<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:#0b5394">YMMV, but for old system installations I try for one of three approaches:<br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;color:#0b5394"><ul><li>For your usual distro, choose a GUI environment that starts with L or X instead of G or K (ie Lubuntu or Xubuntu)</li><li>Try one of the small distros designed explicitly for use on old hardware (such as Puppy)</li><li>Screw the GUI completely and install Ubuntu Server<br></li></ul>All of them should be OK with the SSD.<br clear="all"></div><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div style="text-align:center"><div style="text-align:left"><br></div><div style="text-align:left">Evan Leibovitch, <span style="font-size:12.8px">Toronto Canada</span></div><div style="text-align:left"><span style="font-size:12.8px">@evanleibovitch / </span><span style="font-size:12.8px">@el56</span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><br></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Tue, Feb 15, 2022 at 5:25 PM D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk <<a href="mailto:talk@gtalug.org">talk@gtalug.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">I've been shamed / intrigued into doing a bit more hacking on this <br>
Acer Aspire 9300 notebook.<br>
<br>
Spoiler: this was a waste of time.<br>
<br>
A little over 5 years ago I had replaced the HDD with an SSD and put a <br>
then-current Fedora (24?) on it (no Windows). It was unreliable (for <br>
reasons I have previously explained).<br>
<br>
Now I've dragged out the old HDD and copied the Vista and Ubuntu 12.04 <br>
installation from it to the SSD. (Byte-for-byte, so the partition <br>
alignments are highly questionable.)<br>
<br>
MS Vista boots. It doesn't know how to update itself (End of Life).<br>
<br>
Ubuntu 12.04 boots. It doesn't know how to update itself either since it <br>
is no longer supported. I fix that (somewhat) by hacking on <br>
/etc/apt/sources.list, replacing <a href="http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">ca.archive.ubuntu.com</a> with <br>
<a href="http://old-releases.ubuntu.com" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">old-releases.ubuntu.com</a>. The newest update there was probably two years <br>
ago, but that's better than more than 5 years ago.<br>
<br>
While doing Ubuntu updates, the machine crashed a couple of times.<br>
Probably because it is using the nouveau video driver. I wonder if I<br>
can enable the ancient no-longer supported proprietary driver at this late <br>
date? Even if I can, apparently that path dies after Ubuntu 14.04 so it <br>
isn't really a solution.<br>
<br>
Back on Windows Vista, I tried updating Firefox. A very slow process, but <br>
it seemed to complete (but not to the current version; possibly because <br>
Vista is no longer supported). I ran Firefox's update again and got a <br>
blue screen (OS crash, not Firefox crash).<br>
<br>
At this point, I saw very little upside and had wasted a lot of time <br>
getting this far. I cannot run current Windows 10 or current Linux. So <br>
I've given up. I've stripped the SSD, the RAM, the WiFi card, and the DVD <br>
drive.<br>
<br>
================<br>
<br>
Now I'm wasting time updating the three OSes on my Acer Aspire One 522, a <br>
netbook from 2011 (Fedora, Ubuntu, Win10). <br>
<<a href="https://www.notebookcheck.net/Acer-Aspire-One-522.46975.0.html" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.notebookcheck.net/Acer-Aspire-One-522.46975.0.html</a>><br>
This is a very meagre machine: slow even in its day. But it does run <br>
current systems.<br>
<br>
When I got it, I upgraded the RAM from 1G to 4G. Win 7 Starter was <br>
crippled to use at most 2G (silly Microsoft market segregation games). <br>
The screen had too little resolution to install Win 8, but full Win 10 <br>
Home is happy (a free upgrade; it will use all 4G).<br>
<br>
The netbook still has its original HDD. Win 10 and Gnome both crawl <br>
unless they live on SSDs. I intend to replace the HDD with the SSD from <br>
the scrapped notebook.<br>
<br>
Just a few years separate the Acer Aspire 9300 and the Acer Aspire One <br>
522. Yet the newer one is more usable now. Still, the newer one is <br>
missing some modern conveniences: UEFI firmware and USB 3.x.<br>
<br>
There is a significant difference between a 17" notebook and a 10.6" <br>
netbook.<br>
---<br>
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</blockquote></div>