Ubuntu on a REALLY OLD PC?

Asked by Caleb

I've recently been put in charge of getting an old Gateway Solo 2500 working, but I've run into problems.

I can't get Win98 to work (which is somewhat depressing, but somewhat inevitable), so I figured I'd try Linux, and I'd try the best (in my opinion) release, Ubuntu.

However, when I start the installation process, it gives me a message saying that the BIOS predates 1999, and that ACPI cannot be loaded.

Then, it looks as if it's going to install, but hangs up after the Ubuntu logo appears, and does the loading bar. All I see is a blinking cursor for a while, and I can't type anything, and then I get a black screen. (Whee)

But, as the ACPI issue seems to be the problem, I was wondering if there's a distro of Ubuntu that's old enough to solve this problem.

Or, if there's a distro with massive enough legacy support that this won't be a problem.

Many Thanks,
Caleb

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Rino Mardo (rino-mardo) said :
#1

Hello, I don't remember it exactly but when you boot the CD there function keys you can press that will show you how to disable ACPI in such cases. There are also other settings just press each function keys and read the instructions.

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MONODA (danyhaddad43) said :
#2

You could try xubuntu which is very similar but built for older computers or you could try Damn Small Linux which only takes up 50 mb of hdd.

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555 (vmp32k-deactivatedaccount) said :
#3

I i remember correctly, you can boot from the CD, when the Bootmenu appears press F6 to edit the kernel boot options and add an "acpi=off" (without the ""). I'm unable to test it though :/

Can you help with this problem?

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