Old Laptop - What distro?

[Lumeycom]

I've got an oldish laptop, 1.5 celeron M and 512meg and want an easy to use/install distro thats pretty much for browsing and a bit of music playback.

What do you suggest?

 

[Lumeycom]

Xubuntu is pretty easy to use.

That looks like the ticket!

 

[Lumeycom]

well i decided on xubuntu as it seems to be the most pain free (ie newb) install only to find that the cd/dvd drive on the laptop is buggered rather annoying!

 

[Lumeycom]

Well it gets worse....

I opened it up yesterday to get the cd drive out (to get a replacement) and to sort the touchpad out that wasnt working. Fixed the touchpad - Ribbon Cable had come loose but in the meantime i appear to have broken the keyboard.. doh! Guessing its come unplugged but laptops are such a pain to get apart.

Cant for the life of me see how to totally seperate the bottom from the top, something at the back of the unit holding it shut

 

[Lumeycom]

If not.... PXE boot it

Googling just makes my eyes boggle at that! I'm looking for simple solutions hehe If there is an easy way to PXE/network install then I am all ears

Does it support USB booting?

appears to, but this laptop was free and I am trying very hard to avoid spending cash

I know, i hate taking apart laptops. You don't know how much force to use. But on the keyboard i remember mine had a frictionless connection onto the motherboard.

Sorted, brute force and ignorance won the day

 

[Lumeycom]

down the mines see butt!

I was thinking USB CD drive... zzz

Gonna check now and see if i can

Annoying thing is that CD drive is detected etc, even in windows but just shows empty

 

[Lumeycom]

Hrm.. seems it will boot from a USB pen drive

No creator on the iso though so i'm trying to make a bootable USB with unetbootin - if i'm piddling into the wind feel free to correct me

 

[Lumeycom]

Hmm I made a bootable usb pen last night and it booted ok but would not install as it could not mount /dev/cdrom
Clearly I'm doing something wrong