Hi guys,

I am new to Linux, I messed around with it many years ago and finally would like to start using it. My biggest drive is to revitalize my old laptops. The only thing I really want to use them for is web browsing and document creation. =)

Anyways so I looked up a bunch of distribution reviews and comparisons. The one that looked the most inviting was Ubuntu. I tried for a day to finally get it installed and ended up having to go around the ACPI PCC error, as well as use nomodeset.

Once Ubuntu was installed I noticed it ran VERY slow. It took about 15 seconds to open anything, then about 15 seconds to get a web site to fully load. This particular laptop was running Vista, and was performing much better in the browsing dept.

Specs:
Pentium dual core T2330 (1.6GHz)
2 GB DDR2 Ram
160GB HD
Intel GMA X3100 video card

Is this laptop just to slow to run Ubuntu?

I moved on to Mint, including Mate. I could not get either to install. It hangs, even with compatibility mode. Not sure what to do about that, but noticed comp mode already disabled what I did for Ubuntu.

I tried out Lubuntu (wont install), and then Puppy, which did. But noticed how difficult it was to get some things to work. I spent an hour trying to get flash installed for instance.

So I guess my main question is, any idea on why I am having so much issue? And secondly is this laptop just too old for anything?

Thank you!

That hardware should give adequate performance. I have run linux, mostly Slackware on much less hardware.

For example, my traveling system is a HP netbook with 2 gig of ram and the processor is an N450. I changed the hard drive to an SSD, to speed things up a bit. Works just fine.

I gave up on the buntu's years ago. Ran Mandriva for several releases. Switched to Slackware, and have never looked back. No systemd, no problems at all.

If that hardware ran a slug like Vista, then hardware isn't your problem.

Thank you for the response! I switched to the Lxde desktop and it did help. Although overall the system is not as fast as I had hoped. My biggest issue is getting anything other than Ubuntu to install. I had to disable ACPI to get Ubuntu going, but even if I disable it on other distro's it still won't install (or even run in preview). I end up always with a black screen and flashing cursor. I looked pretty deep into the issue but could never get it to work. I wanted to tryout Mint, oh I did get puppy to work somehow. But it was giving me issues installing things like "flash".

So far though I really like the OS, outside of performance. It seems if it was snappy it would be a much better alternative for the simple things I want to do.

Thank you for the help!

for older hardware i like RHEL/CentOS/ScientificLinux

for the OLD DELL ( pentum4 1 gig ram and a Gforce2 3d card )

ScientificLinux 6.7 runs well

thought with 1 gig ram firefox is a bit slow

The graphics chip dates from 2004 and Ubuntu has sometimes left out drivers for the older Intel chips. When you installed it, it was set to use the VESA driver which is not up to running the Unity or Gnome desktops. Actually, these chips were always a problem: there are cries of woe about them on the Ubuntu forum from before 2010!

My suggestion would be to try AntiX, which is intended for older computers. Try the MX version, which should run well enough and is more versatile than the basic AntiX. If you have problems with Antix, that would suggest that all Debian derivatives should be avoided for some reason. In that case, try Salix: Slackware with more software and added user-friendliness.

ACPI was often buggy in its early forms: Linux will not even attempt to use versions from before 2001. It's probably best disabled in your case.

You probably don't need more suggestions but here goes anyway. On old hardware I like debian stable with the xfce desktop. You can download the iso here:

http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/...86/iso-hybrid/

As mentioned by others, on old hardware like yours you routinely have to disable acpi. Back in the day this was common for laptops and you accomplished this by passing the following holy trinity of kernel boot options:

noapic, nolapic, acpi=off

I'm running this setup on an old intel cetrino laptop with a non-pae Pentium M processor(1.6GHz), similar intel integrated graphics and 2GB of ram. It runs serviceably well but web browsing can be a little slow at times. I've found the main limiting factor to be the old cpu; modern web pages and browsers can be taxing on the capabilities of my ancient cpu. Browser extensions can also be a problem as they can place additional load on the cpu even when running a light desktop. I've found ublock origin to be much less strain on the cpu than adblock plus in this regard.