Trying to install on an old machine with little memory...

[joe m.]

Sorry for the simple question. I have been searching the forums, and read many pages. So i am not just asking willy nilly. but here is my problem...

I have a very old Gateway solo laptop (it was the top of the line when i bought it). I don't know the exact system specs, because there is no operating system on it, but it is a pentium 3, and i think has about 1g harddrive (or something). It was running windows 98 last time it was working.

So i have tried to install Ubuntu on it, and obviously that didn't work (because it requires more system than my computer has to offer, i assume. it just went black during the install). Next i tried to install xubuntu. That seemed to go better, getting all the way to the part of the install where it partitions the hard drive, but then gets stuck on the blue screen. (also, on the way to the partition it would show a red screen saying it could not detect any network options, and i would just make it continue anyway)

So Im not sure what to do next. I just want to get a basic operating system on it, that allows me to do word processing and email. I tried this, but it was obviously not applicable because i don't have any operating system on the machine now.:
http://www.binonabiso.com/en/Ubuntu-miniRAM-HOWTO.html

what can i do? please advise.

Thanks.

[EXCiD3]

You might want to check out something like Damn Small Linux (http://damnsmalllinux.org/).

[leonardo_neo]

Also you can try "puppy linux"

[ivanvajar]

You might be interested in AustrumiLinux.

[Riverside]

Sorry for the simple question. I have been searching the forums, and read many pages. So i am not just asking willy nilly. but here is my problem...

I have a very old Gateway solo laptop (it was the top of the line when i bought it). I don't know the exact system specs, because there is no operating system on it, but it is a pentium 3, and i think has about 1g harddrive (or something). It was running windows 98 last time it was working.Have you tried installing using the alternate (text only install) CD? I have installed Ubuntu using the alternate CD on various old Pentium 3 machines with good results, for example:

http://www.yoyo.org/~anthony/ultra_hardware.html

[upchucky]

after you get any small version of linux working you may want to check out tiny office, it has a 40 meg footprint and is a complete office suite.

[snowpine]

Impossible to give a specific suggestion without knowing how much ram you have. :)
However, this thread is good reading material: http://ubuntuforums.org/usercp.php

[Mark Phelps]

It's not the P3 that's the problem; it's the available memory for a graphical desktop. Ubuntu Gnome works great with 512MB, struggles with 256MB, and (AFAIK) won't load with any less. Xubuntu (using XFCE) works OK with 256MB. So, you can install and run Xubuntu with 256MB.

For other Linux distros, visit the distrowatch.com website. They have links to all the smaller distros mentioned above.