A few thoughts about this:<p>As anthk wrote, NetBSD would be a perfect fit. Don't know about Hyperbola, though it looks OK.<p>Anyways, I'd recommend something else, namely <i>AntiX</i> if it <i>has</i> to be Linux:<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AntiX" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AntiX</a> , either one of the options/images as listed from their mainpage <a href="https://www.antixlinux.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.antixlinux.com/</a> or rather this to go fully <i>bonkers</i>:<p><a href="https://www.antixforum.com/forums/topic/antix-23-2-init-diversity-2025-remaster-edition/" rel="nofollow">https://www.antixforum.com/forums/topic/antix-23-2-init-dive...</a><p>The thing with AntiX is, one can 'remaster' it on another system, to have a very customized installation image, stripped of anything unwanted, and added wanted apps, ready to roll on that poor Pentium thingy :-)<p>Easily, while running in 'live-mode', without having to recompile shit. Furthermore it has all sorts of installation options, which makes it <i>really flexible</i> without diverging too much from Debian, which it is based on. All with a few presses of function keys on keyboard, and some clicking around in their GUI-tools. Those are what makes it special and really useful IMO.<p><a href="https://antixlinux.com/the-most-extensive-live-usb-on-the-planet/" rel="nofollow">https://antixlinux.com/the-most-extensive-live-usb-on-the-pl...</a> &<p><a href="https://antixlinuxfan.miraheze.org/wiki/Remaster" rel="nofollow">https://antixlinuxfan.miraheze.org/wiki/Remaster</a> have some overview about that.<p>Now about booting that on a board which probably has only USB 1.0 or 1.1 at best, and its BIOS doesn't know shit about booting from USB, or added (passive, without their own BIOS-extension) PCI-Sata/USB/Combo cards in general:<p>There is an Austrian guy who solved that with <a href="https://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager/full.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager/full.html</a> , this worked for me somewhere around 2010 with cheap PCI-Cards for about 20€.<p>Just by pure Assembly-language in the MBR, and gave nice graphics, too!<p>Since there are DOM(Disk on Module/Flash to IDE in use, this seems unnecessecary now, but maybe not?<p>Other options would be <a href="https://www.plop.at/en/plopkexec/intro.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.plop.at/en/plopkexec/intro.html</a> from the same guy, or<p><a href="https://www.solemnwarning.net/kexec-loader/" rel="nofollow">https://www.solemnwarning.net/kexec-loader/</a> & <a href="https://github.com/solemnwarning/kexec-loader">https://github.com/solemnwarning/kexec-loader</a><p>So that leaves the question of how to expand the capabilities of that mainboard.<p>USB3 would be nice to have, but I'd doubt that a P100 can push&power that in a really meaningful way. Furthermore they are rather expensive, though they exist:<p><a href="https://geizhals.eu/?cat=ioexpcard&v=l&hloc=at&hloc=de&hloc=pl&hloc=uk&hloc=eu&sort=p&bl1_id=30&xf=1331_2%7E621_PCI" rel="nofollow">https://geizhals.eu/?cat=ioexpcard&v=l&hloc=at&hloc=de&hloc=...</a><p>Personally, I'd waste two PCI-slots, one for SATA, to have the 'real thing', and one for real USB2 for peripheral convenience.<p>I'd go for the cheapest thing with the most ports and common chipsets. In case of SATA maybe even RAID-controllers because they tend to have their own BIOS which 'plugs-in' into the mainboard BIOS, and one doesn't have to use that RAID, under Linux they can just work as multiple, individual SATA-ports, and they would be bootable without all that DOM/Flash to IDE, and/or bootmanager crap! :-) Like these:<p><a href="https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003285309722.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003285309722.html</a> (RAID, BIOS!)<p><a href="https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005008117632551.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005008117632551.html</a> (RAID, BIOS!)<p><a href="https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005008763581735.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005008763581735.html</a> (they even mention Linux!)<p><a href="https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005007928947473.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005007928947473.html</a> (just 3xSATA(2 internal,1 external +1 additional internal IDE), probably no BIOS)<p>Or something like from here:<p><a href="https://geizhals.eu/?cat=iosasraid&xf=614_PCI" rel="nofollow">https://geizhals.eu/?cat=iosasraid&xf=614_PCI</a><p>For peripheral USB2 convenience, anything like these, which give four external, and one
internal port:<p><a href="https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006223700099.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006223700099.html</a><p><a href="https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005007371252877.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005007371252877.html</a><p>Or something from there:<p><a href="https://geizhals.eu/?cat=ioexpcard&v=l&hloc=at&hloc=de&hloc=pl&hloc=uk&hloc=eu&sort=p&bl1_id=30&xf=621_PCI%7E624_4" rel="nofollow">https://geizhals.eu/?cat=ioexpcard&v=l&hloc=at&hloc=de&hloc=...</a><p>With that the three PCI-slots are full, assuming the VGA is PCI, too.<p>That leaves sound and networking. Reading the latest manual for that board shows the Parallel-port does ECP+DMA, that can give up to 4mBIT/s via parallel 'laplink'-cable and Linux <i>PLIP</i> to some other Linux-host with PLIP <i>and</i> ethernet. Though it is CPU-intensive, expect something like 2mBit/s realiably.<p><a href="https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/v6.15-rc2/networking/plip.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/v6.15-rc2/networking/plip.ht...</a><p><a href="https://www.man7.org/linux//man-pages/man8/plipconfig.8.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.man7.org/linux//man-pages/man8/plipconfig.8.html</a><p><a href="https://tldp.org/HOWTO/PLIP.html" rel="nofollow">https://tldp.org/HOWTO/PLIP.html</a><p>For additional fun abuse a <a href="https://networkencyclopedia.com/breakout-box/" rel="nofollow">https://networkencyclopedia.com/breakout-box/</a> (maybe with gender changers for the cable).<p>Whee! <i>BlInKeNlIgHtS</i> (Red/Green!) I really did that, once :-)<p>Or just plug some NIC into an ISA-slot.<p>Sound: Just some SB16-compatible ISA-card. ESS (Ensonic Sound System, or something like that.<p><i>OR</i> waste one of the precious USB2-ports from the PCI-addon for an USB-DAC with the desired combination of in/out. Mic-in and Headphone/Line-out should suffice? (Preferrable, because less electronic noise from the board and its busses)<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Reborn-Universal-Headphone-Microphone-Compatible/dp/B0DC9SYJV3" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Reborn-Universal-Headphone-Microphone...</a><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/FEMORO-Adapter-External-Microphone-Headphone/dp/B0C5MGNDBJ" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/FEMORO-Adapter-External-Microphone-He...</a><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-External-Adapter-Windows-AU-MMSA/dp/B00IRVQ0F8" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-External-Adapter-Windows-AU-M...</a><p><a href="https://www.pollin.de/p/logilink-usb-2-0-5-1-audiocontroller-720945" rel="nofollow">https://www.pollin.de/p/logilink-usb-2-0-5-1-audiocontroller...</a><p><a href="https://www.pollin.de/p/logilink-usb-2-0-audio-controller-7-1-721632" rel="nofollow">https://www.pollin.de/p/logilink-usb-2-0-audio-controller-7-...</a><p><a href="https://geizhals.eu/?cat=spkhvst&xf=11354_USB-Audio-Adapter" rel="nofollow">https://geizhals.eu/?cat=spkhvst&xf=11354_USB-Audio-Adapter</a><p><a href="https://www.aliexpress.com/w/wholesale-usb%2525252da-dac.html?g=y&SearchText=usb-a+dac&sortType=price_asc" rel="nofollow">https://www.aliexpress.com/w/wholesale-usb%2525252da-dac.htm...</a><p>That would be almost everything, except the board-manual mentioning support for AMD-K5/K6, split voltage, internal clock multipliers, and so on. I'd get one of these, if possible.