My daughter has given me her netbook to get working as it’s pretty much unusable, It’s currently running Windows 7 Starter, I’m currently backing up all her files before I start cleaning it out, She want’s to try Linux as a dual boot as she occasionally need to use Microsoft Office for her work, There’s plenty space for a dual boot but I notice a sticker on the netbook that suggest it has an Atom processor
So my question is can I install PM4 or any Linux distribution on this netbook ?
There is no reason why you could not install PM4 (or any other light distro), just chose the 32 bit.
Some of the pitfalls you may expect (depending of the version) listed on this debian site.
But watch out for the number of primary partitions used up by the OEM.
As SeZo says … pick the 32bit version and you’ll be fine with an Atom CPU (my Aspire Ones and MSI Winds all have Atoms)
Before installing, I’d like to do a little homework … IIRC some (all ?) Dell Mini’s used the Intel GMA500 (Poulsbo / PowerVR) graphics chip, this MAY be a bit problematic (or maybe not).
So first step would be to create a Peppermint 4 LiveUSB stick … boot to it and select “Try Peppermint” … then before installing post the output from:
inxi -F
and
sudo fdisk -l
One thing I’d advise would probably be to (partition sceme allowing) NOT install GRUB to the master boot record, and instead use EasyBCD in Windows to boot Linux from the windows bootloader … this should ensure any windows recovery partition(s) still work as expected.
(but well figure that out when you post the output)
[EDIT]
If on the other hand it uses the Intel Corporation Mobile 945GME graphics chip (as SeZo’s link suggests) you’re laughing … same graphics chip as my netbooks (mines the 945GSE but close enough)
In other good news … Peppermint 4 on an Atom based netbook FLIES by comparison to Win7 starter.
I’m still trying to get stuff off this netbook and on to my NAS for safe keeping, this thing is so slow it’s unbelievable but I’m getting there
One thing I'd advise would probably be to (partition sceme allowing) NOT install GRUB to the master boot record, and instead use EasyBCD in Windows to boot Linux from the windows bootloader .. this should ensure any windows recovery partition(s) still work as expected.
(but well figure that out when you post the output)
OK I’ll folow you’re advice when I get to that stage but I don’t think this has a recovery partition if there is I don’t see it, it only has one partition visible (OS (C:) ) any removable drives I plug in are showing as “D”
Oh, and what's wrong with Kingsoft Office ? ;)
Probably nothing but i don’t know anything about Kingsoft Office, personally I’d rather just wipe Win 7 completely but I promised her she would have Microsoft Office, She’s a Chemistry Teacher and sometimes brings work home so I’m gonna play it safe and give her what she wants.
When I’m finished moving her files I’ll run a live usb and post the outputs you asked for and take it from there
Windows won’t be able to “see” a recovery partition as they’re hidden to windows by default.
But “sudo fdisk -l” will tell us
We’ll also install Kingsoft Office in Peppermint … then maybe she’ll never use Windows … Kingsoft Office is better at Microsoft Office odc/docx/xls/xlsx/ppt/pptx files than Libre Office, but it doesn’t do ODF, etc.
I have both installed … add em both together, and they’re still half the size of a Microsoft Office install
[EDIT]
When I say KO is “better” at .docx, etc. … I actually mean it’s (as far as I can tell) spot on with them … to the extent that people are convinced it contains M$ code, but as it’s closed source we’ll never know, and as it’s Chinese I doubt if they give a flying **** if M$ take them to court
The car manufacturers tried suing for copyright infringment look how far that got them
Sadly in some this is true
Although early Dell Inspiron’s had the N450, which didn’t use Poulsbo (it’s an N270 with on-die FSB)
My missus has an HP Mini 210 with an Atom N2800, and Linux won’t boot at all on it (don’t get further than GRUB). The ONLY distro that got Poulsbo working was MeeGo (they had some Intel-provided closed-source binary driver), and that didn’t have 3D support so no modern DE will work
RE: Office - I always thought MS Office worked pretty well under WINE?
To access the recovery partition and reset Windows back to default, you’d normally hit Ctrl+F11.
According to this video it appears to just be a Norton Ghost image
Before you ever try that though … make sure the Dell came with Win7 preinstalled, you wouldn’t want to restore to XP now would you (check the license sticker)
Would be nice if it were possible to create a recovery USB stick and save it somewhere … gimme a while and I’ll see if I can find out if this is possible.
If the “10” denotes screen size and screen size is measured across the diagonal then it’s a Dell Inspiron Mini 10
make sure the Dell came with Win7 preinstalled, you wouldn't want to restore to XP now would you (check the license sticker) :)
She’s had this netbook since new and it came preinstalled with Win 7 and has the Win 7 sticker
Would be nice if it were possible to create a recovery USB stick and save it somewhere .. gimme a while and I'll see if I can find out if this is possible.
I was gonna suggest I took a system image and wiped the recovery partition and used GRUB, would that be feasible ?
If you have space somewhere it would certainly be a good idea to have a full disk image, taken with something like Redo/Clonezilla … just in case
Personally I’d STILL use the Windows bootloader … if for no other reason than to learn a new trick that may help in the future … like most things it’s not hard once you know how
Firsst steep is going to be resizing the Windows partition … so do you wanna boot to peppermint LiveUSB, then open gparted and resize the Windows partition leaving unpartitioned space after it (as much as you’re setting aside for Peppermint and a swap partition roughly twice the size of your RAM).
Then create an extended partition in the free space but no partitions inside it yet.
Once done, and applied, REBOOT to Windows to check it still works
