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Thread: Old hardware brought back to life

  1. #31
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    Re: Old hardware

    You seem to be getting good help in the other thread, so I'll follow another path in order not to create a duplicate.

    Quote Originally Posted by mgwhammy View Post
    After a lot of digging I've found that when the kernel went to 3.x a lot of old hardware support was dropped.
    Do you have some links explaining why it was decided to drop the card?
    Bringing old hardware back to life. About problems due to upgrading.
    Please visit Quick Links -> Unanswered Posts.
    Don't use this space for a list of your hardware. It only creates false hits in the search engines.

  2. #32
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    Re: Old hardware

    I want to share my results from testing Lubuntu Raring daily (13.04) in VirtualBox with different amount of RAM available and 512 MB swap.

    http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2135547

  3. #33
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    Re: Old hardware

    Thanks. It should help giving people realistic expectations.
    Bringing old hardware back to life. About problems due to upgrading.
    Please visit Quick Links -> Unanswered Posts.
    Don't use this space for a list of your hardware. It only creates false hits in the search engines.

  4. #34
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    Re: Old hardware

    at my home I have a PC with following configuration.

    a) a Interl Pentium-4 processor model no 530J, with hyper threading and physical address extension
    b) intel D915GVWB motherboard
    c) 1 GB DDR1 RAM with 400 Mhz

    I used Xubuntu 12.04 for almost 6-8 months... i was workifn absolutely fine.
    before trying out i had also tried lubuntu/kubuntu but there were some problem with installation... so i dropped it.

    X12.04 was rocking on my this old machine where Win7 never use to work properly.
    when X12.10 was released I upgraded to it ... still it was ok...but little bit bigger foot print i beleive ( dont remember exactly).

    In my office i have 2-3 desktops with me so i keep trying differnet OS on that , i had one of them running linux mint and otherone runnign xubuntu 12.10.
    l liked linux mint's UI green color thunar etc... and its friendlyness with windows network... it would detect other windows machine in my office network....

    I decided to intall linux mint on my ancient P4 machine @ home computer.
    it wasn't good at all , since my office desktops had 4GB rams and dual core/quad core it was running fine but it dint run on my P4 with 1 GB RAM.

    so decided to go back to X12.10.
    I moved back but then audio was not working by default ( and i dint remember if it had worked by default in X12.04 or X12.10 soon after previous installation, may even ealier i would have installed xubuntu extras)

    Now autoupdateer notidfied me that there is a X13.04 avaailable, I donwloaded X13.04 iso in office and burnt it on DVD ( from CD it became DVD, xubntu12.10 use to fit in CD)
    tried upgrading my P4 machien with 1 GB RAM , upgrade went fine until the stage called "restoring preisouly installed packages" , I waited 4 hours in front my pc , chatting on IRC ,... but it dint complete.
    i then left it and next morning i saw it was completely done ... people on IRC pointed out it ws 1GB RAM because of which it took so long in upgrade ( in that restoring stage ).

    After upgrading to X13.04 with 1GB RAM my experinace wasn;t all that great , it was a bit slow, when i went to software center and I tried installing all my softwares like Childpay,Gcompri,Pre-school,primary education packs....
    sofware center hung , I then restarted machine and installed all softwares one by one ... ie. once one software is completly installed then browse/search and install new software...this approached worked fine... so here also the problem was
    1 GB RAM only ... with one GB RAM my sofware center could not work , it had to use swap area, very extensively.

    After all this i went out an purchased 2 sticks of 1 GB DRR1-400 Mhz Transcend RAM. my mother board had 4 slots for RAM, two werre already occupied by my my previous RAM
    2x512 MB Hynix DDR1-400 MB RAM, when i added two new sticks each of 1 GB from Transcend ... both hynix and Transcend dint work together.... though their frequency were same.

    I then removed my 2 sticks of 512 MB RAM from Hynix, and it worked fine ... now the experinace on Xubntu 13.04 was good , it was smooth , no more swap memory usage.
    but i remember having extactly this smooth experiance with X12.04 with just 1 GB RAM.

    So I would want to move back to Xubuntu 12.04, and would stick to it until its support is over ( i guess April 2015) , but then I need to spend aain 8-1015 hours on installations...
    first install OS then installed configured software...move data ... all this takes time... but i think i will still have to take out time and do it ...cause xubuntu 13.04 is unstable in my opinion lot of isssues
    i am reporting them one by one so that it can improve. now also i see some issue when click the xubuntu menu in top-left and go to systems... there some paininting issues menus are not drawn correctly...
    but all this will stablize in 2-3 months i belive with updates...

    so my take for all PCs with Pentium-4 and 1 GB RAM go for Xubuntu 12.04.
    its still best when compare to Xubuntu 12.10 and Xubuntu 13.04 and Linux Mint 14.

    Linux Mint 14, Xubuntu 12.10 both had almost equal foot print of 140 MB after boot, and around 40 user processes running.
    I dont remember how much was the foot print of Xubuntu 12.04 after boot, if somebody remember please tell me.
    I will update the memory footprint of Xubuntu 13.04 after posting this message and rebooting..


    below is my hardware details...


    http://goo.gl/3UH4w

    arifHWInfo.txt

  5. #35
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    Re: Old hardware

    Here is performance statistic of Xubuntu 13.04

    From Grub it loads in 28 seconds ( while Xubutu 12.10 use to load in 32 seconds, dont remember how was Xubuntu 12.04)
    From Grub when you hit enter ,for 19 seconds is a blank screen, after that Xubuntu screen is shown and it loads in 8-9 seconds after that.

    Soon after booting memory usage are around 160MB ( while linux mint nad Xubuntu were around 140 MB, dont remember foot print of X12.04, if anyone know please put here)
    around 38 user processes are running and around 140+ total process.

  6. #36
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    Re: Old hardware

    Thanks for sharing your experience, arifalisyed

    I agree that is is often a good idea to run an LTS version, in this case Xubuntu 12.04 LTS. The only exceptions are

    - if you have new hardware, that the aging LTS version "doesn't know about"
    - if you want the bleeding edge features of the software packages

    but these exceptions are rather common

  7. #37
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    Re: Old hardware

    Lubuntu-fake-PAE

    Hello all Pentium M users,

    Please visit the wiki page https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Lubuntu-fake-PAE and tell me what you think.

    Edit: The detailed instructions also reside at the Ubuntu wiki and are easily available from the page above. There is a new GUI method to install directly from Windows.
    Last edited by sudodus; November 7th, 2013 at 08:00 AM. Reason: update

  8. #38
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    Re: Old hardware

    We have issued this poll in order to know how much effort to focus on the Pentium M problems with PAE kernels.

    http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2143502

  9. #39
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    Re: Old hardware

    I have improved the security of Lubuntu-fake-PAE referring to an Ubuntu Forum tutorial, that should be hard to edit by others than myself and trusted forum administrators. See this link

    https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Lu..._and_signature

    and its link to the tutorial

    http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2151890

  10. #40
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    Re: Old hardware

    Comparing versions of Lubuntu and Ubuntu and LXLE

    I made a comparing test in my IBM Thinkpad T42 that is close to ten years old. The time to boot and RAM used (idling right after boot) were compared between several versions of Ubuntu.

    The result of the test is shown in the attached pdf file.

    Lubuntu 10.04 is fastest. But it is not much faster than Lubuntu 12.04. The difference is so small, that I did not notice it before I started measuring:

    39 seconds for 10.04
    43 seconds for 12.04

    I booted at least twice after installation, for things to settle (which makes it faster, and makes it use less RAM).

    But there is a bigger difference in RAM usage.

    71 MB for 10.04
    109 MB for 12.04

    This makes a clear advantage for Lubuntu 10.04 in computers with low RAM.

    Lubuntu 13.04 (Raring) and 13.10 (Saucy) are slower, and as you can see, Precise Gnome Classic Tweaks compares rather well speed-wise, but not as well RAM-wise. So if there is enough RAM, Precise Gnome Classic Tweaks is a good alternative.

    LXLE and Lubuntu 13.10 (Saucy) are slow starters but need not too much RAM. I think they are also good alternatives for low RAM computers. I expect better results with drivers for old hardware with LXLE, on par with Lubuntu 12.04 (LXLE is a tweaked and remastered flavour of 12.04).

    -o-

    I have not tested the performance with different software packages. That would take the comparison too far.

    -o-

    Concluding tips for Lubuntu users with old hardware

    Lubuntu 12.04:

    If you have problems with hardware drivers in the newer versions, you can consider switching from Lubuntu 12.04 to Precise Gnome Classic Tweaks or LXLE at the end of life in October 2013 (or as soon as possible after that date). These two alternatives have LTS (long time support) until April 2017.

    Xubuntu 12.04 LTS with end of life in April 2015 is also a good alternative.

    Lubuntu 10.04 & 12.04:

    Maybe you can consider to switch from Lubuntu 10.04 to 12.04 in order to get two years newer software (and less risk for security holes). But beware, the Lubuntu specific program packages have no security updates in 12.04.

    Openbox

    When you want something very lean, you can use the Openbox window manager, that you can select from the login screen (of Lubuntu 12.04). You get a grey screen without any panel. Right-click to get a small menu. Select browser or terminal window. You can run 'everything' from the terminal window, and it uses less horsepower and RAM for eye-candy.

    Most programs under the hood have LTS. I don't know but I think also Openbox has it, because it is part of 'Kubuntu light' with LTS. But many of the other Lubuntu-specific desktop packages have not LTS.
    Attached Files Attached Files
    Last edited by sudodus; January 24th, 2014 at 08:34 PM.

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