Are you the kind of person who can't toss out old gear? I know I am--though I must admit that embracing the art of junk-collecting has come in handy from time to time. For instance, this article will show you how to resurrect a tired old PC by installing a modern operating system, and then revitalize the computer as an internet-enabled CD player, DVD burner, and MP3 jukebox.

I have the perfect test subject sitting in my scrap heap: an HP Pavilion. It was a decent PC in its day: 350MHz Pentium II processor, 128MB RAM, 3GB hard disk, and a DVD drive. I'll assume you're in the same boat.

The secret sauce we'll use to revitalize our elderly PC is Linux, the free operating system based on UNIX. Linux is available in more than 300 varieties ("distributions"), enjoys plenty of online support from around the world, and comes with a truckload of applications, including free CD/DVD players and recorders. (Did I mention "free?")

Several Linux distributions will run fine on a resource-constrained PC. Slackware is a popular option. The flavor I recommend for this project is Knoppix. (See the system requirements sidebar.)

Knoppix has several features that make it ideal for an introduction to Linux. From its website:

Knoppix is a bootable CD with a collection of GNU/Linux software, automatic hardware detection, and support for many graphics cards, sound cards, SCSI and USB devices, and other peripherals. Knoppix can be used as a Linux demo, educational CD, rescue system, or adapted and used as a platform for commercial software product demos. It is not necessary to install anything on a hard disk. Due to on-the-fly decompression, the CD can have up to 2GB of executable software installed on it.

Knoppix System Requirements

  • Intel-compatible CPU (i486 or later)
  • 20MB of RAM for text mode, 96MB for graphics mode with KDE
  • 128MB of RAM to use the various office products
  • Bootable CD-ROM drive, or a boot floppy with a standard CD-ROM (IDE/ATAPI or SCSI)
  • SVGA-compatible graphics card

In other words, you can try the operating system risk-free. If you decide you like it, you can then install it to your hard drive. I'll explain how later in the article.

Knoppix is a Debian-based distribution of Linux. Some of the relevant software on the Knoppix CD includes:

  • X Multimedia System: A music player modeled on Winamp. It can also play video files via third-party plugins
  • K3b: For CD and DVD burning
  • xine: A video/DVD player
  • KsCD: A CD player
  • The KDE desktop manager
  • Internet connection software
  • Gnu Image Manipulation Program (GIMP), an open source Photoshop-style app
  • Utilities for data recovery and system repairs, even for other operating systems
  • OpenOffice: A multi-platform office suite that includes word processor, spreadsheet, presentation manager, and drawing programs

To be fair, the vast majority of Linux distributions come packaged with many applications like these--or exactly these. However, Knoppix will get you going fast on your old computer. And as mentioned, you can boot Knoppix and run the entire application suite from the CD.

Getting and Trying Knoppix

With a fast internet connection, Knoppix is only a few clicks away. From the Knoppix main site, click on the Download button and choose a download site close to home. (Alternatively, you can order the CD via mail; click the Order button.) You must accept the Knoppix download agreement, so read carefully.

If you accept the terms, you'll be presented with a list of files. Download just one: the ISO file in your language. For instance, if your primary language is English, download:

KNOPPIX_V3.7-2004-12-08-EN.iso

(I made the screenshots in this article with the previous version, 3.6, but the instructions that follow are the same.)

The ISO file is a disc image, which means it's a complete copy of a CD. (Unlike some other Linux distributions, Knoppix fits on a single CD.) This site has a list of programs, many of them free, that can burn a bootable data CD from an ISO image. Make sure you finalize (close) the CD.

After creating your Knoppix CD, insert it into your old PC and power it on. Make sure that you have set the boot order in your BIOS to boot from the CD/DVD drive before the hard disk. (To access the BIOS, you generally have to shut down the computer and then restart while pressing the Delete key, but some PCs use other key combinations.) If your PC cannot boot from a CD, create a boot floppy for the initial boot. See the "My First Linux" sidebar for background.

My First Linux

by David Battino

When Brad's article came in, I figured it was a great excuse to try Linux. (I normally divide my computing time between Mac OS X and Windows XP.) The first download link I tried ran so slowly that I calculated it would take 40 hours to download the ISO disc-image file, so I punted. The second link, from the University of Florida, delivered the 699MB file over my DSL connection in about 90 minutes.

Since I was on a Mac at the time, I double-clicked the downloaded ISO file, which opened to display a bunch of Linux and HTML files. I then dragged those to Roxio Toast and burned an ISO9660-format CD on an 80-minute blank. So far, so good.

The next challenge was that the ancient computer I had planned to Linuxify, a Toshiba Satellite Pro 430CDT, can boot only from a hard drive or a floppy, not from a CD. (This phonebook-size laptop has a 120MHz Pentium processor, 48MB of RAM, and an 800-by-600-pixel screen.) After examining the options in the Knoppix.net Downloading FAQ, I downloaded Smart Boot Manager, a program that interrupts the normal boot process and lets you specify a different boot device. There are several versions; I downloaded sbminst.exe, a DOS program that installs Smart Boot Manager to a floppy disk.

With the floppy and the CD in their respective drives, I restarted the computer. Smart Boot Manager displayed a screen with a number of boot-device choices. I selected "CD-ROM," but Smart Boot Manager said the disc was corrupt. So I went back to the Mac, burned the ISO file to another CD without decompressing it first, copied that file to my XP machine, downloaded a freeware program that burns ISO images to CDs, and tried again.

This time the Toshiba laptop booted Knoppix. The program asked me if I wanted to create a swap file to compensate for the PC's meager RAM, and I agreed, picking a size of 90MB. The only other tweak I had to make was to adjust the screen resolution, which Knoppix misdetected as 1024 by 768. Nineteen minutes later (!), I was viewing the KDE desktop interface, which looked far better than Windows 95. In fact, I was struck by how much it resembled OS X, although that makes sense, given OS X's UNIX underpinnings.

Several of the programs on the Knoppix CD ran too slowly to be of use, and the system was constantly accessing the CD, which made for a choppy computing experience. When I get a chance, I'll install Linux on the hard drive and see what effect that has on the performance. I may try running without KDE, as well. Ironically, given this article's focus, Knoppix didn't detect the laptop's audio circuitry, so there was no sound. I imagine I'll find that switch eventually, but so far, my family has used this resurrected PC mostly to play simple games, so the absence of repetitive audio soundtracks is a bonus. And when I tried the Knoppix CD on a 600MHz Pentium III computer, it ran snappily.

During bootup, you'll be presented with text from the Knoppix boot procedure. It'll look something like Figure 1. Knoppix will boot into the KDE desktop manager (Figure 2). KDE will be a familiar landscape to Windows and Mac users. Knoppix conveniently offers a taskbar on the bottom of the screen; you can access a menu of applications by clicking the big "K" icon on the far left of the bar.

Figure 1 Figure 1. Knoppix boots from CD
Figure 2: The KDE Desktop Figure 2. The KDE Desktop (click to enlarge.)

Take it for a test drive. There are many applications to audition: office productivity, graphics, audio, and video apps; games; and more. Be patient; Knoppix will be retrieving and decompressing the applications from CD, so some can be sluggish to initiate. If Knoppix is not to your liking, or simply doesn't work on your hardware, no harm done. Just remove the CD and you're back to your old PC.

Installing Knoppix on Your Hard Drive

If you've read this far, perhaps you've decided that running Knoppix on that old PC is a good thing. To make it useful, you should install it to your hard drive. Luckily, the complete installation takes just 3GB. Sound like a lot of space? Well, that's the Linux operating system plus more than 900 applications!

There are a couple of ways to install Knoppix on a hard drive. We'll go through a popular one. See the Appendix for links to others.

You'll need enough room to create two partitions: one to house your complete Knoppix distribution and one to house your swap file, or virtual RAM. It's generally recommended that you create a swap partition the same size as your RAM, but I've seen recommendations for a minimum of 256MB. You'll have to make your own decision here, as your mileage may vary. Fortunately, you can partition your hard drive during the installation process, so let's wait for that stage.

After you have booted Knoppix from CD, run a "Root Shell" from the Knoppix menu--the Penguin icon on the bottom panel (see Figure 3).

Figure 3 Figure 3. Access the Root Shell from the Penguin menu

From the root shell, you can run the installer script provided with Knoppix. Type the following in the Root Shell and then press Enter (see Figure 4): 

knoppix-installer
Figure 4 Figure 4. Launching the installer

The Knoppix-installer program will initiate and present a dialog box (Figure 5) saying that you are about to install Knoppix to your hard drive.

Figure 5. Next stop: hard-disk installation

After clicking the OK button, you will see the Knoppix Installation main menu (Figure 6).

Figure 6. Before starting installation, it's a good idea to partition the hard disk, so scroll down to item 3

If Knoppix cannot detect your hard drive, it may present a dialog box saying that the installation requirements have not been fulfilled. Click OK and you'll be taken to the Knoppix Installation menu. (This menu may contain only two selections, but that's okay; we're going to partition the hard drive first. After partitioning, you should have the full menu.)

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