Upgrading to Ocelot on ancient Toshiba (s a50-522)

**robinduncan** · February 13th, 2013

Hi, sorry. I know this info is out there, but I can''t find it by searching. I have a really old laptop (see topic) and I seem to remember when I updated to 11.04 I had to disable unity because it wasn't stable on my computer. Can I do this again for 11.10, now that 11.04 is no longer supported. Do I need to?

Or is this the end of the line for my laptop (on Ubuntu)?

Thanks for any help...

**snowpine** · February 13th, 2013

You can always use LXDE (Lubuntu) or Xfce (Xubuntu) if your hardware isn't up to the Unity experience.

What are your hardware specs so I can make a meaningful recommendation? Have you taken the Live CD for a test-drive yet?

11.10 is nearing its end of support so I recommend a fresh reinstall of 12.04, then you will have support through April 2017, wow!

**Impavidus** · February 13th, 2013

So that's a Pentium M processor (32 bit, 1.5GHz), 512MB RAM.

No surprise it has trouble with Unity. Have you considered installing Lubuntu on that machine? It's lighter and should run with 512MB RAM.

**robinduncan** · February 13th, 2013

12.04 sounds great, but I don't have much time for the intermediate installs or test driving, unfortunately

Thanks a lot for the LXDE (Lubuntu) and Xfce (Xubuntu) tip offs.

When you say specs, I assume you're not referring to my glasses...

I'm not sure what exactly you mean, but here's what it says on the label:

Satellite a50-522
Intel Pentium M715 1.50 GHz MB DDR RAM, hard disk 40BG

Would you need more?

**robinduncan** · February 13th, 2013

Thanks Impavidus, Snowpine,
Lubuntu looks good. I'll try it out
Robin

**robinduncan** · March 28th, 2013

Hi,
So, I tried to install lubuntu 12.10, but couldn't because I don't have PAE. In the end I decided to give xubuntu 12.10 a shot. After having used it for a month or so, it's fine, but I'm starting to think I would have been better installing lubuntu 12.04 and just sticking with that till I can afford a new computer. Is there any harm in "downgrading" from xubuntu 12.10 to lubuntu 12.04 like that? Is it even possible? I mean in the same way that I just bang the CD in and wait for the OS to install, maintaining all my files, bookmarks etc.

[of course I will backup everything anyway]

Xubuntu seems great, but I think it's only fair on my laptop to give it the best chance to operate well. Some things aren't working quite right, and I'd sooner change again than sepnd ages trying to tweak, when I might not have the right OS to start with.

As ever, huge thanks to all who take pity.

**wildmanne39** · March 28th, 2013

Hi, no you will need to backup your important files then install a fresh copy of lubuntu you can not downgrade, however if you have your home folder on a separate partition then you could install lubuntu possibly and choose to have the home partition the same in the new install as it is in the current install as long as you do n0ot reformat that partition.
Thanks