xubuntu experimentations
Since I decided to buy a new computer, I spent the evening working on my other two notebooks. Arod, my Acer C310, is going to my son, and Stybba, my Acer C101, will be a free agent when Firefoot, the new HP Tablet PC, arrives later this week. Since Stybba is no longer "production" but "development," I experimented last night with putting Linux on it.
The last time I put Linux on Stybba was Debian's "Woody" release. Since I had such success with
Ubuntu on Arod, I decided to give it a try on the older, smaller, Stybba. Stybba is a 800mhz, 256mb RAM, 12.1" tablet system running WinXP (Tablet Edition). I still had the 5GB partition I used for Debian as well as a 512MB
partition for swap. I downloaded the ISO file for Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon), burned it to a CD, and fired it up.
The system booted to the initial install screen OK. I chose to do a regular install, and it began to load. At this point, the graphics went south, with the default Gnome desktop becoming fuzzy and unreadable. Thinking that the nstall procedure might correct itself, I double-clicked the "Install" icon and let the process go forward. No luck, it
was a fuzzy mess. By the time I got to the world map to set the timezone, I gave up and power-cycled the system.
I tried the "safe graphics" mode next. No luck, this produced identical results.
Well, doesn't that just suck.
OK, this isn't a do-or-die project, so maybe Ubuntu GG just isn't going to cut it on this little guy. I then gave xubuntu a try, again with the 7.10 distribution. xubuntu is a variant of the regular Ubuntu distribution, but designed to install Xfce4 as the desktop. The theory is that Xfce4 is a lighter weight than current Gnome or KDE,
so it should work better on older hardware.
xubuntu fired up OK, and the install was crystal clear, if a bit slow. A normal ubuntu install completed, re-booted, and the Gnome login came up. The screen was once again a mess, same symptoms as the regular ubuntu install. The login dialog was visible, though, if not readable, so I logged in anyway. The Gnome login screen vanished and the Xfce4 desktop came up just fine. Response was very sluggish, though. I let it do
the security updates, re-booted, then added Thunderbird. The packages installed OK, but performance still dragging.
I fired up Thunderbird from the Apps menu. The program came up and I set up an account. Pulled in 85 messages and the thing just stopped. No mouse movement, no disk access, nothing. Hard reset, tried again, same thing. Third time, I let it sit, hit delete a few times (spam e-mails at the bottom of the list), and went in the back to take a shower. When I came out, the message count had decreased because of the deletions, but it was just ridiculous.
This won't do. I figure it must be GG that's running the system into the dirt, rather than the desktop.
If anyone's got ideas, I'm open for suggestions. I'm going to try FreeBSD for shits and grins anyway, since this is essentially a development box at the moment.
The last time I put Linux on Stybba was Debian's "Woody" release. Since I had such success with
Ubuntu on Arod, I decided to give it a try on the older, smaller, Stybba. Stybba is a 800mhz, 256mb RAM, 12.1" tablet system running WinXP (Tablet Edition). I still had the 5GB partition I used for Debian as well as a 512MB
partition for swap. I downloaded the ISO file for Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon), burned it to a CD, and fired it up.
The system booted to the initial install screen OK. I chose to do a regular install, and it began to load. At this point, the graphics went south, with the default Gnome desktop becoming fuzzy and unreadable. Thinking that the nstall procedure might correct itself, I double-clicked the "Install" icon and let the process go forward. No luck, it
was a fuzzy mess. By the time I got to the world map to set the timezone, I gave up and power-cycled the system.
I tried the "safe graphics" mode next. No luck, this produced identical results.
Well, doesn't that just suck.
OK, this isn't a do-or-die project, so maybe Ubuntu GG just isn't going to cut it on this little guy. I then gave xubuntu a try, again with the 7.10 distribution. xubuntu is a variant of the regular Ubuntu distribution, but designed to install Xfce4 as the desktop. The theory is that Xfce4 is a lighter weight than current Gnome or KDE,
so it should work better on older hardware.
xubuntu fired up OK, and the install was crystal clear, if a bit slow. A normal ubuntu install completed, re-booted, and the Gnome login came up. The screen was once again a mess, same symptoms as the regular ubuntu install. The login dialog was visible, though, if not readable, so I logged in anyway. The Gnome login screen vanished and the Xfce4 desktop came up just fine. Response was very sluggish, though. I let it do
the security updates, re-booted, then added Thunderbird. The packages installed OK, but performance still dragging.
I fired up Thunderbird from the Apps menu. The program came up and I set up an account. Pulled in 85 messages and the thing just stopped. No mouse movement, no disk access, nothing. Hard reset, tried again, same thing. Third time, I let it sit, hit delete a few times (spam e-mails at the bottom of the list), and went in the back to take a shower. When I came out, the message count had decreased because of the deletions, but it was just ridiculous.
This won't do. I figure it must be GG that's running the system into the dirt, rather than the desktop.
If anyone's got ideas, I'm open for suggestions. I'm going to try FreeBSD for shits and grins anyway, since this is essentially a development box at the moment.
