Recommendations for a Linux Clean Install on old Fujitsu AH532 laptop.

Vicktoria

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Hello All Linux Gurus. and thank you in advance for your assistance. I am seeking guidance on which Linux distros would be most compatible with my older Fujitsu laptop. I'm ready to reformat the drive and kick Win7 off into space.
The processor = 2.30GHz Intel Cor i3-2350M 64bit dual core.
HD = 500Gb
Optical DVD drive
Intel HD Graphics 3000
The HD is currently partitioned with Mint Mate 19.3 and Win7
Screenshot at 2020-05-29 10-08-01.png
 


oops thought I got all stats in...4GB currently with another 4 delivered next week or so. So will have 8GB soon. Sp331yi suggested looking at Mint 'Tara' and Linux Lite or Manjora, so I did download those while on hispeed. I do video and photo editing. Also work with Audacity a lot creating audio files, if that helps.
 
"Burn" a few distros to thumb drives and run them 'live' ....not installed

Just so you can see and experience what the various distros have to offer you
 
oops thought I got all stats in...4GB currently with another 4 delivered next week or so. So will have 8GB soon. Sp331yi suggested looking at Mint 'Tara' and Linux Lite or Manjora, so I did download those while on hispeed. I do video and photo editing. Also work with Audacity a lot creating audio files, if that helps.
For your media stuff, try Ubuntu Studio or similar (see here: https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/6-linux-distros-designed-artists-musicians-editors/)
 
Condobloke: Thanks, I wasn't thinking...dah, that is a good idea, since I downloaded 3 potentials.

LorenDB: Thank you, that sounds like a very interesting link. I'll check it out now.
 
I suggest to looking Elementry OS. Everybody says it runs fastly on the low-hardware computers. It is a ubuntu-based distro but as far as I see you have to pay 10 $ at least.

https://elementary.io/
 
No, you don't have to pay, enter $0 in the Custom box and then you can download it for free.
 
I used etcher to put the iso on the usb. Yet The new OS didn't come up. Do I have to do something special or download an iso specifically labled 'Live'? How do you make the iso image 'Live'? I thought etcher just made 'live' usbs. If it does, then my Fujitsu with Linux 19.3 Mate on it is not booting up the live usb. I want to reformat that drive and put Linux only on that machine. Can anyone help me accomplish that.
 
Hello Everyone! I'm doing a slight shift and seeking guidance. I remembered I had bought a new Hard Drive in my attempt to revive the Fujitsu. It didn't make a difference in the Hung Bootloader. Had to take the CMOS battery out to get it to load. There may be some other issue with the motherboard or something, but I intend to put the new HD in and then install Linux. I see that the usb with Linux should behave as a 'live' usb until I install it. My question now is How does one install Linux on a Fresh New HD. Thanks for your support.
 
The "Live" .iso, whether USB or DVD simply means that the operating system will boot and load into RAM and run from there - without being installed on the hard drive yet.

I'm pretty sure all the 'mainstream' distros now offer their downloads as a "Live" image.
I know Linux Mint does.

Once the computer has booted from the Live USB you will usually be presented with the 'desktop' and perhaps a "Welcome" window. Many of the distros I have tried place an icon on the desktop which is labeled "Install" or something similar. One distro I tried did not have the "Install" shortcut on the desktop but in the Applications menu.

Click on the "Install" icon and away you will go! :)
The installation program will start and walk you through the installation process. The Linux Mint installer is pretty good at that.

Of course, this assumes that your computer able and set to boot from a USB.
 
Yep even Slackware offer a live version. So plenty of options. Good luck Vick
 
Hello Vrai, good to hear from you. How's the weather now up there? We went directly into summer, 70 in the shade and humid. Thank you for the clear and detailed guidance. Yes, as long as I can boot from the usb or dvd I should be set. Wasn't an issue before things got 'hung up'. I'm waiting on the 4GB additional Ram to arrive to bring me up to 8GB maximum RAM, today or tomorrow. Then I'll install the new HD and RAM and see about a final Linux install. I believe the HD is not formatted. Will the 'Live' distro take care of that or do I need to do that manually? If so, how? Hopefully all will flow into functionality without any more issues. 19.3 is currently functioning yet with glitches, with the main issue being my inability to access more storage space with Windows in the way. Folks say the 2008ish machine would do best with Mint 18 or older distros. Which distro would you grade as the most robust, stable distro for this older Fujitsu?
 
I believe the HD is not formatted. Will the 'Live' distro take care of that or do I need to do that manually?
The "installer" which will start up when you click on the "Install" icon will present you with an option to format and partition the drive you will be installing onto. It 'should' be rather straightforward.

If you wish - you can partition and format the drive beforehand using the Gparted application on the "Live" USB. But it may be easier and simpler to just let the installer handle that.
Folks say the 2008ish machine would do best with Mint 18 or older distros. Which distro would you grade as the most robust, stable distro for this older Fujitsu?
Hmmm..... that's a good question..... and a tough one to answer.
I cannot recall what that machine has for a processor but 8 gigs or even 4 gigs of RAM should be plenty to run just about any Linux distro. I would try Linux Mint 19.3 with the older 4.15.* series kernel and see how it goes. If it does not run as expected then perhaps try the 18.3 version of Mint.

Edit: Just went back and noticed this;
The processor = 2.30GHz Intel Cor i3-2350M 64bit dual core.
Any distro should run O.K. on that hardware.
 
There must have been an issue with posting my last...the paragraph below. It did show an error, I just didn't know what to do with it. Anywho, thanks again Vrai, for your awesome detailed response. This helps sooo much to have the question answered. So now I know, if the machine is working properly, and I create the usb 'live' properly, most distros should work. I've been getting an error message in making the usb's. Etcher says the job was successfully completed, yet under that there is a red flag saying something failed, maybe something about checksum, which I did check the sha with GTK Hash and they matched. So I don't know if I'm doing something wrong there. I used gparted on the Mint Tricia I've currently got on the Fujitsu to delete the usb and reformat to fat 32, and tried to make a live usb of Manjaro and Mint Mate Tara. The extra RAM came and I'll install that along with a new HD as soon as I finish so charts that need done. Do I have to do anything to a brand new Hard Drive in order to use a live usb?
Saturday:
Hello Vrai, good to hear from you. How's the weather now up there? We went directly into summer, 70 in the shade and humid. Thank you for the clear and detailed guidance. Yes, as long as I can boot from the usb or dvd I should be set. Wasn't an issue before things got 'hung up'. I'm waiting on the 4GB additional Ram to arrive to bring me up to 8GB maximum RAM, today or tomorrow. Then I'll install the new HD and RAM and see about a final Linux install. I believe the HD is not formatted. Will the 'Live' distro take care of that or do I need to do that manually? If so, how? Hopefully all will flow into functionality without any more issues. 19.3 is currently functioning yet with glitches, with the main issue being my inability to access more storage space with Windows in the way. Folks say the 2008ish machine would do best with Mint 18 or older distros. Which distro would you grade as the most robust, stable distro for this older Fujitsu?
 
Will the 'Live' distro take care of that or do I need to do that manually? If so, how? Hopefully all will flow into functionality without any more issues. 19.3 is currently functioning yet with glitches, with the main issue being my inability to access more storage space with Windows in the way. Folks say the 2008ish machine would do best with Mint 18 or older distros. Which distro would you grade as the most robust, stable distro for this older Fujitsu?
How to use fdisk in Linux -- something every user of GNU/Linux should know
MX Linux -- hard to go wrong with this one. Forget all 'buntus and their derivatives (too buggy) plus you can always go 'back' to them, later, if desired.

Again, I highly recommend SystemRescueCD, Even the older one, based on gentoo, is a good investment in time and effort for anyone. Add a Puppy Linux to your utltilties collection and you've practically got it all. Old SysRescCD (more on it than the newer version)
 
Yippie!!! Thanks Wiley One for the info. We have properly functioning [so far] Linux Mate 19 Tara on the Fujitsu with a new HD and 8GB Ram. I still can't get a usb with persistence made properly. I don't understand my issue on that, since this HP is new. It seems I had to take the advertisements off the new usb drives to get a 'live' usb to function properly. The only one I had that worked was Tara, yet my original guidance was to go with Tara when I first began this journey, so I'm cool with it, although I wanted to try Manjaro. I did download the SysRescue and clonezilla, and I'll read the info you recommended. I'll try to get to hispeed tomorrow to download updates etc for Tara, and snag the pkgs I need like WINE, so I can run my Astrology program. I've got charts lined up, so I can't play too much till I clear them. Thanks so much to everyone for your input and guidance. Hopefully we are in the flow now.
 
Howdy folks. I've been getting Mint Mate 19 organized. Firefox crashed yet a reinstall has it up again. I installed Wine yet it doesn't open. I've tried to reinstall it. It still isn't opening. Any clue how to fix it. I installed it through terminal, and there was an error message about the installer, yet I accidentlly closed the terminal before I made notes So far those are the only issues.
 
open terminal and press the "up" key......it should bring the last terminal screen back. pres it again and it go back another screen...

You can always take a screenshot......beats writing it out...
 
Thanks a bunch condobloke. That helps immensely . I'll try it. I didn't hit the post button yesterday. So Wine was present after I shut down and rebooted. Had charts to do today so I haven't tried to get the modem to work yet. May play this evening yet it is 9p already. Wine is probably ok. Now the issue is getting dial-up connected. Wifi works when I can get it. I have copious notes from the previous months I can refer to for the modem issue. The software for the modem does have a linux folder, so I should be able to fix this. I know I have notes for wvdial in the terminal. Will update soon. We are almost functional I believe. Thanks all.
 

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