Installing Ubuntu on a Toshiba Satellite
 

My sister has a Toshiba Satellite with about 500mb memory and 1.6ghz processor, with I don't know how big the harddrive is, from late 2003 or early 2004. I am trying to find the model number, but I can't find it. It was her college computer, and it worked well. My sister could barely use a computer, and messed up her windows program so much. Even if I wanted to use it as a windows computer, it would never work right. Unless I dish out a lot of money, and it is a crap computer, so no. She is giving it to me, and she is buying another computer. I wanted to turn it into a Ubuntu linux for websurfing, pictures, and some other crap. The problem is it has a built in wifi connector thing. I am not experience in linux at all. I have never tried ubuntu. On tutorials on installing ubuntu, the authors wrote this complicated way of making wifi work. I am wondering does anyone know how to install ubuntu with it automatically working wifi? This the only private computer I am going to get. So I want to do this right, and get it working right.

P.S. I am probably going to upgrade the memory. I want to do that after I installed ubuntu. Can I do that? Any information of were to buy compatible memory for toshiba computers would be greatly appreciated.

just install ubuntu. i dont think you should go for extra stuff for configuring the wifi.. it will be detected by default.. try some live cd and look whether your wifi is working well

I wouldn't actually install Ubuntu unless you're sure it is going to work. So, use the Ubuntu Live CD to find out what problems you may have running Ubuntu on this dinosaur. You can then try to work around any problems you find while using the LIve CD and then actually install Ubuntu if you think everything will work OK.

For the memory upgrade, you're going to need a model number off the Toshiba. Once obtained, you might be able to get a PDF of the manual from the Toshiba site and it may contain the information you need to upgrade the RAM. Or, google might have the info for the right search string. Hopefully, someone else can give you some better pointers on how to find out the model number for your specfic Toshiba.

-Al

My guess is: Ubuntu will be too slow (I've tried it on a simliar laptop). Xubuntu is no alternative either, just like Ubuntu, it's too bloated for older hardware. And Canonical's lightweight distro Lubuntu is nowhere near being installable at the moment.

Try a more lightweight distro light the Slackware based VectorLinux (especially the light version is well suited for older laptops). I'm running VL Light 6.0 on a laptop with only 256 MB RAM and no problems whatsoever. My wifi stick worked from the beginning without any tweaks, just had to connect it.

Also, don't be afraid of Slackware-based distros. The times when they were newbie unfriendly are definitely over. VL Light comes with an easy installer and IceWM as default window manager, which is very intuitive and highly customizable. PLUS: VectorLinux has a great community. You will likely be helped there within minutes...

1.6 GHz processor and 500MB RAM is enough to install ubuntu. Check what WIFI card do you have (lsp if it is RTL8187 familly you need kernel 2.6.29 and higher.