ubuntu system requirements (Re: help installing ubuntu on old computers

[Philippe Landau]

> This was what appeared in the subject line by default philippe --> Re: 
> ubuntu-users Digest, Vol 7, Issue 246
i see. you did it well now.

>     I selected digest form for reasons of personal preference.
yes, but a mail to the list is public.

> Hey Phillippe,
>     I guess I'll have to install it on my mac (I'm not looking forward, 
> oh well).  I haven't found any list of "system requirements" I checked 
> the CD and the website, no joy.
you are right, canonical lists your hardware as supported:
http://archive.ubuntulinux.org/ubuntu/dists/warty/main/installer-i386/current/doc/manual/en/ch02.html
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Hardware-HOWTO/cpu.html#AEN393
i agree, not to list the system requirements is a serious omission.

what mac model do you have, and how much ram ?

> PS: "no joy" (in context) is an idiom meaning, "didn't find what I was 
> looking for".
modern form of no cigar :-)

--

http://people.ubuntulinux.org/~mako/ubuntu-traffic/u20050107_20.xml

Several threads on the Ubuntu-Users mailing list discussed the minimum 
system requirements for getting an Ubuntu PC up and running. Judy and 
Lindsay started the first thread saying,

     What are the minimum specs for running the latest Ubuntu? If I can 
get an older Pentium 3 (600-700MHz) would that be suitable?

A number of people suggested sane minimums by mentioning the speed of 
the slower computers on which they are currently successfully running 
Ubuntu. There seemed to be some consensus that a 500MHz machine with at 
least 192MB memory could run Ubuntu great out of the box (you should at 
least 2-3 GB of hard drive space to devote to Ubuntu as well). The 
limitations for the default desktop installation tend to hing on memory.

That said, servers and custom installations that do not use GNOME can 
easily run on much slower machines with less memory. Imagine trying to 
run the latest version on Windows on such hardware!

The Linux Standards Base is a project to develop and promote a set of 
standards that will increase compatibility among Linux distributions and 
enable software applications to run on any compliant system. Information 
on LSB is at: http://www.linuxbase.org/

--
>> Message: 7
>> Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2005 01:09:49 +0100
>> From: Philippe Landau <lists at mailry.net>
>> Subject: Re: help installing ubuntu on old computers
>> To: Ubuntu Help and User Discussions <ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com>
>> Message-ID: <423CBF4D.5090808 at mailry.net>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>>
>>>> i am sorry about the obstacles you encounter.
>>>> i hope you can view it as a game like mikado or so.
>>>> can you please keep the subject of your emails
>>>> so we can work on it in a consistent thread ?
>>>> this is facilitated if you always use "reply" when
>>>> writing a new email to the list about this.
>>>
>>>     I'm copying and pasting from the digest to the reply,
>>> better then cutting 6 to 10 or more other messages.
>>
>> when you see my email, and you hit the reply button,
>> what is in the subject line ?
>>
>>>> I can't boot from the CD (The computer tries it,
>>>> and I do have the CD as the first device it checks to boot from)
>>>> but it can't boot.  I don't know why.
>>>> which version of ubuntu did you download (file name please) ?
>>>
>>>     4.10 "warty warthog"
>>>
>>>> do you try installing on a mac ? what model ?
>>>
>>> no, I'd have to repartition my HDD on my mac    When I tried to put 
>>> on yellow dog, it caused several disk errors (at least from MacOS 
>>> point of view, I finally had to do zero out the harddrive and 
>>> reinstall MacOS).
>>> I'm using an older computer: 166 Cyrix 6x86.
>>> I want to say 64 MB ram (if I'm doing the math correct on the screen 
>>> before red hat's LILO starts up).
>>> 8x CD-ROM (no writing or rewriting capibility).
>>
>> so that's a pentium 1 processor (pitty it's not a 686 :-)
>> unfortunately this computer may be too old for ubuntu.
>> http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=8338
>> http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-9670.html
>> there are linux distributions specialising in old computers:
>> http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=deli
>> http://www.nonagsplus.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=333&PN=1
>>
>>> I appreciate everyone's help.
>>
>> i enjoy talking to you too.
>>
>> in northern europe you have to pay to get rid of pentium 3 computers ...
>>
>> kind regards     philippe
>>
>> -- 
>>
>>>
>>>> I have an 8GB hard drive with old version of redhat
>>>> I have a brand new 160GB with 4 partitions.  I'd like to eventually 
>>>> format what's now "hdb1" as a swap partition and instal ubuntu on 
>>>> "hdb2" "hd3" and "hdb4" (the 4 partition set up: swap, root, 
>>>> user...).  Currently these are formatted as ext2, because the 
>>>> version of redhat I have couldn't format them as riser or ext3.
>>>>
>>>> Do I need to "fake" a few files (as in use touch to create a few 
>>>> zero byte files with specific names) so install can overwrite.  Or 
>>>> can I use install to write to the slave disk at all?
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>>     Chris
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>     I've got 1 internet capible system presently, a Mac OS 10.3.8 
>>>> with Netscape 7.x.  I've not been able to get the CD written on my 
>>>> Mac I had to use one of the computer labs at school to get it 
>>>> written.  I've sent off for the CD's from Ubuntu already but they 
>>>> haven't arrived yet.  I've not been able to get the live CD burnt.  
>>>> Also, I remember from SuSe there's a command-line way of 
>>>> installing... type 1 command that brings up a whole list of what to 
>>>> include and not include, then quit that and do a make (make install) 
>>>> IIRC.  Is there a similar way.  I've scowered the CD and the website 
>>>> and haven't found it.  I have a nagging feeling the slides that you 
>>>> told me about and I can't access are what I need to know.
>>>>
>>>>     I hate remembering only half of this stuff.  I've done this 
>>>> years ago, and this case remembering half is worse than remembering 
>>>> nothing, because I so easily misremember.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks In Advance,
>>>>     Chris
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> -- 
>>> ubuntu-users mailing list
>>> ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com
>>> http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
> 
>