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View Full Version : [all variants] Installing Xubuntu on older, video-challenged laptop



winecurmudgeon
December 1st, 2009, 04:07 PM
I have an old -- Celeron, 185 mb of ram, a TFT active matrix display -- Compaq Presario laptop that I have been trying to install Xubuntu on. I have tried all the options, and I always end up with the black screen of death. That is, the software looks like it is done installing, but nothing shows on the screen and I can't get anything to come up on the screen no matter what I do.

I have been able to install Puppy Linux on the laptop, because it asks me which video system I want to use, X or Xorg. (I think those are the choices.) I chose the simplest and it worked. I assume, then, the TFT display is the problem. My question: Is there anything I can do during the Xubuntu install to switch video systems? Or is there only one choice?

Puppy works well enough, but it's a pain to update and the person who will use the laptop prefers a more Windows-styled interface. Though she does appreciate the barking.

nothingspecial
December 1st, 2009, 04:31 PM
That looks a bit low spec for xubuntu. Have you considered crunchbang, or even Ubuntu Server/Minimal with a very light weight window manager?

winecurmudgeon
December 1st, 2009, 09:09 PM
I got Crunch Bang Lite to install, because there was the xforcevesa option. That might be a touch too minimalist, though.