Best linux as preboot enviroment

[tysonwarrior2]

Hello again, I'd like a suggestion as to a version of Linux I can use as a preboot enviroment, like those new laptops have. For those who have never heard of one, a preboot enviroment is a program that has most widely used programs built in. Email, web browser, Facebook, Twitter, whatever, all in this program that comes up after POST. The main point of this program is it takes all of 5 seconds to load, instead of minutes wasted on waiting for Windows to load. Besides, Windows is WAY more than needed to browse eBay or look at the news. I already have Windows Vista and Ubuntu dual booted on my laptop now, except I never use Ubuntu. I thought I would at first, using it for most things I didn't need Windows for. But instead it's just turned into a waste of half of my laptop's HDD space. I was going to replace it with a copy of Linux that was:

light (<1GB of install files),

quick to boot (<15 seconds from bootloader to desktop),

conserves power (at best, I can get 90 minutes of web browsing with Firefox on vista),

and supports basic apps like Firefox, ZSNES (SNES console emulator), and DOSBOX (nothing like retro gaming, although I do like TES Skyrim too).

So, bottom line, what is the best mini-quick-boot-super-efficient Linux distro that doesn't need me to install a bunch of crap for it to work right. If it helps, the laptop is a HP 6830s industrial laptop, Intel core 2 Duo @ 2.00 GHZ, 4 GB RAM, 250 GB HDD (half of this is for Windows, the other currently for Ubuntu, although I will probably split it 80:20 with the preboot enviroment instead of 50:50).

 

[Pinhedd]

Hello again, I'd like a suggestion as to a version of Linux I can use as a preboot enviroment, like those new laptops have. For those who have never heard of one, a preboot enviroment is a program that has most widely used programs built in. Email, web browser, Facebook, Twitter, whatever, all in this program that comes up after POST. The main point of this program is it takes all of 5 seconds to load, instead of minutes wasted on waiting for Windows to load. Besides, Windows is WAY more than needed to browse eBay or look at the news. I already have Windows Vista and Ubuntu dual booted on my laptop now, except I never use Ubuntu. I thought I would at first, using it for most things I didn't need Windows for. But instead it's just turned into a waste of half of my laptop's HDD space. I was going to replace it with a copy of Linux that was:

light (<1GB of install files),

quick to boot (<15 seconds from bootloader to desktop),

conserves power (at best, I can get 90 minutes of web browsing with Firefox on vista),

and supports basic apps like Firefox, ZSNES (SNES console emulator), and DOSBOX (nothing like retro gaming, although I do like TES Skyrim too).

So, bottom line, what is the best mini-quick-boot-super-efficient Linux distro that doesn't need me to install a bunch of crap for it to work right. If it helps, the laptop is a HP 6830s industrial laptop, Intel core 2 Duo @ 2.00 GHZ, 4 GB RAM, 250 GB HDD (half of this is for Windows, the other currently for Ubuntu, although I will probably split it 80:20 with the preboot enviroment instead of 50:50).

That's not a preboot environment, that's just a lightweight environment. Preboot environments, or PXE, refer to something completely different and are used to setup and boot computers over a network rather than from a local storage device.

If you're looking for a lightweight, quick booting linux based OS, check out xUbuntu.

 

[bryonhowley]

Well there is something wrong with your Windows install if it takes minutes to load! I triple boot between Windows 8.1 OS X and Ubuntu and in all truth Windows 8.1 loads faster than either of the other two.

 

[tysonwarrior2]

That's not a preboot environment, that's just a lightweight environment. Preboot environments, or PXE, refer to something completely different and are used to setup and boot computers over a network rather than from a local storage device.

If you're looking for a lightweight, quick booting linux based OS, check out xUbuntu.[/quotemsg]

OK, well that's what one website referred to it as, and I do know what PXE is. I'll check out xUbuntu, though.

 

[tysonwarrior2]

bryonhowley said:Well there is something wrong with your Windows install if it takes minutes to load! I triple boot between Windows 8.1 OS X and Ubuntu and in all truth Windows 8.1 loads faster than either of the other two.
Well, that's windows 8, which was hacked down to work on tablets and phones. I'm using Vista, which contrary to popular belief, is actually a decent OS after a few minor registry tweaks. Plus, all copies I've seen of Windows has always taken at least 30 seconds from bootloader to login screen, even when fresh. Even windows 7 takes it's sweet time on my Quad-core core I5 machine. And then after you login there is a 10 second burst of loading it could of done while I was typing in my password that it decides to do after I login. This prevents even the most trivial thing from working, until it's loading rant is over. That, plus even OSX and Ubuntu aren't featherweights either, although that is not their purpose. What I want is a FAST boot, about 10 seconds. What I'm talking about isn't impossible, I've just haven't seen an OS purpose built for this. The fastest boot I've seen out of any OS with a GUI is KolibriOS, which even in VirtualBox is near instantaneous, so just imagine what it would do when booted directly. It doesn't have to be THAT fast, although I wouldn't bicker at 15 seconds.

 

[Pinhedd]

That's not a preboot environment, that's just a lightweight environment. Preboot environments, or PXE, refer to something completely different and are used to setup and boot computers over a network rather than from a local storage device.

If you're looking for a lightweight, quick booting linux based OS, check out xUbuntu.

OK, well that's what one website referred to it as, and I do know what PXE is. I'll check out xUbuntu, though.

xUbuntu has the same core components as Ubuntu but uses the XFCE desktop environment rather than the Unity desktop environment used by vanilla Ubuntu. It's about as close as one can get to Windows without using KDE (which comes with its own suite of problems). XFCE is designed to be lightweight and to run on older PCs. It also helps that it's quite stable. Good luck

EDIT: As a side note, you can install both the Unity desktop environment and the XFCE desktop environment beside each other and pick which one to use when you log in. To do this, just install either Ubuntu or xUbuntu and then install the opposing package (xubuntu-desktop, or ubuntu-desktop respectively).

 

[tysonwarrior2]

Hey, just researched xUbuntu a little and it turns out that it is a little slower than normal Ubuntu in some cases.

 

[tysonwarrior2]

From what I've read on Wikipedia, LUbuntu is okay, so I'm gonna grab Virtualbox and give it a test drive.

 

[Pinhedd]

Hey, just researched xUbuntu a little and it turns out that it is a little slower than normal Ubuntu in some cases.

From what I've read on Wikipedia, LUbuntu is okay, so I'm gonna grab Virtualbox and give it a test drive.

LUbuntu is a fair bit lighter than xUbuntu, but given that you're working with a rather old laptop it might be worth a try. If I were you though I would try xUbuntu first.

 

[tysonwarrior2]

My laptop isn't THAT old... 2008 wasn't that long ago...

 

[Pinhedd]

My laptop isn't THAT old... 2008 wasn't that long ago...

It's using an architecture from 2006. I have a very similar laptop at home from 2007. It's old dude.

 

[tysonwarrior2]

My laptop isn't THAT old... 2008 wasn't that long ago...

It's using an architecture from 2006. I have a very similar laptop at home from 2007. It's old dude.

Yeah, I know

But it's new to MEEEE!

You see, I got this laptop from a friend after the HDD crashed. I threw a new HDD in, installed Windows and Ubuntu and I was set. That was about 6 month ago. Trust me, I know someone has a Droid that can run circles around my laptop when it comes to raw compute power.

 

[Pinhedd]

My laptop isn't THAT old... 2008 wasn't that long ago...

It's using an architecture from 2006. I have a very similar laptop at home from 2007. It's old dude.

Yeah, I know

But it's new to MEEEE!

You see, I got this laptop from a friend after the HDD crashed. I threw a new HDD in, installed Windows and Ubuntu and I was set. That was about 6 month ago. Trust me, I know someone has a Droid that can run circles around my laptop when it comes to raw compute power.

Top end smartphones have the compute power of a Pentium 4 circa 2003. There's still a 10 fold disparity in peak performance between mainstream desktops and top end smart phones.

 

[tysonwarrior2]

My laptop isn't THAT old... 2008 wasn't that long ago...

It's using an architecture from 2006. I have a very similar laptop at home from 2007. It's old dude.

Yeah, I know

But it's new to MEEEE!

You see, I got this laptop from a friend after the HDD crashed. I threw a new HDD in, installed Windows and Ubuntu and I was set. That was about 6 month ago. Trust me, I know someone has a Droid that can run circles around my laptop when it comes to raw compute power.

Top end smartphones have the compute power of a Pentium 4 circa 2003. There's still a 10 fold disparity in peak performance between mainstream desktops and top end smart phones.

Lookie here http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Nvidia-Tegra-4-vs-Intel-Core2-Duo-T5870

 

[tysonwarrior2]

Well, tried LUbuntu in VirtualBox, seemed a little sluggish, but I'll try running it off a CD to see if it goes faster.

 

[tysonwarrior2]

Okay, I installed LUbuntu and it was not very fast. Any other ideas?

 

[Ijack]

Put an SSD in your laptop if you want to improve boot times. Windows 7, Vista, or any Linux distro should then boot in 15-20 seconds.

 

[tysonwarrior2]

Put an SSD in your laptop if you want to improve boot times. Windows 7, Vista, or any Linux distro should then boot in 15-20 seconds.

I would if I was rich, and the laptop had an I7 in it.

 

[tysonwarrior2]

Well, I think I've found a close to ideal solution: Puppy Linux. It boots close to the speed I want (after HDD install, of course), isn't dumbed down to the point of being useless, and I like it. So, is there any tricks on how to make Puppy boot faster? I've already disabled a few services I know I'll never need, but I want it FASTER
The only things in Puppy that bug me is first a little windows to linux shock, and some hardware features need me to go running around cyberspace looking for drivers in order for them to work. Other than that, I'm good. I'm actually typing this out on Puppy, and the only bug I have is none of my function keys work, so I can't turn up my screen brightness. That, and the fonts are WAY too small. Now I'm nitpicking. I need to shut up, I know. Puppy is great, for a linux distro. Its on par with Android, which to me is a great honor.

 

[tysonwarrior2]

Yup, I think I'm keeping Puppy linux. I've chosen the "Slacko" version, and with a few bug fixes, I think it will be fine. I'm going to make another thread about a few problems I need to fix, but other than that, Slacko puppy is just about the best "instant boot" linux I could find. Thank you all for your suggestions.

 

[Alabalcho]

@Tysonwarrior - yes, there is a way to make your Puppy (or any other Linux) boot faster, but this will involve going into the deep waters of compiling your own kernel.

The kernel spends good amount of time probing for lot of hardware, which is (or not) present on the hardware it runs for. By compiling a kernel WITHOUT support for that particular hardware, it won't spend time detecting it, so your boot time will improve. It's another question whether shaving a second or two is worth the efforts.

You might also want to check the BIOS of your laptop for any "Quick boot" settings.

 

[tysonwarrior2]

@Tysonwarrior - yes, there is a way to make your Puppy (or any other Linux) boot faster, but this will involve going into the deep waters of compiling your own kernel.

The kernel spends good amount of time probing for lot of hardware, which is (or not) present on the hardware it runs for. By compiling a kernel WITHOUT support for that particular hardware, it won't spend time detecting it, so your boot time will improve. It's another question whether shaving a second or two is worth the efforts.

You might also want to check the BIOS of your laptop for any "Quick boot" settings.

You're right, too much work for a few seconds of convenience. Puppy already is on the desktop in under 20 seconds. I think a lot of it is extra daemons and unneeded fluff. My main annoyance is my backlight brightness buttons (FN+F7,FN+F8) no longer function, while they still work in windows. I am about to post another thread to solve my gripes. Thank you for your help.

 

[tysonwarrior2]

Well, after staying up late trying to fix annoyances in Puppy I threw in the towel and installed Lubuntu. Best thing I've ever done. After some tuning I can get it to boot in 25 seconds, which I can live with. Thank all of you for your help.