Posts: 2
Robert
Joined: 16 May 2016
#1
Hello!
The first thing I noticed (after installing AntiX 15 on an old Pentium 3 machine with 128 MB RAM) was, that IceWeasel is unusable with this amount of memory. The complete other system works fine. At this point I decided that this computer is too old for the modern internet. So I tried to install an old scanner (Microtek ScanMaker E6). But Simple Scan always reports"No scanners detected". After a little search I found this page
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://www.mir.com/mtek/"
linktext was:"http://www.mir.com/mtek/"
====================================
, but all necessary components (SANE) are already installed with AntiX 15, if I understand this correctly.
The questions are:
1. Any ideas to convince IceWeasel to use less memory?
2. Is there anything I can try to get the scanner working (e.g. how to isolate the problem .. driver, connection issue, etc.)?

Thanks in advance for any help.
Posts: 148
chrispop99
Joined: 21 Apr 2011
#2
You could perhaps try Midori as your browser; IMO it's the lightest one that is usable.

Have you considered increasing the memory the machine has? You really need 512MB to do anything useful these days.

Sorry I can't help with the scanner issue. I Googled, but only came up with the same info as you. It looks like it should work however.

Chris
Posts: 2,238
dolphin_oracle
Joined: 16 Dec 2007
#3
Dillo is installed in antix by default. It's super fast although formating will be an issue.

You can use it with streamlight for youtube.
Posts: 1,028
SamK
Joined: 21 Aug 2011
#4
Robert wrote:The questions are:
1. Any ideas to convince IceWeasel to use less memory?
2. Is there anything I can try to get the scanner working (e.g. how to isolate the problem .. driver, connection issue, etc.)?
You may be chasing a rainbow...

Just to boot antiX is going to take somewhere around 60-70MB RAM and possibly more. Out of your total of 128MB RAM your system wil have approx 50-60MB of RAM to allocate to whatever tasks you want it to perform.

Heavyweight, fully featured web browsers such as Iceweasel will require more than that simply to load. Even the least demanding of the fully featured browsers (such as Midori mentioned by chrispop99) will eat all the available RAM just to get started.

If you are intent on using a GUI web browser you will be looking towards the most lightweight of them. antiX ships with Dillo (mentioned by dolphin_oracle) and Links 2. Both of them will run well in the amount of RAM your system has available. What should be borne in mind is, by design, neither of them makes any attempt to emulate a fully featured browser, and it will be unfair to draw that comparison. If a text only browser will meet your needs, antiX ships with elinks which will also work OK.

For the scanner, make sure the hardware printer port is set up in BIOS. Additionally, if the scanner connects via a parallel port, make sure the port is supported in your choice of kernel, else find and manually load the kernel module(s). Once the port is tested and operational, there is a chance the scanner and PC might be able to communicate with each other. Then comes the question of can it be used? After loading Simple Scan, it is quite likely that taking even a modest scan will exhaust the miniscule amount of available RAM.

Because of the extremely low capabilities of the PC combined with an aged and uncommon scanner, it is probably going to severely limit the help that members can give. You might be better contacting the support function/forum of the scanner manufacturer.

This might give a few pointers for optimising old kit
post46641.html#p46641
Posts: 2
Robert
Joined: 16 May 2016
#5
Thanks for the answers.
Maybe I will try the Midori browser as soon as I know how to install it (the command"sudo apt-get install midori" doesn't work, so I have to google a bit more). The Dillo and Streamlight combination works fine for youtube (as dolphin_oracle said).

And yes, I know 128 MB is not enough for the modern internet. However, the alternative is quite simple: the whole computer ends up in the landfill. That's the only reason why I tried AntiX.

The scanner is connected via an Adaptec AVA-1502AE SCSI-Controller, which should use the IRQ 10, but"cat /proc/interrupts" doesn't list it. After your answers and wasting some hours trying different jumper settings and reading old manuals, I think buying a complete new hardware is the best choice.

Many thanks for your support.