I’m currently using Ubuntu and I want try a different distro but so far the only one I’ve tried was Porteus but I had an issue where Porteus wouldn’t boot if it was installed on top of ext4 but would boot fine if it was installed on top of fat32, which is also another potential problem because Porteus requires a save file for persistence when using Windows filesystems. If there is a problem where my computer can’t boot with an ext4 filesystem, Ubuntu doesn’t have this problem because sda1/2/3 all use a different filesystem.
If I’m correct on this, would I be better off trying Porteus on ext3/2 and hoping it works or just use it with fat32 and have a separate partition formatted for ext4 to serve the same purpose as sda3 in Ubuntu and possibly store the save file (if I have the correct understanding of how save files work).
Also, I would just use NTFS but not only have I heard that it has issues with Linux, I’ve had issues using it with Linux, so I’m using fat32 for stability.
Absolute Linux is based on Slackware (Praise Bob!), and it has multiple bootloader available for you to choose from: GRUB2, LILO, and syslinux (from a quick glance at their package list).
EDIT: I was curious about Porteus, and it does have a bootloader. It uses syslinux.
Ok but that doesn’t help me because either the bootloaders aren’t enabled by default or they are but I still don’t know how to work with them. As I’ve stated before, I’m just going to stick with Ubuntu, I know how to work with it and it does what I need it to. Unless there is another distro that installs itself the same exact way Ubuntu does but it boots and loads apps faster, I don’t think I’ll be able to use another distro.
Yeah, you should stick to Ubuntu.
If your eyes start to wander, look at the major distros instead of the ones you’ve been looking at. Debian, Fedora, Manjaro, Mint, openSUSE, and Arch. They’re all great and have easy installs. I highly recommend Debian and Arch. Reading their install guides could help you understand any Linux system a lot more. You’ll never maximize your speed if you don’t read the manuals for stuff. Generally, faster is going to mean more specialized to your hardware and your specific needs.
The only reason I’m using the ones I’ve been using is because there isn’t a proper way for someone to find what they need without manually checking each distro one by one. The best I got was the list of lightweight Linux distros on Wikipedia but that mostly seems to have a bunch of unknown Linux distros. If there was a list that contained the system requirements for all Linux distros (with a differentiation of installing system requirements and running requirements because a lot of distros require more ram to install than what they actually use when running) along with some other helpful information, I’d probably have an easier time finding one on my own.
Ah, now things are making a little more sense. From that list, BunsenLabs Linux doesn’t look like a bad choice. It’s Debian-based, so the install should be pretty smooth like Ubuntu. Trisquel Mini might be even better. I would avoid any that are based on Slackware; it’s a little more hardcore than most. Bodhi Linux looks okay, too. Bunsen might get you the most bang, but you might not like Openbox. Trisquel and Bodhi have normal desktop environments, so those should feel familiar.
Void Linux might be something you want to look at as well. It’s its own thing, and the install will probably be different, but it’s a really cool distro, so it was worth a mention.
Are you trying to get the most out of old hardware, or are you just trying to see how far you can push contemporary hardware?
How fast is your CPU? (
cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep Hz)How much RAM do you have? (
free --human)I don’t really care about how it looks or works, as long as it’s going to work on my computer without requiring more than just installing it from a live cd mounted to a usb thumb drive.
As for the specs, it’s an old laptop:
CPU: Intel® Core™ i5-2520M CPU @ 2.50GHz
I don’t know what you need for RAM but the command you gave returned this:
total used free shared buff/cache available Mem: 7.7Gi 3.5Gi 146Mi 461Mi 4.1Gi 3.5Gi Swap: 2.0Gi 2.0Mi 2.0GiI know it’s probably not necessary to mention but the RAM is dual channel and the “used” is only high because I’m using both Brave and Firefox on separate monitors. And if you are wondering, I use both Brave and Firefox for different purposes, which is why I use both instead of just one like everyone else.
2.5G CPU and 8G RAM should go brrrr on any of the 3 distros I recommended, and they all have live CDs. Openbox is about as slim as you can go before you abandon a GUI altogether and just use the terminal, so try Bunsen first.
Well the the CPU and RAM aren’t the bottleneck, it’s the hard drive.
Anyways, I might have to try Bunsen tomorrow. My download speed is pretty slow at night (it’s possible that my ISP might be throttling it because I have this issue with all of my devices).
Ok, my download speeds weren’t too terrible but I ran into a major problem. I was able to boot into the LiveCD just fine, but after I installed it, it gave me an error when trying to load grub. It was " error: attempt to read or write outside of disk hd0", with a “grub rescue>” promt below it.
I tried to google it but everything on this page didn’t work.
Also, it partially broke my Ubuntu installation, but luckily it fixed itself after a reboot.
Well someone else recommended Linux Mint and it’s working fine but Ubuntu isn’t anymore and it’s giving me the same issue as Bunsen. When I installed Mint, it stated that it was supposed to give me the option choose which one it would boot into but I’m not getting that option and it just boots into Mint. I can still see the files, so I know they aren’t lost. Looking at GParted, it seems that Mint didn’t make it’s own copy of grub and is just using the one Ubuntu made in sda1.
I’m making this very hastily, I’m just using a probably very outdated copy of Firefox that was preinstalled to write this comment. I wasn’t even ready to switch to a different distro yet, I just wanted to test it to make sure it worked. Unless I can fix it somehow, I’m going to have to copy the files I want to keep from Ubuntu (assuming I can still use them) and then install Mint on the the same drive as Ubuntu because my external hard drive is slower than the internal one.
Also, Is it possible to get my passwords from Brave and Firefox when I can’t boot into Ubuntu anymore?
Can you boot into the live cd again and run the following commands and post the results?
sudo fdisk --list(The lines for each /dev/… are all I’m curious about).ls /sys/firmware/efi/efivars(this one shouldn’t return an error. if it does, you booted into BIOS mode instead of UEFI. there should be another option when booting the live cd.)