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I gained an old machine, what's config is:

  • Pentium 2, 300 MHz
  • 147 MB SDRAM (recently extended)
  • 3 GB IDE HDD - primary master
  • 10 GB IDE HDD - primary slave (recently added)
  • 52x CD-ROM - secondary master floppy drive
  • 2x USB
  • 2x PS/2
  • 2x eth card (recently added 1 of them)
  • 2x video card (I wanted to try multi-seat :D:D:D) (recently added 1 of them)

Before my tries, there were Win98, what perfectly(lol) worked with this config.

With Ubuntu 10.04 alternate CD, I didn't think, that it can be installed with graphical interface.

I thought about LVM .. but no, I thought this is too slow processor. To the primary master(hda, 3GB) I put /boot with ext4, after Grub

error: unknown filesystem ext3; and swap for the other free space. To the primary slave(hdb, 10GB), I put / with ext4.

I've installed GRUB2 to MBR. It always showed me some error, and grub rescue> prompt. Finally I've learnt use that, and I tried to set prefix..., ls, insmod (hd0,1)/boot/grub/.... That last command always shows me error: unknown filesystem.

How may I partition this? The installion gets no errors, the /boot is filled with data files(linux images, etc.).

Is there any other suggestion to get on with old systems?

Thanks!

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    You sure you have enough RAM? help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/SystemRequirements
    – Isaiah
    Nov 20, 2010 at 23:57
  • Ubuntu Lucid kernel is just too big for the RAM you have. Give Puppy Linux a look; Ubuntu is explicitly not targeted to legacy hardware.
    – msw
    Nov 21, 2010 at 0:34
  • Thanks your comments. I try Ubuntu variants first, then other disto.
    – antivirtel
    Nov 21, 2010 at 15:44

3 Answers 3

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You can install without the /boot partition. I would try installing either Ubuntu or Xubuntu on the the 10GB hard drive, and let grub install to sda. This has worked for me on a PII, 400MHz cpu with 128MB and 192MB ram. Good luck.

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  • Thanks your anwser, I'll try that in next few days, and write the results. At first with Ubuntu, if it fails, I will use Xubuntu, I have experience with xfce yet.
    – antivirtel
    Nov 21, 2010 at 15:41
  • I've been tried with ubuntu 10.04 alternate this idea, it was better, then others, because it gone on grub, but now it displayed: General mountin' error, and then restarted, endless loop... After it, I'll try xubuntu 10.10 alternate, maybe...
    – antivirtel
    Nov 21, 2010 at 19:01
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In my experience on an hardware that old:

a) Puppy Linux b) Linux Mint Fluxbox c) Lubuntu

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  • Okay, Ubuntu, then X- and Lubuntu, after that Mint & Puppy, Thanks
    – antivirtel
    Nov 21, 2010 at 15:45
  • Puppy will surprise you! :)
    – Pitto
    Dec 6, 2010 at 22:16
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Forget about it, Ubuntu will never work correctly on this machine. There is a lot of GNU/Linux distributions out here that are very good on old machines like your.

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