Dell OptiPlex GX260

[whvw]

I have Ubuntu 10.04 running on an old Dell i686 (that began life running ******* XP). It has been going for years, but now it is getting cranky, and I want to go to Mint 17. I did a USB install, but it crashes upon reaching the desktop, amid some complaining about graphics cards. A bad install? I tried numerous attempts, and even resorted to an HD loaded with Mint 17 on another machine. Same problem. Tried going to ubuntu 12 but no dice. I get complaints about being unable to munmap, MMap out of room, please increase size of APT, (cannot find any info on how to do that) etc. I read of some "aptitude xxx" commands, tried them with only partial success. I have even wiped the old 10.04 install and done a fresh one, but am still unable to go beyond 10.04. Please help.

[grahammechanical]

I do not support Linux Mint. You must decide what you want to do. Upgrade from Ubuntu 10.04 to Ubuntu 12.04 or install Linux Mint? Either way, this is significant. Do you not think?


amid some complaining about graphics cards.

There are couple of things I wonder about with regards to that card. a) how much of its own memory does it have? Does it use system RAM? b) Do the proprietary video drivers still support that card? I have heard that the makers of video cards are in the habit of dropping support for what they think of as obsolete video cards. I have not heard of the developers of the open source video driver doing that.

Newer versions of Ubuntu will install newer proprietary video drivers if we tick the box "Install third party software" during the installation. Or if we are using a third party (proprietary) video driver at the time we start the upgrade.

You do not tell us about the rest of the hardware in that machine. The fact that it had Windows XP on it is less important than the actual hardware specification. You may need to be trying with one of the flavours of Ubuntu, such as Xubuntu or Lubuntu.

Regards.

[mörgæs]

Yes, we need to know more. Please run
sudo lshw -sanitize > lshw.txt and post lshw.txt in CODE tags. Can be done in a live boot of 10.04

I have a feeling that we are dealing with really old stuff here but let's take a better look.

[whvw]

Here is the file you requested. Thanks.


computer
description: Mini Tower Computer
product: OptiPlex GX260
vendor: Dell Computer Corporation
serial: [REMOVED]
width: 32 bits
capabilities: smbios-2.3 dmi-2.3 smp-1.4 smp
configuration: administrator_password=enabled boot=normal chassis=mini-tower cpus=1 power-on_password=enabled uuid=44454C4C-4E00-104E-8054-B4C04F313331
*-core
description: Motherboard
product: 02X378
vendor: Dell Computer Corp.
physical id: 0
serial: [REMOVED]
*-firmware
description: BIOS
vendor: Dell Computer Corporation
physical id: 0
version: A06 (04/28/2003)
size: 64KiB
capacity: 448KiB
capabilities: isa pci pnp apm upgrade shadowing escd cdboot bootselect edd int13floppytoshiba int5printscreen int9keyboard int14serial int17printer acpi usb agp ls120boot biosbootspecification netboot
*-cpu
description: CPU
product: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.66GHz
vendor: Intel Corp.
physical id: 400
bus info: cpu@0
version: 15.2.7
slot: Microprocessor
size: 2666MHz
capacity: 3060MHz
width: 32 bits
clock: 533MHz
capabilities: boot fpu fpu_exception wp 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 pbe up pebs bts
configuration: id=0
*-cache:0
description: L1 cache
physical id: 700
size: 8KiB
capacity: 8KiB
capabilities: internal write-back data
*-cache:1
description: L2 cache
physical id: 701
size: 512KiB
capacity: 512KiB
capabilities: internal varies unified
*-memory
description: System Memory
physical id: 1000
slot: System board or motherboard
size: 2GiB
*-bank:0
description: DIMM SDRAM Synchronous 266 MHz (3.8 ns)
physical id: 0
slot: DIMM_A
size: 1GiB
width: 64 bits
clock: 266MHz (3.8ns)
*-bank:1
description: DIMM SDRAM Synchronous 266 MHz (3.8 ns)
physical id: 1
slot: DIMM_B
size: 1GiB
width: 64 bits
clock: 266MHz (3.8ns)
*-pci
description: Host bridge
product: 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE/PE DRAM Controller/Host-Hub Interface
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 100
bus info: pci@0000:00:00.0
version: 01
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
configuration: driver=agpgart-intel
resources: irq:0 memory:f0000000-f7ffffff(prefetchable)
*-display UNCLAIMED
description: VGA compatible controller
product: 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE Chipset Integrated Graphics Device
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 2
bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
version: 01
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list
configuration: latency=0
resources: memory:e8000000-efffffff(prefetchable) memory:ff680000-ff6fffff
*-usb:0
description: USB Controller
product: 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1d
bus info: pci@0000:00:1d.0
version: 01
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: bus_master
configuration: driver=uhci_hcd latency=0
resources: irq:16 ioport:ff80(size=32)
*-usb:1
description: USB Controller
product: 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #2
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1d.1
bus info: pci@0000:00:1d.1
version: 01
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: bus_master
configuration: driver=uhci_hcd latency=0
resources: irq:19 ioport:ff60(size=32)
*-usb:2
description: USB Controller
product: 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #3
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1d.2
bus info: pci@0000:00:1d.2
version: 01
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: bus_master
configuration: driver=uhci_hcd latency=0
resources: irq:18 ioport:ff40(size=32)
*-usb:3
description: USB Controller
product: 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB2 EHCI Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1d.7
bus info: pci@0000:00:1d.7
version: 01
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm debug bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=ehci_hcd latency=0
resources: irq:23 memory:ffa00800-ffa00bff
*-pci
description: PCI bridge
product: 82801 PCI Bridge
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1e
bus info: pci@0000:00:1e.0
version: 81
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pci bus_master
resources: ioport:e000(size=4096) memory:ff800000-ff9fffff
*-network
description: Ethernet interface
product: 82540EM Gigabit Ethernet Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: c
bus info: pci@0000:01:0c.0
logical name: eth0
version: 02
serial: [REMOVED]
size: 1GB/s
capacity: 1GB/s
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: pm pcix msi bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=e1000 driverversion=7.3.21-k5-NAPI duplex=full firmware=N/A ip=[REMOVED] latency=64 link=yes mingnt=255 multicast=yes port=twisted pair speed=1GB/s
resources: irq:18 memory:ff8e0000-ff8fffff ioport:ecc0(size=64)
*-isa
description: ISA bridge
product: 82801DB/DBL (ICH4/ICH4-L) LPC Interface Bridge
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1f
bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.0
version: 01
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: isa bus_master
configuration: latency=0
*-ide
description: IDE interface
product: 82801DB (ICH4) IDE Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1f.1
bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.1
logical name: scsi0
logical name: scsi1
version: 01
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: ide bus_master emulated
configuration: driver=ata_piix latency=0
resources: irq:18 ioport:1f0(size=8) ioport:3f6 ioport:170(size=8) ioport:376 ioport:ffa0(size=16) memory:80000000-800003ff
*-disk
description: ATA Disk
product: WDC WD600BB-00CA
vendor: Western Digital
physical id: 0
bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0
logical name: /dev/sda
version: 17.0
serial: [REMOVED]
size: 55GiB (60GB)
capabilities: partitioned partitioned:dos
configuration: ansiversion=5 signature=000df6c5
*-volume:0
description: EXT4 volume
vendor: Linux
physical id: 1
bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0,1
logical name: /dev/sda1
logical name: /
version: 1.0
serial: [REMOVED]
size: 53GiB
capacity: 53GiB
capabilities: primary bootable journaled extended_attributes large_files huge_files dir_nlink recover extents ext4 ext2 initialized
configuration: created=2014-12-10 04:36:00 filesystem=ext4 lastmountpoint=/"ï¿œyￜￜￜￜￜïￜￜ]ￜￜￜ*ￜￜￜ^ￜￜïￜￜh ￜￜh/ￜￜ^ￜￜïￜￜ!ￜￜￜￜￜￜￜￜￜïï ¿œï¿œ^ￜￜïￜￜ^ￜￜ]k modified=2014-12-10 07:27:52 mount.fstype=ext4 mount.options=rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro,barrier=1,data=ordered mounted=2014-12-11 12:47:01 state=mounted
*-volume:1
description: Extended partition
physical id: 2
bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0,2
logical name: /dev/sda2
size: 2381MiB
capacity: 2381MiB
capabilities: primary extended partitioned partitioned:extended
*-logicalvolume
description: Linux swap / Solaris partition
physical id: 5
logical name: /dev/sda5
capacity: 2381MiB
capabilities: nofs
*-cdrom:0
description: SCSI CD-ROM
physical id: 1
bus info: scsi@1:0.0.0
logical name: /dev/cdrom1
logical name: /dev/scd0
logical name: /dev/sr0
capabilities: audio
configuration: status=nodisc
*-cdrom:1
description: DVD reader
product: RW/DVD GCC-4480B
vendor: HL-DT-ST
physical id: 0.1.0
bus info: scsi@1:0.1.0
logical name: /dev/cdrom
logical name: /dev/cdrw
logical name: /dev/dvd
logical name: /dev/scd1
logical name: /dev/sr1
version: C104
capabilities: removable audio cd-r cd-rw dvd
configuration: ansiversion=5 status=nodisc
*-serial UNCLAIMED
description: SMBus
product: 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) SMBus Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1f.3
bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.3
version: 01
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
configuration: latency=0
resources: ioport:dc80(size=32)
*-multimedia
description: Multimedia audio controller
product: 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 1f.5
bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.5
version: 01
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=Intel ICH latency=0
resources: irq:17 ioport:d800(size=256) ioport:dc40(size=64) memory:ffa00400-ffa005ff memory:ffa00000-ffa000ff
*-scsi
physical id: 1
bus info: usb@1:6
logical name: scsi2
capabilities: emulated scsi-host
configuration: driver=usb-storage
*-disk
description: SCSI Disk
physical id: 0.0.0
bus info: scsi@2:0.0.0
logical name: /dev/sdb
size: 7441MiB (7803MB)
capabilities: partitioned partitioned:dos
configuration: signature=c3072e18
*-volume
description: Windows FAT volume
vendor: MSWIN4.1
physical id: 1
bus info: scsi@2:0.0.0,1
logical name: /dev/sdb1
logical name: /media/KINGSTON
version: FAT32
serial: [REMOVED]
size: 7433MiB
capacity: 7437MiB
capabilities: primary bootable fat initialized
configuration: FATs=2 filesystem=fat label=KINGSTON mount.fstype=vfat mount.options=rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,uid=1000,gi d=1000,fmask=0022,dmask=0077,codepage=cp437,iochar set=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,utf8,flush,errors=remount-ro state=mounted

[mörgæs]

Next time please use CODE tags.

The computer is not that bad. Ubuntu does not like it but Lubuntu 14.* does, especially if you add an xorg.conf. See the link in my signature for details.

An even better option is finding a stronger graphics card.

[whvw]

Thanks for that suggestion, I'll try Lubuntu 14. I did get Ubuntu 14 to install, but man I hate that style of desktop, and it is slooooooooooooow! Some windows take 10 or more seconds to display. I actually liked 10.04 a lot, (after I customised it) and would be happy to keep it if it was still fully functional, (software centre, etc.).
As for the computer, I believe the graphics "card" is built into the motherboard on that machine, I don't think that you can just pop in another. Hopefully I'm wrong on that, (possibly Mint 17 would then work).
Stupid question time: Just what is a "code tag" anyway? I would have used them if I had known what they are.

[mörgæs]

As for the computer, I believe the graphics "card" is built into the motherboard on that machine.

Correct.



I don't think that you can just pop in another.

Yes you can, if the slot fits. Have you taken a look inside the case?




Just what is a "code tag" anyway? I would have used them if I had known what they are.

As you can see above they make terminal output easier to read. Look for the # button in the advanced editor and push Preview to see the results.

[whvw]

Inside the machine there are plenty of slots. I'll get my hands on a new-er graphics card and see if the machine likes it.

As for Lubuntu, I loaded it up, and so far I think it's great! It doesn't flow as easily as Mint 17, but it works well (and) looks good, many orders of magnitude better than the straight Ubuntu 14.04 in both aspects. There are two funnies, though: in Firefox, I get solid bars instead of the URL I put in, and I can't change the terminal's date format.

Thanks.

[sudodus]

Try according to this link

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Lubuntu/AdvancedMethods#Old_Intel_graphics

Edit (or create) /etc/X11/xorg.conf as follows: (there should be a tab before each line except the first and the last).


Section "Device"
Identifier "Intel Graphics"
Driver "intel"
Option "AccelMethod" "uxa"
EndSection

Restart X (reboot, restart your display manager, whatever). Colors are back to the way they used to be and flash works.