lubuntu-qa team mailing list archive

[Nio Wiklund <nio.wiklund@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

With all respect to your skill as a tester, Ali, I have to ask:

1. Has the GUI installer of Saucy improved a lot compared to Raring?

2. Or was I doing something seriously wrong?

Because I could not install Lubuntu Raring 32-bit without swap, not even
with the alternate installer, with 256MB RAM. I did it in VirtualBox in
a Precise 32-bit host.

I'll test it tomorrow in Saucy and switch off the memory hogs in
VirtualBox. I will also try to test low RAM in a real computer :-)

Best regards
Nio
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: memory needed for Lubuntu tested with vbox
Date: Sun, 14 Apr 2013 20:12:18 +0200
From: Nio Wiklund <nio.wiklund@xxxxxxxxx>
To: ubuntu-quality@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <ubuntu-quality@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Lubuntu-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I want to share these results from testing to install and run Lubuntu
with low memory. I was using today's daily build of Lubuntu Raring
desktop and alternate iso files.

See the attached file. Comments are welcome :-)

Best regards
Nio alias sudodus
----------------------------------

On 2013-06-17 02:06, Phill Whiteside wrote:
> Hi,
> 
>  Ali, firstly thank you for all the work you put in for the minimal
> specs of what lubuntu will install on. To everyone else working on this,
> also a big thank you.
> 
> For our minimal specs, once we get to 256MB RAM, we are also stretching
> the applications (browser).
> 
> @ Jluien, if Z-Ram works so well, could we drop alternate for some of
> the archs? 
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Phill.
> 
> 
> On 17 June 2013 00:45, Ali Linx (amjjawad) <amjjawad@xxxxxxxxx
> <mailto:amjjawad@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
> 
>     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 <http://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.
> 
>     = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
>     = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = 
>     *_
>     _*
>     *_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. 
> 
> 
>     = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
>     = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = 
> 
>     *_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".
> 
> 
>     = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
>     = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = 
> 
>     *_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.
> 
> 
>     = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
>     = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = 
> 
>     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/
> 
> 
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> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/phillw
> 
>

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