Making Buntu >= 12.10 work on a Pentium M-CPU without PAE.

[sudodus]

Welcome to the Ubuntu Forums apec

I'm glad fake-PAE works for you.

Have you got any custom PPAs? You can check that with Synaptic (check for program sources via Settings -- Repositories and the tab Other Software). For example fake-PAE will need to be restored if wiped by the upgrade. But that one should stay (and used to stay earlier at upgrades to new versions).

So before pushing the upgrading further, I suggest that you make a good backup. Something could go wrong.

An alternative is to install directly into 13.04 (or even 13.10 alpha or beta) with Lubuntu fake-PAE according to one of these links.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Lubuntu-fake-PAE
One Button Installer, 'OBI'

It is a good choice unless you have a lot of tweaks and private files in your current installed system, or if you prefer Xubuntu. On the other hand, I run Lubuntu plus Xubuntu Desktop to get the best from both Lubuntu and Xubuntu.

sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop

[apec]

Hmm. The only PPA that shows up is for f.lux, which I deleted as I switched to redshift anyway. I thought fake-PAE had added one, but maybe it was already removed by the previous update? So as far as fake-PAE is concerned I should be safe to upgrade to 13.04?

[apec]

Nevermind. Upgrade went fine.

apc@udinker:/$ uname -a
Linux udinker 3.8.0-30-generic #44-Ubuntu SMP Thu Aug 22 20:54:42 UTC 2013 i686 i686 i686 GNU/Linux
apc@udinker:/$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID:    Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 13.04
Release:    13.04
Codename:    raring

and yes, my cmos battery is dead. I just got this laptop at a flea market.

[sudodus]

Nevermind. Upgrade went fine.

apc@udinker:/$ uname -a
Linux udinker 3.8.0-30-generic #44-Ubuntu SMP Thu Aug 22 20:54:42 UTC 2013 i686 i686 i686 GNU/Linux
apc@udinker:/$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID:    Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 13.04
Release:    13.04
Codename:    raring

and yes, my cmos battery is dead. I just got this laptop at a flea market.

Congratulations

Thanks to 7bit's fake-PAE, many computers like yours will have an extended life running new Lubuntu and Xubuntu versions

When you install fake-PAE according to post #12 in this thread, the corresponding ppa will be installed and used

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:prof7bit/fake-pae
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install fake-pae

If fake-PAE is removed, grub will boot and *buntu will run (without fake-PAE), but you cannot upgrade the kernel until you have installed fake-PAE again, which is easy.

[apec]

Well I spoke too soon on everything working fine. Having some problems with flash now (graphics are hosed, reinstalling adobeflash had no effect). And attempting to go into suspend crashes the system. Not PAE related but I'll figure it out later.

[sudodus]

You may have problems because the support for your graphics chip in 13.04 is not as good as it used to be. If Xubuntu 12.04 is still good, I recommend that you stay with it until the end of life in April 2015.

It the XFCE graphics has too big foot-print, try LXLE or Bodhi (both are based on Ubuntu 12.04 and use desktop environments with small foot-prints).

-o-

If you have old Intel graphics, you could also try UXA according to the following tip from Lubuntu community mail thread.

John Hupp wrote:

There was this helpful bug report on file at http://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+so...x/+bug/1178982.

It described behavior on Dell PC's with integrated Intel graphics, in which Adobe Flash Player would display only with shades of purple and green in a horizontally compressed window (or at least that's how I would describe what I see on a Dell Dimension 2400).

The work-around (Comment #1) was to change the Xorg acceleration method to UXA.

User reported a work-around:

-o-

Edit (or create) /etc/X11/xorg.conf as follows: (ugh, can't format, should be a tab before each line except the first and the last).

Section "Device"
      Identifier "Intel Graphics"
      Driver "intel"
      Option "AccelMethod" "uxa"
EndSection

Restart X (reboot, restart your display manager, whatever). Colors are back to the way they used to be and flash works.

-o-

I forgot to include, however, that the bug workaround messes up the login screen (LightDM). You can make out an entry box that one assumes is for the password entry, but everything else is largely unidentifiable.

So as a workaround it leaves a lot to be desired, unless we can also figure out how to fix the login screen.

-o-

Nio Wiklund wrote:

This method works for me to restore good graphics in an old IBM Thinkcentre with Lubuntu Saucy alpha-2 and the following Intel graphics.

VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82865G Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 02)

There is no issue with the login screen.

[apec]

Ah thanks, I figured as much. Yes it's an Intel 82852. I had disabled video acceleration before in order to get Stellarium working, and switching to UXA does make flash work again, but now Stellarium doesn't work - it kicks back a bunch of opengl errors. Oh well. More problematic is the inability to suspend. A quick glance at the pm log suggests it's also a video problem. I'll try to figure it out but yeah I'm starting to lean towards going back to 12.04.