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Burned a DVD of 14.04.1 (32 bit). Placed DVD in try and started PC. Got an "Ubuntu" screen and waited about 10 minutes for the option to install or run "live" from DVD. Chose the live option. Took another 10 minutes to load to the desk top. Desktop was extremely slow to respond, taking a minute or so to load any selection. At one point I received an error box stating that the application I tried to open timed out. Finally clicked shutdown, took several more minutes until I was told to remove DVD and press enter. I did this and waited, and waited and waited. Finally forced power down and restarted back to XP, which is working fine. I tried running live so as to see how fast Ubuntu will run on the old EMachine. I don't want to install Ubuntu if it will be this slow on this PC. What am I doing wrong?

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  • What are your computers specs? RAM? Processor? Harddrive? If you were running XP before, you might need a lighter weight distribution, like Linux Mint or Puppy Linux.
    – cremefraiche
    Dec 11, 2014 at 2:59
  • XP Pro SP3, Intel Celeron 2.20, 760MB RAM, Western Digital 40GB HDD. Are you saying that Ubuntu 14.x so big that a machine that runs XP reasonably well may not be able to run it? I can see W7 or W8 grinding to a halt and crashing on this old box, but Ubuntu is alleged to run well on older equipment.
    – user251774
    Dec 11, 2014 at 3:15

3 Answers 3

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The problem you are having is likely due to the amount of RAM you have.

While Ubuntu 14.04 only requires 512MB to run, having 1GB or less will cause Ubuntu to run slowly due to the graphic intensive Unity packages. More info can be found in this answer here.

It is probably best if you try a distribution such as:

It is much more lightweight, as shown in the system requirements.

I expect using a less resource intensive OS like Puppy Linux will fix your problems.

Although if you really want to stay with Ubuntu, it might be worth trying the lxde desktop environment. You can get it by running:

$ sudo apt-get install lxde

Then just log out, and click the button by your name in the log-in window. Choose 'LXDE' and see if it is better for you.

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  • It's a slowmo for me even with 16GB RAM. Something is wrong with the iso.
    – Calmarius
    Feb 17, 2018 at 18:38
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Slow down partner! ;-)

Ubuntu is ALWAYS slower for the first two weeks. I don't know why this is, but I've personally experienced it too many times to not believe that it somehow tweaks itself. I suspect that on a site such as this one there's probably at least one person who knows. You just need to give it time, and probably a little more RAM.

I upvoted the answer above because it addresses nearly everything I would have said. It is my personal experience that computers QUITE as old as yours generally don't work very well with Ubuntu if they have less than 1.5 gigs of RAM. Usually their max is 2g anyway, and doesn't cost much. If you can't afford a faster computer, then at least upgrade the RAM.

In my personal opinion, provided you can increase its RAM, your computer absolutely CAN run Ubuntu, if that's what you want to run. Ubuntu is certainly more functional and easier to use than a lot of other versions of Linux.

As for other versions of Linux, I would not advise Puppy Linux, at least not unless it has changed a great deal since the last time I saw it. As for LXDE I tried it briefly on my Chromebook and it wasn't terrible, which is to say I'd find a way to use it if I had to choose between it and Windows.

My first suggestion would be Light Ubuntu known as LUBUNTU. If you take up LUBUNTU you should be able to continue getting support from this forum as LUBUNTU is essentially UBUNTU, but without features which cause it to run slowly on older computers or those with particularly inefficient graphics cards.

Or I might suggest something similar to LUBUNTU called MINT.

If you want to see just how blazingly fast your somewhat older PC, if you don't mind some kludgey graphics, you can try DSL. I have more experience with DSL than either LUBUNTU or MINT. DSL stands for Damn Small Linux. It can run on computers too slow or having too little RAM to run at all. It can even run on a 486. Best of all since DSL is Debian based, (Like Ubuntu) your installation can grow if you choose to move the old hard drive into a newer computer, and much of what you learn from the experience will directly apply to a more modern Linux installation when you eventually upgrade.

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I think gyropyge hit it on the head. Found an old RAM board and installed it to get up to this old putz up to 1GB Ram. I downloaded Lubuntu 14.10 (32 bit) and ran it live. On par with the XP currently installed speed wise, some apps slower, some the same speed.

I now realize that I was trying to send a payload to the moon using an Estes model rocket - IOW - it ain't gonna happen!

This old EMachine just does not have the ability to run a modern OS as fast as I expect, be it Ubuntu, Lubuntu or W7 - or 8 - for that matter. It may run, but it will be a compromise.

I need to do what I was initially planning: that is to build an new box with a 4.3G AMD processor, SSHD and 4GB or more RAM, etc. I got sidetracked trying to make this old EMachine into a blazing internet surfer.

Thanks to all who replied to this post and offered their advice. Your input is appreciated.

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