SOLVED. I am totally new to the concept of Linux. I spent the entire day reading this site, in order to post my question. Compaq presario 40 gb hd 256 mb ram, Amd 1808mhz processor, Windows XP SP3, 28 gb free space. I want to try to install unbuntu and dual boot. Is this possible with my current system? Can you use KDE with Ubuntu? Is there a better way for me to go, considering I am almost computer illiterate! Any advise would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

Should be no problem - although ideally you'd want more RAM but it'll work fine. You can use KDE with Ubuntu - once installed open package manager (called 'Synaptic') and install kubuntu-desktop.

Alternatively just install Kubuntu which is the same as Ubuntu but with KDE as default desktop environment.

Thank you Klearview for your response. The reson I was going with Ubuntu is a guide to install called "The extremely simple guide to installing Ubuntu" that I found earlier today on this site. I read it and I believe I can follow the instructions Ok. Since I am not joking about being almost computer illiterate, I would need a step by step for any installtion. Is there something like this available for Kubuntu? Thank you

As far as installing goes Ubuntu and Kubuntu are pretty much identical - the exact same install process applies to both.

You can get a CD from here:

http://www.kubuntu.org/getkubuntu/download (for your machine you just need to go with default download options, just select the closest location)



But once again - you can easily use KDE on Ubuntu - once installed go to 'System' -> 'Administration' -> 'Package Manager (Synaptic)', search for 'kubuntu-desktop' and select it for installation. When installed log out and on login screen choose 'Session type' and choose 'KDE'. It will ask you if you want to make KDE you default desktop environment or just use it that time. Make a selection and log in as normal.

If you won't to add some rams for your computer, try Xubuntu. CPU is enough.
I am talking to you with : PIII 667 MHZ + 256M + Ubuntu 8.04 (blackbox + bbeys + rox-filer + firefox3 + mousepad + xterm, and some files, about occupy 1G harddisk space.)

The standard installation CD usually fails with 256 MB! This CD needs 384 MB of RAM. You'll have to use the alternate installation CD. It is text-based but otherwise more or less the same. Though the machine really should have more RAM to run Ubuntu or Kubuntu on it.

Robin

Ubuntu System Requirements
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/In...emRequirements

Thanks to all for your input. I downloaded Kubuntu. Immediately lost access to lan. Had to switch to dial up. I did not have a cd burner program to burn the iso image. Once I finally got that downloaded, it wouldn't write to a cd-r. Do you have to use a cd-rw? I thought either would work. Am not sure which way to go after reading comments. I am concerned about the 256 ram, that is total for the entire system. I think I want to look at some distros that run inside windows, with a somewhat familiar desktop, something that would be similar to windows until I get used to linux. It would need to have small memory requirement. Also, download file that I can do with dial up without taking all day. Any suggestions appreciated. Thanks.

Puppy, Slitaz, DSL, CDlinux
They are very small(e.g., Slitaz less than 30M), and can run without a full installation(just extract the ISO file and copy the files in the extracted ISO into hard disk then you can get a way to boot them).
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...mb-ram-681578/

No, basically, every linux distribution can be installed without burning ISO file into a cd-rw. Put the ISO file you downloaded from internet into a hard disk partition, then you can get a way install them from this ISO file.
For Xubuntu 8.04:
1, download that alternate cd image( xubuntu-8.04.1-alternate-i386.iso ) with a p2p download tool such as "uTorrent":
http://torrent.ubuntu.com:6969/
http://torrent.ubuntu.com:6969/file?...X/%A0%08%3C%E2
2, download hard disk installtion kernel and image file:
http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dis...edia/initrd.gz
http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dis...-media/vmlinuz
Note, if the the file name of downloaded "vmlinuz" be changed by download tool, please change its name back to "vmlinuz", no suffix.
Then, copy "xubuntu-8.04.1-alternate-i386.iso", "initrd.gz", "vmlinuz" into a hard disk partition, e.g. C:\ .

Then, download grub4dos (https://gna.org/projects/grub4dos/) to boot the installation.
The menu.lst of "grub4dos" for refering: (suppose your files are in C:\)
There is any question comment here.

KDE requires more memory to run than GNOME, so given your current configuration I would say that you should stick to using Kubuntu rather than Ubuntu.

Thanks for all the input. I could not get Kubuntu 8.1 to work on my system. It loads ok, but when I access anything on the desktop it freezes the entire program. I allocated 10GB of disk space, and loaded to hd. It didn't help!! I ran memtest86, it ran for 4 1/2 hours, lots of errors. I finally had to just shut the system down. I think maybe it is not going to work with 256MB ram. Actually it only has 223Mb, some allocated to video, or something. If you have any other suggestion I appreciate it. I finally downloaded puppy 4.1. It took 7 hours to download with dial-up!! When I boot into Puppy, it will not run with Xorg option, had to use Xvesa. Now I can't get internet connection!!
No knowledge whatsoever about Linux. Any suggestions greatly appreciated. Sorry this post is so long winded, but Iam feeling kinda desperate with all these problems. Thanks.

I ran memtest86, it ran for 4 1/2 hours, lots of errors.

If that's the case then your RAM is damaged. Nothing will work ok with that.

Robin

SOLVED.Thanks for the reply,
That is what I was thinking. The strange thing is my windows xp is running just fine. I just replaced the HD a week ago. If this keeps on, I could have bought another computer!!. I was not familiar with memtest86, so I thought it might be similar to chkdsk /r in windows, where it scans and repairs bad blocks. Thanks. Need to post solved. Cannot find option on this forum, please advise.

Repairing bad blocks on a harddisk means copying their content elsewhere and marking the bad blocks as unusable. You can't do such a thing with RAM. It either works or is broken.

A new computer would have been a good idea, and you should still consider it. You can put the HD in the new one, too.

You can edit the thread title along with your initial post to include [SOLVED].

Robin

Perhaps you should try installing Ubuntu Linux as a windows application. For more details please refer to my blogpost at buzznol.http://buzznol.blogspot.com/2008/11/...s-windows.html