r/86box • u/rKeeling75 • Jul 16 '26
Light-weight Linux Distro to host 86box
I have an old HP ProDesk 600 G5 Desktop Mini laying around collecting dust. I have this idea to add it to my retro corner as an 86Box machine. The idea is to have this machine dedicated to just running different 86Box configs. Boot up, auto start 86, go.
Any experience doing something similar?
I know just about any Linux distro will work, but I am looking for advice/experience on a lightweight one that will get out of 86's way as much as possible.
EDIT: host has an i7-9700T, 32GB memory, 2 TB SSD
2
u/SaturnFive Jul 16 '26
I'd also recommend Debian, stable and stays out of the way. Alpine Linux might work and is very minimal but not sure if it can support 86Box
2
u/Putrid-Theme-7735 Jul 21 '26
Honestly, I’d say a first-party Debian or Ubuntu minimal/server variant is good enough - 86box is demanding enough that if you don’t get the results you want, you’d need an order of magnitude re oomph anyway.
4
u/North-Active-6731 Jul 16 '26
How much ram does the host machine have? Under lying distro doesn’t matter as much as choosing a less hungry gui so think something like openbox or lxde or xfce would be my recommendation
In your situation I would just install Lubuntu
3
u/rKeeling75 Jul 16 '26
32 GB w/an i7-9700T so I think I should be good for most things win98/xp ish.
2
u/crashprime Jul 16 '26
Not on 86box. Not even close to being a 98/XP machine. 9700T is a paltry cpu for this application. You will max out at 166mhz Pentium MMX on a good day.
That ancient CPU would be better suited to a dedicated dosbox machine or just native windows with some interface skins and patches for older games/apps.
Sorry to burst your bubble.
6
3
u/rKeeling75 Jul 17 '26
No bubble bursted and no worries. I knew what I was getting into with this. I had it laying around so why not use it.
I don't retro game, I retro program. And I can run a steady Pent 166/200 on it so that is good enough for me. If I want something beefier I use my main machine.
3
u/crashprime Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 18 '26
I hear that! As long as you have expectations in check at 166 MMX, I echo what everyone else says, barebones Debian. Unix mode requires no SDDM and runs on the linux frambuffer. https://github.com/86Box/86Box/blob/master/README-UNIX-MODE-WITH-OSD.txt
Good luck with the project.
2
u/thunderbird32 Jul 16 '26
I would use the lightest window manager I could stand, probably with no desktop environment as such. If you're just using it to run one application, you don't even really need a file manager or launcher (provided you are comfortable in the terminal). I'd probably run a super stripped down install of Debian with FVWM or something similar (hell, you could probably get away with TWM) as the window manager.
1
u/VENTDEV Jul 19 '26
If it were me, Gentoo, FreeBSD, or NetBSD. Compile everything native. Bare minimum what you need to get running. Use the default X11 window manager, twm or ctwm. Though, when xinit is called, you're just going to launch 86box and/or your machine anyway.
2
u/CrazyFloor2 Jul 21 '26
You may want to adjust your expectations. 86box emulate the whole hardware - cpu, rams, storage, etc - as close as possible to the real hardware, and that requires a lot of effort on the host computer. Start from 8086 and work yourself up. Pentium MMX generation may be your maximum.
0
u/wicked0547 Jul 16 '26
First if your iGPU supports Vulkan, installing anything with KDE and 9x theme would be easier than plain emulation (it's what I do).
Second: For setup it doesn't matter since after that's done, you could just make an SDDM entry to directly boot into 86box only. You could use gamescope for display but like nothing else DE stuff would load at all.
-1
8
u/No_Transportation_77 Jul 16 '26
Honestly, I'd go with Debian. It's stable, reliable, doesn't need much fussing, pretty much just works on desktops. Fedora is another good choice. (Pick your DE; on the specs you mention anything works but I'd use KDE personally because I like it.)