totse.com | Getting a Linux OS to work on old comp (due to RAM issues).

Star Wars Fan · #1 2008-08-08, 20:01

Well my old comp is...old. Got it in 2004, to be exact. Windows XP Service Pack 1 old. The CD player acts up and seems fucked, and everytime I try to install Ubuntu it says I need 256 MBs of memory minimum.

I only have 192 MB of Ram

So I'm wondering, do you guys know of any Linux OSes that don't require 256 MB, or are the older Ubuntu versions not as RAM intensive? Or do I have to simply put in new higher RAM cards?

Star Wars Fan · #2 2008-08-08, 20:59

Also, I tried increasing the Paging File; doesn't work

MrSparkle · #3 2008-08-08, 22:53

Yeah Slackware hardly requires any ram. Its kinda hard to install because theres no GUI installer so read a tutorial on installing it first. I tried to install it but I couldn't figure out how to use the command line partitioner. Why not get a new ram card though? You can get a 2GB ram card for about $50.

The partitioner Slackware uses is just fdisk. It comes with all linux distro's I think. First thing you should do is type fdisk -l and it will list all the partitions on your harddrive so you'll know whats what. Heres my harddrive

Quote:

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x7bd40672

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 8510 68356543+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 8511 14247 46082452+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 18845 19391 4393777+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda4 * 14248 18844 36925402+ 83 Linux

sda is the harddrive and 1, 2, 3 and 4 are partitions on it. First partition has Ubuntu on it, second has Windows XP, third is the swap partition and the 4th one has OpenSUSE. Start and End tell you have much space each partition takes up. I don't know what the hell Blocks are and don't know what the point of the Id is. The system is the way the partition is formatted. It says Linux but they're formatted as Ext3 file systems. The second partition is formatted as NTFS so Windows can run on it.

Prometheum · #4 2008-08-08, 23:22

Gentoo with -Os in make.conf will be light.

Star Wars Fan · #5 2008-08-09, 00:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrSparkle View Post

Yeah Slackware hardly requires any ram. Its kinda hard to install because theres no GUI installer so read a tutorial on installing it first.

huh? Ubuntu does have a GUI, I used it to install it on a newer comp I jhave. But thank you for the info on tutorials.

Do you know of any ubuntu/linux tutorials? I remember some posted here a while ago

Quote:

I tried to install it but I couldn't figure out how to use the command line partitioner. Why not get a new ram card though? You can get a 2GB ram card for about $50.

yeah, I should at least upgrade it to the minimum 512 MB

Quote:

The partitioner Slackware uses is just fdisk. It comes with all linux distro's I think. First thing you should do is type fdisk -l and it will list all the partitions on your harddrive so you'll know whats what. Heres my harddrive

sda is the harddrive and 1, 2, 3 and 4 are partitions on it. First partition has Ubuntu on it, second has Windows XP, third is the swap partition and the 4th one has OpenSUSE. Start and End tell you have much space each partition takes up. I don't know what the hell Blocks are and don't know what the point of the Id is. The system is the way the partition is formatted. It says Linux but they're formatted as Ext3 file systems. The second partition is formatted as NTFS so Windows can run on it.

thank you. IIRC, however Ubuntu doesn't need a partition; does it?

MrSparkle · #6 2008-08-09, 00:19

I meant Slackware doesn't have a GUI installer. Do you want me to upload The Ubuntu Bible? It has a whole section on installation. I'm only on the second chapter and I've learned heaps of stuff already.

Yeah of course Ubuntu needs a partition. All operating systems do you can't have 2 operating systems on the same partition. Also linux uses a different filesystem to Windows. Linux needs an Ext3. Windows uses NTFS.

If your trying to install just Ubuntu just delete all the partitions and format the whole harddrive as Ext3.

Star Wars Fan · #7 2008-08-09, 00:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrSparkle View Post

I meant Slackware doesn't have a GUI installer. Do you want me to upload The Ubuntu Bible? It has a whole section on installation. I'm only on the second chapter and I've learned heaps of stuff already.

yes please. Or a link please.

Quote:

Yeah of course Ubuntu needs a partition. All operating systems do you can't have 2 operating systems on the same partition. Also linux uses a different filesystem to Windows. Linux needs an Ext3. Windows uses NTFS.

If your trying to install just Ubuntu just delete all the partitions and format the whole harddrive as Ext3.

Oh yeah...*doh* the OS would conflict and crash.