14.04 to 16.04 on older laptop

[lynnux]

I've got an old Lenovo Thinkpad that's been running 14.04 for a couple years. It does just fine. Not the fastest thing running, but totally stable, usable and fast enough.

Any educated ideas on whether upgrading to 16.04 will be okay? Will 16.04 take more to run, be more efficient, neutral? Anyone with experience on the betas with a comparable system?

It's the SL500, 1.9g memory, Intel Core 2 T58702, 2gz x 2, 32-bit, Intel GM45 graphic card.

I'll probably install it in any case, just to see how it runs, unless someone says nooooooo, don't do it!

(My user name is not an indication of a high linux experience level.)

[vasa1]

Tried a live USB?

[lynnux]

No, I was thinking of waiting until the official release and just diving in. Live USB would be a good test, though, thanks.

[vasa1]

Testing with a live USB is very useful. Of course, nothing beats a full install. But a live USB should give you a very good idea of how your hardware will perform.

I have a Dell Inspiron 1545 laptop with RAM bumped up from 2 to 4 GB. The default graphics are basic and integrated. The Lubuntu live USB gets 5/5 stars from me.

And if you're worried about having to download the OS twice, you can use zsync to keep the iso you downloaded updated: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2316592&highlight=zsync

[grahammechanical]

I have an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.40 GHz + 1 GB RAM + Nvidia GT220 with 1 GB video memory. It has run every version of Ubuntu Unity since Unity first came out. It has been 16.04 for almost 6 months.

16.04 is very stable & I have not noticed it requiring more RAM or a more powerful video adapter. There is a command that we can run to see if our video adapter can run Ubuntu with the Unity user interface.


/usr/lib/nux/unity_support_test -p

If you see something like this, then you are good to go.


graham@sdb7-Dev:~$ /usr/lib/nux/unity_support_test -p
OpenGL vendor string: NVIDIA Corporation
OpenGL renderer string: GeForce GT 220/PCIe/SSE2
OpenGL version string: 3.3.0 NVIDIA 340.96

Not software rendered: yes
Not blacklisted: yes
GLX fbconfig: yes
GLX texture from pixmap: yes
GL npot or rect textures: yes
GL vertex program: yes
GL fragment program: yes
GL vertex buffer object: yes
GL framebuffer object: yes
GL version is 1.4+: yes

Unity 3D supported: yes

To put it another way. If your machine is running Ubuntu 14.04 with Unity then it will run 16.04 with Unity.

Regards.

[vasa1]

Does
/usr/lib/nux/unity_support_test -pwork only if you already have Unity installed?

I just tried it on my system, Lubuntu 14.04 LTS, and got
bash: /usr/lib/nux/unity_support_test: No such file or directory

[lynnux]

I have an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.40 GHz + 1 GB RAM + Nvidia GT220 with 1 GB video memory. It has run every version of Ubuntu Unity since Unity first came out. It has been 16.04 for almost 6 months.

16.04 is very stable & I have not noticed it requiring more RAM or a more powerful video adapter. There is a command that we can run to see if our video adapter can run Ubuntu with the Unity user interface.


/usr/lib/nux/unity_support_test -p

If you see something like this, then you are good to go.



To put it another way. If your machine is running Ubuntu 14.04 with Unity then it will run 16.04 with Unity.

Regards.

Thank you! This is what I was hoping to hear.

And the command to test for Unity support came up all yes's. Yesss!

[vasa1]

I posted in this thread about the response I got when running the command grahammechanical provided. After poking around a bit, I found that the package that provides the command is nux-tools. After installing it (just because it's so and tiny with no additional dependencies), I got this:

10:14 AM ~ $ /usr/lib/nux/unity_support_test -p
OpenGL vendor string: Intel Open Source Technology Center
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI Mobile Intel® GM45 Express Chipset
OpenGL version string: 2.1 Mesa 10.1.3

Not software rendered: yes
Not blacklisted: yes
GLX fbconfig: yes
GLX texture from pixmap: yes
GL npot or rect textures: yes
GL vertex program: yes
GL fragment program: yes
GL vertex buffer object: yes
GL framebuffer object: yes
GL version is 1.4+: yes

Unity 3D supported: yes
10:14 AM ~ $
Hmmm ...

[RobGoss]

Hello and welcome, When you say old machine how old are we talking and what are the specs? I have some machines about 10-years that is still running Linux Ubuntu quite well. If you are running 14.04 and it's preforming well it may not have to much of an impact if you upgrade to 16.04 is my guess. It surely seems like you have enough ram for 16.04 but there're a few other factors to consider also as far as hardware.

[pfeiffep]

I've got an old Lenovo Thinkpad that's been running 14.04 for a couple years. It does just fine. Not the fastest thing running, but totally stable, usable and fast enough.

Any educated ideas on whether upgrading to 16.04 will be okay? Will 16.04 take more to run, be more efficient, neutral? Anyone with experience on the betas with a comparable system?

It's the SL500, 1.9g memory, Intel Core 2 T58702, 2gz x 2, 32-bit, Intel GM45 graphic card.

I'll probably install it in any case, just to see how it runs, unless someone says nooooooo, don't do it!

(My user name is not an indication of a high linux experience level.)I created a test partition to test 16 on my old laptop. It has Windows 7, Ubuntu 14.04, and Ubuntu Mate 16.04 - the Dell laptop is running perfectly on UM 16.04 and has been for over a month now.
If you test using a live install and decide on replacing 14 with 16 I suggest a fresh install after the official release.

[grahammechanical]

work only if you already have Unity installed?

I guess so. It will be on a Ubuntu ISO image. So, we can run that command from a Ubuntu live session.

Regards.

[vasa1]

I guess so. It will be on a Ubuntu ISO image. So, we can run that command from a Ubuntu live session.

Regards.Or install nux-tools because that's what provides the command. Then the command should work on any distro; it worked for Lubuntu.

[lynnux]

Thanks for your answers, everyone. I'm all in. When the official lts comes out soon I'll go for it. And back everything up first. :)

[naveh-levanon]

Hey Lynnux,

Would love to hear your thoughts now after upgrading. I have a very similar laptop (Thinkpad SL510) also currently running 14.04 LTS and considering upgrading.
Is anything slower? faster? Did you do a fresh install or upgrade?

Cheers,

Naveh