Need help with Linux. Windows 7
 

Hello. I am new here so I apologize if this is posted somewhere else. I am a newbie. Anyway I have an older Dell Inspiron 6000 1.4Ghz M Celeron Intel Processor with 2 GB of Ram. I am having trouble loading any of the recent versions of Fedora, CentOS, and Ubuntu. I keep getting a Kernel Panic. Init not found. Trying to kill init.
From what i have gathered in my endless search for a solution is I must not have the hardware capabilities for the newer OS. Is there any solutions??? Or is there an older version of any Linux OS that is good for my kind of setup. Please help any and all replies appreciated. Thank you.

Hello, welcome to LQ.

Slackware 13.37 is most probably good for your hardware. May be Slackware 14 is as well.

As it is a little more difficult to install for newbies than the distributions you already tried, stop by http://docs.slackware.com before installing.

Thanks
 

Thanks for your help. I am just running into trouble with Windows 7. The goof ball who owned this laptop put Windows 7 Ultimate on it and its killing its performance. I need a fast OS and something easy to install and rid me of my Windows 7 partition. Anymore suggestions????

That older Celeron processor is likely the Celeron M 360 & is 32 bit only,... Are you installing a 32 bit version of the Distro? After that, it may have to due whether the processor supports PAE or not, and whether the distro is trying to install a 32-bit PAE kernel...

Which OS you're currently running on it - Windows 7 or Linux? You laptop should not have any problem with Windows 7 as well, as it has enough system resources to handle the OS. Perhaps there could be any H/W issue. Well, I'd suggest you to take backup of any existing data and go for a clean installation of latest version of Ubuntu. It should then run smoothly.

Thanks you all.
 

Thanks everyone for being so helpful. I am thinking of doing a clean install. Could you point me to a link describing the process in detail. Sorry im a newb lol. I made sure all the versions I tried to install were for a 32-bit processor so that wasnt the problem. Maybe hardware???? Thanks again for all your help. If you have any more suggestions please let me know. Thank you.

Also
 

Also I do like Windows 7 it just seems to be running so slow on the laptop. I know Linux distributions are fast and reliable. I have had some experience with Red Hat years ago and really enjoyed it. So i would like a clean install of Ubuntu or any good realible and fast OS within my systems specs. I want to use Linux as my primary OS. Thank you again for all your help. And thank you in advance for any further assitance on this.

devineguy188,
you might try Linux Mint 13 if you come from WindoZe but even that will be limited by your cpu. I think you are on the cusp of processing things like streams, i.e., it might work that way but it is low spec. in regard of cpu, assuming single core. Try a live disk if that works OK then there's a good chance the installed version will work.

Fred.

I am using Ubuntu version 12.04 on VMware, with only 20GB H/D and 1GB RAM, and it's working awesome.
Well, I assume that right now you're running Win7. You can install new OS using a CD, but I like such installation using a USB, see how:
- Download the latest version from: http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop
- Take a USB, and format it (right click and format)
- Put downloaded .iso image of Ubuntu in USB.
- Resart PC.
- When boot menu come (press F11.. or something), change boot device sequence and put USB boot as first boot device option.
- Save and exit.
- Installation will begin with the USB. Then follow some simple steps and that's it ;)

Thanks
 

Thank you all so much for taking the time to answer my questions. And a special thanks to shivaa. You have been very helpful with this. Yes I am currently running Windows 7 Ultimate. Shivaa is there a way when I install Ubuntu that I can delete Windows 7 completely off of my hard drive permanetly and use Ubuntu as my primary OS. Thanks in advance. :D

You should have several options when you boot the Ubuntu CD. You can select to use entire disk or Erase disk and install Ubuntu. I haven't installed the most recent version of Ubuntu so I'm not sure exactly what the option is. If you select the "Something Else" option, you should be able to delete any current partitions, create new ones and format them for Ubuntu also.

You may want to look into Lubuntu which is a fork of Ubuntu but uses the LXDE desktop. It would run faster than straight Ubuntu. The installation process would be the same and you can test it in a live cd just like ubuntu.

I don't think a hardware deficiency would have that symptom.

I think your hardware is fine for 32-bit Linux. I think something incorrect you did in the installation process caused the problem.

Permanently/completely wiping Windows 7 off the hard drive at the start of the Linux install is the simplest method of installing Ubuntu.

But I'm not sure it is a good idea. You may want to make sure Linux works acceptably for you before you wipe out Windows.

Assuming you have enough free space in the Windows partition, while running Windows you can
Disable the page file
Defragment the partition
Shrink the partition to leave a big chunk of unpartitioned space.
Then in the Linux installer you can select the option to create new partitions from the unpartitioned space (a / partition plus a 1 or 2GB swap partition is enough. The installer may suggest optional /boot or /home etc. partitions, but using those will just complicate things).

After you use Linux enough to be sure, you can use the install CD again to delete the Windows partition and grow the Linux / partition.

I also haven't done a Ubuntu install in long enough that I have no idea how they phrase or organize your choices. But somewhere in there you have the choices to
A) Delete all previous contents and create new Linux partitions using the whole drive.
or
B) Create new Linux partitions using only whatever unpartitioned space was left after you made Windows shrink itself.
or
C) Install Linux into existing partitions.

From your symptoms, it seems possible that you chose (B) without first shrinking Windows, so Ubuntu tried and failed to install in whatever odd fraction of a cylinder was outside the disk's partitioning. It didn't fit and failed as you described.
Or more likely, you chose option (C) and used existing Windows partitions, which are not suitable for running Linux, so Ubuntu copied all its files there but then couldn't use them.

During installaltion, I mean following the above mentioned USB installation steps, it will show you available disks partitions (i.e. C, D E etc of your Win7 OS), available space and format options. So do nothing, but simply format evey existing partition and then one by one delete those partitions to marge them to have a whole raw H/D. Then you can make partitions again for your new OS. Keep in mind that formatting the existing partitions will completely wipe out any existing OS and it's data and it will give you a raw H/D.
So make a try.

Thanks
 

Ok so I went ahead and went with Lubuntu. Everything went great with the install. I used a usb drive. Downloaded the files and used UNetbootin to unpack them. The install went fine but now I have a different issue. Now when booting the Lubuntu logo comes up and begins to load. Then it just goes to a blank light screen and does nothing. It doesnt load the desktop at all. Any suggestions. I wiped Windows out which is fine because I hate it anyways. Thanks in advance for any advice, you all have been so helpful with this.