Installing Ubuntu on a REALLY old computer
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From: The little lost angel on 9 Jul 2006 02:17 On 8 Jul 2006 22:37:35 -0700, "YKhan" <yjkhan(a)gmail.com> wrote: >Actually, the latest versions of Firefox and Thunderbird are running on >Ubuntu, but they only seem to be made available on Ubuntu 6.0+. On >Ubuntu 5.10, Firefox was limited to 1.0.5 or something (didn't try out >Thunderbird yet at that point), but under Ubuntu 6.06, it's the got the >latest Firefox and Thunderbird 1.5.0.4. I was trying out 5.1 so it came with 1.0.5 which I then attempted to upgrade to 1.5.04. >Digital cameras also work pretty well. Never bothered to try that, not even for Windows. I simply use a card reader. It's just SO much more convenient and hassle free without having to worry about any potential issues from the different cameras each of us have. :P -- A Lost Angel, fallen from heaven Lost in dreams, Lost in aspirations, Lost to the world, Lost to myself
From: Rod Speed on 9 Jul 2006 03:04 Ed H. <none(a)localhost.invalid> wrote > Rod Speed wrote >> Unruh <unruh-spam(a)physics.ubc.ca> wrote >>> Rod Speed <rod.speed.aaa(a)gmail.com> writes >>>> bbbl67 <yjkhan(a)gmail.com> wrote >>>>> I just upgraded my brother's computer from Win XP to >>>>> Ubuntu 5.10. It was an unbelievable success! It surprised >>>>> even me how smoothly it went -- didn't need to go into the >>>>> command-line even once. Linux has arrived, it seems. >>>> Nope, now try accessing NTFS formatted partitions on that. >>>> Or even just FAT32 partitions. >>> Yes, and you will find that it makes a terrible cup of espresso as well. >> Have fun explaining how come knoppix handles the same drive fine. > Ubuntu doesn't have any problem with it either. Fraid it does with the effortlessness and intuitiveness that was being discussed. Knoppix does it much more intuitively. >>>>> So he's got his Firefox and Thunderbird just like in Windows. >>>>> He's found himself a bittorrent client that he likes, IM's with >>>>> Gaim. I've even found the solutions to allow him to play >>>>> Windows *.WMV and *.WMA video and audio files. He's happy. :-) >>>> Until he trys to access XP partitions. >>> And he wants to do that why? >> Irrelevant to whether it really has arrived. It hasnt even now. > The OP didn't say he set it up for dual boot. The OP is irrelevant. > He said he upgraded from XP *TO* Ubuntu 5.10. If all he has on the system is Ubuntu > (or any other distro of Linux), why would there be a need to access XP partitions? Irrelevant to whether its time has come for those who dont use ubuntu exclusively. > My experience has been that XP is the OS that has trouble > accessing Linux part. and not the other way around. Not with FAT32 and NTFS partitions it doesnt.
From: Rod Speed on 9 Jul 2006 03:10 YKhan <yjkhan(a)gmail.com> wrote > Rod Speed wrote >> bbbl67 <yjkhan(a)gmail.com> wrote >>> I just upgraded my brother's computer from Win XP to >>> Ubuntu 5.10. It was an unbelievable success! It surprised >>> even me how smoothly it went -- didn't need to go into the >>> command-line even once. Linux has arrived, it seems. >> Nope, now try accessing NTFS formatted partitions on that. >> Or even just FAT32 partitions. > Okay, those needed me to go into the command-line. > But it's not really a problem, I didnt say it was a problem, JUST that it clearly hasnt ARRIVED yet when that hasnt been fixed. Not as if its difficult to fix, knoppix handles that fine. > those filesystems are about to be upgraded > to Linux once they've been copied off. Sure, but many will want to keep a dual boot config instead, because even with ubuntu, there's still quite a bit that isnt handled as well as it is with XP. >>> So he's got his Firefox and Thunderbird just like in Windows. >>> He's found himself a bittorrent client that he likes, IM's with >>> Gaim. I've even found the solutions to allow him to play >>> Windows *.WMV and *.WMA video and audio files. He's happy. :-) >> Until he trys to access XP partitions. > All of those files were backed up onto DVD-ROM prior > to the upgrade, which is ISO9660/Rockridge filesystem, > not XP, so those ones get mounted without problems. Sure, but many would prefer to use them on the hard drive instead. >> Should work, you can usually move a hard drive >> between systems and have it boot fine with linux. >> You could also try http://btmgr.sourceforge.net/about.html >> to boot the CD > No, that bootmanager would involve downloading something into the > computer which is already bloated with spyware under Windows 95. No it doesnt. You can download it with anything you like and install it without even booting that W95. > Downloading is likely not going to work right now. Corse it will, just do that on a different system. >> You should be able to see how to get into the bios on the >> Pav on the HP site if you have a proper model number. > I already know the proper model number, but it doesn't look > like HP is too interested in giving you BIOS information. I didnt mean bios info, just how to set it to boot off a CD. Bet it does tell you how to do that.
From: Hans Poppe on 9 Jul 2006 04:31 bbbl67 wisely stated: > I just upgraded my brother's computer from Win XP to Ubuntu 5.10. It > was an unbelievable success! It surprised even me how smoothly it went > -- didn't need to go into the command-line even once. Linux has > arrived, it seems. My brother is a highly typical computer user, > doesn't know how it works, just wants to use it for: email, chat, IM, > P2P, videos, MP3's, etc. What surprised me too was that after I > finished installing Ubuntu 5.10 for him, he himself went to the > Internet and upgraded it to Ubuntu 6.06 without my assistance! You know > you've got fool-proof system when it's that easy. So he's got his > Firefox and Thunderbird just like in Windows. He's found himself a > bittorrent client that he likes, IM's with Gaim. I've even found the > solutions to allow him to play Windows *.WMV and *.WMA video and audio > files. He's happy. :-) > > So, later I told this story to some of my cousins and now they're > interested in putting Ubuntu onto a secondary computer of theirs. Now > my brother's computer was easy because it's a relatively modern PC (AMD > Duron 1.1Ghz), but the cousin's PC is a really old museum piece of a > computer, an old HP Pavillion with an original Pentium at 100Mhz. I > tried to boot from CD, but I'm not sure if this thing can even boot > from CD. Looking up the HP site seems to indicate that it can boot from > CD, but maybe that's only for its own original equipment CD drive -- > that's long since died and it's been replaced with an aftermarket CD > burner. I can't even get into the BIOS setup of this HP PC. Anyways, > long story short, I'm thinking of taking the hard drive out of the HP > and temporarily plugging it into a more modern computer to install the > Ubuntu from CD there. Then when it's done installing the packages and > it asks you to reboot the machine, I'm thinking of then moving the hard > disk back to the old HP, and let it finish its setup there. I'm > assuming that there's nothing system-specific that's being done in the > first part of the install, and all of the system-specific stuff is done > in the second part of the install? Does this have any chance of > working? > > Yousuf Khan One little trick that I've used to get "into" the BIOS on older machines, where entering BIOS isn't intuitive is to turn the machine off, open it, remove one (only one) of the RAM pieces. Now boot the machine. Most systems will then give an error i.e. physical RAM has changed, press F1 to continue or press Ctrl + Alt +S to enter setup. On many older systems entering the BIOS is not "Del", "F2" of "F10". Hans Poppe Oslo, Norway -- "As we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others with any invention of ours, and this we should do freely and generously." -- Benjamin Franklin
From: YKhan on 9 Jul 2006 17:48
Rod Speed wrote: > > Okay, those needed me to go into the command-line. > > But it's not really a problem, > > I didnt say it was a problem, JUST that it clearly > hasnt ARRIVED yet when that hasnt been fixed. Okay, if mounting a non-native filesystem without some command-line effort is what you'd consider as not having arrived yet, then so be it. This is boring me. > Sure, but many will want to keep a dual boot config > instead, because even with ubuntu, there's still quite > a bit that isnt handled as well as it is with XP. My point is that we're already at a point in usability here where you will not have go back to XP for anything. That's what I meant by having arrived. A lot of the most popular types of applications (if not the applications themselves) are now available in Linux. So far, I've seen IM, email, web browser, digital camera i/o and editing, video (including Microsoft-proprietary formats) playback and editing, printing, all available in Linux. With this little list, I've got an operating system that is fully functional for at least my brother for everything that he does with his computer, and I suspect that he's probably pretty representative of a large portion of PC users. This is a large leap in functionality for Linux from where it was previously where only somebody like me could get it working, and I'm on the geek end of computer users, a Unix system admin -- hardly representative of average PC users. > > All of those files were backed up onto DVD-ROM prior > > to the upgrade, which is ISO9660/Rockridge filesystem, > > not XP, so those ones get mounted without problems. > > Sure, but many would prefer to use them on the hard drive instead. Most people assume that you're going to need to back some stuff off to CD/DVD when doing the conversion. Especially since most people don't have more than one hard disk in their system, so it's usually a case of completely converting over their sole hard drive to Linux, not converting one drive to Linux and leaving others alone. The partition resizers aren't going to work if you've filled up your whole drive to near capacity, which is easy to do when you're downloading movies and mp3's. If they need to use Windows filesystems, then they can go to the slightly extra step of the command-line. The reverse option isn't even available to them from XP's command-line, let alone through a GUI. > >> Should work, you can usually move a hard drive > >> between systems and have it boot fine with linux. > > >> You could also try http://btmgr.sourceforge.net/about.html > >> to boot the CD > > > No, that bootmanager would involve downloading something into the > > computer which is already bloated with spyware under Windows 95. > > No it doesnt. You can download it with anything you > like and install it without even booting that W95. If you'll recall I've already said that CD-based booting is not working on this system. Not a Linux boot CD, not even a Windows boot CD. The only thing that boots is the Windows 95 on the hard disk. So how do you expect the boot manager is going to load itself into memory, devine intervention? > > Downloading is likely not going to work right now. > > Corse it will, just do that on a different system. > > >> You should be able to see how to get into the bios on the > >> Pav on the HP site if you have a proper model number. > > > I already know the proper model number, but it doesn't look > > like HP is too interested in giving you BIOS information. > > I didnt mean bios info, just how to set it to boot > off a CD. Bet it does tell you how to do that. No, it doesn't, all it says is "put a CD in the drive and boot from it", and that's extent of all of the detail it's got, but quite obviously that's not working. But you're welcome to look for yourself. HP Pavillion 5040. Yousuf Khan |