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.	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. 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.

[eric13]

For a early Athlon64 3200+ with 2 GB or RAM, I still plan to install Lubuntu14.4 LTS
Do you recommend the 64 bits or 32 bits variant?
As I have enough RAM, I tend to the 64bits one: nowadays, I think that most people do use the 64bits, and thus, these program are better tested and supported. What do you think?

For those hesitating between different distributions, I just tried the multicd script ( http://multicd.tuxfamily.org/index.html ) so that I can put 5 live cd on the same iso (which I will put on a usb HDD). Pretty handy! Don't forget to rename the Ubuntu derivatives (e.g. LXLE or Bodhi) to xxx.ubuntu.iso so that the script can handle them!

[sudodus]

Both 32 bits and 64 bits should work well. The 64-bit system will use more RAM for the same tasks, but should be faster. I don't know for such an old 64-bit system if there will be regressions. In other words, I can't really tell, please try both and compare

[ibjsb4]

You should be good with 64bit. If you do run out of ram, your system will use your swap partition. If this happens, you will see an overall system slowdown as swap is way slower than ram. But with 2G, I'm thinking your good.

I have 4G ram and run 32bit, but this is because I run some software that eats up my ram and I try to stretch it out (32bit will use less). And still on rare occasion I have ran this into swap. About 64bit being faster, that also depends on the software you run and find it not to be a concern for me.

[eric13]

The 64-bit system will use more RAM for the same tasks, but should be faster.

Indeed, the 64bits takes 35% more RAM just on start! I am surprised that is that much!

I started the live CD of different distribution to give an idea of the RAM usage. CD Started on a Virtual Machine with 1 GB of RAM (tried both under Virtualbox in Debian and HyperV in Windows 8.1, they give similar results).
The RAM used on start is the one seen in "Task Manager" or with "free -m", considering the 2nd line '-/+ buffers/cache' under 'used'

Distrib	archi	kernel	RAM on start in MB
Debian Live LXDE	i686	3.2	100
Bodhi	i686	3.8	110
LXLE 12.04.4	i686	3.2	125
Lubuntu 14.04	i686	3.13	155
Lubuntu 14.04	x86_64	3.13	210
Mint 17 MATE	x86_64	3.13	400
Ubuntu 14.04	x86_64	3.13	630

Ubuntu as live CD under HyperV is so slow and almost unusable. All other reacts quite fast, especially the LXLE variants. Bodhi and LXLE are based on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS ; Mint 17 is based on Ubuntu 14.04

[mörgæs]

If performance and swap usage is a problem then you could take a look at post #2.

[sudodus]

Thanks for sharing your test results

You wrote Debian Live LXLE. Do you mean Debian Live LXDE?

[JLUbunt]

Hello I have an Acorn Aspire 1 netbook, with 1 Gig of RAM, and have just put Lubuntu 14.04 LS on to it. It works well. Just wondered if Lubuntu can do the same trick as Windows 7 where a fast SD card, Scan Disc Ultra, can be used as memory. Thought this might to make it a bit faster. Is it possible? Any ideas would be appreciated.
I've noticed that Lubuntu does not have Calibre in its list of software but is in Ubuntu. I expect I'd need to learn how to install it if I want to try it.
Thanks for all the advice.