[Novalug] Ubuntu, SuSE installations and old gear

[Jon Taimanglo]

I had problems with ubuntu 7.04 (I believe kubuntu is just kde ubuntu, so
the underlying system should be the same); eventually I used 6.x alternate
cd (text install vs graphical install).  It worked on a pretty old laptop
with very little memory (a LOT older than the machine you describe).  Not
sure if you want to go down that route or not, but it might prove to work
where 7 failed.  Good luck.

Jon

On 8/21/07, Robert W. Rowe <RBob at theroweboat.com> wrote:
>
> I have an old dual CPU box running AMD MP1800+'s at 1.8 mHz each with two
> gigs of memory, an ATI AGP card, etc., etc. It has a Phoenix bios I
> haven't updated because, in essence, it would thrill me to no end to flash
> the BIOS, commit a faux pas and not be able to use the machine.
>
> I have a two-drive SATA card and a USB 2 card installed to bring the
> system into the early 21st century.
>
> Anyway, Bill's neat little "let's check to make sure everything's
> legitimate" executable stopped svchost.exe from running, which pretty well
> stops XP from running, so I decided to go with Linux again.
>
> After looking around I decided on Kubuntu 7.04, so I ISO'd a bootable DVD
> and tried an installation. No good. I got this error (not sure what the
> actual numbers were following Debian):
>
> "BusyBox v1.1.3 (Debian 1:1.1.3-3ubuntu2) Built-in shell (ash)
>
> Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands
>
> /bin/sh: can't access tty; job control turned off
>
> (initramfs)"
>
> Peachy. So I ordered up and tried an official Ubuntu 7.04 installation.
> Same error. Tried live booting from either disc, same error. Tried a safe
> graphical installation as suggested on various forums. No good. Couldn't
> find the 360GB SATA drive, the one the system found pretty handily on
> boot-up.
>
> Using an update CD is mentioned in the pre-boot menu on the
> installation/live boot DVD. So I tried various ways of using the SATA
> drivers on an update CD, to no avail. Nope. No good.
>
> So, I had a SuSE 10.2 disc from a magazine I bought a few weeks ago while
> researcing what was up and about in Linux since I last looked at it--when
> the above machine was new in the late 20th century--and tried that.
>
> A flawless installation. SATA--no problem. "Expert"
> partitioning--wonderful. Printing--well, I have a HP 8450, so that's going
> to be a problem with any distribution, as far as I can tell.
>
> So, is SuSE a more mature distribution or is Ubuntu/Kubuntu geared toward
> newer hardware with SATA in the BIOS and all that? Or was SATA even the
> problem?
>
> The SuSE installation seems to be working pretty well for me, even though
> YaST seems a little slow and too "all inclusive." I've used Red Hat/Fedora
> before and RPM's were okay, but I was looking forward to some of the
> apt-get action I've read so much about.
>
> --
> Bob Rowe, "Boldly going ... nowhere!"
>                  RBob at TheRoweBoat.com
> "The golden rule is to test everything in the light of reason and
> experience, no matter from where it comes."
> Mohandas K. Gandhi
>
>
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