Hello,
I am trying to install Xubuntu on an old laptop. 120 mb RAM with 733mhz Celeron. I have gotten Xubuntu 8.04 Alternate to install from DVD. After it is done it asks for the DVD to be removed for a reboot. Proceeding after powerup is the 'Xubuntu' logo and a progress bar after which a blank black screen appears and nothing will happen. I have looked around and have noticed folks posting success with 120Megs of RAM and lower. What can I do??

XUbuntu Alternate DVD so it was the text base install
Which GUI do you install ?
You see 120 MB of RAM is rather low.
If you like to use a GUI in my opinion try to upgrade to at least 256 MB

I just reinstalled after selecting command-line only from the pre-install options on the alt CD. I am now getting past the load up but unfortunately I can't get X working.
I am trying to follow this tutorial.


https://help.ubuntu.com/community/In...wMemorySystems

I am assuming my internet is not working correctly. The laptop has no ethernet cable so I hooked up the USB port to the modem but the update command from the above link doesn't seem to find the http:// address.

Which command did you use to install X ?
How big is you're swap file ?
Which low RAM you need a great swap file.
As you notice the tutorial was not written for ubuntu 8.04 or as they called it Hardy Heron
Although it seems to be possible , to install Ubuntu 8,04 on you're Box
but it not a easy task

With this amount of RAM, even Xubuntu won't run well (using swap should get you there, but it won't perform) - if you can't get to 256MB (which, in turn, would be plenty), I'd recommend using CrunchBang or some other flavour of Ubuntu/Debian that uses a minimal GUI. There are other minimal, non-*buntu distributions you might want to try; Tiny Core or Puppy come to mind (there are, of course and as always, others).

Debris 1.7.0 is still beta, but you can boot it with Openbox - you shouldn't have any troubles using that (if it boots okay). If you need support, we can do that. To assess your machine fully, the output of lspci (and, possibly lshw - comes with *buntu - or hwinfo) would help. A non-GUI way to check out your box is Finnix.

M.

I made a 1 gigabyte swap. Free -m reveals 2 mb physical are not being used while 37 mb of swap file (are) being used.

I think I am going to try and get what I have up (i.e. the command-line) to recognize the USB modem. That would be another question probably but I do have to ask if "CrunchBang" or the other GUI's have scripts or install configurations to find the modem and have it work with a browser... I picked Ubuntu because the older brother 64-bit version installed right away with internet activity right on my desktop. I intend to have this machine setup for basic internet in case my main computer goes down.

I forgot to add the output of lspci and lshw in case those reveal any mystery.

lspci:

00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8601 [Apollo ProMedia] (rev 05)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8601 [Apollo ProMedia AGP]
00:07.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 [Apollo Super South] (rev 22)
00:07.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 10)
00:07.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI ISB 1.1 Controller (rev 10)
00:07.4 Bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 [Apollo Super ACPI] (rev 30)
00:07.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82V6876 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 20)
00:09.0 Communication controller: Conexant HSF 56k Data/Fax Modem (rev 01)
00:0b.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1410 PC card Cardbus Cpntroller (rev 01)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Trident Microsystems CyberBlade i1 (rev 6a)

as for LSHW it gave me a super-user warning then a few lines of text that went too fast and the following visible output:
clock: 33Mhz
capabilities: cap_list
configuration: latency=64
*-pcmcia
description: CardbusBus Bridge
product: PCI1410 PC card Cardbus Controller
vendor: Texas Instruments
physical id: b
bus info: pci@0000:00:0b.0
version: 01
width: 32 bits
clock: 33Mhz
capabilities: pcmcia bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=yenta_cardbus latency=176 maxlantency=5 mingnt
=192 module=ywnta_socket
*-network DISABLED
description: Ethernet interface
physical id: 1
logical name: eth0
serial: 00:11:ae:dc:fc:9f
capabilities: ethernet physical
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=cdc_ether driverversion=22=Aug-2005 f
irmware=CDC Ethernet Device multicast=yes


I am confused by the ethernet reading as there is no ethernet on this machine (hence USB). There is a standard phone plug for the modem but not the larger jack on newer computers.
On the other hand after reading about lspci on wikipedia i discovered 'lsusb'.
Which gives me:

Bus 001 Device 002: ID (XXXX:5100 Motorola BCS, Inc. Surfboard SB5100 Cable Modem

I hope that helps diagnose my system. Xubuntu is working, and the modem is showing up as a USB device.