Any older versions good enough but smaller size

[kidfresh]

This 9.10 is great. It instantly makes everything work on this old laptop somebody gave me. No drivers to hunt down (which I never found for this laptop). Very cool
I may even add it to my own laptop.

The problem is with that laptop.
It has power issues. I can leave it on for a long time running from the CD
It will run okay once the OS is installed
In the process of installing an OS it tends to shut off
It takes a long time to get to that point as well
I only have a limited time frame to work in once the installation starts

I was hoping to find an older version that might install faster. Have less components to it.
Is there any older versions around still?
Would any of them be faster to install?

thanks

[cenzorrll]

well, pretty much everything linux works the same. most of what slows down the computer and eats up ram is the desktop environment. i would suggest xubuntu, if that isn't fast enough try installing lxde using synaptics or apt-get.

p.s. do you know why the laptop shuts off? is it battery or something else? it may just be overheating and shutting down.

[kidfresh]

thanks for the info

yeah, actually
according to the manufacturer Toshiba
there seems to be quite a bit of battery and power issues
I was hoping to get an operating system running before I tried to address it further
I guess I should try to resolve that
It could be over heating
The max amount ram it will take is only 512MB but it only has 256
you think another 256 might help

[darkod]

Double the ram would definitely help. Not sure how old it is, but since years ago if you have the charger plugged in any battery problems should be avoided. It should even work with battery detached just on charger. But not sure how long ago they started making the laptops that way.

[coffeecat]

The max amount ram it will take is only 512MB but it only has 256
you think another 256 might help

The problem is that 256MB RAM is (just) enough to run Ubuntu from the hard disk, but you need 384MB (at least) to run the live CD, particularly when running the installer. I should think the installer is running out of memory, crashing and taking out the whole live session with it. Which, perhaps, is why it's shutting off, rather than this being a problem with the power supply.

So yes, another 256MB will make all the difference. I had 512MB in my old laptop (bought early 2005) and it happily ran most versions of Ubuntu since Dapper (6.06) (including from the live CD) and a variety of other distros as well.