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I want to update my ubuntu on my desktop. I cant use usb too boot as it have old BIOS. It can boot from cd but then ubuntu needs 1,1 GB so cd will not work. my desktop also cant boot from DVD .. Old bios. I have .iso file on my computer. Is it any way i can install/ upgrade ubuntu?

Umar
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3 Answers3

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You can upgrade but it's a long, complicated and bandwidth-intensive process. Even on a good connection, it'll take hours. You're also years behind on security updates so I'm not sure how much I'd trust your existing install. A fresh install is much quicker.

  • Install a lighter spin of Ubuntu like Lubuntu (620MB). To be clear, this is a very different desktop to what you were using but it works and it's very lightweight (so faster on old hardware).
  • Use USB instead of CD. It's much easier to find a 2GB USB stick than replace a CD drive.
  • Combine the two and install a lighter desktop from USB. Xubuntu is another popular choice for older hardware that isn't quite as compromised (perhaps the wrong word) as Lubuntu's LXDE.

  • Install Ubuntu Server (under 600MB) and then install the ubuntu-desktop metapackage... Or another desktop environment depending on what you want. The installer isn't as pretty but it fits on a CD.

    I preference this over the Minimal installer because all the minimal install does is download many of the same packages when it loads up. At least when you get the Ubuntu Server installer, you're still in a nice environment. And both use an entire CD...

There are a lot of different Ubuntu versions that might be worth investigating. Ubuntu-MATE (installable through the mate-desktop package) is probably going to be the closest experience to 10.10, but you'll have to go through Lubuntu or Ubuntu Server to get there.

Community
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Oli
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you can use Ubuntu Mini Remix

It is a fully working Ubuntu livecd containing only the minimal set of software to make the system work. Ubuntu Mini Remix ISO image is around 200MB.

you can download it from here.

Once you download it you can burn on CD and install it normally, then you can add the software needed by the time as you want.

The difference between Ubuntu Mini Remix and Ubuntu Minimal CD is answerd in this FAQ

The Minimal CD will download packages from online archives at installation time instead of providing them on the install CD itself.

This is the main difference with Ubuntu Mini Remix, which is a self contained distro with the basic Ubuntu packages and does not depend on anything else, providing all the basic Ubuntu packages to be able to create your own distro being sure you've all you need.

Maythux
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You can burn a mini.iso image to CD, boot from it and then install everything else over the net.

Minimal CD

And Ubuntu with unity probably will be too heavy for this old computer. I suggest installing Xubuntu or Lubuntu 14.04.

And they provide images that fit to CD.

Pilot6
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