Author: John Morton Date: To: Hampshire LUG Discussion List Subject: Re: [Hampshire] FW: Beginner needs help installing Linux on a Toshiba
Laptop
Jim Kissel wrote: >
>
> James Ashburner wrote:
>> Gavin wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi I have an old Toshiba portege 7020 CT Laptop plus base station
>>> containing CD rom drive. It currently runs Windows XP Professional.
>>>
>>> **
>>> *Processor Type: Pentium II*
>>>
>>> *Processor Speed: 366MHz*
>>>
>>> *RAM: 128MB*
>>>
>>> *RAM Technology: SDRAM*
>>>
>>> *Hard Drive Capacity: 6.4 GB*
>>>
>>> *Max. RAM: 192MB*
>>>
>>> *CD: on external docking station*
>>>
>>> *Installed Video Memory: 2MB*
>>>
>>> *Display Size: 13.3in*
>>>
>>> *Display Type: Active Matrix LCD (TFT)*
>>>
>>> *Operating System: Microsoft Windows NT 4.0*
>>>
>>> *Cache Size: 256kb*
>>>
>>> *Display Resolution: 1024 x 768 (XGA)*
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> I would like to clear all the old stuff off of it and and install
>>> Linux instead. I am a complete Linux virgin and not a techie!
>>> I have tried running Live CD's of Both Obuntu and Mandriva without
>>> success? Not sure if I have a problem with the CD's or with the PC
>>> (see specs attached)
>>>
>>> Obunbtu starts to load and then just chunters away for ages without
>>> anything further happening.
>>> With Mandriva I get some error messages.
>>>
>>> Any suggestions or ideas as to whether what I want to do is possible
>>> and what I can do to get it running?
>>>
>>> Gavin Meikle
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>> You may have more luck with a light weight distro such as Puppy,
>> mainly due to only having 128MB RAM. Ubuntu requires 256MB for the
>> live CD and I can't imagine Mandriva's requirements being any lower.
>
> Both Puppy and Damn Small Linux will work, but don't expect good
> performance. I've run DSL on 128M/200Mhz diskless machine, but it does
> crawl sometimes.
>
>>
>> Another option is Knoppix, which should switch to using fluxbox (I
>> think, or something similar anyway) when it detects you don't have a
>> lot of RAM.
> Some of the older versions of Knoppix would run in this memory space,
> but I think the newest release would have difficulty. About 3 years
> ago, I ran a Knopix on a 266Mhz with 64M of memory. It just about worked.
>>
>> Xubuntu may work, a version of Ubuntu using Xfce as the Window manager
>> to cut down on system requirements.
> Ubuntu and Xubuntu worked fine for me on a Sony Vaio N505X
with 128MB (max possible!) and Celeron 366mhz.
Live installs didn't work and perhaps Ubuntu/Canonical don't make the
requirements clear enough for newbies.
I found their terminology somewhat confusing too. How come the old
install method became alternate? To me the new live cd is the alternate
method!
All that aside (X)Ubuntu should work fine on the Toshiba.
And Xubuntu has a somewhat slim elegance to it.
Unless you need to bloat it with Open office of course.
But try the leaner alternatives that are installed first.
