lubuntu-qa team mailing list archive

["Ali Linx (amjjawad)" <amjjawad@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi everyone,

*My Test - Part 1*
*Note* These Tests have been done on Oracle VM version 4.2.12 running on
Windows 7 on HP Pavilion DV6, Core i5 first generation and 4GB RAM.

*Test Case A*

*Hardware Details:
*
CPU: 1 CPU
RAM Used by the OS: 256MB
HDD: 5GB

*Scenario: *
This is to simulate when the user has 256MB Physical RAM and a dedicated
Graphics Card that does not steal/share its memory with the RAM. So, the OS
will use the whole RAM which is 256MB.

*Installation:*

   1. Mounted the Saucy ISO on the VM
   2. Chose "Install Lubuntu" from the Menu
   3. Chose "Erase Disk and Install Lubuntu"
   4. Installation Process took around 16mins
   5. VM Rebooted
   6. System is up and running

*Notes:*

   1. I have installed on completely wiped/free HDD. NO partitions
   whatsoever. NO other system. Nothing.
   2. The installation Process was really smooth and without any problem,
   it worked and finished from the first try.
   3. I have followed the same steps but choosing "Try Lubuntu without
   installation" and then installed Lubuntu from the the Live Desktop by
   clicking the icon on the Desktop "Install Lubuntu 13.10" and the
   installation process took around 15mins-16mins as well but I felt the
   process is slower than before. Moving the mouse for example wasn't as
   smooth as the first test - when choosing "Install Lubuntu" from the menu.
   4. After the installation, and for both methods (Install Lubuntu and Try
   Lubuntu without installation then install from the live desktop), the RAM
   Usage according to 'htop':

RAM: 98MB/256MB
SWAP: 1MB/482MB

Firefox and LXTerminal with htop and it says: 153MB RAM and 7MB SWAP on
www.google.com and I don't feel like having only 256MB at all.
Did not play more. Was just testing how Firefox will behave.

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*
*
*Test Case B*

*Hardware Details:
*
CPU: 1 CPU
Base Memory: 256MB
Video Memory: 32MB
Used Memory by the OS: 224MB
HDD: 5GB

*Scenario: *
To simulate the situation when the user has 256MB Physical RAM and 32MB of
that RAM will be used by the built-in Graphics Card.

*Installation:*

   1. Mounted the Saucy ISO on the VM
   2. Chose "Install Lubuntu" from the Menu
   3. Chose "Erase Disk and Install Lubuntu"
   4. Installation Process took around 16mins
   5. VM Rebooted
   6. System is up and running


*Notes:*

   1. I have installed on completely wiped/free HDD. NO partitions
   whatsoever. NO other system. Nothing.
   2. Installation Process was a bit slow and it was installed successfully
   from the first try. Not very slow, but slow or a bit slow. I guess it
   depends from machine to machine.
   3. Graphics Memory after installation was done is reporting, according
   to 'htop', 242MB Used RAM by OS which means only 14MB is being used by the
   graphics and I guess it depends on the color and resolution so the system
   needs 14MB for video card. After all, it is called 'Shared Memory' and the
   video card does not really has to use it all :)
   4. I didn't try to the other option - "Try Lubuntu without
   installation". I can tell the result would be the same. But I don't mind,
   if really really necessary, to do that.


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*Test Case C*

*Hardware Details:
*
CPU: 1 CPU
Used Memory by the OS: 192MB
HDD: 5GB

*Scenario: *
To simulate the situation when the user has only 192MB Physical RAM and a
dedicated Graphics Card that does not steal/share its memory with the RAM.
So, the OS will use the whole RAM which is 192MB.


*Installation:*

   1. Mounted the Saucy ISO on the VM
   2. Chose "Install Lubuntu" from the Menu
   3. Chose "Erase Disk and Install Lubuntu"
   4. Installation Process took around 20mins or a bit more.
   5. VM Rebooted
   6. System is up and running

*
*
*Notes:*

   1. I have installed on completely wiped/free HDD. NO partitions
   whatsoever. NO other system. Nothing.
   2. I had to do 3 tries until the 3rd one got passed. The first two
   tries, the installer crashed and dropped me to the Live Desktop with the
   icon to install Lubuntu sitting there :)
   3. The installation process was slow but usable.
   4. When I tried to repeat using "Try Lubuntu without installation" and
   then install Lubuntu from the the Live Desktop by clicking the icon on the
   Desktop "Install Lubuntu 13.10", at the first few steps, the installer
   crashed and it logged me off the Live Desktop and took me to LightDM and
   only one username to login to which is "other".


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*Test Case D*
*
*
*Hardware Details:
*
CPU: 1 CPU
Used Memory by the OS: 128MB
HDD: 5GB
*
*
*Notes:*

   1. The installer crashed and dropped me to the Live Desktop with the
   icon to install Lubuntu sitting there :)
   2. When I tried to install from the Live Desktop, it crashed and dropped
   me to LightDM.


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End of Testing for today :)

*Conclusion*:
We must understand the difference between the minimum system
requirement to*'install'
* Lubuntu ... and ... the minimum system requirement to *'use'* Lubuntu *
'after'* installing it. IMHO :)

My above 4 test cases were about the minimum system requirement to
'install' Lubuntu.
After all, the usage of the system purely depends on the user. If he is a
light user, the system won't be so demanding at all.
If he is a heavy user, that is totally different story.

So, IMHO, we should be clear about this point.


*Recommendation:*
Long story short, I do recommend that:
*The Minimum System Requirement to Install Lubuntu 13.10 from The LiveCD
using the Desktop ISO, is ... 256MB Physical RAM.*


*Next Step:*
I have moved houses so all my stuff are packed. I need to take my old test
PC from the store, find my keyboard and try to play with it and repeat the
above tests (not all of them).
What so special about that PC is:
It has 512MB Physical RAM and its BIOS has a feature to share 32MB-256MB
for the built in video card. So, I can test down to 256MB RAM.
I can not go below that. But, after all, from what I've found so far, it is
useless to go below that as long as the above recommendation says it all :)

Thanks for reading my report!

End of report.

-- 

"All of us are smarter than any one of us."

*Best Regards,*
*amjjawad <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/amjjawad/>*
*Start Ubuntu<https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Lubuntu/CommunicationsTeam/WOWLubuntu/StartUbuntu>
*

*Test Machine: ASUS F3F Laptop - **Intel Core Duo T2350 @ 1.86GHz with
489MB RAM*