Help! A linux ver. that runs on less than 256ram installed

[jman01]

Help! My computer only shows 254.8 virtual memory available, and when I try to install Ubuntu for a HP Pavillion desktop computer, I get the message "256 ram is required to install..." So, I'm giving up on installing Ubuntu for right now. But...


Can anybody kindly redirect me to a Linux version that runs on less than 256 mb of ram.

[utsuprainfra]

All of the distributions should run in one form or another. Your issue may be with windowing systems. Try with a minimal install and install the X server and a slim window manager. Good luck with browsers. lynx / links among others will give you text-based web browsing.

[jman01]

O.K. Thats what I was hoping.

[iaculallad]

Help! My computer only shows 254.8 virtual memory available, and when I try to install Ubuntu for a HP Pavillion desktop computer, I get the message "256 ram is required to install..." So, I'm giving up on installing Ubuntu for right now. But...


Can anybody kindly redirect me to a Linux version that runs on less than 256 mb of ram.

Try the (x)Ubuntu Alternate CD, you can get it here (http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/xubuntu/releases/8.04/release/).

[Phonan]

As said above, there are many OS's that will work. Xubuntu, which uses the lighter XFCE environment, will install on 128 megs or more of RAM IIRC. Still, Xubuntu is rather heavy. One OS I personally like is Puppy Linux, which can run the entire OS easily with tiny amounts of RAM. Another is DSL (D*** Small Linux) which is even smaller. You can do a minimal install of Ubuntu and then install just what you need, and there's plenty of help out there if you want to do this, too.

http://www.xubuntu.com <- Xubuntu
http://www.puppylinux.org/ <-Puppy Linux
http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/ <- DSL

Good luck!

[AndyCee]

No new information, but +1 for puppy linux.

[Victormd]

Puppy linux and Xubuntu... :)

[wdaniels]

The live CD installers need more RAM to install than the distro needs to run normally because they have to create a filesystem in RAM to run from. As already mentioned, you can normally use the "alternate" install CD's for any flavour of Ubuntu to install without a full graphical environment. Take a look at the Community Documentation for low memory systems here (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/LowMemorySystems) for more info.

I have a laptop with 256MB RAM (less 16MB for shared graphics) and I find it's not really enough to get the best out of Ubuntu. I've heard good things about Puppy Linux as an alternative.

[friendofpugs]

Another vote here for puppy! Light, fast, loads only the essentials.

[jman01]

Thanks everybody for the input, because I was thinking that Ubuntu was a requirement for Xubuntu. Anyway, it Looks like I have some catching up to do. Microsoft has been holding me back for far to long.