Modest Spec or Barebones Installation of Ubuntu

What is this page about?
Installation of Xubuntu, Ubuntu, or Kubuntu
A Barebones Installation

What is this page about?

If you have a computer with 128 MB of RAM or less, you will not be able to use the Desktop CD to install Ubuntu. For low-specification computers, the Desktop CD is too resource-intensive to be running and trying to install Ubuntu at the same time.

Installation of Xubuntu, Ubuntu, or Kubuntu

The main Ubuntu download page links only to the Desktop CD or Server CD. You would need the Alternate Install CD. To get it, you should go to the complete download options page. From there, select a local mirror for your continent (Asia, Europe, North America, etc.).

From there, you'll get a list of releases:

Ubuntu Releases
The following releases of Ubuntu are available:

Ubuntu 6.06.2 LTS (Dapper Drake)
Ubuntu 6.10 (Edgy Eft)
Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn)
Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon)
Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron)
Releases of Kubuntu and Edubuntu are also available here.
Although they are not directly supported by Canonical, releases of Xubuntu are available from the cdimage server.

For old releases, see old-releases.ubuntu.com.

If you have 128 MB of RAM, your best bet is to select Xubuntu and then select the Alternate CD.

What to do with the .ISO once it's downloaded
Instructions for burning the ISO in Windows XP
Instructions for burning the ISO in Mac OS X

Once you've burnt the ISO to CD, reboot your computer with the CD in the drive to start up the installer.

As you can see, the Alternate Install CD starts off with a menu that looks similar to the Desktop CD, but the options are different. If you do not have the resources to run the live CD while installing, you'll want to use this Alternate Install CD and pick the first option: Install to Hard Disk.

The Alternate CD is a graphical installer, but it's text-based. If you want to install Ubuntu (to do a dual-boot with Windows) using this text-based graphical installer, visit this site.

A Barebones Installation

You definitely should use this if you have less than 128 MB of RAM, but even if you have 128 MB of RAM or more, you may want to do this to get a slight performance boost over even Xubuntu, which already has a lighter desktop environment than Ubuntu and Kubuntu.

Warning: you must have a working internet connection in order to use this tutorial. A wired broadband connection is ideal. Dial-up modem or wireless configurations could be problematic.

Download the mini.iso
Since you're doing a barebones installation, you don't need to download an entire 700-MB .ISO (disk image). Go to the MinimalCD page in the Ubuntu Community Help, and download the appropriate Minimal CD—they're all less than 10 MB in size.

Starting the installation

When you boot the CD, you should get a screen that looks like the one in the above screenshot.

At the Boot: prompt, type

server

in order to install just the base system. You'll be adding some more software packages later.

If you see some gobbledygook messages fly by, don't worry. Those messages are normal. Just be patient.

After all the messages fly by, you should be asked some questions about your location, language, keyboard layout, username, password, etc.

Tab will move between elements
Space Bar will toggle selection on an element
Enter will confirm a selection and allow you to proceed to the next screen.

Once the installation has finished, and you've rebooted, you should get a terminal that fills the whole screen. Log in with your username and password. At the prompt (something like username@ubuntu:~$), you can type terminal commands given in the next sections.

Enabling extra repositories
IceWM and most of the lightweight window managers are in a different set of software repositories from the standard set, so we'll have to add that other set.

Type this command to edit the repositories list. The terminal is case-sensitive, and the -B parameter creates a backup of the file before editing it.

sudo nano -B /etc/apt/sources.list

This will bring up the sources.list file in the Nano text editor. Remove the # sign from any line that looks like a web address.

For example...

Before

# deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu feisty universe
# deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu feisty universe

After

deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu feisty universe
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu feisty universe

Then save the file by pressing Control-X, Y, and then Enter.

Getting a usable home desktop
Be careful to type these exact commands (pick the appropriate set of commands for the version you're installing). Spaces are important, as is case (upper or lower).

If you're using Gutsy Gibbon (7.10), Feisty Fawn (7.04), or Edgy Eft (6.10):

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install xorg xterm gdm icewm menu firefox gksu synaptic
sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg
sudo /etc/init.d/gdm start

If you're using Dapper Drake (6.06) or Breezy Badger (5.10):

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install x-window-system-core xterm gdm icewm menu firefox gksu synaptic
sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg
sudo /etc/init.d/gdm start

If you're using Hoary Hedgehog (5.04) or Warty Warthog (4.10):

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install x-window-system-core xterm gdm icewm menu mozilla-firefox gksu synaptic
sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg
sudo /etc/init.d/gdm start

The first command lets the software package manager know what software is available to install.

The second command installs the appropriate software packages.

The third command configures your video screen resolution. You'll be asked a series of questions. Answer them as best you can. If you don't know the answer, just go with the default selection.

The last command starts up your graphical login.

Variations
If you think GDM (the Gnome Display Manager that manages the login screen) and Firefox are too heavy for your hard drive size, your processor, or your RAM; and/or you'd prefer to do your own package management through the terminal instead of Synaptic Package Manager; you can use this instead for the second command:

sudo apt-get install xorg xterm wdm icewm menu dillo

You would then have to use this for the fourth command:

sudo /etc/init.d/wdm start

Some people prefer Fluxbox, Openbox, PekWM, or Windowmaker to IceWM. If you know how to configure those window managers, you can obviously substitute those in for IceWM in the second command. You can learn more about different window managers at http://xwinman.org