Lucid or Karmic better for this machine?

[Ubunthree]

A while back I fished a discarded computer out of the dumpster,wiped the crippled XP system off of it, installed Jaunty, and gave it to a friend of mine. It apparently has been running OK, though the graphics are poor due to the old video card. Recently she did the upgrade to Karmic, and is dealing with some login issues and whatnot, but the system is still working. Now she is wondering whether the system is up to running Lucid. I think that if it runs Jaunty and Karmic, then it should handle Lucid just as well, but am interested in other opinions. Here is sysinfo's output for her machine (an older model Sony VAIO):

================================================== ============
System information report, generated by Sysinfo: 7/14/2010 9:15:22 PM
http://sourceforge.net/projects/gsysinfo

SYSTEM INFORMATION
Running Ubuntu Linux, the Ubuntu 9.10 (karmic) release.
GNOME: 2.28.1 (Ubuntu 2009-11-03)
Kernel version: 2.6.31-22-generic (#60-Ubuntu SMP Thu May 27 00:22:23 UTC 2010)
GCC: 4.4.1 (i486-linux-gnu)
Xorg: unknown (06 May 2010 09:30:46PM) (06 May 2010 09:30:46PM)
Hostname: yadda-desktop
Uptime: 0 days 8 h 20 min

CPU INFORMATION
GenuineIntel, Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 1.60GHz
Number of CPUs: 1
CPU clock currently at 1614.447 MHz with 256 KB cache
Numbering: family(15) model(1) stepping(2)
Bogomips: 3228.89
Flags: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm up pebs bts

MEMORY INFORMATION
Total memory: 497 MB
Total swap: 1451 MB

STORAGE INFORMATION
SCSI device - scsi0
Vendor: ATA
Model: ST380020A
SCSI device - scsi1
Vendor: PIONEER
Model: DVD-ROM DVD-117R
SCSI device - scsi1
Vendor: SONY
Model: CD-RW CRX175E

HARDWARE INFORMATION
MOTHERBOARD
Host bridge
Intel Corporation 82845 845 [Brookdale] Chipset Host Bridge (rev 04)
Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device 8025
PCI bridge(s)
Intel Corporation 82845 845 [Brookdale] Chipset AGP Bridge (rev 04)
Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev 05)
Intel Corporation 82845 845 [Brookdale] Chipset AGP Bridge (rev 04)
Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev 05)
USB controller(s)
Intel Corporation 82801BA/BAM USB Controller #1 (rev 05)
Intel Corporation 82801BA/BAM USB Controller #1 (rev 05)
Intel Corporation 82801BA/BAM USB Controller #1 (rev 05)
Intel Corporation 82801BA/BAM USB Controller #1 (rev 05)
ISA bridge
Intel Corporation 82801BA ISA Bridge (LPC) (rev 05)
IDE interface
Intel Corporation 82801BA IDE U100 Controller (rev 05) (prog-if 80 [Master])
Subsystem: Sony Corporation Device 80f0

GRAPHIC CARD
VGA controller
nVidia Corporation NV5M64 [RIVA TNT2 Model 64/Model 64 Pro] (rev 15)
Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device 4003

SOUND CARD
Multimedia controller
Intel Corporation 82801BA/BAM AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 05)
Subsystem: Sony Corporation Device 80e4

NETWORK
Ethernet controller
Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
Subsystem: Sony Corporation Device 80ea
================================================== ============

A question of my own: Is it still possible to get an actual NVIDIA driver for that old card?

Thanks for any info.

[howefield]

Lucid will run on that machine. Although more memory would always be preferable :)

And you will get an nvidia driver for that card. I'd guess System > Administration > Hardware Drivers will take care of it.

Search here for more info...

http://www.nvidia.co.uk/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-uk

[Penny N. Nickels]

Lucid will run on that machine. Although more memory would always be preferable :)

And you will get an nvidia driver for that card. I'd guess System > Administration > Hardware Drivers will take care of it.

Search here for more info...

http://www.nvidia.co.uk/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-uk

I'm the friend & it's my computer in question.

I checked in System > Administration > Hardware Drivers & it came up with nothing, stating: No propriety drivers are in use on this system. Without that information, am I still able to figure out which nvidia driver I need? Could that be the cause, or at least part of the reason for my looping login & such? (I am a noob, so please be kind.)

Thank you.

[cascade9]

Lucid will run on that machine. Although more memory would always be preferable :)

And you will get an nvidia driver for that card. I'd guess System > Administration > Hardware Drivers will take care of it.

AFAIK, you cant get the 71.XX drivers (for the GF256, TNT2, Riva and Vanta cards) running on ubuntu 10.04. Its the end of the line, since the newest xorg (1.8 ) will never get a nVidia 71.xx driver-

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=ODQyNQ

+1 on 'more memory would be preferable.

I'd probably go for a minimal install with Xfce myself, just to use what resources you have to best effect. Or maybe change distro to something that still has 71.XX drivers.