Non-PAE kernel in 12.10

[Liam Proven]

On 24 February 2013 04:07, Karl Auer <kauer at biplane.com.au> wrote:
>
> I'm confused - on my old Thinkpad T41, the install version will not
> boot, let alone install, 12.04. 12.04 was allegedly the last version to
> have non-PAE kernels. All I get when booting the distro (CD or USB
> stick) is "This kernel requires the following features not present on
> the CPU: Unable to boot - please use a kernel appropriate for your CPU."

Are you missing a word there? It does not specify what feature is missing.

> So how does this fake-pae tool help in my case? All I can imagine doing
> is installing an old version of Ubuntu and upgrading the kernel, which
> is not all I want to upgrade.

Doing a clean install would be tricky.

However, the documented method for 12.04 with non-PAE chips is as follows:

[0] Connect target system to internet via a physical cable, not wifi

[1] download & burn mini-netboot ISO: http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/netboot/12.04/

[2] Boot, install minimal system

[3] Update it with the usual `apt-get update ; apt-get dist-upgrade
-y' incantation

[4] Install your desired desktop using the metapackage, e.g. `apt-get
install ubuntu-desktop'

E.g. http://askubuntu.com/questions/117744/how-can-i-install-on-a-non-pae-cpu-error-kernel-requires-features-not-present

> I would really like to be able to put Ubuntu on all this old hardware,
> which is by no means dead yet. T41p, T42, R50, T30 - all still going
> strong...

The above is what I did. It worked fine.  However, I am now finding
problems, I warn you.

E.g. resume from sleep works fine, but it does not reset the graphics
controller; I needed to switch to a text terminal and reboot with
Ctrl-Alt-Del.

I may try a different desktop, or indeed, whole distro. (Possibly
Crunchbang.) The Ubuntu experience on my X31 has been degrading
steadily since about 11.04, which was fine, but is now totally
unsupported, AFAIK.

11.10 worked but lost the ability to drive a 2nd monitor.
12.04 won't install without jumping through hoops & was unusably slow.
I switched to Lubuntu.
12.10 won't install without even more special measures & resume is now broken.

TBH I am considering going back to 10.04!

--
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