Hi all,

I installed Ubuntu 10.04 on my EeePc several years ago and it's my favourite computer ever as well as my favourite OS. I still have it and it works like a charm, except for all internet-related programs (I don't mind the older versions of apps I have, they are great!). I love the simplicity of the menus and lists, the workspaces and the efficiency of the apt-get commands.

For all local programs, it obviously works just as it did when it was new. The problem is when doing updates for internet applications, apt-get no longer works, browsers no longer display properly, etc.

The way I see it, I have 2 or 3 options:
- work arounds so that I can continue using Ubuntu 10.04 Gnome
- install another distro that looks and acts like Ubuntu 10.04 Gnome
- do both, so that I can revert to 10.04

Questions
- Is there a way I can get apt-get working again on Ubuntu 10.04 ?
- What might be a good browser to use so that I can get all the internet stuff working properly again ?
- Any other suggestions ?
- I installed Puppy Linux beside it, but none of the drivers are installed automatically.. What a pain in the ... ! I'm not familiar with it, I don't know if workspaces are possible, of it uses "apt-get", etc.

A pity Ubuntu doesn't make a distro for very small netbooks (Atom processor, 1GB or RAM, Lubuntu doesn't quite do it).

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

RM

I'm hazy, but I THINK 10.04 had ubuntu 2. So you could try Mate version of Ubuntu or Mint, Mate is essentially a fork of Gnome 2 that has been continued to be developed.

The only way to get apt working again would be to change your sources to a newer, supported version of Ubuntu. Given the age of that OS, even if you did that, I suspect there'd be so many dependency issues it would only cause it to crash anyway.

I used to have a EeePC 900 that I installed Ubuntu netbook edition which was based on 10.04 and used the Unity desktop. The netbook version was rolled into the desktop edition with 11.04. I also used debian with xfce that ran ok on the 900. There used to be a debian Eee PC project but it has since ended.

Ubuntu dumped the Unity desktop and not sure if any other distribution uses it. The Eee PC does not have enough horsepower for Gnome or KDE so you might give Xubuntu a try if Lubuntu didn't work for you.

No, Ubuntu 10.04 went end of life back in 2013 and so the repositories have since been archived which is why apt-get does not work. Not sure why the browser does not work except that it is probably a very old version that does not support the latest HTML/CSS.

While it is possible to use different package systems on different distribution families IMHO it is best to use what is native.

rm_-rf_windows,

That is a tall order.

If you are prepared to accept alternative solutions, the links on post #5 by rokytnji may be of use, using antiX:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...0a-4175528462/

antiX:
http://antix.mepis.org/index.php?title=Main_Page

No need for it, Debian has long worked with eeePCs out-of-box. In front of me is an eeePC with 900Mhz Celeron running Debian 9 and XFCE4 desktop environment. It works as well as can be expected with such a slow CPU.
This is not a problem for the original poster. He's talking about Ubuntu 10.04 with GNOME2 Desktop Environment (10.04 is from before Unity).

I haven't tried MATE myself, but I made the switch from GNOME2 to XFCE4 after Debian/Ubuntu switched to GNOME3/Unity.

To my surprise, XFCE4 turned out to be even better, for me, than GNOME2. In particular, I love how XFCE4 handles a vertical taskbar (which takes up much less space on a widescreen display). It rotates the text on taskbar buttons and the clock sideways.

The basic interface of XFCE4 is very much like GNOME2. It's a painless transition.

I would recommend trying out the current Debian, Debian 9 Stretch. With XFCE4 desktop environment. The out-of-box default interface will look very familiar, with the same two horizontal panels as GNOME2 from back in the day.

Personally, that's the first thing I customize away - two panels consume so much screen space so I always shift things around onto just one panel. I did that with GNOME2; I did that with XFCE4 after I switched.

On the cramped little widescreen display of an eeePC, I would definitely recommend switching to a vertical panel rather than the default horizontal panels.

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Its been awhile... The SSD on my 900 died a couple of years ago.

Instead of installing Debian and switching to Xfce, you could get MX Linux. That's an installer for Debian which gives you Xfce by default and selects the starting kit of software with older, smaller computers in mind.

There's no need to switch to XFCE4. The Debian installer lets you choose which DE (if any) to install. You can optionally even choose to install multiple desktop environments with the installer.

But the most efficient thing is to only choose the desktop environment you really want during the initial install.

For instance, if you install GNOME3 and then later install XFCE4, then you will still be stuck with several GB of GNOME applications and you'll be using the less efficient GDM3 login manager rather than the lightweight LightDM login manager.

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Somebody who registered 10 years ago has never heard of Debian and has no idea which DEs are out there?
Please tell me this thread is a rant?

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Ubuntu Mate 17.04 and Fedora Mate 26 work well on my Acer Aspire One ZG5 (Atom N270, 1GB RAM) and are as GNOME-like as a modern OS's come

Nothing saying you can't use an old distro. You run a risk of security but if you are behind a good firewall then you'd be ok.

Keep trying distro's. Austrumi is pretty fast and light. Antix is one mentioned a lot here. Slitaz might be worth a shot too.

I doubt you will find something exactly right.

I tend to install debian on low RAM systems. But even that doesn't make modern browsers work in low RAM systems. I stopped using my 2.8GHz P4 with 512MB RAM 3-ish years ago because youtube no longer worked (with ads) on said system. I used to be able to manage by only having one or two tabs open, and playing in theater mode to push the ad off screen. But that isn't enough anymore.

Lots of newer low power things with 2GB RAM and more, some under $100. Short answer get a new system and a new distro, a quad core with 4GB ram is only $300 OTS at walmart these days. Which probably draws 1/10th the power and is fanless or puts off an almost unnoticeable amount of heat.

As far as your 10.04, it's 7 years old and aging now and most distros stop support at about 5 years. So odds are that the repo is no longer online? I actually used ubuntu from that 10.04 to 12.04 time, but left when they went unity. Plus the bloat was a bit obsurd at that point. Unfortunately pulseaudio is required by modern browsers and modern browsers are not getting smaller anytime soon so 1GB of RAM just wont cut it these days. Even with swap, you'll be coping at best.

There really isn't anything that'll draw 1/0th the power of that eeePC 1005PE. It's a netbook with Atom N450 - sluggish CPU, but not very power hungry. It had a stock 1GB of RAM, which will be okayish (with XFCE4, Debian 9). It can be upgraded to 2GB of RAM, but honestly it's the sluggish CPU which is the real problem. I have a Fujitsu Atom N450 machine next to me and it's kind of hopeless for many web sites even when upgraded to 2GB (I currently have only 512MB in it).

That said, if you really want to get something nice for minimal money, a cheap ex-corporate laptop off eBay is hard to beat. You can get a half decent Core 2 Duo laptop for less than $40 (you'll probably have to buy the power adapter separately, and provide your own hard drive - or run off a USB thumbdrive).

Watch Craigslist too. Last night picked myself up an Asus EEE Slate EP121 tablet. First gen core i5, 4 GB ram, 64 GB SSD, 12" touchscreen tablet for $40. Battery was dead, ordered a new one for $40. $80 total and I have a like new 12" tablet with pretty good performance running Debian 9 Cinnamon (waiting on the battery to arrive currently).

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It depends on your needs really. A banana pi m3 has 8x 1.6GHz cores and 2GB ram for $80 and draws about 10W (I assume based on 5V + 2A power source recommendation) under load. Most of my lower spec'd fanless systems start at a 15W CPU, and go up from there.