[ubuntu-uk] VIA Neheima CPU and Ubuntu Server

[Liam Proven]

On 14 May 2013 13:34, J Fernyhough <j.fernyhough at gmail.com> wrote:
> The C3 doesn't have PAE support [1]. This means the more recent
> kernels (IIRC quantal and up) won't boot as their config has PAE as a
> requirement. You'll either need to compile your own, or use a distro
> that retains support for those older non-PAE chips.
>
> Jonathon
>
> [1] From http://datasheets.chipdb.org/VIA/Nehemiah/VIA%20C3%20Nehemiah%20Datasheet%20R113.pdf
> , page 2-12 (24?):
>
> "Physical Address Extensions: PAE
> This function is omitted since the target market for the VIA C3
> Nehemiah processor is portables and typical desktop systems. These
> systems do not use 2 MB paging and have greater than 4 GB of system
> memory."

If it *is* /just/ PAE that is the issue, then non-PAE CPUs were
supported in the mainline distro until 11.10 and could be installed
with 12.04 using the mini-netboot ISO followed by a manual install of
the desktop environment:

apt-get install ubuntu-desktop -y
apt-get install lubuntu-desktop -y
apt-get install xubuntu-desktop -y

... etc.

N.B. that Lubuntu 12.04 is *not* an LTS release.

However, if the Via C3 has other issues as well as PAE support, this
may not be enough.

If you are running 12.04 successfully and want to /upgrade/ to a newer
release, you can do this using a small tweak that fakes PAE support:

https://launchpad.net/~prof7bit/+archive/fake-pae

I have tested this successfully with Lubuntu 12.10 and 13.04 on an IBM
Thinkpad X31 with a 1.7GHz Pentium-M CPU, which is more than fast
enough to run Lubuntu very well but lacks PAE. (It is *considerably*
quicker than an Atom CPU of equivalent MHz which has PAE.)

--
Liam Proven • Profile: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile
Email: lproven at cix.co.uk • GMail/G+/Twitter/Flickr/Facebook: lproven
MSN: lproven at hotmail.com • Skype/AIM/Yahoo/LinkedIn: liamproven
Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 • Cell: +44 7939-087884