resolution. Looked online, revieds for the EPIA M series (not necessarily the M10000G) claimed resolutions up to 1600x1200 in 2003. Let's try this older driver from 2003: CLE266_XP2K_16943209_wIShld_logod.zip Removed existing driver, rebooted, than installed... tested with Incoming game and it ran fast/fine. More info on 9/2... by choosing the 'ghost' monitor, resolutions up to 1280x1024 were possbile. Tried installing driver that shipped on the CD, things got weird (no admin permissions to set monitor resolutions.) Removed all graphic drivers, rebooted, installed from CD again (from the menu). No admin permissions again, stuck at 640x480. Removed vga drivers. Attempting to remove chipset drivers made it sound like it was removing audio drivers instead. Installed chipset, although only the vinyl codec was offered as a component to uninstall. Rebooted. Now, it's going to be chipset, vga & audio all from the CD. Resoluion set to 1024x768 with more choices showing, but it's weird- system tray is offscreen & not showing on the right. Installed chipset, the vga, then audio. The resolution reset to 640x480 and the tray came back, so the desktop was no longer extending offscreen to the right. Turns out I was trying to affect the 2nd, "ghost" monitor (showing up as monitor 2). Unattaching it & selecting 1 as the primary returned control. I can now set up to a res of 1280x1024, though 1024x768 looks better. After changing motherboards, I realized there are two monitor settings in the bios- display device & panel type. I had "CRT & TV" selected, and the res set to 1024x768. This must have had an effect in XP. Set LCD & 1600x1200. rebooted, and black screen. I remember this happening before, I don't think LCD is a good choice. No bios screen, remembered I needed to jumper back to default last time. Did that. Changed to CRT & 1600x1200. Rebooted, and still stuck at 1280x1024, which worked, but no 1600x1200. And now... no sound. It WAS working :(
- by the way, the last several lines have been on 9/1, and now it's 9/2.
Installed 700b audio drivers. Still no sound. About ready to burn this install back to the ground & start again.
- This just in. Received 4x 1gb ramm dimms in the mail. Plugged one in & it's the first time I've see a full 1GB 1024mb installed. The ram I had been using only showed at half capacity (512mb).
SWITCHED MOTHERBOARDS, and... SOUND IS BACK. Checking BIOS settings to see if I can cause this motherboard to somehow lose sound: Turned off IR, sound remained. Changed display type from CRT+LCD to CRT, sound remained. Changed resolution from 1024x768 to 1600x1200, sound remained. Changed USB keyboard support (changed it to disabled), sound remained. Changed PNP OS setting to "No", sound remained.
Audio: we're going to try the newest- 700b from 9/11/2007.
Ha! made the windows exit sound when I rebooted, that's a good sign! Worked great. Cheesy VIA "Vinyl Deck" sound channel management app installed (thanks?)
LAN: "epia-m_WinXP_32_LAN_v3.1_20041103.zip" Ran winsetup.exe, it rebooted the system.
Weird, only a couple of searches went through. Can ping google via command line but not load google.com through ie.
Went to device manager and updated the driver based on the zip's directoy. It installed "Rhine II" drivers.
Search queries in IE's location bar worked & resolved to Bing results.
Let's try a different browser... ha! Apparently all major browsers are dead, unsupported, etc.
Let's try Opera's last version to work on XP: Opera_winxpvista_36.0.2130.80_Setup.exe
Doh. "requires SSE2 instructions". Next try: "Firefox Setup 43.0.1.exe"
IR: installed while still fighting through LAN problem above.
- Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel: allows mounting of iso's in Win XP. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=38780 winxpvirtualcdcontrolpanel_21
- a i=good iso creator: https://cdburnerxp.se/help/Intro/cdburnerxp cdbxp_setup_4.5.8.7042.exe
Testing creating a bootable image from the 16gb SD card using HDClone 8, Free Edition. Selected bootable ISO image with UEFI boot support. Didn't seem to do much except create a bootable iso file that appeared to have no data. Tried clonezilla x86 for non-pae. Few lines of errors, then it launched. Took pictures along the way to compare screens later if needed. I tried to save a 16gb SD card (with 5 gb in use) as an image to an 8GB usb drive- maybe a bad idea, but it let me at least try to do it... we'll see. Seemed to complete. Made a directory: 2019-09-01-18-img. I guess now the steps would be to to install it to another sd card from Windows XP...? Wonder if you can write the image to an SD card from Windows 10? Windows 10 path to restore a captured image is not obvious- it sounds like the option is to 'add clonezilla to the drive', i.e. an entry for the boot sector... seems a little scary. So, attempting a restore on the epia- booting from clonezilla cd, then restoring the image from an 8gb usb drive to a 16gb sd card (may try 32gb later.) Still working on 16gb restore... got all excited when it looked like it completed, but that seemed to just be a check! I think I chose that from the menu. At any rate, checks went ok & now it's cloning the image from sdb (usb drive) to sda (sd card). IT WORKED!!! :D Disk access does feel a little less snappy on this card though. Hmm.. things are a little bit freezy. Ok, a lot freezy. Froze up & I had to reboot. I'll bet imaging between identical cards would have a better chance.
0828119
- Windows XP Pro SP3 - WXPVOL_EN.iso 637,568 KB (trying again)
Using the drivers from this directory: "EPIA_M\files drivers etc\Drivers from VIA website\Drivers (Windows XP 32-bit)" Chipset, audio, usb, graphics installed.
LAN drivers didn't seem to have an installer, but they were 'there' already (adadpter was working.)
Graphics driver on the weak side, max 1024x768 resolution & a phantom monitor.
Infared drivers didn't install.
Installed VIA_HyperionPro_V524A.zip chipset driver- and it appeared to take.
After that, installed CLE266_16-94-44-45_XP_Rotation_logod.zip graphics driver, no perceivable differnce (still max 1024x768 and a ghost display.)
Uninstalled all graphics drivers after trying a few. Now more resolutions show, but when you try them the screen stays at 1024x768.
Tried installing the graphics driver from the CD, because why not. Back to 1024x768 max, and a ghost display. Fine, I'll take it.
GOing back to original chipset drivers as well.
- Windows XP Professional SP3 x86 - Integral Edition 2019 8 17 (trying again)
Garbage. Hung on installing components, again. Rebooted. Hung on a 'wait' screen for a long time. That's that.
- *** Windows XP Performance Edition 2010-TJ (install date on label: 8.8.17)
Booted up and...a multiedia audio controller was showing. Driver folder was on the desktop. Tried installing VIA drivers 4.43 dated 20021126, the computer said they were already installed so I cancelled that installation.
I installed the audio driver in the hard drive's folder: epia-m_WinXP_32_Audio_v3.40b_20041014.zip
- note: this driver existed in dropbox "\files drivers etc\Drivers from VIA website\Drivers (Windows XP 32-bit)"
The folder on the desktop of the hard drive IS the dropbox directory. Wow. To compare versions and dates:
-> 4-in-1 driver: epia-m_WinXP_32_HyperionPro4in1_v4.43_20021126 (4.43 from 11/26/2002) size: 1.09 MB (1,153,792 bytes) Has windows AND Linux drivers in it.
-> audio driver: epia-m_WinXP_32_Audio_v3.40b_20041014 (3.40b from 10/14/2004)
The oldest drivers with known dates from http://download.viatech.com/en/support/driversSelect.jsp are:
-> 4-in-1 driver: holy crap. it is there as a 'retro driver'. named "VIA_4in1_443v.zip", Size 1.05 MB (1,109,735 bytes) AHA!! It is smaller because this zip contains the 4in1443v.exe file ONLY (shows as 1084 KB compressed), whereas the other one has a linux driver.
-> audio driver: 570a, dated 10/8/2004.
All in all, this version seems to work. Added winamp & played mp3's.
0828119
- Windows XP Pro 2002 (boxed copy from yard sale)
Wondering if the AC97 problems aren't stemming from the incorrect VIA 4-in-1 chipset drivers being installed first. Will try to use the drivers from the via website. But how will I know if the right ones were loaded to allow sound card detection? Guess I can start with the most recent & move back, assuming they are cleanly uninstallable. Installed, and no audio devices. Will start trying chipset drivers. Installed chipset 5.24A. Installed audio 680b. Cannot find hardware. Fuck it, installing the ealiest chipset drivers with a date, 5.04a. Next the earliest audio drivers I can confirm, 570a. And... no hardware found. WHAT THE FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK. Attempt using the WinXP drivers 456v from: https://www.philscomputerlab.com/via-chipset-drivers.html And audio A.406 https://realtek-download.com/download-ac97/ And... no audio devices. I am beyond beyond on this. what the. Trying the audigy. Using SBAX_PCDRV_LB_2_18_0017.exe from https://support.creative.com/downloads/download.aspx?nDownloadId=11314 Annnnd... shit works immediately and awesomely.
- Windows XP Pro SP3 - WXPVOL_EN.iso 637,568 KB
So tired of installing OS's. Going to go from the install CD.
4 in 1, check. VGA Graphics, check. USB 2.0, check. Audio, wtf. "VIA AC97 Audio Chipset is not enabled on this system!" But it is. Tried disabling. Tried 7.00b, 6.80d & 570c from VIA. Same error message. Loaded optimized defaults from the bios. What the actual, real, honest, true and unbiased fuck.
- Windows 98 Second Edition Original and Gunuine Only By [THE RAIN] 640,824 KB
Starting again just in case this install has magic sauce to help the VIA situation (ha.)
- Decided I can't take this again. Going to WinXP.
0827119
- Windows_98_SE_Bootable -Download - PatchLicense windows98se.iso 640,236KB DMWRC-T9XP4-GJ2P8-26G66-V9WBB
8:27 AM- almost done installing this version. Rebooted, slected boot from HD, Win98 splash screen came up. Install continuing. Did not need to enter key, yet. 8:54 AM installed. got distracted by old music from Rom DiPrisco etc. on a 512MB usb drive I was going to use to transfer VIA drivers :D Walked back over, tried to wake pc and it's sitting on a black screen with a flashing cursor/underscore at the top left. Looks like something I saw during the Linux installs. Need to install the VIA stuff & see. Before installing any drivers, resolution set to 640x480 & no sound. I'm going to use the driver cd for drivers, maybe older is better in this case with win98. > VIA 4-in-1 with all defaults: reobooted, it asked for driver locations for a few things. Chose CD-ROM, it went back to windows path, everything seemed to install. > VIA VGA driver: stopped and asked: "Please insert the disk labelled Windows 98/ME VIA/S3G UniChrome IGP Driver Disk", and then click OK." Installed finished with those errors, rebooted. Display now supports 1280x1024 resolution (monitor is 1600x1200 native.) However, screen 'scrolls' instead of showing the whole desktop. Going to try VIA Driver Download Portal instead.
From VIA Driver Download Portal http://download.viatech.com/en/support/driversSelect.jsp
Selecting Windows98SE. <> Chipset-> many of the choices include VIA CLE266 North Bridge, none have VT8235 South Bridge. A note on the page offers "Retro OS VIA 4in1 drivers" claiming that users experience a more responsive system. Downloading & trying 4.35.
- Appeared to install nearly instantly, no questions, rebooted.
- Hardware Wizard came up for VIA Standard PCI to ISA Bridge. Tried selecting the AGP subdir, it skipped it & picked up something from Windows.
- At desktop, things seem to be ok.
<> Graphics-> CLE2666 Graphics Driver (16012004_Rotation)
- While installing, 'viagfx.cat' could not be found. I had to skip a ton a files when prompted with:
"Please insert the disk labelled Windows 98/ME VIA/S3G UniChrome IGP Driver Disk"
<> Audio -> So much information with zero exact (VT1616) matches, 6.80d seems close, and the latest (7.00b) "should" work if it in fact has 6.80d features & just improved on them. Side note, possibly for future reference:
https://download.cnet.com/VIA-Vinyl-AC-97-Codec-Combo-Driver/3000-2120_4-10163027.html
Going with 7.00b from the VIA site for now.
- Install wizard could not find supported hardware. no audio devices present.
- going to try the CNet driver package I found, and/or the older one from VIA.
- CNet looks the same at 700.b. I tried VIA's 6.80d, again "could not find supported hardware".
- Discovered a link from techspot to 580c. Trying this, but downloaded 580c from VIA.
<> USB-> VIA_USB2_V270p1-L
- Installed when having trouble with graphics. Near instant install, rebooted. Seemed to do nothing, still cannot see 512mb usb drive when plugged into external or breakout usb ports.
<> Network-> Going with the latest 3.84a, even though there is 64-bit support. Not clear if more has changed.
<> IDE, Sata & RAID -> Skipping this. Seems to be RAID focused, also IDE Miniport mention, don't think I need this for now.
<> IrDA (Infrared Data Association) -> Skipping this, not clear that I need it at all, may be integrated already through chipset.
- 8/28/19 11:45 AM - Aborting this install and trying another 98 install.
0826119
- Windows 98SE (gold colored duplicate disk) First of all- GRUB. It's like a virus that Linux installs drop on the MBR. There is a fancy command line instruction that's googleable and got rid of it from windows 10: "bootsect n52 j: /mbr" where J: is the drive & n52 is for os's earlier than vista, I believe. Now the humor begins. Win98SE so far unfindable online (maybe one sketchy version, will probably need to keep looking.) Of all the burned CD's/DVD's I had in the SYSTEM binder from the 00's, the only one working was one with gold paint, and a giant chunk of paint is missing from part of the top. We'll see if it actually can install Win98, and if so, I need to image that CD. So far it's working, formatting drive C: it tells me, within it's dos-based install screen. ALMOST completed- missing files, doesn't recognize CD-ROM when inserted, must be the hole in the paint.
I'm going to record the serials of old Windows 98 SE discs I have (or maybe had at this point) in my binder. These are marked as Windows 98, Second Edition, full versions.
Gold disk (with paint flaw): H6TG6-27664-4CRT7-FHF79-2MQ7Q White paper label disk with green text: MDVCK-69PX4-X8X69-6HJ34-HJB2D
-Ubuntu 11.10 i386 (Oneiric Ocelot)
Did not connect to the internet, trying it without. Said yes to 3rd party software. on a 320GB drive. Deleted what the installer thought was a winxp installation (deleted partition.) Then received error "no root file system is defined. Please correct this from the partitioning menu." It appears that a swap file is recommended for install. Looking here: https://askubuntu.com/questions/179362/how-to-create-partitions-in-ubuntu-while-installing first I created a new (primary) swap partition of 2 gb on 'free space' (2000 as entered in the ubuntu dialog box.) then I created a new (primary) ext4 partition on 'free space' of the rest of the space (318073), mount point /, for ubuntu. I selected the "/dev/sda2/ ext4 /" partition, left the device for boot loader as it's default (showed hd details), and hit install. Selected region, keyboard layout, name/username/password (pw), log me in automatically, didn't encrypt anything. Installer's copying files, looking good @ 12:25 PM... installation complete at 12:50. Neat... it prompted to remove the installation DVD just before rebooting. Did so. Ahhh crap. caps lock and scroll lock blinking. Kernel panic? Powered down & rebooted. Got GRUB, selected 3.0.0.2-generic. panic again. Reboot. Got GRUB, selected recovery option. same. Appears to be unfindable RAMDISK, then unable to find boot partition or similar? https://askubuntu.com/questions/71332/kernel-panics-with-cannot-open-root-device-error-where-do-i-append-the-root Going to try reinstalling. Hofully I bungled the partitioning dance somehow when I did it manually. DVD is loading, screen is extra weird with red text behind it filling screen with lines of "SQUASHFS" errors. Power cycle & reboot. Now setup is loaded. 1:12 PM. Chose Install Ubuntu, again not connected to internet, install 3rd party. 4 options: install alongside, upgrade, erase & install, something else. Chose 'erase & install'. Installer confirmed 2 partitions will be deleted, I let it... please autmatically make the partition table awesome, installer. Install proceeds as normal. region/user entry, etc. then... WTF. file copying error. bad hd, badly burned dvd offered as reasons. took hard drive to another machine. No spin up. By jove, the hardware could actually be dead. Ok. Retrying install 80gb hard disk currently hosting Peppermint Linux 2, the only distro so far to sucessfully install. Irony noted. Installing once again. No internet, install 3rd party. erase and install option. HOLY SHIT. It installed. And runs. I would not call it fast or snappy. At all. No sound. Ethernet works. Connecting to internet to see how that goes. Works. Slow. No sound troubleshooting. Software sources out of date. Not sure how to fix. There is an updated manager. This version of Ubuntu no longer supported. Upgrade to 12.x (will break, pae). Getting tired of this.
-Ubuntu 12.04.3 i386 (website has it as 12.04.3, iso link downloaded 12.04.4) weird thing- 12.04 redirects to 12.04.03on the http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/releases/12.04.0/ website.
pae cx8.
- Caldera Open Linux 2.2 32-bit Installing & has been for about a half-hour. Filling the screen up with: 80 80 80 80 80 It's 10:40AM. 11:42 and lots of 80's. Will it complete? I won't wait much longer to find out. In fact.. f it. Out at 11.43.
082519
- RetrOS 1.8 32-bit Installing so far, all in Spanish though. Now installing 'post-install' packages- mame ui's, utils, etc.
- SuSe Linux 7.3
Trying on 250gb HD. It complained about not being able to format and/or problems with partitions, then... continued anyway.
Eventually failed, but I think it could work if the hard drive/partitioning were worked on. Or maybe just a smaller hard drive- it was calling out 'TB' sizes on some partitions during setup, maybe the 'massive' 250gb drive confused it.
- Windows XP Professional SP3 x86 - Integral Edition 2019 8 17
Yep, it's come to this. Let's see. Install completed on USB drive (Patriot 64GB). It's worth mentioning I have long wondered about the quality of these drives. Started to boot... black screen... some flickers of light happening on the USB. Several minutes passed. 12:00 PM. 12:10 PM, no motion. Rebooted, unplugged dvd drive entirely. USB starts of with some good light flickering... and eventually stops. Next, I'll try installing WinXP FROM a usb drive, TO another usb drive (different brand than the patriot.) Using 'monster' 8gb drive for both. install from USB to USB failed, missing boot.ini, then another file, install stopped. Next, trying an install from cd-rom to the 8gb usb drive, plugged into header breakout usb port. Stalled on black screen. Next, try to install from cdrom to 8gb usb on outer usb port. Drives don't fit next to vga cable, used an extender, blank screen. Used a razor blade to cut down usb drive shell. Now it fits directly in usb port. Now install seems to proceed from CD-ROM... ... still a longeer black screen than I remember after acknowledging it would try to boot from CD. The 8GB USB drive target was fat32. Tried reformatting as NTFS, and... nothing. Shitty USB drive? It's a Monster after all. Tried again using a 32gb Sandisk usb drive, formatted NTFS. With this drive, I got the prompt to 'boot from cd', where the other 8gb drive just launched right into the installer apparently (or tried to and failed.) Almost as though it thought the 8gb usb was still bootable. At any rate, 32gb version did get to setup. I chosed the option to format to NTFS (fast), though I could have skipped it. This is a SanDisk Ultra Flair 32GB drive. File copying/install was much faster this time around. Rebooted & did not unplug the CD-ROM, but did allw it to 'auto skip' booting from it. Black screen. Eventually, large BSOD type message. Ok, finally trying a proper hard drive (320gb NTFS). "A disk read error occured"... Whaaaaaat? Unbelievable. Attempting on a 250gb ibm deskstar. FINALLY- an install that makes it to the next step (finalizing in an XP-style window after reboot.) 3:03PM... still going. Seems like it's been an hour so far if that's possible. Been on "Registers Components" for a long time. Reboot. Bluescreen. Great. What the f.
- Chrome OS Cx86OS_R60-9592.B-Special (8/28/17) (from USB)
PAE cxX8 error. No option to bypass seen when loading from USB to force pae. A few more x86 here... https://chromium.arnoldthebat.co.uk/?dir=.%2Fspecial
082419
- Peppermint Linux 2
Began install, connected to the internet. Hitting the spin dropdown gave some good info (under "copying files"). Lots of python scripts. Stuff loading in from http:// as well. Neat. One thing I like about this process so far is that it does not boot to dvd-loaded desktop. "Feels" like it is actually installing. 7:27 PM still going.... aha! Got completed/reboot notification. Ejected DVD & rebooting. Didn't reboot, had to manually restart. Loading? Black screen with network lights. Can't feel the HD chunking though. 7:33 PM Aha! Loaded. And... ohhh boy that's slow. No youtube videos or mp3 files will load. :|
- Peppermint Linux 3
HOLY CRAP IT LOADED!!!! Attempting install next. Chose 'install 3rd party software' but did not connect to the internet. Install started to happen, but not sure if it finished. Pointer is 'busy spinning' on the desktop after nearly an hour. Rebooted after removing the DVD to see what happens. Screen just hung on the "Boot from CD" prompt. Inserted DVD & rebooted. Chose 'install peppermint os' from the boot menu. This time, I plugged in a wired ethernet internet connection & said to download updates while installing. Weirdly, the installer references Peppermint 2... must not have changed some messages when creating Peppermint 3. It appears that some files are installed already, since the installer gives options for installing next to or over an installation. Installer began... "Replace Peppermint 3 with Peppermint" Copying files stage. DVD light is active, Ethernet light is also flashing & appears to be passing data. Window announces an unrecoverable error. Reboots on OK. Back at the DVD-loaded desktop. Clicked the 'install peppermint' icon to try this one more time. Install proceeding. Initially DVD, now network lights. Been about an hour so far, 5:40 PM. 5:50, 6:02, 6:16, 6:31, 6:40, 7:00... Inspecting the network connection disconnected it, it then reconnected. 7:00, opened the Software Manager (left/right clicking is allowed despite the spinning busy icon). It's... "loading" 7:05 PM... egh. Too much. Reboot. Going to try version 2.
- Peppermint Linux 4
Same as Peppermint Linux 8.
- Peppermint Linux 5
Same as Peppermint Linux 8.
- Peppermint Linux 6
Same as Peppermint Linux 8.
- Peppermint Linux 7
Same as Peppermint Linux 8.
- Peppermint Linux 8
Booted to peppermint splash screen. Tried to select "try Peppermint OS Live", nothing happened. Rebooted & tried the same option again. DVD drive seems to be loading/blinking at first, then activity appeared to stop. Tried "Install Peppermint OS". Same thing... DVD drive blinks at first, then nothing.
- Peppermint Linux 9
Disk boot failure- same as peppermint linux 10.
- Puppy Linux 7.5 32-bit version (XenialPup)
Booted! Mouse pointer invisible. choosing usb mouse & rebooting didn't help. Would probably work if picking a non-usb mouse, connecting to internet, etc.
- Puppy Linux 8.0 32-bit version (BionicPup32) (UPupBB) (13 August 2019)
PAE ex8 error.
- Mint 12 32-bit Gnome DVD
Wouldn't boot from DVD disc.
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- Groovy Arcade
Bummer... install was going fine when I dumped out for dinner last night :( Now it seems to be hanging after choosing an LCD monitor type (though I'm pretty sure I did that the first time too.) Didn't retry, but I have a feeling this one could be made to work with some tweaking.
082319
- Groovy Arcade working... 8:35 PM... abandoned at dinner time :\
- Linux MX 18.3 386 Same message as later versions of mint: "This kernel requires the following features not present on the CPU: pae cx8 Unable to boot- please use a kernel appropriate for your CPU".
- Peppermint Linux 10 20190414 i386
Just spun briefly, EPIA didn't see it as a bootable disc. Tried twice.
- Mint 13 32-bit (Xfce)
Install began... still going after a few minutes... chug chug.... 10 or so minutes in... black screen but a valid mouse pointer... mouse pointer delay happens on black screen, but movement will happen, CD-ROM keeps chugging. 15 minutes of chug so far? 6:46 PM still going at 6:51... 6:59... 7:03... 7:08... 7:19... 7:27... annnd 8:08. Shut it down.
- Mint 14 32-bit (Xfce)
Froze at boot screen, same as 16.
- Mint 15 32-bit (Xfce)
Froze at boot screen, same as 16.
- Mint 16 "Petra" 32-bit (Xfce)
Froze at boot screen (tried twice). Top area slightly gitched out graphically (chunks shifted).
- Mint 19.2 32-bit (Cinnamon) "This kernel requires the following features not present on the CPU: pae cx8 Unable to boot- please use a kernel appropriate for your CPU".
I tried the option to force pae (available on the first screen when it boots up from CD-ROM). It did not work & had the same error message as above.