Quick update on the linux / old machine quest

Recap: I settled on Xubuntu for my old laptop. Things were good and it served the purpose quite nicely (casual web browsing primarily).

Then I broke it somehow. Had some good suggestions and did even finally manage to get to the console, but the log entries weren’t overly useful to me.

Meanwhile, I noticed that there was a newer release of Xubuntu/Ubuntu and figured I should just grab that. I really hadn’t invested a whole lot of time into setting up the laptop as it “just worked” after the install. I grabbed the first ISO I found which turns out to be a live CD with an installer option on the desktop once it is up and running. Not quite what I meant to grab, but oh well… I gave it a shot.

The live CD itself works great (granted, you have to be a bit patient to boot an old machine from a slow/old CD-Rom drive!). The installer starts great, but 3 out of 3 times has locked itself up at some point after formatting the disk and copying over files. /sigh Perhaps tonight I’ll grab the other iso option which is called the “alternate install” and see if things go a bit smoother.

[Update] Well huh… I guess that last install did indeed finish — the installer just forgot to tell me! On a whim, I rebooted and let it boot up as I was curious to see in what shape things were. Booted all the way to the login prompt and I’m now editing this post! Far out.

Possibly Related posts:

1. The Linux for old stuff quest: Xubuntu
2. Another Option for the Old Machine
3. Linux Can Still Frustrate
4. The Quest for Noise
5. Another Run at Damn Small Linux