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I have a relatively old machine that I've been using as a server for years. It's been running Ubuntu 9 forever. However, the disk died, and I figure now is the time to upgrade.

When I boot Ubuntu 18 from a thumb drive, it boots, but when I select the "Try Ubuntu without installing" or "Install Ubuntu" options, the screen just goes blank and that's all she wrote.

When I boot from a DVD (burned on a mac per the instructions at https://tutorials.ubuntu.com/tutorial/tutorial-burn-a-dvd-on-macos#0, it won't even boot, with GRUB "Error 5" (perhaps the BIOS on this system can't handle a DVD this size)

I've confirmed that my old Ubuntu 9 install CD still boots just fine.

Here's what the BIOS reports:

Manufacturer: Intel
Brand String: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU 760 @ 2.8GHz
CPUID:        106E5

Am I SOL here? Do I really need to retire this old server?

Edit: thanks for all the responses so far. The consensus seems to be that it ought to work, but I think maybe Ubuntu18 doesn't like my BIOS or something. I just tried the Ubuntu Server variant, and as soon as I started to boot, my computer just turned off. Short of finding the Linux equivalent of a Genius Bar, I think I'm SOL.

Edward Falk
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1 Answers1

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I'm getting acceptable perfomance with this very old 32-bit HP laptop. I don't do much with it, but it runs as well as it ever did with its original Windows.

I don't remember exactly when I bought it but here's some bits from the hardinfo report. The SSD was a huge improvement.

The desktop is MATE.

Computer
Processor       Genuine Intel(R) CPU T2400 @ 1.83GHz
Memory  2050MB (433MB used)
Machine Type    Notebook
Operating System        Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS
SCSI Disks
   HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-4084N    
   ATA KINGSTON SA400S3

18.04 32-bit is the last 32-bit Ubuntu but it has, I believe, 10-year support to keep these old hangers-on hanging on. So will be getting at least security updates until 2028. That's pretty darn good and way more than I ever expected to get out of this old laptop.

Stephen Boston
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