r/antiXLinux

https://preview.redd.it/cfatqfsccu0h1.jpg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=569357e2c54a2588efa51f067b5f268180684394

Installed Linux kernel v7.0.4 after I installed AntiX 26 to get my wifi up and running. Lenovo Ideapad slim 3; modern laptop but a little weak. I'm happy with my setup; so this is my desktop. Have a nice day! ;)

I bought an old VAIO laptop a while ago that ran Windows and since it was running really slow, I thought the best course of action was to install a light linux distro so that the laptop could have a second life.

The laptop I'm talking about specifically is a VAIO PCG-4V1M. It runs a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N280 with 1Gb of DDR2 RAM.

I installed antiX 23.2 "Arditi del Popolo" and hoped for the best: a somewhat smooth experience with the very limited components and specs in hand which, hopefully, could run this light distro.

As you can imagine, if I'm writing here asking for help, it's because it didn't go according to plan. The laptop is as slow as it was on Windows 7. To load a single word document it can take between 30 to 75 seconds, depending on the size of the file. PDF files take even longer, from around 55 seconds to even 125 seconds in some instances. It's very rough, the battery lasts very little (which was another problem I was hoping to solve with replacing Windows with antiX), around 1h30min with only a word document and a pdf loaded, and the web browser just refuses to work.

Now, I'm not asking for these problems to magically go away, and I'm very aware of the limited capabilities (to say the least) the laptop has, but I did want to ask to people who actually know what they're doing to help me. My goal for this laptop is to use it mostly for writing essays, articles, etc. For this I need some basic things: a basic browser to search stuff like wikipedia, maybe old reddit, articles ..., a text editor like libre office writer, a pdf viewer a spelling corrector (for both spanish and english), a local dictionary (so that I don't have to go online if I don't need to), a light email (maybe like claws mail), a music and video player, a photo viewer, a calendar/notes/task app (I've looked up some and Osmo came up?), bluetooth and, of course, the terminal.

Is it possible to optimise antiX so that it can run those things without any problems? How can I optimise it if it's possible? What applications should I have for each thing I need? Do I need to change OS? If so, which one is even lighter?

Thank you in advance for the help!

Just wanted to hop on and share a solution to my bluetooth woes!

I am running MX Linux 25.1 Infinity on an old ThinkPad (the way Jesus intended)

I was able to pair AND connect to my bluetooth headphones, but I could not get any sound or get the mic to pick up any sound.
I checked all the inputs/outputs/playback settings.
I tried all the possible audio profiles in the bluetooth manager.
Some recommendations included stopping the bluetooth daemon and restarting it, checking to make sure I wasn't running pulseaudio AND wireplumber, and double checking that the whole bluez stack was installed.

Nothing worked.

And then I finally thought to search SPECIFICALLY for an answer with MX Linux (or AntiX) in the search query!

And it lead me to THIS super helpful page:

https://mxlinux.org/wiki/networking/bluetooth/#Troubleshooting

For posterity, here is the relevant troubleshooting info from the page:

>Problematic Broadcomm Bluetooth cards.

>A problem arises with certain Broadcomm Bluetooth cards where the card is identified, but adding a device fails when attempting to pair. Adding without pairing shows as successful, but the device fails to work.

>The following method worked when tested on a Dell XPS 13.

>From a terminal, list your USB devices with the following command:

>lsusb

>One of the lines shown will contain something similar to this:

>Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0a5c:216f Broadcom Corp. BCM20702A0 Bluetooth

>Take note of the two character strings. (0a5c:216f and BCM20702A0 in this example.)

>Go to this page:

>https://github.com/winterheart/broadcom-bt-firmware/tree/master/brcm

>and find the driver that exactly matches your character strings. Download the file, and as root copy it to here:

>/lib/firmware/brcm

>Reboot, and open the Bluetooth dialogue. Remove any items added from previous attempts, then add your device in the usual way. All being well, the device will now add and pair successfully.

>Information was found here:

>https://askubuntu.com/questions/880745/ubuntu-16-04-bluetooth-not-working-dell-xps13

My hope is that someone searching online might find this a little easier than I did. And also I really wanted to thank the MX team and the AntiX team for being awesome! Especially Jerry3904!

Thanks a lot, everyone! Really ❤️