Installing antiX on store computer

We have and old Pentium 4 machine that we use in the office for streaming music from AccuRadio. This box used to run Windows XP SP3 but I didn’t want to keep using XP due to some security concerns. So, I installed Xubuntu 16.04 as a dual boot with XP and set Xubuntu as the default system to boot upon power-up.

AccuRadio uses a lot of flash for their advertisements on screen. With Seamonkey as our browser this worked most of the time with Xubuntu. And the computer has 1.25 MB of ram so the system runs reasonably well - especially since all we use this computer for is streaming internet radio. But every once in a while the system would lock up and I would have to reboot and restart the OS, browser, etc. I attributed the troubles to the use of Flash. It works most of the time but it’s annoying when it lock ups while our store is open and we want to have the music playing.

So, I decided to try antiX 16.1 as an alternative OS. I had good luck with antiX on several older computers in my lab at home so I figured I would try it at the store to see if it behaves any better than Xubuntu for AccuRadio and their use of Flash. But the system has to be user friendly and look reasonably similar to Windows since the staff at the store is not very computer savvey and does not know Linux at all. Could I set up antiX and make it easy enough to launch AccuRadio?

AntiX tends to be pretty “geeky” in general. There is usually lots of setup that needs to be done to make it look and work similar to Windows. But for this computer we really only need to be able to launch AccuRadio in the web browser. No need to set up a full system of menus for anything else. So, I chose to install the “Full” version of antiX 16.1 and used the default “Rox-IceWM” window manager. This gives me the familiar “taskbar” and “Start Menu” look of Windows. But after the install and first login I got a screen resolution of 640x350. This just won’t do. We need a resolution of 1280x1024 to match the LCD screen attached to this machine.

I used the Control Center app to reset the resolution to 1280x1024. This worked, kind of. The resolution was reset but when I logged out and rebooted, on login the resolution was back to 640x350. Hmm. How do I set the resolution permanently?

I took to google and read lots of stuff. I learned that i could use a command directly to reset the resolution using the terminal. I entered “xrandr -s 1280x1024”. That again reset the resolution but it did not stay that way permanently. I further learned that i could enter this command in a “startup” file and it would run automatically after a logoff/login. I followed some directions I read on the forum where it said to put this startup in my /home/user/desktop-session/startup file. I did that and rebooted. It did not work.

And here is where it always gets difficult with using Linux in the business. In the business everything has to just work. If my users can’t just click and get something familiar to happen they won’t use the computer. And if the screen looks different than they are used to they will not be able to proceed. They will not be able to figure out what is going on. So, if I am going to use a linux distribution on a business computer I need to be able to successfully set it up to look like the same system they have always used. If that is too difficult for me i won’t do it. If I can’t figure out how to set it up so that it doesn’t crash or look differently I won’t use it.

For me, the Xubuntu system is easy. It is very similar to windows and it tends to just work. It’s not too different from my Windows systems. But antiX does things differently and the setup and configuration is not as easy. Things happen that I don’t expect and I get lost and do not understand what is happening. It can take me hours to figure it out. This is not good when I am in the store and I have other work to do. It’s fine for my lab and hobby at home. I can take my time and figure it out. Or, I can just stop and do something else. And I don’t need to have everything nicely laid out for me on screen. I can find things and launch applications without pretty icons and menus. I can even use the command line. But my staff at work is not that flexible.

So, here i am trying to figure out why the screen resolution is wonky and I am getting lost and wondering if I am going to be successful with antiX. Maybe I’ll have to go back to Xubuntu. So I read some more on google and found out that I need to use the startup file in the “iceWM” setup files, not my /home directory as I had previously read. I found the IceWM setup files using the Control Center and this time after I rebooted I had a proper 1280x1024 screen resolution on startup. Great! But then I opened the Control Center again and the dialog and fonts were HUGE! I opened the ROXTerm terminal and the same thing. Everything is huge!

Back to google to do some more reading. I learn that the problem is the wrong DPI setting. But I can’t find anything in antiX to set the DPI. I stumbled across a post where someone mentioned using “xrandr” and “xdpyinfo”. I figured out that I could use xrandr to reset the DPI with another startup file command. I put a second line in the iceWM startup file that read “xrandr --dpi 96”. I rebooted and now I have my desktop looking normal again. But it took lots of reading on google, most of it outside of the antiX documentation, to figure this out. But I got it fixed and now I am thinking I can use antiX on this machine after all.

I still don’t know why, in antiX, the resolution does not setup right to begin with and why changing the resolution with xrandr causes the DPI to go haywire. But I’m sure the geeks who work with linux all the time understand why. And why it works in Xubuntu but not antiX? All I know is that antiX is harder to setup than Xubuntu. But it runs better. It uses less memory and it seems to behave. From the user’s perspective it’s snappy and responsive. And that’s why I wanted to try it on this machine in the office. It’s the best Linux I have used for older computers like this Pentium 4.

But I’m not done yet. I have to make it easy to launch the browser and open AccuRadio and it has to work just like it does on the Windows computers. So, I need to add a desktop icon that says “AccuRadio” and that, when clicked, opens the AccuRadio website.

Fortunately for me the sound works just fine. Once I opened the browser and launched AccuRadio, the sound came through the stereo just like normal. All I have to do now is create the desktop icon.

As it turns out, this is another area that is harder on antiX than on Windows or Xubuntu. AntiX does not use a desktop environment but instead uses file managers and windows managers. The default windows manager is IceWM and the file manager is ROX-Filer. It’s not as easy as right-clicking on the desktop, or dragging and dropping from a menu, to add a launcher. But I figured it out.

The first thing I did was made sure I had SeaMonkey and the Flash Plugin installed and on the menus. I like to use SeaMonkey instead of Firefox since it is better on memory use. I used Synaptic to install both SeaMonkey and Flash Plugin. Once that was done I was able to use ROX-Filer to create a desktop icon, or launcher, to easily start the SeaMonkey browser.

I right-clicked on the existing desktop icon for the ROX-Filer program and selected “New - Desktop Application”. A list of installed programs pops up and I chose SeaMonkey, then renamed the icon as “AccuRadio”. Now, when clicking on this icon the SeaMonkey browser is launched. I set AccuRadio as the default home page. The end result is an easy way to start the music streaming service from the desktop. Very similar to our Windows machines.

So, while not as easy as dragging an icon from the menu onto the desktop, it was not too hard. I just had to learn that antiX does not use a desktop environment system and instead uses the ROX-Filer file manager to launch from desktop icons.

The last thing I had to do was change the wallpaper to something that looks nicer than the default used in antiX. I figured out that I could use any image file saved to my /home/Pictures folder. So, I downloaded a nice picture and then used the Control Center to select a new wallpaper from a file. Once applied it stuck. The screen now looks very much like our Windows machines and it is easy to launch the AccuRadio website. Mission accomplished.

Hopefully, antiX will not crash as often as the Xubuntu system. So far it seems to be handling the Flash stuff just fine. But, time will tell.

The specs for this machine are:

Hewlett Packard HP d220 MT

Pentium 4 2.6Mhz

Intel 82845G Integrated Graphics

Intel 82801DB AC’97 Audio

Broadcom BCM4401 Ethernet

80GB Hard Drive

1.25 GB RAM

Wow! Has it been a year already? Well, as I said, this is not my day job. It's just a hobby. Guess I've been too busy with my hearth business to keep up with this Old Computers blog. But I have been working in my lab and having some fun resurrecting some old computers. My most recent project was to see if i could get Linux to run on some old Pentium 1 systems. I wanted to see how low I could go.

I will be following up with more on that project in another post. For now I'll just say that I am continuing this learning project and I am getting closer to producing some pictures and videos to help document my collection. I am not naturally comfortable with video creation so it is taking me some time to learn how this technology works. But I am now working through some you-tube tutorials and practicing so I can learn how to make decent you-tube videos.

I've started by taking pictures of my project to put Linux on an old Pentium 150 laptop. I am using that project as my learning tool and hope to have a nice video done to share here. As it turns out it is possible to put a modern Linux on that machine but it is best as a Text Only system. There are several good console programs that are useful. But for a graphical user interface it is better on Windows 98. At least it is for me, a Linux hobbyist. I'm not a Linux expert so my results with such old equipment is not really what I would call a usable system. But as an experiment it is fun. And I am multi-booting using DOS 5, Windows 98SE, and Linux (in Debian and Slackware flavors).

My goal for this blog is be able to contribute to the historical documentation of computers from my generation. I once thought I could help connect people with less means to less-expensive used computers. But computer technology has changed so much in recent years that it is no longer practical to use an old used computer for general home or small office computing. For general home use it now makes more sense to buy an inexpensive laptop and wifi printer. For small business use it makes sense to spend a little more for a current desktop computer and a shared wifi printer.

Old computers can still be useful though in some situations. My own situation is one such example. I am glad to explore the historical value and capabilities of old computers as a hobby and pass that knowledge on to the community. Other examples of situations where old computers can be useful are as as backup systems, as file servers, or job-specific devices, such as streaming music for an office. There are also several applications where old computers are still being used as controllers for old purpose-built tools and machines.

Retro gaming is also an excellent application for old computers. Many old computer games run best when running on the hardware that was current when the game was produced. Simulation or emulation is not always the best experience for certain segments of the gamer's community. To be able to get their hands on original equipment can make all the difference to their ultimate experience.

Okay, that's all for now. I'll try to catch up and post more to this blog in the coming months. Until then, remember, you will soon own an "old computer".