FC14 install memory requirements

Patrick Bartek bartek047 at yahoo.com
Tue Nov 16 18:23:00 UTC 2010


--- On Mon, 11/15/10, Robert Moskowitz <rgm at htt-consult.com> wrote:

> I have a Asus EE 700 with 512 Mb
> memory.  FC12 meminfo reports ~490Mb 
> usable memory as I suspect Video is stealing some memory.
> 
> Anyway, FC14 install reports that there is NOT enough
> memory for a 
> graphical install.  To add insult to injury it did not
> even install 
> gnome.  It comes up in text mode and startx is not a
> known command.
> 
> This seems rather extreme?  I put FC12 back on the
> system (how I got the 
> memory info), and will try a FC13 install tomorrow. 
> But are now older 
> 512Mb memory systems locked out of FC14?

I've had some experience putting contemporary Linux distros on marginal systems.  The secret is to do a text-based install.  That way what little RAM you have is not eaten up by the graphic installer sometimes causing the install to fail.  If that doesn't work, then do a mininal "base" install (text-mode, of course) with only enough to get the system to boot to a terminal with the tools to install, piece by piece, the rest of what you want.  I employed the latter technique a few years ago to install Debian Etch with XFCE on a Thinkpad 240X with 192MB RAM (its maximum) when the "minimum" recommended by Debian was 256, IIRC.  It runs just fine.

If all this fails, you may try creating your own "spin" of F14 using revisor.  It's in the F12 repo and probably in F14 as well.  I've never tried it, but came across it while researching the optimum distro to install on a EeePC 900 (512MB RAM) a few months ago.  I first considered F12, since that was what I currently had installed as my primary desktop, but finally chose Eeebuntu 3.0 with GNOME, the default.  It installed easily and ran just fine, but RAM was tight using about half just to boot.  It hit the swap, too, but very lightly and performance remained more than satisfactory.  Even so, I chose to upgrade to 1GB.  Now, it never hits the swap, at least, not that I've seen.

Maybe, Eeebuntu would be a suitable alternative.  It was no problem to install and configure.  I didn't have to search for drivers or anything.  Everything was included.  Everything worked out-of-the-box.  Wireless, too.


B


More information about the users mailing list