lubuntu-qa team mailing list archive

[Nio Wiklund <nio.wiklund@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hello everybody,

I think it will be hard to make the devs accept the small fix in the
general code of *ubuntu to make it possible to install into a computer
with Pentium M CPU. But it works with a system, that is installed in a
modern computer, and ported to the Pentium M as a USB drive or cloned or
rsynced to an internal hard disk drive.

I have such a system ready for distribution, but have a few requests
before it can be uploaded and available for everybody.

1. Please read the attached README file and suggest changes (remove,
change or add text)!

2. Please suggest where to upload it! The size is 1.1 GB.

sudodus@ssd-grund ~/test/pae4pm $ ls -lh
totalt 1,1G
-rw-rw-r-- 1 olle olle 3,0K apr 30 14:24 commands-and-output.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 olle olle   56 apr 30 16:43 dd-restore.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 olle olle 1,1G apr 30 20:09 dd-sdb.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 olle olle  630 apr 30 14:55 dd-sdb.txt
-rw-rw-r-- 1 olle olle  283 apr 30 20:47 md5sums.txt
-rw-rw-r-- 1 olle olle 4,0K apr 30 20:45 README
sudodus@ssd-grund ~/test/pae4pm

I can upload it at a private cloud service, but I think it is better if
you suggest some other place with better bandwidth.

3. I guess the best thing would be if you can organize a torrent (I
don't know how to do that).

Best regards
Nio

Help text to install Lubuntu 13.04 'Raring' for Pentium M CPUs


date: 2013-04-30

by: sudodus @ (ubuntuforums & launchpad)


This Lubuntu Raring instance can run with at least the later Pentium M
cpus. Right now it is on a USB 3 pendrive, installed from the Lubuntu
Raring desktop iso in a modern computer and tested in my IBM Thinkpad
T42 with Pentium M 1,7 GHz. It uses the fake-pae method of 7-bit @
ubuntuforums to let the 32-bit pae kernel run with CPUs without a pae flag.

I'm not sure if older Pentium M CPUs can run well with it. Check, that

cat /proc/cpuinfo

reports 36 bit physical address size!

Warning: This Lubuntu Raring instance is not intended to run with non-pae
CPUs, it is only intended for Pentium M, that have pae capability but no pae
flag. I take no responsibility for any damage, that this software can cause.

     -o-

1. Read this file and the text files.


2. Check that the md5sums are correct after downloading the files.


3. Backup your present system or at least your personal files.


4. Select the target drive, where you want to install this Lubuntu Raring
instance. It is a compressed image of an installed system (not an iso file,
not a live system).

It can be installed on a drive with at least 16 GB. The installation will
*overwrite* the drive, so triple check, that you install to the right place,
because everything on the drive's first 16 GB will be destroyed.

I have it on a USB 3 drive. It is fastest in a USB 3 port, but faster than a
standard USB 2 pendrive also in a USB 2 port, because the flash hardware is not
limiting the read/write speed.

You can also install it on a hard disk drive, for example an internal drive.

But if you want to make a dual boot system, you need to make an external drive
first, and then copy (clone or rsync) the ext4 partition, partition number 5,
with label=LubuntuRaring4M to the dual boot drive and fix grub afterwards.
I will not decribe all those details here.


5. Install

a. Change directory to where you have the downloaded files.

b. Make sure there is no mounted partition on the target drive.

c. and run the zcat command line in dd-restore.txt as superuser (with sudo)

zcat dd-sdb.gz bs=4096 | dd of=/dev/sdx

where x is the target drive. Triple check that it is the correct drive letter,
so that you will write to the correct drive. dd is nicknamed 'disk destroyer'
because it does what you tell it to do without any questions. The margin
between miracle and catastrophe is very narrow.

d. Boot and log in as guru. The password is changeme, and should be changed if
you intend to continue to run your new system.


6. Check that

cat /proc/cpuinfo

reports 36 bit physical address size!

Warning: If that is not the case, don't use it, because it needs those 36 bits
to run properly with pae!


7. Update and upgrade and install programs like you would with any normal
installed Ubuntu based system. For example, install touchpad-indicator, which
was not available today in Raring.


8. If the drive is larger than 16 GB, you should use gparted to edit the
partition sizes and take advantage of the whole drive.

9. If the drive is a hard disk drive, you should remove the mount option
noatime in /etc/fstab. If an SSD drive, you can add the mount option
discard in /etc/fstab.

10. The first GB of the drive is a FAT partition for exchange of data with
other operating systems, for example Windows.

11. The last GB is swap. If the target drive is slightly smaller than 16 GB,
this partition can be shrunk or removed, but if the UUID is changed, it should
be entered into /etc/fstab. If on flash memory, this swap partition is only for
rare peaks in memory usage. You are recommended to add a swap partition on an
internal hard disk drive if swap will be used regularly. That HDD swap
partition should be addressed in /etc/fstab instead of the one on the flash
drive.


11. Observe that Lubuntu Raring end of life is January 2014, and I'm not sure
that the fake-pae will survive an upgrade to the next version, so look for a
new Lubuntu 13.10 'Saucy' for Pentium M CPUs.


Good luck :-)