My Grandpa (in his early 90's) has a Dell D600 with Windows XP that he likes to use for browsing the Internet. As you would expect at that age, he isn't very good with it. He complains that it's really slow on a regular basis. I think a lot of this is that it's got Java, Flash, Windows, antivirus and firewall updates that it's wanting to do everytime he starts it up. Between all these alerts (that he doesn't know how to respond to) and the fact that it's not that fast of a system anyways, he just gets frustrated with it.

His knowledge level is low enough that I don't think it will matter if I switch him to Linux. With Linux I expect several things:

1. Better performance in terms of boot time and response time when opening programs, etc.
2. I expect him to not get a bunch of alerts on various things that need updating even if I don't have time to look at his computer over the course of a month or so (I visit regularly, but there is not always time to examine his computer during those visits)
3. Better security. He won't be able to mess anything up because he won't have the root password.

With this goal in mind I've installed antiX on his computer and I'm currently using that to type this post. I've found some obstacles that I have not yet been able to overcome.

1. I cannot get it to log in and startx automatically. I have modified the slim.config file (as root) and I have gone through the antiXCC. Although it appears both methods made the same entries in slim.config, it still doesn't auto-login and it doesn't startx automatically. This is a dealbreaker for someone like my Grandpa.

2. Icons at the bottom of the screen are small. I don't think this is good for his vision.

3. Touchpad does really weird things. Sometimes it will not move and I'll have to click to make it move again. Sometimes a window will start scrolling when I'm trying to move the cursor. I haven't found any meaningul settings that I can change for the touchpad to help with this. This will definitly be a dealbreaker for him. It's just too confusing to make it do what you want it to do.

4. Scroll bars in iceweasel don't have arrows at the bottom and the top so that you can scroll slowly. I compensate by using the arrow keys, but I don't think Grandpa will like that.

I know all these things are addressable. But maybe the overall method of approaching the problem is a poor one. Perhaps he should just have a better laptop that will handle a more modern version of Windows. Perhaps he should have a MacBook. Any suggestions on the individual problems or totally different approaches would be appreciated.

I tried to copy the contents of my slim.conf file and post it here both with and without code tags and the forum software would not allow me to do so. It says,"You don't have permission to access /posting.php on this server."

It appears that if I run my fingure up and down the left side of the touchpad it scrolls the opposite way of what you expect. If I run my fingure up and down the right side of the touchpad it scrolls the way you would expect. I don't want it to ever scroll with the touchpad. I believe that type of thing will be too confusing for my Grandpa. I've never seen where the left side would do anthing __{{emoticon}}__ .

My mom has a Dell Latitude D610 laptop with 512 MB of memory. It used to run Windows XP and was extremely slow. I grabbed a copy of antiX Base and installed it on the system and it was at least twice as fast, if not more so. I did not run into any keyboard or synaptics touch pad issues, so I cannot really speak to them, but I set the system up to use autologin, so when it boots, it behaves similarly to XP in the sense that it puts you right at the desktop. I chose an option to have the Rox filer running to display icons on the desktop, and I made one of them display"Web Browser" so it would be pretty easy to start up.

I set up the Web browser to remember account names, logins, stuff like that, and I set up the browser to include Bookmarks and tabs for the things that my mom uses.

She still forgets exactly how to do things at times because she doesn't use it very often, but she is quite capable, with a moderate amount of assistance, to use antiX, and in fact, I had her go BACK to Windows XP, and she complained that it didn't"remember" her login names, and insisted that"it used to do that"; well, it didn't, but antiX DID, because it is flexible enough so that an experienced administrator can set it up any way that is convenient to use!

I can't really speak directly to some of the other issues that you have experienced; perhaps someone else who has seen such things can provide suggestions on things you can to do correct what you are experiencing.

Thanks. I've experimented with a few things. It doesn't seem like any configuration file that I edit actually changes anything. I'm logged in as"Grandpa". I navigate to the root directory, then etc/whatever and find the file I want to edit. Then I right click on the file and select"Edit as Administrator". After I'm done I save, exit, reboot and nothing has changed. This has been the case on auto-login, startx automatically, disabling vertical scrolling on the touchpad and probably some other things that I don't remember right now. Maybe I actually need to be logged in as root rather than as Grandpa? Maybe I'm editing the wrong files?

Sorry for the basic questions. I'm quite a bit of a newb.

Tell us which files you are editing and the file manager you are using.

To set auto-login, use the control centre -> Session -> Set auto-login.

I am editing etc/slim.conf for the auto-login. I am editing etc/x11/xorg.conf.in for the touchpad issues. I believe those are the only two I've edited. I was not wise enough to save a backup of the slim.conf file.

Before you asked what a file manager I was using, I was under the impression that it was like Microsoft and there was only one graphical way to view files. Apparently there are multipl ways. I appear to be using ROX-Filer.

For editing files I was using Leafpad because that's what was opening them by default.

I have used the CC -> Session -> Set auto-login multiple times. It has not affected things either.

Post your contents of etc/slim.conf

When I try to post the contents I get the following error on the forum:

Forbidden

You don't have permission to access /posting.php on this server.

php-error-t3861.html

# Path, X server and arguments (if needed)
# Note: -xauth $authfile is automatically appended
default_path ./:/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin
default_xserver /usr/bin/X
xserver_arguments -nolisten tcp

# Commands for halt, login, etc.
halt_cmd /usr/local/bin/shutdown.sh
reboot_cmd /usr/local/bin/reboot.sh
console_cmd /usr/bin/urxvt -C -fg white -bg black +sb -T"Console login" -e /bin/sh -c"/bin/cat / etc/issue; exec /bin/login"
#suspend_cmd /usr/sbin/suspend

# Full path to the xauth binary
xauth_path /usr/bin/xauth

# Xauth file for server
authfile /var/run/slim.auth


# Activate numlock when slim starts. Valid values: on|off
numlock off

# Hide the mouse cursor (note: does not work with some WMs).
# Valid values: true|false
hidecursor true

# This command is executed after a succesful login.
# you can place the %session and %theme variables
# to handle launching of specific commands in .xinitrc
# depending of chosen session and slim theme
#
# NOTE: if your system does not have bash you need
# to adjust the command according to your preferred shell,
# i.e. for freebsd use:
# login_cmd exec /bin/bash -login / etc/X11/Xsession %session
login_cmd exec dbus-launch /bin/bash -login ~/.xinitrc %session >~/.xsession-errors 2>&1
# login_cmd exec /bin/bash -login ~/.xinitrc %session >~/.xsession-errors 2>&1

# Commands executed when starting and exiting a session.
# They can be used for registering a X11 session with
# sessreg. You can use the %user variable
#
# sessionstart_cmd some command
# sessionstop_cmd some command

# Start in daemon mode. Valid values: yes | no
# Note that this can overridden by the command line
# option"-d"
# daemon yes

# Available sessions (first one is the default).
# The current chosen session name is replaced in the login_cmd
# above, so your login command can handle different sessions.
# see the xinitrc.sample file shipped with slim sources
sessions icewm,Rox-icewm,fluxbox,Rox-fluxbox,jwm,Rox-jwm,dwm,wmii

# Executed when pressing F11 (requires imagemagick)
screenshot_cmd scrot /tmp/slim.png

# welcome message. Available variables: %host, %domain
welcome_msg (Press F1 to toggle sessions)

# shutdown / reboot messages
shutdown_msg The system is shutting down...
reboot_msg The system is rebooting...

# Focus the password field on start when default_user is set
# Set to"yes" to enable this feature
#focus_password no

# current theme, use comma separated list to specify a set to
# randomly choose from
current_theme antiX

# Lock file
#lockfile /var/run/slim.lock

# Log file
#logfile /var/log/slim.log

# Automatically login the default user (without entering
# the password. Set to"yes" to enable this feature
#auto_login yes

# default user, leave blank or remove this line
# to avoid pre-loading the username.
default_user Grandpa
auto_login yes
lockfile /var/run/slim.lock
logfile /var/log/slim.log

FWIW, I don't see a /var/run/slim.lock file. I suppose that probably has nothing to do with anything, but since I saw a reference to it in the slim.conf file, I decided to look it up and could not find it.

Your slim.conf file seems ok.

So what happens when you get to login?
Maybe the issue is with slim itself (some users have reported this).

You could try installing lightdm and set that up for autologin.

I just restarted to make sure I was describing the process accurately. It's fairly simple. As I turn the computer on it goes to the BIOS, then loads GRUB. After a few seconds it automatically loads the default option. Then I have to put a username and password in. I always log in as"Grandpa". After I've logged in I have to type startx and hit enter before icewm loads. Is that what you're asking?