Install Ubuntu on Old Computer

I have been looking for the Linux distributions for old computers more than one year. I have tried some distributions, such as Arch Linux, TinyMe, Slackware and some Mini Linux, such as Puppy Linux, DSL, Slitaz, CDlinux, etc.. Additionally, I have been paying more attention on DeLi Linux, an international Linux distribution specialized for those old computers. But, some days ago, Henry, its founder and main maintainer, announced DeLi Linux Development Stalled, and he wish there are some people to take over DeLi Linux or even fork DeLi Linux. Ubuntu Linux, I have been thinking it is an open source OS product as an alternative of Windows, is a heavy product, so, I haven’t tried to install it on an old computer. But, some days ago, I installed Ubuntu 6.06 and Ubuntu 8.04 on a Celernon MMX 400 + 96M and PIII 667 + 256M old computers respectively. Basically, they work well. I will share this experience for those friends who want install Ubuntu onto old computers for reference.

First, talk about the result fo my installation. I installed full packages of Xubuntu 6.06 LTS CDROM ISO file onto that Celeron MMX 400 + 96M + 15G machine, but use Blackbox Window Manager instead of its Xfce4 Desktop environment. I have tested using Xfce4 Desktop, it will use about 12M RAM more than using Blackbox. I installed Xubuntu 8.04 onto PIII 667 + 256M + (3.2G + 4.3G hard disks). But, I haven’t installed full packages in its CDROM ISO file. The method I used on PIII machine is the help manual in Install Ubuntu on Low Memory Systems. That is, install command system first, then install the stuff related with GUI such as Xorg xserver and Window Manager(e.g., install some programs with command: sudo aptitude install xorg blackbox bbkeys menu rox-filer firefox fcitx mousepad xterm). Infact, it isn’t a real Xubuntu installation, because you should can finish this installation with general Ubuntu, or Kubuntu, EDubuntu(haven’t confirmed). It occupies about 800M hard disk space for such a Ubuntu 8.04 sytem, plus some files, it occupies about 1G hard disk space. Infact, in order to make the disks subsystem of this pieced-together PIII 667 machine faster a bit, I used soft RAID0 on it; Because I like testing Linux distributions, in order to avoid dividing partitions again and again, I have used LVM over RAID0, this make adjusting partition extended partitionconveniently a bit. But, I am not sure the benefit come from using LVM over RAID0 can bigger than the loss of occupying additional CPU time caused by LVM over RAID0. Just a hint to those friends who like playing with operating system, look, we can use some socalled “advanced” functions of operating system on such an old machine.

In this diary, I will not introduce the detail steps of installation, only share some key steps in installation and configuration. The other setups, like making partitions, installation, is basic knowledge, and you can get too many on internet. I sugguest you read some basic linux knowledge if this is the first time you touch Linux.

1, Download

Xubuntu6.06 and Xubuntu 8.04, I downloaded them from BitTorrent download info with BT download tools. I choose alternate-i386.iso version, they are xubuntu-6.06.1-alternate-i386.iso and xubuntu-8.04.1-alternate-i386.iso respectively. It’s important to chose ISO version, you can read this manual from Install Ubuntu on Low Memory Systems. It need Alternate CD to perform command installation on these kind of low memory machine.

2, The choice of installing methods

I did some searching on internet, these two ISO version can be installed from ISO image file in the hard disk (hard disk installation). But, I failed at installing from ISO image of xubuntu-6.06.1-alternate-i386.iso, so burn it into a CD-R disk and installed Xubuntu 6.06 with this CD-R. Burning an installation CD-R is the most simple way to install distribution, recommand this method to friend who touch linux first. I installed xubuntu-8.04.1-alternate-i386.iso from ISO image successfully. If your use hard disk installation on Xubuntu 8.04, you need download some another files, they are “vmlinuz” and “initrd.gz” specialized for hard disk installation of Xubuntu 8.04(or Ubuntu 8.04 family, such as Ubuntu, Kubuntu, EDubuntu). Please download these two files vmlinuz and initrd.gz. Note, if the file name of file “vmlinuz” be changed by your download tool, please change it back to “vmlinuz”(no suffix). Additionally, if there isn’t boot program in your system(like Grub or Lilo), you need download an installation boot software, here is Grub4dos, download Grub4dos from here, extract it and put the file grub.exe in it and pre-downloaded “vmlinuz”, “initrd.gz” and installation ISO image file “xubuntu-8.04.1-alternate-i386.iso” into the top level directory of FAT32 partition(e.g., C:\”, then create a file called “menu.lst” into the same partition, the content of this “menu.lst” like below:

title install-xUbuntu8.04
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz
initrd /initrd.gz

Now, boot the system into pure DOS environment with a DOS boot disk(CDROM, FLOPPY, etc..), switch into “C:\”, execute “grub.exe”, it will start install after press “Enter” key on “install-xubuntu8.04” boot menu item. Additionally, please note, if you don’t put the files above into “C:\”, you need modify the line “root (hd0,0)” in the file “menu.lst”. For example, if there is a primary partition and an extended partition, and you put these files into the first logical partition of extended partition, this line should be “root (hd0,4)”. You can search some manual about linux partition and Grub boot software for detail.

3, Installation
There isn’t some special stuff for Full Installation of Xubuntu 6.06, according to the prompt, progress forward until end, it’s ok. I used customized installation for Xubuntu 8.04, so, after finished the base system, when ask you install extra packages(they are some services and Xfce4 Desktop options), don’t select anything, progress forward until end.

4, Extra installation and configuration
Infact, there is no some special skill, just close some unnecessary services and don’t load some unnecessary modules and using some light weight softwares. Close services we can refer here: HowTo: Speed up ubuntu boot process – the way you can feel it. – updated. You can install a GUI tool to help you close some services, it seems we should add the “backports” softwares repostory of Ubuntu at first, then execute “sudo apt-get update” and “sudo apt-get install sysv-rc-conf”, it is ok.

To avoid load some unnecessary modules and using light weight softwares we can refer here: Install Ubuntu on Low Memory Systems. The section “Tips and tricks” tell us to avoid load some unnecessary modules, etc.. Then, it tell us install light weight softwares. I used the combination of “xorg + blackbox + bbkeys + rox-filer + menu + firefox + fcitx + mousepad + xterm + Dillo2(newly released)” in the Xubuntu 8.04 on my PIII 667 machine. Basically, it works well for me.

Of course, it is no possible to turn our PII machine into a P4 machine by an Operating System, some viewpoint I described in the previous diary: DeLi Linux Development Stalled, but only for reference.