I might be a little late to the party, but I’ll give my two cents. Your system is not too old (or under-powered) to run Linux Mint. You just need to choose a Desktop Environment that is lighter, like XFCE or MATE.
Are you married to Mint or are you willing to try something else? I would recommend Manjaro. It has a great hardware detection tool that works better than most I have encountered. The default Desktop Environment is XFCE, which is nice and light. They also have GNOME, MATE, Budgie, Deepin and more.
I only choose Mint Cinnamon because I’ve read a review about that distro and the result was very positive and now I would like do more tests with it but I could try Manjaro too and if it works better than Mint on this laptop I can use Manjaro instead Mint
Hi Tech_JA: I agree with Akito, your laptop is not “too old”; I just install Linux Mint 18.3 Cinnamon 32 bit on a small Acer eMachines eM350 seris (Intel Atom1.66GHz, RAM 1GB, HDD 300GB) and it runs smoothly (not a tiger sure). Maybe always install last version (19) is not a good option in some cases.
here’s the settings I used for the tests I did today:
Boot mode: UEFI
Boot Secure: Disabled
Erased all boot secures settings
Restored boot Secure to factory default
1GB allocated to to graphic cards
All LIVE Distros were running on USB Pen
Distros tested:
Mint 19.1 Cinnamon
Mint 19.1 MATE
Mint 19.1 Xfce
Mint 18.3 MATE
Manjaro 18.0.1 MATE
MX 19.1 Xfce
I’ve noticed that Cinnamon is a little heavier than the others DE, although all of of the tested distros were able to run this full-screened video on Firefox at 720p with virtually zero flaws https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdiAY5ST-pM
Of all the tested LIVE distros, Mint 19.1 MATE and MX 19.1 Xfce seemed to me the fastest ones using the DE in general.
Mint 19.1 Xfce felt a little bit slower than Mint 19.1 MATE
Mint 18.3 MATE and Manjaro 18.0.1 MATE got more kernel errors than Mint 19.1
I can conclude that, if my laptop is able to run Firefox withot freezing on a USB Pen it should be able to run on SSD
Hi,
You had many replies here and I wouldn’t want to bother you but I have to give you my 2 cents.
I am using Mint since Mint 2.
Many things are in the play. It is always a good idea to partition the drive - not just use the default “install on this drive”.
Also, I prefer Mate over any other Desktop. It can look good and it is lite enough.
I also suggest that after installing you should remove anything you will not be using.
Kernel should be installed if you need a specific hardware that will be supported with that Kernel. That is really the only reason why you would chose a newer Kernel.
It is a good idea to have a wired Internet while installing new applications, drivers etc.
It is also OK to try and use a generic driver for printers and other peripherals. It is also a good idea to contact the manufacturer site and look for drivers.
Lastly, all that should be done when a person has time and can concentrate on a setup of their new OS. It is frustrating and usually one runs into problems when trying to rush things.
I hope you make a great install and all works for you.Cheers!
Yes, Mint is set up to be easy to use. I advice to partition for the simple reason to have more control, especially with /home where everything that you might want to keep is. That way when you have to reinstall or something happens you can always keep the /home intact and have it there.
It is common sense that one has to be careful what to remove and what not. But for instance if you don’t ever use Thunderbird - uninstall it. it is not dangerous.
You never used wired connection - therefore you don’t know why I said that. Well, try a wired connection and you will see what I am talking about.
Yes, drivers are installed automatically but in case that there are no drivers there, some printers call for linux drivers and are available in the manufacturer’s website. I was just telling the person who asked what can sometimes be a case.
Concentration - maybe you are some kind of wizard and don’t ever need to concentrate on your work but the rest of us mortals are advised to do so they would have less errors and frustration.
I wish you and your friend all the best.
Hi @nebinbc,
You’re not bothering at all, I appreciate all of your suggestions - thanks!
In my opinion, one the best things on this community is the friendship and the willingness to help another fellow user no matter the knowledge level. Its wonderful to get this this many reply’s and support when in need of help - I’m really grateful.
It’s so grateful to receive one message with one opinion to test when we are with problems so solve
In fact, I’ve chosen Mint 19.1 Mate already and installed it but I haven’t had the time yet to test it, so far I’ve only tested with Firefox and a 720p video to check if it works or if it freezes and it works without any problems.
I’ll follow your advice on removing all the programs I don’t use, thanks for the tip
Thanks. However I wold like to learn more about some settings that I saw in boot like:
acpi=force
irqpol
But this is for another adventure…
I used wifi to do updates but it’s my intention to use a wired connections for the next tests ( need a switch for that)
About printers: we’ll talk about this later, I promise
That’s the reason I haven’t updated this topic yet - I’m waiting for my days off to do more testing
I have an Acer Aspire 5516 that was built in 2009 and I have had trouble after installing Ubuntu/Mint 19. Everything is extremely slow or simply will not run a 64bit install. I’m currently running and enjoying MX Linux (https://mxlinux.org). It’s a Debian based system so it’s just like Ubuntu, but much more snappiness.
MX 19.1 Xfce
and I like both - they run very well from an USB PEN
Now I installed Mint 19.1 MATE in my SSD because I want to keep doing research on some errors that I have encountered but after that I would like test MX too
Having looked at the specs for it, I am not surprised that you’ve had difficulties with it. Did you try Mint LMDE Cindy on it? Just interested to know how you got on with you system having the 1.6 GHz AMD Athlon CPU and the 2GB ddr2 memory. I don’t know if you have done any upgrades just that these were the basic specs for it.
Perhaps you also wouldn’t mind starting a thread about MX Linux as there are many here who aren’t familiar with it and it would add to the community’s knowledge base - thank you
I’ve had the laptop for about 2 years. I had been running windows 7 on the laptop until October 2018. I upgraded the ram from 2GB, to 4GB at that time. Windows 7 was still too slow for me, so I started installing 64 bit versions of my favorite distros (Linux Mint and Lubuntu) - they would run live, but crash after install. Lubuntu would install just fine with 64 bit but would later crash after updating. Linux Mint would crash after install completed and I restarted. I did not try running the LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition). I will try that after some more testing with MX Linux.
Two other distros that worked that I would like to list also is Linux Lite, and several versions (spins) of Fedora 64 bit.
I found MX when I was searching the internet for a Debian based distro but that was not Ubuntu based. I also wanted to run 64bit version if I could manage it. MX linux fulfilled that requirement for me.
Since my last post I have installed Crucial brand 120GB SSD from ebay. but did not seem to have an effect on the speed of the laptop.
I’ve also installed Android Studio its running and updated - its very slow when compiling on my machine, but it works. I’ve also installed Slack, and it launches with no issues.
I would be happy to start a thread and document some of my experiments if that would help others with older machines.
@mongst,
one question: are you sure your memories are good?
As I understood, all distros crashed in your laptop.
You could check a brief test:
1 - remove the battery an de AC/DC adapter
2 - remove one memory
3 - install the battery and the AC/DC adapter
4 - Check if your Linux crashes again ( don’t worry about speed)
5 -If it crashes, do the same now to the other memory and starts from step 1
probably you could have one memory damaged
Another way to test your memories is using the software MEMTEST 86 running in from a USB PEN
P.S:: This is just a tip
please give-me some feedback after your tests
EDIT 2019-03-06T17:49:00Z:
when your computer starts, check if you have this option on grub an run it - Memory Test ( metmtest86+)
Just my personal view. I think it might be a good idea if you want to do so. You could try the 32 bit ones if you want to stick with Mint & Lubuntu as they’d possibly work better. I know you want to keep to 64 bit if you can.
I was looking at Distrowatch for Ubuntu based Distributions and there are quite a lot of them there.
Would you please keep us updated as I am interested in how you get along and I am sure it will help others here. Thanks.
I hope this makes sense as I am not at my best today.
After talking with my friend @ElectricDandySlider, I started testing every thing at came to mind to see wich one is the fastest: 32 bit or 64 bit
The tests are being done with:
MINT MATE 32bit and 64bit
MX Xfce 32bit and 64bit
I’ve noticed there’s a big difference - Since I only have 4 GB RAM, I switched VGA to 1 GB RAM instead of AUTO
just curious.