Lightweight Distro based on Debian/Ubuntu
 

I have an old Dell cpt500 laptop with a 4 gig hard drive, I am looking to install a lightweight distro based on Debian/Ubuntu, any suggestions?

Xubuntu, Lubuntu,

VectorLinux,

Dream Linux

or Debian minimal with light weight desktops ...Lxde, xfce, icewm,

Lubuntu. It's Ubuntu based on LXDE.

Lubuntu.......

Puppy Linux would probably be even better for that machine...but it is an "independent" disto- i.e. not based on Debian or any other flavor.

Much as I like Lubuntu, I'd go with Puppy on that machine, as it woulod take up much less space/resources.

Celeron 400-700 MHz?
Ram 64 MB? 128 MB?

Very old machine. I agree with Sumguy - you better try Linux Puppy or TinyMe/TinyCore. Or Arch which doesn't install a thing unless you do it manually.

http://www.puppylinux.com/
http://tinymelinux.com/doku.php
http://www.tinycorelinux.com/
http://www.archlinux.org/

Debian and Ubuntu are too heavy for your laptop.

Debian Squeeze based. 2.6.32.1 Kernel. For Lowram system I would choose from the following

http://www.mepisimo.com/antix/Testing/

But nothing is stopping from trying


Though I would have a pre-made swap Partition of 512mb before trying to boot the above quote on a lowram system.

Actually, Puppy has a version that is based on Ubuntu Lucid! Even uses the huge, gynormous Ubuntu repositories. The only bothersome thing about Puppy is that - like Slax and some other ultralights - you're logged on as root all the time. So you just have to be sensible in what you do, especially when it comes to installing software and that kinda stuff.

-Robin

Use antiX or Debian with lxde or a window manager.

Debian on my eee 701 4g only takes up 1.4gb using lxde and uses 49mb of ram at boot.

I haven't tried it and don't know too much about it, but I've seen a distribution called "Peppermint" mentioned on distrowatch.com before, that is a light distribution based on Ubuntu.
Here:
http://peppermintos.com/

Looks like a good distribution.

I've heard good things about Peppermint as well. (Just wish they would have named it something else...I'd hate to have to admit to using it...such a fruity name!)

Hi folks, choices, choices, choices, I'll just get my lab coat on, think I will have some fun installing a couple, I have already installed Debian Lenny on the laptop and although not as peppy as I would like it works reasonably fast, (I have 128mb of ram installed), of course the hard drive space is the issue, it's actually a good machine so I am thinking of putting in a larger drive. Puppy-Linux looks interesting as you get access to the Ubuntu repository.

So, I have tried to install Puppy-Linux and everything seemed to go well, I had originally installed debian and grub, I used gparted to revert the drive to an empty ext2. The problem I am having is that after rebooting grub throws an error

GRUB loading stage 1.5

GRUB loading, please wait
Error 15

I have tried to install puppy using it's universal installer trying both a fresh install of grub and updating grub.

Any thoughts, can I go into a terminal of a cd booted Puppy-Linux and reset the MBR?

Peppermint also uses the Ubuntu repositories. :)