Knoppix Test
This worked well and enabled me to clear off the hard drive.
Having had brilliant success with Ubuntu Desktop on the File Server, this was my first thought. Unfortunately, this was not going to be my day! The installation froze when it was going to switch to a graphical screen. So, beginning to despair, I went back to the Windows Disk, cleaned and formatted the hard drive and tried again. This made no difference. Another option was required.
Xubuntu
Back to the Ubuntu website and I noticed a cut down version of the Ubuntu install specifically made for low-spec machines. Ah-ha I thought, perhaps this will solve the laptop problem. Another download, another iso, another CD and after another very pretty booting screen – the same result. Nothing. Nada. Dead, frozen, mammoth-like laptop.
Alternate Install CD
Once more back to the Ubuntu website. Now you may be wondering at this point why I hadn’t given up and tried another distribution of Linux to fix the problem, after all, Knoppix had told me the laptop would be able to run Linux well. I figured that if I could standardise across the LAN it was going to be a lot easier to maintain. Anyway, the expanded list of download locations on the download page of the Ubuntu site lead me here. Here I could see an Alternate Install CD for machines with 256 Mb or less of RAM. Now that has got to worth a try.
Sadly, I was mistaken. I still don’t have enough knowledge to get Ubuntu in any form working on Laptop 1.
Think again…..
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