Not enough RAM?

[0faber]

I'm trying to install Hardy on my mom's Dell Latitude C810 laptop. Got an error message saying at least 256 MB of RAM required for installation. It has 256 MB of RAM. Tried running the Feisty live CD (which also requires 256 MB of RAM), it worked fine. I ignored the error message, rebooted and tried to install. It got stuck on partitioning (I was trying to dual boot).

For now I can't print the out-put of Windows' System Information, because I can restart the computer until the battery runs down ... But I will when I can. Any other diagnostics I should try? Any ideas about what the problem might be?

Thanks.

[ronnielsen1]

I think you need 384 M to install it and supposedly 256 to run it but I wouldn't want to. You could install xubuntu, puppy, antiX or MiniMe

[ronnielsen1]

Recommended minimum requirements

Ubuntu should run reasonably well on a computer with the following minimum hardware specification. However, features such as visual effects may not run smoothly.


700 MHz x86 processor
384 MB of system memory (RAM)
8 GB of disk space
Graphics card capable of 1024x768 resolution
Sound card
A network or Internet connection



Low-spec computers (Xubuntu)

If you have an old or low-spec computer, using a lightweight desktop system such as Xubuntu is recommended, as it should make more efficient use of your system's resources.
If your system has less than 192 MB of system memory, use the Alternate Installation CD.
Note: If you have a low-specification computer, certain features may be automatically turned off to conserve system resources. For example, if you have a graphics card with only a small amount of video memory (VRAM), the boot-up screen may not be shown.
Follow this link for detailed instructions: Installation/LowMemorySystems (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/LowMemorySystems).

Minimum requirements



166 MHz processor
64 MB of system memory (RAM)
At least 1.5 GB of disk space
VGA graphics card


You might also want to do a memtest and make sure the 256 stick is good

[0faber]

Thanks. Actually it requires 384 MB to run the live CD, but 256 MB to install - at least that's what the CD says. Nevertheless, I'll try XUbuntu if nothing else works.

System Information in Windows says:

OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Version 5.1.2600 ServicePack 2 Build 2600
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name VA780BB1H
System Manufacturer Dell Computer Corporation
System Model Latitude C810
System Type X86-baced PC
Processor x86 Family 6 Model 11 Stepping 1 GenuineIntel ~1129 Mhz
BIOS Version/Date Dell Computer Corporation A04 9/13/2001
SIMBIOS Version 2.3
Windows Directory C:\WINDOWS
System Directory C:\WINDOWS\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolumn1
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction... Version = "5.1 26000.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)"
User Name VA780BB1H\Owner
Time Zone Eastern Standard Time
Total Physical Memory 256.00 MB
Available Physical Me... 29.54 MB
Total Virtual Memory 2.00 GB
Available Virtual Mem... 1.96 GB
Page File Space 618.14 MB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys

Disk has 32.56 GB of free space, according to disk manager.

[howefield]

Even you can install it, just booting to the desktop won't leave you much memory to run applications, you'll be using swap very quickly and performance will likely be poor.

Like the other guys, I'd say go for a lighter weight version. Or install another 256 memory chip assuming you have the slot available.

[snowpine]

Try using the Alternate Install CD. It uses a text based installer (instead of a Live CD) and I have used it sucessfully in the past on a 256mb computer.

If you find Ubuntu to be too slow on that computer, you can easily install Xubuntu on top of it using 'sudo aptitude install xubuntu-desktop' then selecting Xfce from the Sessions menu at the login screen. There are many options that are even faster than Xubuntu, but let's take it one step at a time. :)

[0faber]

Thanks ronnielsen, howfield & snowpine. I'll give the alternate installation CD a try, and have an XUbuntu CD handy.

[Pumalite]

I'd say you better use the Xubuntu Alternate CD:
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/xubuntu/releases/8.04.1/release/

[Shazaam]

You also have what's called "Shared Memory" when using a laptop. So, depending on the laptops bios setting, part of your 256mb of memory is being "shared" with the onboard video card. That is probably why the error message pops up.

[steelxenon]

on my brother's laptop, I used the xubuntu cd to install, then used some apt-get commands I found somewhere else in the forums to install ubuntu-desktop and it works just fine