Old hardware brought back to life

[mörgæs]

Contents: A long, but hopefully easy to read collection of advice for beginners and intermediate users. Don't get scared by the volume: The fact that the text is long is not an indication that installing is difficult, it's just a result of trying to deal with many different problems, also some which are fairly unlikely to encounter. Though the guide was born in 2012 it is receiving steady updates, latest 2024-01-24.


Various Linux distros are known as a good option for bringing old hardware back to life and the forum is receiving many questions on the topic. The thread is created in order to keep the experience and advice regarding old hardware in one place. Many of the considerations, recommendations and warnings from one problem can and should be reused by other people.

The main release, Ubuntu, used to be lightweight and suitable for old hardware, but recent releases are targeting new systems with more graphics horsepower.

Lighter derivatives like Lubuntu and Xubuntu are a better option for semi-old hardware. Both of them use the shared Ubuntu software repository so applications known to run on Ubuntu can also be used on Lubuntu/Xubuntu.

However, there is a lot of hardware around which would benefit from something even lighter. For example, Snap (discussed later) adds a big workload. This might not be relevant for recent hardware but one clearly feels the difference using older gear. Also, the Buntu family does not support 32 bit CPU's so this is another use case where other distros must be considered.

1) Which distro to install?
Ubuntu is built on Debian and broadly speaking Debian of today can be compared to Buntu ten years ago. According to some, Buntu has drifted away from the roots but this space is now taken over by Debian. Some of the advantages regarding old hardware are:

• Debian supports 32 bit hardware
• Debian offers a small Netinstall image suitable for older equipment. Most of the packages are being downloaded during the installation so they don't have to be packaged in the installation file itself. The installation file fits to a CD.
• Debian manages packages using the DEB format which is as lightweight as can be. Various middle tiers like Snap and Flatpak are not needed here.
• There is no push towards buying a 'pro' subscription and the commands retain their original and intended function. For example, the apt command in Debian is only used for package management, not for additional marketing of the 'pro' option.

When viewed using the command df -hT, a typical Debian installation running the XFCE desktop environment with Libreoffice and Firefox installed looks like this:

Filesystem     Type      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
udev           devtmpfs  1.7G     0  1.7G   0% /dev
tmpfs          tmpfs     352M  1.2M  351M   1% /run
/dev/sda1      ext4      284G  4.1G  265G   2% /
tmpfs          tmpfs     1.8G     0  1.8G   0% /dev/shm
tmpfs          tmpfs     5.0M  8.0K  5.0M   1% /run/lock
tmpfs          tmpfs     352M   60K  352M   1% /run/user/1000

A size around 4 GB is about as small as one can get.

Later zram can be added (explained below).


In the following guide we first test the hardware capabilities before deciding what and how to install but if you can't wait or if it's not possible to run a live boot you can just take the chance and go straight to the install described in 3).


2) Hardware
The main rule is that software in the Debian world works more or less everywhere. Some exceptions apply, though.

Hardware	Age (approx.)	Occurrence	Remarks
32 bit without SSE2	- 2002	Rare	See post 3 in the thread
32 bit without PAE	2003-4	Rare	Debian is recommended. It comes with Firefox in stead of Chrome/Chromium which has abandoned 32 bit hardware.
32 bit with SSE2 and PAE	A) General availability 2000 - 2008 B) Intel Atom notebooks from the years 2009-11 famous for having very low power consumption, for example discussed in a 2.000 post long thread here.	Common	Debian is recommended. It comes with Firefox in stead of Chrome/Chromium which has abandoned 32 bit hardware.
64 bit	2003 -	Common	Though Ubuntu installs fine the performance under Debian is likely better.

These restrictions are good to remember when reading the thread.

Let's begin with a simple test to see if the hardware in question is fairly old but straightforward to deal with or very old and needs some tricks.

Using any Linux distro, installed or from a live boot, please copy the following command one at a time into the terminal and run.

sudo apt update
sudo apt dist-upgrade
sudo apt install lshw dmidecode

It installs the programs lshw (an abbreviation for list hardware) and dmidecode if they are not already present. We are going to use them a lot to look inside the computer.

After this, run

sudo lshw -C cpu | grep -i sse2

It takes some seconds to complete.

If you get a line full of abbreviations everything is good. Chances are that the install is simply next, next, next, finish.

If the command doesn't yield an output please see post #3 'really old hardware' in the thread. It's questionable if the computer will be of any practial use.

(Details: The command above checks if the processor has the SSE2 instructions set. In the Intel family the oldest member with SSE2 is a Pentium 4 and for AMD the oldest is a K8. Though SSE2 is not necessary for a Debian install it still serves as a baseline for reasonable performance.)

The command

sudo lshw -C cpu | grep -i width

tells if you have a 32 or 64 bit processor. If it's 64 bit and you have more than 2 GiB of memory then a 64 bit ISO is recommended.

For people wanting to investigate CPU properties in depth this link gives inspiration.

Memory: The command

sudo dmidecode -t memory | grep -i 'ddr\|size'

shows the size of the present memory, for example 2*1 GB. It also shows empty slots ready for additional memory.

sudo dmidecode -t memory | grep -i max

shows the maximum size of memory that the motherboard supports.

If you (like me) end up with hardware not worth salvaging these commands are helpful when deciding how and where to recycle the memory. I often see a big improvement when an old computer receives one or two memory sticks from a donor.


The graphics processor has its own memory modules. Here is a guide for finding out how much memory the graphics processor has.

Drives

sudo lshw -short -C disk

shows the drives of the system, including CD/DVD drives. You can see the size of the hard disk and decide if it's big enough for the intended use. Later in the thread we shall investigate the health of the hard disk.

If Gparted or the df command show some strange partitions or don't show any at all it could be due of Fake-RAID. If that's the case and if you don't want to keep Windows which may be installed here I suggest that Fake-RAID be disabled so the disks are functioning independently. The text in the hyperlink explains why.

Network

sudo lshw | grep -i '00bt'

shows the speed of the wired (ethernet) connector, often 100 or 1000 Mbit/s. If Wifi is slow then this is an alternative.


Display server
You might have heard that some Linux distros are slowly switching from X11 to Wayland as a display server. Debian/XFCE stays for the time being with the dated but highly stable X11. One can see which server is in use by running the command

echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE

If the output is x11 then there's no need to worry about people posting this-and-that about Wayland.

Hardware modifications
The older and hence slower the hard disk the more important is zram and/or swappiness, as explained in a later post. 2,5" disks used in portables are generally worse than 3,5" disks in stationary computers.

Adding memory is the single most efficient step one can take.


If the hardware does not meet these requirements one should consider if it's worth the effort to carry on. There is so much used (say, 4-12 years of age) gear around that one can get for free or cheap. The ever-increasing system requirements of Windows are pushing more and more computers into the ‘old’ category even though they are in good working order.

Though, if the graphics horsepower in an old computer is too weak for daily use it can still be of value as a file server for back-ups. Just check that the hard disk is in good condition (see next post in the thread) but consider the power consumption if it's intended to be always running.

On a home network with only trusted clients Vsftpd is a fine FTP server package for backup purposes. The otherwise popular client Filezilla has been terminated for 32 bit systems so here one has to use alternatives like Gftp.

An interesting blog about old hardware and realistic expectations.


3) Installing the operating system
First of all: The solution to getting old hardware into usable condition is not old software. When software has reached end of life and is abandoned by the developers no security fixes are provided, and for obvious reasons people should not run such a system. Don't use it, no matter how fast it runs or how much you like the user interface. Here we focus on the latest Debian.

Installation files are normally packaged in a file with the .ISO extension, in daily speak just referred to as 'an ISO'.

If the computer is one you have salvaged from a dumpster or which has been given to you I suggest that you begin with completely erasing the hard disk. My preferred command is

sudo shred -f -z -v -n 2 /dev/sdX

where sdX refers to your hard disk, often sda. It must be run from a live boot.

Nwipe is another good candidate for sanitising a hard disk.

More about hard disk management.



Installation should be done from a USB stick, if the computer is young enough to support it, or else from a CD or DVD. If the install hangs at the very end with no explanation given just push Return.


If booting from USB does not work and if the CD/DVD drive is on the brink of failing it's worth trying the minimal Debian ISO as opposed to the full-size one. Often a semi-working CD drive will accept a small ISO file like this one.

Regardless of which ISO you choose one should (if possible) use wired internet access while installing, during the first boot and when applying the first batch of bug fixes.


A number of background processes called daemons are created automatically. They often serve a useful purpose, for example taking care of the network connection, but not all are needed by all users.

If one doesn't have a printer then cups could and should be removed. It can be temporarily disabled by the command

sudo systemctl stop cups

After that

sudo apt --purge remove cups cups-common cups-filters cups-pk-helper

followed by

sudo apt autoremove

removes cups-related packages.

One or both of the commands

sudo systemctl --type=service
service --status-all

will shows all daemons running (press q for quitting after seeing the output). If one wants to harden the system and remove other unneeded daemons, for example Bluetooth, then this can be used as inspiration.


3 B) Security matters
Hardware-related security is first and foremost centered around the CPU (more text to come here).


3 C) Distros other than Debian
GNU/Linux is about choice, and other light distros than Debian are also worth a try.

Puppy (which comes in many versions), Knoppix and Bodhi Linux are good options. More distros are listed here and here if people want to experiment, but before choosing one of the minor distros remember to check how well it is maintained. Never use an unsupported distro or a distro where bug fixes are released so slowly that it's almost unsupported. This excludes for example Damn Small Linux, which is sadly still mentioned in Ubuntuforums. Please let it rest in peace.


3D) BIOS
If the install still does not work you could try resetting BIOS to default values and / or upgrade the BIOS to a later version. Before upgrading remember to search the web and see if people have bad experiences with this for your particular hardware. Don't be afraid of general warnings which may not apply to your machinery.

Some advice for updating BIOS and other kinds of firmware.

A working BIOS can sometimes be tuned to yield a better performance, for example by disabling options which are not needed.


4) Snap
The traditional package format for Debian is a deb package. Lately at least three alternative package formats have been introduced: Snap, Flatpack and AppImage.

For a number of reasons I recommend to stay with deb packages only, especially for old hardware. First and foremost the other package formats add a significant workload to the system.

The people behind Linux Mint have posted this statement about Snap explaining why they try to avoid it, and the same goes for Bodhi Linux. Since the purpose of this thread is to get old hardware functioning we will do the same.

To check if you have snap installed run the command

snap list

It has three possible outcomes:

1. An error appears
2. The user is encouraged you run the command snap install hello-world
3. The user gets a list of installed snap packages, for example

Name               Version          Rev    Tracking         Publisher   Notes
bare               1.0              5      latest/stable    canonical✓  base
core22             20230801         864    latest/stable    canonical✓  base
firefox            118.0.1-1        3216   latest/stable/…  mozilla✓    -
gnome-42-2204      0+git.ff35a85    141    latest/stable/…  canonical✓  -
gtk-common-themes  0.1-81-g442e511  1535   latest/stable/…  canonical✓  -
snapd              2.60.3           20092  latest/stable    canonical✓  snapd

If 1: Everything is good.
If 2: The snap daemon is present but inactive. To avoid using it by accident just remove it with the command sudo apt remove snapd. It can take a while to finish.
If 3: Some applications are present in snap format. Consider if you need all of them or if they can be replaced by applications in deb packages.

To remove a snap package run

sudo snap remove <package>

for each package, for example

sudo snap remove firefox

It might take some attempts because packages have to be removed in the right order.

Now

snap list

should display the empty list.
Finally

sudo apt remove snapd

removes the mothership. All clear.

Now comes the tricky part. One would expect that the command

sudo apt install chromium-browser --dry-run

would warn the user about all packages about to be installed but that's not the case. Should one be mislead to executing

sudo apt install chromium-browser

then a subsequent

snap list

will show that the command silently has triggered a full Snap reinstall including packages unrelated to Chromium. We are back to start, only with cups added to the list. Oh, snap.

Name               Version          Rev    Tracking       Publisher      Notes
bare               1.0              5      latest/stable  canonical✓     base
chromium           118.0.5993.117   2673   latest/stable  canonical✓     -
core22             20230801         864    latest/stable  canonical✓     base
cups               2.4.6-4          980    latest/stable  openprinting✓  -
gnome-42-2204      0+git.ff35a85    141    latest/stable  canonical✓     -
gtk-common-themes  0.1-81-g442e511  1535   latest/stable  canonical✓     -
snapd              2.60.4           20290  latest/stable  canonical✓     snapd

The Buntu roadmap indicates that more and more packages are to be transferred to Snap. If that's not your liking then it's worth the while trying Debian or Linux Mint.

For more information about Snap see the thread here.


5) Applications
‘Light applications’ is a neverending topic. Only brief advice is given here, otherwise I leave it to the user to experiment.

Trying a lighter browser like Pale Moon, Xombrero / Xxxterm or Epiphany may or may not speed things up. The packages are small so it’s an easy test to do. The even lighter browser links2 gives a crude text display with embedded images but nothing more - no pop-ups, no animated GIF's and no video ads (scrolling is done with right mouse button or with Page Up/Down). After years of exposure to pages bloated with irrelevant ads and animations it's a joy to see only plain text. The command for installing is

sudo apt install links2

6) Maintenance
An often overlooked part of getting an old computer into a useable condition is cleaning the interior dust build-ups, especially around the fan and heatsink. Take care not to damage the fans by forceful vacuuming and remember to only vacuum in the reverse direction of the normal air flow. Best is to block the fan with a tooth pick or piece of wire while cleaning to prevent it from spinning too fast. If we are dealing with a desktop remember that it likely has several fans (for CPU, GPU, power supply and more).

Short bursts of compressed air also helps. Again, only in the reverse direction of the normal air flow.

Remember to check that the fan is turning freely after cleaning.

Many good guides are available describing how to take hardware apart. Here's for example a list for Toshiba.


On the software side the only maintenance needed is

sudo apt update
sudo apt dist-upgrade
<maybe reboot here>
sudo apt clean
sudo apt autoremove

once in a while. The last command comes in handy because it removes old kernels and saves hard disk space.

If the computer does not automatically ask for updates shortly after the install it's especially important to run the commands.

A file system needs some free space to perform well. The command

df -Th

shows in percent how much space is used for various mounts. A good rule of thumb is never letting any of the measures exceed 75%.

The similar command

df -i

shows the number of available inodes. There are many explanations for inodes on the web, for now it will be enough to know that the percentages shown should be as low as possible. If you see high numbers just run the autoremove command mentioned above.

The command

sudo find /home -name '*' -size +50M

tells which files in the /home directory are more than 50 MB of size. It's useful for cleaning if space is getting tight. Remember to empty the trash can afterwards.

Some advice on file system maintenance.


7) Environmental impact
It is a widely held belief that old hardware shouldn’t be used because of power consumption. This is not necessarily true: Old hardware is sometimes less greedy than new, if one compares within the same category (desktop versus desktop, for example). The power consumption of newer machines per unit of calculation is lower, but not the total power consumption of the machine.

However, the biggest benefits from using an old computer as long as possible is less production of new hardware and less e-waste to be handled, both of which are causing serious environmental problems. Add to this the joy of using hardware without a software vendor trying to force people to pay for a pre-installed operating system.

If you have managed to bring an old computer back to usable life you should not be ashamed for being out of sync but proud of taking care of the environment.


8) Further improvement
Third post in the thread gives some suggestions for what to trim and adjust after install.


9) Still in doubt?
If this does not answer all your questions you are of course welcome to post but please read #4 first.

= = =
Thanks to MG&TL for proof-reading.

[mörgæs]

One question when dealing with old hardware is whether or not it's fast enough for the intended purpose. Post 1 and 4 discuss this topic and provide ideas for getting a higher performance. Another question is whether or not it's safe to store data on an old hard disk.

In mechanical equipment errors often appear in the shape of the bathtub curve. Since this is about old gear the left hand part of the bathtub is not a concern; the only question is how long we can use the hard disk before the right hand increase appears - if it ever does.

I am often surprised how long a hard disk can live on in an error-free state, some of mine now celebrating 20 years birthday after being exposed to a lot of distrohopping and reinstalling.

However, if a sign of malfunction appears then one has to heed the warning and take action right away. This applies to hard disks in general and not only recycled gear. There may not be a second chance.



A hard disk can fail in various ways; here we focus on bad sectors which can develop over time. Fortunately they tend to appear in clusters and not randomly distributed over the disk.

Error-handling routines in the hard disk firmware are expected to take care of the individual sectors when an error occurs. They are often quite efficient and many well-behaving hard disks have a few bad sectors unbeknownst to the user.

However, when resurrecting old hardware one should at least do a little testing before installing.

If the hard disk is dubious then one can simply choose not to use it, expecting that more errors are coming up. When discarding a hopeless computer remember to keep the hard disk so there always is a stack of spares available.

Another option is to keep using the damaged disk, directing the installation to the intact parts. This is what we are going to discuss here. If one decides to store all user files in Google Drive or another cloud service then there's no risk associated with a failing hard disk.

As always: Regardless of the hard disk condition always back up to a physically and digitally separated location. If your important data are not backed up they are obviously not important to you.


Let's take an example. The commands can be run in a live boot or in an already installed Buntu / Debian.

First we execute

sudo fdisk -l

The top line of the output could look like

Disk /dev/sda: 74.6 GiB, 80060424192 bytes, 156368016 sectors

It tells us the number of sectors and that the hard disk is mounted as /dev/sda.

We would like to investigate /dev/sda further. Next command is

sudo badblocks -v /dev/sda

which can take long time to run. It searches the entire /dev/sda hard disk for bad sectors and writes their location if any are found.

From an installed system the command can also be executed as

sudo badblocks -v /dev/sda > badblocks.txt

which saves the output as a text file. An empty file indicates that no errors are found.

When the command has finished (for a large disk it might need to run the whole night) investigate the output. Say it looks like

3040076
3040077
3040078
3040079
3040548
3040549
3040551
12558888
12558889
12559356
12559357
12559358
12559359
(and 58 more 125xxxxx-numbers)

In other words we have one cluster with sector numbers 304xxxx and another with numbers 125xxxxx.

The larger of the numbers is 125xxxxx. Let's define an area up to and including this sector (and a part more for safety) from which we are keeping the installation away.

Since the total disk size is 156368016 sectors we have to let go of at least 12600000 / 156368016 = 8 % of the disk capacity. This equals 6 GiB lost.

A basic Debian install takes around 4 GiB so we have plenty of room (remember, we have already decided to store all files in Google Drive). For safety we decide to skip the first 20 GiB.

There will still be 74.6 GiB - 20 GiB = 54.6 GiB left as useable space.


We decide to erase the hard disk completely before installing. From a live boot run the command

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=1M

again assuming that the hard disk is sda. Also this command can take a long time and only the hard disk indicator light shows that something is proceeding.

When finished the message no space left on device will appear. Though it might sound like an error it only indicates that the process is complete.

Some consider the command overkill but at least one should erase the master boot record and the partitioning scheme. This is done by the (quick) command

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=512 count=1

After this

sudo fdisk -l /dev/sda

shows an empty (unpartitioned) disk as expected.


During the Debian installation one is offered an automatic partitioning. Normally this is a good option but here we are going to take control and create our own.

First a partition of around 20 GiB should be created and marked do not use.

After this a swap partition. I prefer to have it double the size of RAM but other people might have different opinions.

The remainder is used as the / (root) partition formatted as ext4. I don't see the purpose of having a separate /home partition but if this is desired now is the time for creating it.

A simple partitioning scheme could be done using only primary partitions but if you are planning to do many experiments then extended partitions might be necessary.
Rest of the installation is standard.


Now

sudo fdisk -l

should show something (more or less) like

Disk /dev/sda: 74,6 GiB, 80060424192 bytes, 156368016 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: *

Device     Boot    Start       End   Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/sda1  *         2046 156366847 156364802 74,6G  5 Extended
/dev/sda5            2048  39061503  39059456 18,6G 83 Linux
/dev/sda6        39063552 136912895  97849344 46,7G 83 Linux
/dev/sda7       136914944 156366847  19451904  9,3G 82 Linux swap / Solaris

and

df -hT

shows

Filesystem     Type      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
udev           devtmpfs  1,9G     0  1,9G   0% /dev
tmpfs          tmpfs     379M  1,2M  377M   1% /run
### notice that /dev/sda5 is not mentioned here ###
/dev/sda6      ext4       46G  3,9G   40G   9% /
tmpfs          tmpfs     1,9G     0  1,9G   0% /dev/shm
tmpfs          tmpfs     5,0M  8,0K  5,0M   1% /run/lock
tmpfs          tmpfs     379M   64K  379M   1% /run/user/1000

We see that sda5 spans 39.059.456 sectors (12.600.000 required) and is unused; only sda6 stores data for the operative system. The usable hard disk size is now 46 GB.

Finally, the command

sudo badblocks -v /dev/sda6

should yield a clean log like

Checking blocks 0 to 48924671
Checking for bad blocks (read-only test): done                                                 
Pass completed, 0 bad blocks found. (0/0/0 errors)

Once in a while people discuss which file system to use. I would go for ext4 unless there are strong reasons for doing otherwise.

[mörgæs]

The original post dealt with fairly old hardware. Here are some additions for really old stuff.

32 bit CPU's with or without PAE
All of these are supported by Debian in a standard installation. No tweaking needed.
Firefox Extended Support Version comes by default in a Debian install. Chrome and Chromium won't run.

32 bit CPU's without SSE2
A CPU uses a number of instruction sets to execute orders from the outside world. The instruction set SSE has been around for ages, so all recent software packages can expect SSE to be available.

However, the later standard SSE2 was introduced with Pentium 4 which leads to special considerations for older gear. It is not known whether or not Firefox still supports non-SSE2 equipment, but maybe it's too slow anyway to be of any use.

[mörgæs]

Until now we have focused on getting a light and fast (that is, lightning fast) operating system by selecting the most efficient software to install. After the install is completed it's worth the while to test the system to see if some parameters should be adjusted in order to further speed up things. Don't jump to conclusions and begin tweaking the system before you know A) where the bottleneck is for your particular combination of hard- and software and B) if there's anything to do about it.

Many good workload monitors are available. One of the options is Gkrellm which can easily be configured to show various factors relevant to performance. Give it a corner of the screen and keep an eye on it during different kinds of tasks.


Slow boot
Though Debian is considered a fast operating system the boot itself is sometimes slow. Here is a discussion of processes which can be disabled, speeding up boot time.

The command

more /var/log/dmesg

shows in detail what goes on during boot. The number in [ ] at the beginning of each line is the time stamp so when there's a big difference in the number something is taking a long time. One can view the entire log screen for screen using the command above or use

awk -F'[][] *' '$2-ts>0.3{printf "%s\n%s\n---\n",l,$0}{ts=$2;l=$0}' /var/log/dmesg

which shows only the records in the log file where there's a delay longer than 0.3 seconds. Thanks to schragge for the command.

---

This section is only relevant if you have too much hard disk activity.

Swappiness
The swappiness setting determines when a system begins swapping data to the hard disk. A low value makes more use of memory and less use of the swap partition.

As memory storage is many times faster than hard disk storage this is what we want.

The default setting is 60, which makes swapping begin early. Lowering to, say 10 sometimes makes a significant improvement in speed, dependent on the hard disk type and workload.

To test it (for the present session only, permanent settings are unchanged) one simply does the following:

1. Copy the command

   cat /proc/sys/vm/swappiness

   to the terminal and press Enter. You will now see the present value of swappiness.
2. Spend some minutes browsing Ubuntuforums or another web site. Notice the speed (or lack thereof).
3. After that run the command

   sudo sysctl vm.swappiness=10

4. Continue browsing. Do you now have a faster system with less hard disk activity?

If one wants to make the setting permanent the line vm.swappiness = 10 has to be added to /etc/sysctl.conf. It's done with the command

sudo sed -i '$ a\vm.swappiness = 10' /etc/sysctl.conf

The new setting is activated in next boot. In effect it moves workload from a slow, rotating hard drive to the memory modules, which are faster than a solid state drive, and it could be referred to as the poor man's SSD.


Zram
is another module which can speed up a system by lowering the swap activity on the hard disk. The command

cat /proc/swaps

lists the swap areas in use; for a standard Lubuntu installation the results could look more or less like

Filename        Type         Size      Used   Priority
/dev/sda1       partition    4882428   0      -2

which indicates that only a hard disk swap partition is used. After executing

sudo apt install zram-tools

the command now displays

Filename        Type         Size      Used   Priority
/dev/sda1       partition    4882428   0      -2
/dev/zram0      partition    262140    0      100

indicating that a new swap area with higher priority (that is, will be used first) has been added. The sizes shown will differ according to the hardware on which zram runs.

It's recommended to experiment with swappiness and zram alone and in combination. On some computers it gives a significant boost, on some there's only a minimal change

[mörgæs]

A) I have a question
If the posts above do not solve your problem feel free to post here. Remember to state everything you know about the computer.

If you have the option please run

sudo lshw -sanitize > lshw.txt

and post lshw.txt in CODE tags. Can be done in a live boot using any version of Buntu.

An example of the output is shown at the bottom of the post.


B) I would like to provide an answer
Many users in Ubuntuforums have experience in old hardware and are eager to help. Thanks, that’s what keeps the forum running. However, a few guidelines should be observed before posting:

• Please don’t provide an answer based only upon searching the web. We are happy for contributions but a lot of dubious advice exists and quoting it does not help anyone. Please only post if you have hands-on experience with something close to the hardware and software in question.
• Don’t take for granted that there is a solution and don't give the person asking a false hope. Not every old computer can be brought into usable condition, so sorry, you have to recycle this dinosaur might be the only sensible answer. If you never post this regardless of the hardware in question you are probably too lenient.
• Corrections to the posts are welcome.

computer
    description: Desktop Computer
    product: OptiPlex 745 ()
    vendor: Dell Inc.
    serial: [REMOVED]
    width: 64 bits
    capabilities: smbios-2.3 dmi-2.3 vsyscall32
    configuration: administrator_password=enabled boot=normal chassis=desktop power-on_password=enabled uuid=[REMOVED]
  *-core
       description: Motherboard
       product: 0MM599
       vendor: Dell Inc.
       physical id: 0
       serial: [REMOVED]
     *-firmware
          description: BIOS
          vendor: Dell Inc.
          physical id: 0
          version: 2.6.6
          date: 06/26/2011
          size: 64KiB
          capacity: 960KiB
          capabilities: pci pnp apm upgrade shadowing cdboot bootselect edd int13floppytoshiba int5printscreen int9keyboard int14serial int17printer acpi usb ls120boot biosbootspecification netboot
     *-cpu
          description: CPU
          product: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU          6400  @ 2.13GHz
          vendor: Intel Corp.
          physical id: 400
          bus info: cpu@0
          slot: Microprocessor
          size: 2133MHz
          width: 64 bits
          clock: 1066MHz
          capabilities: x86-64 fpu fpu_exception wp vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts nopl aperfmperf pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm lahf_lm dtherm tpr_shadow
          configuration: cores=2 enabledcores=2 threads=2
        *-cache:0
             description: L1 cache
             physical id: 700
             size: 32KiB
             capacity: 32KiB
             capabilities: internal write-back data
        *-cache:1
             description: L2 cache
             physical id: 701
             size: 2MiB
             capacity: 2MiB
             capabilities: internal varies unified
     *-memory
          description: System Memory
          physical id: 1000
          slot: System board or motherboard
          size: 2GiB
        *-bank:0
             description: DIMM DDR Synchronous 667 MHz (1,5 ns)
             product: M3 78T2953EZ3-CE6
             vendor: Samsung
             physical id: 0
             serial: [REMOVED]
             slot: DIMM_1
             size: 1GiB
             width: 64 bits
             clock: 667MHz (1.5ns)
        *-bank:1
             description: DIMM DDR Synchronous 667 MHz (1,5 ns) [empty]
             vendor: FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
             physical id: 1
             serial: [REMOVED]
             slot: DIMM_3
             width: 64 bits
             clock: 667MHz (1.5ns)
        *-bank:2
             description: DIMM DDR Synchronous 667 MHz (1,5 ns)
             product: M3 78T2953EZ3-CE6
             vendor: Samsung
             physical id: 2
             serial: [REMOVED]
             slot: DIMM_2
             size: 1GiB
             width: 64 bits
             clock: 667MHz (1.5ns)
        *-bank:3
             description: DIMM DDR Synchronous 667 MHz (1,5 ns) [empty]
             vendor: FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
             physical id: 3
             serial: [REMOVED]
             slot: DIMM_4
             width: 64 bits
             clock: 667MHz (1.5ns)
     *-pci
          description: Host bridge
          product: 82Q963/Q965 Memory Controller Hub
          vendor: Intel Corporation
          physical id: 100
          bus info: pci@0000:00:00.0
          version: 02
          width: 32 bits
          clock: 33MHz
        *-pci:0
             description: PCI bridge
             product: 82Q963/Q965 PCI Express Root Port
             vendor: Intel Corporation
             physical id: 1
             bus info: pci@0000:00:01.0
             version: 02
             width: 32 bits
             clock: 33MHz
             capabilities: pci pm msi pciexpress normal_decode bus_master cap_list
             configuration: driver=pcieport
             resources: irq:40 ioport:d000(size=4096) memory:fe900000-feafffff ioport:d0000000(size=268435456)
           *-display:0
                description: VGA compatible controller
                product: RV516 [Radeon X1300/X1550 Series]
                vendor: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]
                physical id: 0
                bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
                version: 00
                width: 64 bits
                clock: 33MHz
                capabilities: pm pciexpress msi vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
                configuration: driver=radeon latency=0
                resources: irq:16 memory:d0000000-dfffffff memory:fe9e0000-fe9effff ioport:dc00(size=256) memory:fea00000-fea1ffff
           *-display:1 UNCLAIMED
                description: Display controller
                product: RV516 [Radeon X1300/X1550 Series] (Secondary)
                vendor: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]
                physical id: 0.1
                bus info: pci@0000:01:00.1
                version: 00
                width: 64 bits
                clock: 33MHz
                capabilities: pm pciexpress bus_master cap_list
                configuration: latency=0
                resources: memory:fe9f0000-fe9fffff
        *-usb:0
             description: USB controller
             product: 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4
             vendor: Intel Corporation
             physical id: 1a
             bus info: pci@0000:00:1a.0
             version: 02
             width: 32 bits
             clock: 33MHz
             capabilities: uhci bus_master
             configuration: driver=uhci_hcd latency=0
             resources: irq:16 ioport:ff20(size=32)
        *-usb:1
             description: USB controller
             product: 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5
             vendor: Intel Corporation
             physical id: 1a.1
             bus info: pci@0000:00:1a.1
             version: 02
             width: 32 bits
             clock: 33MHz
             capabilities: uhci bus_master
             configuration: driver=uhci_hcd latency=0
             resources: irq:17 ioport:ff00(size=32)
        *-usb:2
             description: USB controller
             product: 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2
             vendor: Intel Corporation
             physical id: 1a.7
             bus info: pci@0000:00:1a.7
             version: 02
             width: 32 bits
             clock: 33MHz
             capabilities: pm debug ehci bus_master cap_list
             configuration: driver=ehci-pci latency=0
             resources: irq:22 memory:febfbc00-febfbfff
        *-multimedia
             description: Audio device
             product: 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller
             vendor: Intel Corporation
             physical id: 1b
             bus info: pci@0000:00:1b.0
             version: 02
             width: 64 bits
             clock: 33MHz
             capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list
             configuration: driver=snd_hda_intel latency=0
             resources: irq:43 memory:febfc000-febfffff
        *-pci:1
             description: PCI bridge
             product: 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 1
             vendor: Intel Corporation
             physical id: 1c
             bus info: pci@0000:00:1c.0
             version: 02
             width: 32 bits
             clock: 33MHz
             capabilities: pci pciexpress msi pm normal_decode bus_master cap_list
             configuration: driver=pcieport
             resources: irq:41 ioport:1000(size=4096) memory:fe800000-fe8fffff ioport:f0000000(size=2097152)
        *-pci:2
             description: PCI bridge
             product: 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 5
             vendor: Intel Corporation
             physical id: 1c.4
             bus info: pci@0000:00:1c.4
             version: 02
             width: 32 bits
             clock: 33MHz
             capabilities: pci pciexpress msi pm normal_decode bus_master cap_list
             configuration: driver=pcieport
             resources: irq:42 ioport:3000(size=4096) memory:fe700000-fe7fffff ioport:f0200000(size=2097152)
           *-network
                description: Ethernet interface
                product: NetXtreme BCM5754 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express
                vendor: Broadcom Corporation
                physical id: 0
                bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
                logical name: eth0
                version: 02
                serial: [REMOVED]
                size: 1Gbit/s
                capacity: 1Gbit/s
                width: 64 bits
                clock: 33MHz
                capabilities: pm vpd msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
                configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=tg3 driverversion=3.132 duplex=full firmware=5754-v3.15 ip=[REMOVED] latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes port=twisted pair speed=1Gbit/s
                resources: irq:44 memory:fe7f0000-fe7fffff
        *-usb:3
             description: USB controller
             product: 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1
             vendor: Intel Corporation
             physical id: 1d
             bus info: pci@0000:00:1d.0
             version: 02
             width: 32 bits
             clock: 33MHz
             capabilities: uhci bus_master
             configuration: driver=uhci_hcd latency=0
             resources: irq:23 ioport:ff80(size=32)
        *-usb:4
             description: USB controller
             product: 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2
             vendor: Intel Corporation
             physical id: 1d.1
             bus info: pci@0000:00:1d.1
             version: 02
             width: 32 bits
             clock: 33MHz
             capabilities: uhci bus_master
             configuration: driver=uhci_hcd latency=0
             resources: irq:17 ioport:ff60(size=32)
        *-usb:5
             description: USB controller
             product: 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3
             vendor: Intel Corporation
             physical id: 1d.2
             bus info: pci@0000:00:1d.2
             version: 02
             width: 32 bits
             clock: 33MHz
             capabilities: uhci bus_master
             configuration: driver=uhci_hcd latency=0
             resources: irq:18 ioport:ff40(size=32)
        *-usb:6
             description: USB controller
             product: 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1
             vendor: Intel Corporation
             physical id: 1d.7
             bus info: pci@0000:00:1d.7
             version: 02
             width: 32 bits
             clock: 33MHz
             capabilities: pm debug ehci bus_master cap_list
             configuration: driver=ehci-pci latency=0
             resources: irq:23 memory:ff980800-ff980bff
        *-pci:3
             description: PCI bridge
             product: 82801 PCI Bridge
             vendor: Intel Corporation
             physical id: 1e
             bus info: pci@0000:00:1e.0
             version: f2
             width: 32 bits
             clock: 33MHz
             capabilities: pci subtractive_decode bus_master cap_list
        *-isa
             description: ISA bridge
             product: 82801HB/HR (ICH8/R) LPC Interface Controller
             vendor: Intel Corporation
             physical id: 1f
             bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.0
             version: 02
             width: 32 bits
             clock: 33MHz
             capabilities: isa bus_master cap_list
             configuration: driver=lpc_ich latency=0
             resources: irq:0
        *-ide:0
             description: IDE interface
             product: 82801H (ICH8 Family) 4 port SATA Controller [IDE mode]
             vendor: Intel Corporation
             physical id: 1f.2
             bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.2
             version: 02
             width: 32 bits
             clock: 66MHz
             capabilities: ide pm bus_master cap_list
             configuration: driver=ata_piix latency=0
             resources: irq:20 ioport:fe00(size=8) ioport:fe10(size=4) ioport:fe20(size=8) ioport:fe30(size=4) ioport:fec0(size=16) ioport:ecc0(size=16)
        *-serial UNCLAIMED
             description: SMBus
             product: 82801H (ICH8 Family) SMBus Controller
             vendor: Intel Corporation
             physical id: 1f.3
             bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.3
             version: 02
             width: 32 bits
             clock: 33MHz
             configuration: latency=0
             resources: memory:febfbb00-febfbbff ioport:ece0(size=32)
        *-ide:1
             description: IDE interface
             product: 82801HR/HO/HH (ICH8R/DO/DH) 2 port SATA Controller [IDE mode]
             vendor: Intel Corporation
             physical id: 1f.5
             bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.5
             version: 02
             width: 32 bits
             clock: 66MHz
             capabilities: ide pm bus_master cap_list
             configuration: driver=ata_piix latency=0
             resources: irq:20 ioport:fe40(size=8) ioport:fe50(size=4) ioport:fe60(size=8) ioport:fe70(size=4) ioport:fed0(size=16) ioport:ecd0(size=16)
     *-scsi:0
          physical id: 1
          logical name: scsi0
          capabilities: emulated
        *-disk
             description: ATA Disk
             product: WDC WD800JD-75MS
             vendor: Western Digital
             physical id: 0.0.0
             bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0
             logical name: /dev/sda
             version: 10.0
             serial: [REMOVED]
             size: 74GiB (80GB)
             capabilities: partitioned partitioned:dos
             configuration: ansiversion=5 sectorsize=512 signature=00000b01
           *-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: 72GiB
                capacity: 72GiB
                capabilities: primary bootable journaled extended_attributes large_files huge_files dir_nlink extents ext4 ext2 initialized
                configuration: created=2013-10-14 21:23:38 filesystem=ext4 lastmountpoint=/ modified=2014-06-16 17:27:40 mount.fstype=ext4 mount.options=rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro,data=ordered mounted=2014-06-16 17:27:40 state=mounted
           *-volume:1
                description: Extended partition
                physical id: 2
                bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0,2
                logical name: /dev/sda2
                size: 2044MiB
                capacity: 2044MiB
                capabilities: primary extended partitioned partitioned:extended
              *-logicalvolume
                   description: Linux swap / Solaris partition
                   physical id: 5
                   logical name: /dev/sda5
                   capacity: 2044MiB
                   capabilities: nofs
     *-scsi:1
          physical id: 2
          logical name: scsi1
          capabilities: emulated
        *-cdrom
             description: DVD reader
             product: CDRWDVD TS-H493A
             vendor: TSSTcorp
             physical id: 0.0.0
             bus info: scsi@1:0.0.0
             logical name: /dev/cdrom
             logical name: /dev/sr0
             version: D200
             capabilities: removable audio cd-r cd-rw dvd
             configuration: ansiversion=5 status=nodisc

[venice vet clinic]

hi there,
I hope you could help me. i've a very old Pc . it comes with pentium(R) 4 cpu 1.8Ghz and 1.79Ghz,1.96 Gb of Ram . it also have 80 Gb of hard disc.

i've try installing the latest ubuntu 12.1 but it is very slow.. I use it for my clinic daily record patients detail and some video that i play for my client.


pls advice

[carl4926]

Try xubuntu
It should be much better

[black veils]

yes try xubuntu, should be just right.

if you want something faster than that though, you could use lubuntu.

[3rdalbum]

If you're using Ubuntu in a business setting, you should be using an LTS version - Ubuntu 12.04 is the most recent LTS version, and it runs better on old hardware than 12.10.

Ubuntu 12.10 requires good 3D graphics support, but 12.04 can work with 2D graphics if your system isn't powerful enough for the 3D. If you try to use 12.10 on a computer with bad 3D support or an old graphics card, it will be horribly slow.

Xubuntu or Lubuntu would also work (even 12.10), but I'm unsure about how long Xubuntu and Lubuntu 12.04 are supported for. It might just be 18 months.

[kc1di]

Try LXLE it's Lubuntu long term support.
you can get a copy here.