BlueMonkMN
May 11th, 2008, 10:18 PM
I have an old Micron system that I haven't used in quite a while. It had Windows on it when I got it (possibly 98, possibly XP; I can't remember any more), but a few years ago, I formatted the system and installed Debian on it, and it was running well (still does if I boot from the hard drive). I haven't used it in the past couple years, though. It's a Pentium II system with 128 MB of RAM. I booted from the CD and things were going nicely on the initial boot screen. They slowed down a bit on the screen with the progress bar. But it finally got done with the progress bar and switched video modes and displayed the background image. I was quite impressed with its ability to detect and use my video hardware since that's always been a pain. However, after that, nothing happens for at least 3 hours. The mouse pointer is an arrow, and I can move the mouse occasionally, but that's it. The CD drive just sits running, flickering off occasionally, but apparently not helping much.
I've tried both running without installing as well as installing. When I tried running without installing I got some error about the Gnome Settings application being unable to start, which might result in the inability to support themes etc. I didn't let this one sit for 3 hours, but it seemed like it wasn't going anywhere after that.
I've tried the same CDRW on another system and it works fine on my Dell Dimension 8300.
I've tested the install CD using the built-in test feature, and it says it's fine on the Dell.
What are the requirements for Ubuntu (8.04)? How do I see more of what's going on, and get more info about where it might be failing?
Ubuntu looks quite cool. I was hoping it could help me bring an old system back to life and make it useful for something again (considering hooking it up to a new large screen TV for watching videos. Pentium II systems did at one time play videos right? :popcorn:)
I looked briefly at the documentation, but didn't see anything helpful with these questions yet. I'll continue to search for info on troubleshooting but hoped that someone might have time to reply while I search.
I've tried both running without installing as well as installing. When I tried running without installing I got some error about the Gnome Settings application being unable to start, which might result in the inability to support themes etc. I didn't let this one sit for 3 hours, but it seemed like it wasn't going anywhere after that.
I've tried the same CDRW on another system and it works fine on my Dell Dimension 8300.
I've tested the install CD using the built-in test feature, and it says it's fine on the Dell.
What are the requirements for Ubuntu (8.04)? How do I see more of what's going on, and get more info about where it might be failing?
Ubuntu looks quite cool. I was hoping it could help me bring an old system back to life and make it useful for something again (considering hooking it up to a new large screen TV for watching videos. Pentium II systems did at one time play videos right? :popcorn:)
I looked briefly at the documentation, but didn't see anything helpful with these questions yet. I'll continue to search for info on troubleshooting but hoped that someone might have time to reply while I search.