Oh h... yes, it works!

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Walt
Posts: 42
Joined: Tue Sep 04, 2018 1:39 am

Oh h... yes, it works!

Post by Walt »

ROS nightly build from Dec. 16th is up and running native, Dell Latitude D610, 2 gb ram, 2.13 gh processor. Boots and installs from the boot CD, no problems, the file system -- which was so shaky that I gave it up last year -- is now pretty robust. I've had a couple of dozen Firefox failures -- mostly loops that (mostly) required 'power off' but NO damage to files. That's impressive.

My use is mostly browsing news sites; I've done a few hours a day and except for firefox there's NOTHING to complain of, considering alpha code.

I'm running FF 30.0; after about 40 they seem to hang before ever writing the first screen. If someone can suggest a better FF I'll give it a try.

Thoughts for others who might try this -- and for correction by those in the know!:

GO AHEAD. It's solid enough for what I'm doing if you back up the FF appdata ('mozilla' folder when you RUN %appdata%). Any time FF falls over it leaves its data in a mess and will never again run correctly till you fix that. Which you do by restoring a 'good' copy that you've saved.

I have progressively build a CD of software that will be needed with ROS -- a driver or two, FF version that works, more. The choices in the applications manager are good but limited.

Don't bother trying solid state hdd. I've tried a couple-three makes, I use them successfully on other machines, and for whatever reason they get way too many errors when trying to run ROS. A 7200 PATA drive of about 75gb is impressively fast with this system and absolutely solid.

When ROS comes up, install the Dell Eithernet driver (R132254.exe) first thing. It goes in easily and works perfectly. After restarting you'll have the 'net via your RJ45 port/cable.

Couple minor display errors in the messages from that -- the one giving the default folder and then the progress thermometer -- don't show up but just push 'enter' at the next prompt.

You can get old add-ons out of the Classic Archive -- a single mega-add on that can be used on the last XP versions of FF. If you click on the name of the add on you can find out what FFs it's supposed to work with -- mostly correct info. Download, put it on your 'ROS needs' disk and after you've installed FF on ROS, drag the add on .XPI file to the FF icon to install it. I use NOSCRIPT (scripts cause MUCH additional trouble for FF) and Popupblocker ultimate.

Other handy software -- CCleaner from the App Manager -- note that it has an interface to the uninstallers for whatever you've installed which will save you from hunting. Thunderbird if you want to do email as well.

If you like to arrange your desktop a certain way, find and download 'deskinstu.msi' Install, right click on desktop, you can save current layout. Then when ROS scrambles it, right click again and 'restore desktop.'

You may have better luck than I've had with FF but mine dies every hour or two, usually in a hard loop (FF is getting 90+% of CPU) requiring power off to stop. After one of those restore the Mozilla appdata and you'll be good to go again.

Other than FF looping I've had a few BSOD pointing at TCPIP.SYS. No problems when restarting though.

The main thing that doesn't work yet is USB. A thumb drive IS visible in the Device manager and looks 'good to go' after a restart, but is not visible in 'my computer' or anywhere else I know to look.

Floppy disk drive (can be plugged in to the same bay that accepts the CD drive on D610) is invisible. It's awkward not being able to get any data OFF of the machine.

I'd like to have a way to shut off the freeeeeking touchpad on this machine 'cause I don't use it and getting too near sends cursor off to ??? but the option isn't there in Control Panel.

Enough for now. Really -- it's ready to use for a home machine if you are patient about having to restore FF's data.
brucebendwick
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Dec 24, 2019 12:04 pm

Re: Oh h... yes, it works!

Post by brucebendwick »

Wohoo thats great!
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