Best distro of linux to use on a slower/older client?

[Dilly Dilly]

I have an older laptop that i am trying to see if i could stream to as a client.

My host specs:
MSI Mpower Z77
Intel i7-3770k
Gigabyte ATI 7970 Ghz OC
16mb Ram
500 SSD Samsung 840 Pro

Client:
HP ZD8000 Laptop
Pentium 4 3.0Ghz
1GB Ram
256GB HD
ATI Radeon X600

I tried using windows 7 but it runs for about 5-10 secs decently till it just falls on its face. I think the issue is the RAM?! Windows alone takes about 500mb and doesnt leave much for else.

Which is the best linux distro to use that uses the least in the background so steam can be optimized the most?

[CodeThief]

I'm using 'Linux Lite 1.0.8' on an Acer Revo R3610 and it's running pretty well overall.

[Dave]

I use Linux Mint 15 XFCE on my Dell Inspiron E1405, and it works decently enough. I don't have video decoding issues if I lock streaming at 5,000 Kb/s bitrate (which can be done in Steam's settings on the client), and only start having issues when it goes over 10,000 Kb/s.

Also, my Dell E1405 has 1GB of RAM and a T2400 (dual core) running at 1.83GHz. Anything with the XFCE desktop environment is notoriously memory efficient so it's nigh impossible for me to run out of RAM with what I'm doing. I would personally recommend at the very least staying away from Windows 7, as I found it very hard to run on this junky laptop, which seems relatively similar to your client machine.

[fearlessfrog]

How does Steam's Big Picture mode work on any of these clients, is it ok to use? I'm debating what machines to repave with what, so interested to hear how the lower-power machines and linux with the Steam client as Big Picture (as it's for a TV HTPC) get on.

[Dilly Dilly]

yea.. im curious about how low of a system it works on. This laptop is the slowest i have between all my computers and if it runs on this decently... i'll be very impressed.

I got it to work great on a AMD Phenom II 555, i5-3217 tablet, and a i7-4770k. All in the windows 7/8 platform... If this laptop is going to cut it, it has to be on linux.

[Dave]

Originally posted by fearlessfrog:

How does Steam's Big Picture mode work on any of these clients, is it ok to use? I'm debating what machines to repave with what, so interested to hear how the lower-power machines and linux with the Steam client as Big Picture (as it's for a TV HTPC) get on.

Big Picture runs below 1FPS on the client PC that I use (Dell E1405), so that's unusable over here. However, it can decode the incoming video fast enough to play some games just fine at 30FPS 720P, 5K bitrate. If I were to build a "Streambox", I would personally go with a lower end APU either running Linux if the newer Linux kernels even support APUs or a super stripped down install of Windows 7 or God forbid, XP. An APU should have no problems doing hardware accelerated decoding of high bitrate video, and sell for as low as $50-$100 for a chip that can pack a decent punch.

Also, in terms of Streamboxes, you really don't need more than 1GB of RAM if using a lightweight Linux distro or XP, so you can go pretty low on the hardware side to do some pretty good streaming.

[QQ Bee]

I'd also like to know. My Pentium M laptop can't support most linux distros because of the missing pxe extension. 640x480 streaming would at least be nice, and I do not think I would need special and all new nvidia hardware just to get a streaming feed...

[grumpycrab]

A spare XP license may be useful, and means you don't have to run Big Picture Mode.

[Container7]

I have a Pentium M laptop (2GB of ram, radeon x300)(1.86 Ghz) and it struggles as a windows client. I'm curious to see if it works any better on linux. Though, I do wish there was a lower resolution option that might play nicer with my system, even if some (or many) games become illegible.

[unRARed]

Lubuntu is going to be the easiest to use distro with the lowest footprint. Pretty sure the window manager is LMDE. You could also just install that window manager on any linux distro.

[Dilly Dilly]

wow.. very impressive!

I ended up installing Linux Lite 1.0.8 that codetheif recommended.

Everything worked like a charm off the bat. WiFi, networking, display... everything properly configured without tinkering.

ALSO... It comes with steam preinstalled! Couldnt be any better of a package for a light build for steam streaming.

My results are from playing Insurgency..

720 @ 60 - 75% of the time.. occationally dropped to 30fps not lower.
Input lag - 6-7ms (others @ 1.5ms)
Display lag - 85ms (others @ 30-40ms)

Not the optimum solution but still.. having this over 10 year old laptop play Insurgency @ 720p is very impressive!

Seeing that this processor got a benchmark of an obismal score of 361 from passmark and its running this well.. i dont think there really is any modern chip that wouldnt be able to stream with. After seeing this result.. Im very confident that any Intel NUC system or Gigabyte Brix would work perfectly.

[jcoulter36]

Hello,
I am having trouble getting audio to work over hdmi on linux lite 1.08.

My set up is an Acer revo 3610 hooked up to my AVR over hdmi. Everything else (including streaming 1080 @ 60 fps) works perfectly except for audio.

In pulse audio manager I have the output set to hdmi stereo

In terminal i executed alsamixer and f6 to select the default card. Everytime I try this it defaults to pulse audio and not the actual nvidia/realtek card that I select.

Can anyone help me out with this.?

[Diversant]

Originally posted by jcoulter36:

Hello,
In pulse audio manager I have the output set to hdmi stereo

In terminal i executed alsamixer and f6 to select the default card. Everytime I try this it defaults to pulse audio and not the actual nvidia/realtek card that I select.

Can anyone help me out with this.?

As far as I know, when pulseaudio is installed it works above ALSA, thus tweaking alsamixer wouldn't change the default card. And the default card is defined by pulseaudio.
I managed to change the default pulseaudio card by adding to /etc/pulse/default.pa:

set-default-sink alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-surround-51

(but it's my particular case)

To find out the name of the default sink I suggest using command:

pactl list sinks

To see the default sink at the moment I use:

pactl info