Linux & Laptop Help?

[Ben]

So I have this old Gateway Solo laptop -- P2, 4gig HD, and 128meg RAM. It's just laying around right now with Win98 on it doing nothing. I'd like to see about making it a Linux laptop. I tried installing Ubuntu on it, but the darn thing totally bogged down. CD ran for like an hour installing, then it just went to the main Ubuntu screen and froze up. Tried running from the CD drive, and Ubuntu loaded, but the mouse went to way slow-mo reaction times with delayed reactions on opening a menu item, then when it did, back to the taking forever to try and load an app.

I'm guessing this is a function of the miniscule RAM? If so, any recommendations on a laptop friendly Linux flavor to try that will run adequately with only 128meg of RAM? Or could this be a function of Linux + a GUI with minimal RAM? Maybe try loading barebones command line Linux?

[lee n. field]

The Ubuntu Live CD will bog down in less than 256MB ram.  What you want is the Ubuntu alternate installer CD.  That will run a conventional install, and should work fine in 128MB RAM.

You'll probably want a bigger hard disk.

If so, any recommendations on a laptop friendly Linux flavor

Debian. 

(Edited to add)

Ubuntu is essentially Debian, with a user security model much like OSX's (no root user, admin users sudo for admin tasks).  I've got Debian working just fine, with almost zero tweaking needed (Gnome power tools don't work quite right on this, but kpowersave (part of KDE) does), on a Compaq Armada of probably about the same vintage as your Gateway.

Don't install Debian stable aka "sarge".  If and only if you have a high speed connection to the Internet, you want to install from the Debian etch net install CD.   The iso for that is about 130MB.

Gnome will run "OK", sort of, in 128MB.  256 will be much better.  There are a bunch of lightweight window managers out there.  XFCE is good.  I also like WindowMaker.

I still think you should get a bigger disk.

[roo_ster]

Probably it is Gnome (a window/desktop manager) that is hogging your RAM.  If you have the option of using an alternate WM, do so.  IceWM, tinyWM, FVWM2 are easy on the hardware.

http://linuxlaptops.com/ has lists of successful installs mating HW with distos.

I have successfully installed linux on old HW, though never a laptop.  Fedora Core with an alternate WM (IceWM I think is th ealternate to Gnome).  The smalled live CD distro I know of is damnsmalllinux..  It runs on skimpy hardware & would not require a larger HD, but I bet it might not support some/most laptop functionality out of the box.

Another live CD distro you might try is Knoppix, but be sure to run it with the alternate window manager (KDE, like Gnome, is a resource hog).

Here are some links to helpful sites:
http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/
http://fedora.redhat.com/
http://www.fedoraforum.org/forum/archive/index.php/
http://www.igs.net/~tril/fvwm/configs/
http://www.knoppix.net/docs/
http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/
http://www.linuxgazette.com/
http://www.linux-on-laptops.com/
http://www.linux-laptop.net/
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/index.php?s=
http://www.tldp.org/tldp-redirect.php?url=/
http://www.tuxmobile.com/
http://www.linuxnewbie.org/nhf/mac/installation/intro.html
http://www.openoffice.org/

[Ben]

Thanks guys -- I think I'll try the Ubuntu alternate installer first, then progress from there to the list jfruser posted if the alternate installer doesn't work well. I wanna get something that will run on this laptop as is. The laptop was destined for the scrap pile, so I don't want to throw anymore dough into it. I just wanted to see if I could do a "quick and easy" conversion and have a second Linux box handy that was portable.

[Iain]

I agree that it's probably Gnome. I managed to install Ubuntu (after a long hard fight) on older hardware (Celeron 433 96mb RAM, 4gb hd) with similar results. Had I had an internet connection I'd have probably tried IceWM or XFCE. Come to think of it, the XFCE Ubuntu variant (Xubuntu) may have a cd image floating about on the internet right now.

The other debian variant that I tried and had some success with was called Beatrix. It ran from the livecd (very slowly of course) but I couldn't get it to install. I'd imagine that was a problem with my hardware, and probably the same issue that required much working around to get Ubuntu installed.

As all I wanted from the ancient thing was a word processor and no internet connection I eventually went back to Win98, but hardware detection with Ubuntu was much better. Ubuntu got the right screen resolution without requiring me to dig through the loft for the driver cd, it also had the soundcard working, something that I can't get 98 to do, although it isn't a big issue.