ubuntu mini-ram howto

8/6/2019 Ubuntu Mini-ram Howto

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How to install an Ubuntu-Desktop on low memory systems(Pentium II and III Processor, 32-256 MB RAM)

by Ingo LANTSCHNER([email protected])

omas HINTERBERGER contributed a chapter, which details how to install iceWM on Debian-Sarge; scroll to the end of this documentsee it.

Last updated: 26 Feb 2005

ORTANT: This document has been written for Ubuntu Warty - so it is somehow outdated. Well, we have done some additions for Hoaryll find better guides in these days. Here are some (we have not tested them!):

Update June 2007 : Most intersting is the Xubuntu-Distribution. Check it out athttp://www.xubuntu.org. It runs fine with 64 MB of RAM.

ntu installs by default with the Gnome Desktop and other memory-intensive applications. So if you do not have a fast and powerful mach512 MB of RAM) your system will be quite slow. The following document explains the steps, how to install Ubuntu and a GUI on a low

hat you can use it as a Workstation for your daily work. It is aimed to the average SOHO-user (Small Office/Home Office).

Screenshot (Click to enlarge)

nventions:

Type command as root (you can do a sudo su- before, in order to get the root-prompt. Or you put sudo befor

Type command as user.

text Parts which should be improved. Please let me know, if you have usefull suggestions.



Ubuntu CD-ROM seehttp://www.ubuntulinux.org/

r inserting the CD-ROM into the drive, boot and when asked to press Enter, type before. (Not !)for Hoary; In the Hoary installer there is no 'custom' install option. It appears they've replaced i t with 'server' which is a minimum install.

result will be a minimal-system with less than 300 MB on the HD and only a textprompt (no GUI).

d it in the following order, but probably the order is not important:

do su - This puts you into a root-shell (#), so no more sudo is necesary.

(If you are not familiar wi th vi you can use nano or any other texteditor instead.)Enable the universe-repository by removing the Hashmarks (=# (2 times))

result is a system with X and iceWM as windowmanager. You log in as user and on the prompt:

s the GUI. (After the first reboot, xdm autostarts and puts you directly into the GUI-mode)

ar this system needs 468 MB on your harddrive.

m Frank Martelli [frankat foodsavvydot com]: Just a note when dealing with theppc version of Ubuntu -- for someon, icewm (silently) requires /usr/lib/libtiff.so.3. A very frustrating bug, as X starts lets you login and then (without any errors)

rns to the login screen.tion:

ln -s /usr/lib/libtiff.so.4 /usr/lib/libtiff.so.3

consider a Mailreader, Webbrowser, PDF-Reader and Officesuite as basic:

F-Reader

adds 26 MB to the harddrive (compared to 3,2 MB of gPDF, but gPDF laks crucial features like search and copy of text.)

zilla

include Flashplayer and Acrobat-Plugin for optimal compatibility with todays WWW. (The plugins only need 2,5 MB)

up the harddrive to 555MB

icesuite

he date of writing this Howto you have two options. Choose one of them (either-or , not both!). This will probably change constantly, as Openolves - but the principle will stay the same (just the versions will change).



er: Install OpenOffice 1.1.2 from apt-repository

installs Openoffice 1.1.2

Install OpenOffice 1.1.3 from OpenOffice.org:

talled OpenOffice 1.1.3 from the tar, provided bywww.openoffice.org. After untaring the tree I cd into the tree and type:

Final thoughts

lly we have now 770 MB for the bare system on the harddrive, so if we consider to have 128 MB minimum for the swap, we need hardd1,5 GB for such Ubuntu-Desktops.

Application Installation Size on HD

nssh-server (sshd)

mb

obat Reader

f

(Warning: gpdf has no search-feature and you can not copy&paste parts of text out of PDFs)

o, German Language Pack

o, German Help

PS Daemon

PS-Manager

terdrivers(This is too much - any ideas how to re

Gimp

cord

sofs

t (Editor)

q (ICQ-Client)

m (ICQ-Client)

ar (Dateikomprimierer)



und unzip

ktop

ent (Graphisches Frontend fÃ¼rktop und VNC)

oaster

s not work yet!

ple cdrx

s not work yet !

ster

s not work yet!

e-ui (Multi Media Player)

2codecs

layer

es not work yet!

1

(Midnightcommander,manager)

elfm (Filemanager)

kup

a working frontend for cdrecord.

a working Mplayer-package.

e go down to 64 or 32 MB of RAM we won't install OpenOffice. I recommend Abiword and Gnumeric instead. Also the Mozialla web blem on such systems. Better to go with Firefox and Thunderbird/Pine.

e compare Ubuntu's ability to adapt to low-memory-systems with Fedora we will be surprised:



Installation-Typ Fedora Core 3 [MB] Ubuntu 4.10 [MB]

nimal standard 571

imal trimmed (seehttp://www.simpaticus.com/linux) 430

X, iceWM ??

Mozilla ??

OpenOffice 1.1.3 ??

all and configure Ubuntu: http://ubuntuguide.org/

alling Low-Memory-Systems:http://www.rule-project.org

se send comments and Feedback [email protected].

homas HINTERBERGER

r installing, I had the feeling, that the Debian Icewm has some problems with the Ubuntu System (tar was not working, the same with AcnOffice - the paths looked different). Not knowing Icewm very well, I just decided to start from a Debian Netinstall CD-Image (even flopible - you download it fromwww.debian.org). It is very small - including X with Icewm 298 MB. I think, that Icewm works better with theian - after installation all programs was working immediately (but perhaps it is just the newer Version of Icewm - 2.20 - you also get Firef5 and gimp 2.2)

can follow the guide from Ingo - I will note only the steps you have to add.

installation you have no "sudo su"- so just type su and the root-password to get root.

the follwing lines to your sources.list

p://ftp.debian.org/debian/ sarge main

p://ftp.debian.org/debian-non-US/ sarge/non-US main

c ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/ sarge main

c ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian-non-US/ sarge/non-US main

elect-apt finds the most quick of all Debian-mirrors.

r # apt-get install xterm you add

n you are now the first time in Icewm, verify with emelfm or with the shell, that there is a file /etc/sudoers - if not, you have to reboot. - down -r now



rebooting you should now be able to use all commands, when you press strg+alt+del. If you don't do this, you have to write all the time to a rootshell, to shut down the system proper.

ead of this, you can edit /etc/sudoers, but only with the command

on't use another editor !!!! - for visudo: strg o = saving, strg x = exit

should have the following lines:

ALL=(ALL) ALLrname] ALL = NOPASSWD: /sbin/shutdown, /sbin/poweroff, /sbin/halt, /sbin/reboot, /bin/cdrecord

rest is the same like in Ingos description - the only thing - I would use bluefish instead of nedit - it is 4 MB more, but you have a wonderfor.

configuration of X is not as good and comfortable, as with Ubuntu - I did a little trick: run the Ubuntu live CD or Knoppix (if you have oe to do a swap partition before - I did not test it with Ubuntu, but Knoppix runs with 64MB) - make the screen and fonts well looking- co86Config-4 from the live CD to a disk (or mail it), bring it to your /home directory in Icewm- save your existing /etc/X11/XF86Config-4

my system, it was working perfect (both - Knoppix-config and Ubuntu-config)

more tip: emelfm is working as a file browser, like Nautilus or Konqueror - it is not visible from the first moment, it is hard to configure,

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