have you got a really old computer

[Doug S]

My old old test computer failed to install the Trusty 14.04 32 bit server daily ISO!!!! It installs 13.10 Server fine.

Further testing with VM's shows that approximately an additional 64 (+ or - approximately 1 megabyte) Megabytes are needed for the installer between 13.10 and 14.04.

The error out message is: "Failed to load installer components".

The minimum requirements specification is changing from 128 Megabytes to 196 Megabytes.

I guess I am now more interested in this thread and the text only installation option.

Edit: Refined the extra memory requirement.

[sudodus]

The kernel is growing, and we need new methods to install the systems into computers with low RAM ...

It will make me happy if this 9w installer can help some people installing the text only Trusty system and build servers.

[jerrylamos]

Sad result

Your result does not fit in the pattern, that IBM Thinkpads are easy to boot and run, but on the other hand, there is a reason why you are running 10.04 instead of a newer version of the Ubuntu family (for example Xubuntu 12.04 LTS).

- Did you check the md5sum of the downloaded iso file?
- Did you try the 9w CD in another PC (any age and kind except UEFI)? - Was burning the CD successful?
- Do you think it is a problem with a hardware driver, for example the graphics driver?

This 9W CD runs on two other pc's. O.K. on a 3.3 mHz Celeron, rather (!) slow for internet and yahoo on a NetVista 320 MB CD live.

Could be a problem with software support of the Intel graphics. Ubuntu ran through months/years of poor Intel graphics support, a lot of it from Compiz trying things that didn't work.

Someplace I've got some notes on boot options to keep Compiz and other ubuntu kernel code from trying things that don't work. I could try digging them up but not sure that Ubuntu development is at all interested.

Runs in my mind that no Ubuntu past 12.04 will run on the Thinkpad perhaps something about memory addressing bits. I forget maybe I've got some notes somewhere.

[sudodus]

This 9W CD runs on two other pc's. O.K. on a 3.3 mHz Celeron, rather (!) slow for internet and yahoo on a NetVista 320 MB CD live.

Could be a problem with software support of the Intel graphics. Ubuntu ran through months/years of poor Intel graphics support, a lot of it from Compiz trying things that didn't work.

Someplace I've got some notes on boot options to keep Compiz and other ubuntu kernel code from trying things that don't work. I could try digging them up but not sure that Ubuntu development is at all interested.

Runs in my mind that no Ubuntu past 12.04 will run on the Thinkpad perhaps something about memory addressing bits. I forget maybe I've got some notes somewhere.

I see. The problem is specific for this IBM Thinkpad R31. I agree, it could be poor support of the Intel graphics chip/card or maybe some other hardware issue. I don't think you need to search your old notes about it.

Thank you for testing and sharing your results

[Doug S]

Out of curiosity, I made a virtual computer as similar as possible to my old old test computer, with 115 Megabytes of memory, and severely limited CPU allocation. The resulting machine has less usable memory and less cpu performance than my real computer. It seems to be working fine, and I have not been able to crash the web browser.

Myself, I think an interesting data point would be pq...'s computer with 128 Megabytes, but a faster CPU.

Stuff:

Tasks:  88 total,   1 running,  87 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
%Cpu(s):  0.3 us,  0.0 sy,  0.0 ni, 99.7 id,  0.0 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.0 si,  0.0 st
KiB Mem:    105448 total,   102912 used,     2536 free,      812 buffers
KiB Swap:   327676 total,    31680 used,   295996 free.    31560 cached Mem

  PID USER      PR  NI    VIRT    RES    SHR S %CPU %MEM     TIME+ COMMAND
 1168 guru      20   0  345512  49632  21260 S  0.0 47.1   0:54.35 x-www-browser
  836 root      20   0   71532  11768   3336 S  0.0 11.2   0:40.38 Xorg
  996 guru      20   0  171908   5808   4272 S  0.0  5.5   0:06.96 lxpanel
  997 guru      20   0  177376   4264   3224 S  0.0  4.0   0:34.07 pcmanfm
  993 guru      20   0   22276   3464   2328 S  0.0  3.3   0:01.08 openbox
  981 guru      20   0   48040   2416   1956 S  0.0  2.3   0:01.10 lxsession
 1001 guru      20   0   42368   2212   1840 S  0.0  2.1   0:02.99 notification-da
  778 root      20   0   34104   1504   1096 S  0.0  1.4   0:00.01 lightdm
  839 root      20   0   34820   1432   1044 S  0.0  1.4   0:00.02 accounts-daemon
  530 root      20   0   51784   1428   1004 S  0.0  1.4   0:01.02 NetworkManager
 1280 guru      20   0    5452   1364    972 R  0.0  1.3   0:00.02 top
  540 root      20   0   33772   1252   1024 S  0.0  1.2   0:01.01 polkitd
 1073 root      20   0   29512   1172   1172 S  0.0  1.1   0:00.00 console-kit-dae

guru@nonpae:~$ free -m
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:           102         99          3          1          0         30
-/+ buffers/cache:         68         34
Swap:          319         31        288

[sudodus]

I think there are many computers around withe reasonably powerful CPUs but only 128 RAM. I agree, that it is worthwhile to try installing Trusty in such computers (using 9w).

I added this text to the opening post:

Edit: After testing for a couple of weeks we have found that pre-pentium computers are not really an alternative for Trusty. We have also found, that Trusty needs more RAM to be installed via the conventional installers. Even the Ubuntu mini.iso will have problems at 128 MB RAM, trying to install a basic server.

I think there are many computers around with 'more powerful' CPUs (for example Pentium III, some old Celerons, and corresponding AMD CPUs), but only 128 GB RAM. It is worthwhile to try installing Lubuntu Core Trusty or the plain text version of Trusty in such computers using 9w.

[sudodus]

A new version of the 9w installer has been uploaded as

http://phillw.net/isos/linux-tools/9...ae124-text.iso

It uses phillw's non-pae kernel '124' and is based on the released and updated/upgraded version of Ubuntu mini 14.04 LTS. See more details at this link

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...6#post13003216

[sudodus]

There is a new wiki page for the 9w installer can install systems with 80 MB RAM to install and run the Ubuntu mini.iso based text system.

Lubuntu Core Trusty needs 128 MB RAM to run and at least 256 MB RAM to be really useful.

See this wiki page https://help.ubuntu.com/community/9w

and this page, where you can download the 9w iso files http://phillw.net/isos/linux-tools/9w/


Examples of non-pae CPUs

1. Early Pentium M with 1.2 GHz clock frequency. (The later Pentium M CPUs have PAE capability even if they lack a PAE flag).
2. Old ViA-processors around 1GHz
3. Transmeta Crusoe
(4. Pre Pentium II CPUs are too old and weak to be tested for this purpose)

You can test for the PAE flag with the following command

grep --color pae /proc/cpuinfo

If you are a happy owner of such a jewel, please help us test that the non-pae kernel really works in a computer without PAE capability.

[sudodus]

There is a new version of the 9w installer, the OBI-9w installer

The One Button Installer in run from the 9w installer's debian system. Now there is a super light-weight installer, that can

- install from CD, DVD and USB
- create not only single boot but also dual boot systems.

Prepare partitions with Gparted and run the One Button Installer at the advanced level to create dual boot or multi boot system.

There are special tarballs for the 9w installer, and these tarballs come with the iso file.