linux distribution for old laptop

[VJ]

Hello,

I'm looking for a linux distribution for an old laptop. The laptop is a 6 year old Celeron, which was running Kubuntu 9 LTS, when its wifi started acting up (it sees networks, but does not connect to any, a problem that seems common). A distribution update failed (now it goes to blank screen after the Kubunto logo shows up).
I downloaded the new Kubuntu, but it fails to boot as it requires pae support.

So, what is a good distribution that
1. runs on older hardware (non-pae, low memory, slow disk)
2. has kde
3. should not have the wifi issue

Thanks!


Jörg

[Nicram]

KDE is problem here, check out XFCE distros, they are faster, less memory consuming, and even look better.
Try this: http://www.pcbsd.org/ - it is not Linux, but FreeBSD based which is stable OS.
What is the HDD and RAM of this laptop?

[VJ]

KDE is problem here, check out XFCE distros, they are faster, less memory consuming, and even look better.
Try this: http://www.pcbsd.org/ - it is not Linux, but FreeBSD based which is stable OS.
What is the HDD and RAM of this laptop?

I made a mistake: it is a centrino (not celeron).
RAM is 1 GB, hdd is 80 GB, but only 18 available for linux. It the the computer of my girlfriend's mother, who likes kde...

[UtwigMU]

I made a mistake: it is a centrino (not celeron).
RAM is 1 GB, hdd is 80 GB, but only 18 available for linux. It the the computer of my girlfriend's mother, who likes kde...

With old computers you generally tend not to change things too much. Thus I'd go with one of stable distros. I'd go with Debian and then use whatever DE you prefer.

If you really want to learn CLI. Try doing everything for a week without GUI (check email, copy files, download torrents, surf web, write documents in VI).

[cjolley]

There may a non-pae, kde version of linux mint
Mint is heavy, but I've run it on 1200mz dell that was much older than yours.
Mint certainly covers all the usability bases.

http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=2081

[ZokesPro]

Linux Mint Debian. Ran it on an XP1500+ with 768mb ram, ran really smooth, couldn't find anything better. (trust me, I've tried of 60 distro's) Oh, Fedora LXDE runs fast too.

[VJ]

Initially, I tried PCLinuxOS, but it has some issues (video resolution, ...). It also had problems writing grub, which prevented proper booting.

Today, I gave lubuntu 12.04 a try, and it installed very easy, found all hardware as it should and wrote grub correctly. I still have to check if the wifi problem persists, but I can only do that in the evening. But it looks very good so far, it also runs LXDE. If this one turns out to have the wifi problem as well, I'll go with things suggested here: pcbsd and mint.

Stupid question: why do the partition programs skip sda4?
I have partitions /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda2. Both in PCLinuxOS and in Lubuntu, partitioning the remainder for Linux adds /dev/sda3, /dev/sda5, /dev/sda6. Is there any reason for that? That was what prevented PCLinuxOS to write a proper Grub configuration: it was looking in the wrong partition (HD0,x), but I could not get this corrected in PCLinuxOS. Lubunto also skips sda4, but has no issues because of it.

[cjolley]

Usually you can tell the installer to put everything in one partition. (except swap of course)
I've never understood the point of separate partitions on the same drive.

[VJ]

Well, the point is that later you can change the OS without changing /home, or change /home to a different drive even without it impacting anything else. But if it is on a single drive system (like a laptop), you are in trouble if one of them fills up (e.g. the / and /home would be nearly empty). I made the mistake of going with the default setup in Lubuntu (thinking I would be able to fine tune partitions, but it already started copying). As I first want to test the wifi, it does not matter now, but I'll re-install it later if the system works fine.

Still, why would it skip a number?

[cjolley]

is /dev/sda4 your dvd by any chance?

[VJ]

Wouldn't that be with a different letter: /dev/sdb, /dev/sdc, ...?
I thought the letter indicated the drive, whereas the number the partition on the drive.

[cjolley]

Is it your swap partition?

print out your /etc/fstab file

[VJ]

Now I cannot, but before, no... swap was a different one (according to the partitiontool). I can check on the current on, but only later.

In PCLinuxOS; I had problems configuring grub, as it was not skipping (HD0,3), but the partitiontool was skipping sda4.

[cjolley]

We use several flavors of linux at work. I searched in vain for a default partitioned install and couldn't find one.
You might be able to boot a live cd/dvd and fix grub by correcting . You should only have to do it once.

It can also get confused if the entries in fstab refer to UUIDs instead of standard partition mapping

eg
UUID=fd657ceb-25ce-4f63-a1f5-d71bd7c3574c / ext3 defaults 1 1
vs
LABEL=/MY_LABEL / ext3 defaults 1 1
vs
/dev/sda1 / ext3 defaults 1 1

[VJ]

Well, no clue as to why the sda4 got skipped (also in the current Lubuntu installation), but at least the installation works.

Wifi works without a hitch, system is quite fast (= not slower than before), and I don't need to reinstall as the default partitioning it did just created 2 partitions: root and swap. Swap is quite big, but not to the point where the root is too small. Now to configure a bit more and we can hand it back to my girlfriend's mother (hopefully it also works well at her place).