Is my PC up to the job of running Zorin 6.4 Core?

Hi all,

I wonder if you can help please. When I try to run Zorin 6.4 Core 32 bit from the LiveDVD, the icons on the desktop appear but the bar at the bottom of the screen does not and I get the error message: “The application Compiz has closed unexpectedly”, which looking on the web, I believe is a graphics problem?

The PC I am trying to run it on is a HP Pavilion 404.uk - Pentium 4 2.8GHz with 1GB RAM and an 80GB Hard Drive, so it meets the minimum requirements of Zorin. According to Windows XP the amount of memory that the integrated graphics can use is up to 64MB, but looking in the BIOS of the system, I can only allocate a maximum of 8MB to the integrated graphics. I wonder if this is causing the above error message to appear? I have tried reducing the screen resolution to 800 x 600, the lowest it will go, but this has not made any difference. I have checked if the BIOS and graphics controller drivers can be updated, but the latest versions are installed. I have tried running the LiveDVD in Safe Graphics Mode but this seems to make it worse as no icons appear at all on the desktop.

I have also tried the LiveDVD in a more powerful laptop and it runs fine, so the problem is not with the DVD.

Any help from you good people on how I could get Zorin 6.4 Core running on my old PC would be very much appreciated.

Thank you
Mike

I suppose that the problem is in graphics. I have a HP530 laptop where I had a Ubuntu installed before and I did not run Combiz Configuration at all due to too limited resources to run. Now I have there Zorin 8 Ultimate and Combiz installed as default. Since using Ubuntu I have upgraded now the RAM from 1 Gb to 2Gb and the HDD from 80 Gb to 320 Gb. I do not know if these updates make any improvement to graphics but what I can suggest is that you remove all possible effects that are used by default from the Combiz to reduce the load of graphics. I do not know whether It can be removed totally from the os. to get Zorin working in a reduced graphical mode.

I know that Combiz is a heavy load for a laptop not having very capable graphic drivers. I see that even if it now works in my HP 530 laptop it does not run all effects as good as those run in my desktop where I have lot better graphics card. If this will not help then there might not be very much possibilities to get that Zorin distro running properly.

Hopefully this was something that helps you to get the Zorin 6.4 working.

OK, give this a try (no guarantees mind! )

When the machine boots with the Live DVD, press 'e' to edit the boot command and at the end enter:

Code:

forcevesa acpi=off nomodeset

then press enter and see if it boots ok then!

Keep us posted!

Did you get Zorin 6.4 to run. I tried also to run that distro in my HP 530 laptop in live DVD. All other worked ok. but internal wifi did not start to work , not in Zorin 8 either and AWN settings did not appear to make any chances to the panel. I tried to add some applets and chance the appearance of panel without success.

I connected a USB wifi adapter and it works. I write this just using zorin 6.4 in my HP530. May be that AWN settings does not work in a non persistent live session. However, AWN has appeared to be stubborn to make what it should to do also in full installations.

If you do not get it working, you may try upgrade RAM to 2Gb, or you can look also some other Linux distros like LXLE to have a lighter os. to run. It is a Linux distro that is dedicated to the older computers having less performing hardware. That uses also an other panel, LXPanel that might behave more stable than AWN. Compiz Configuration Manager is not there either by default installed.


Zorin 8/8.1 Core and Ultimate 32 Bit, Ubunbtu 13.10 32 Bit, Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit, Asus AMD Athlon 64 Bit X2 Dual core 4000+, HP 530 Intel Celeron M 32 Bit

Hi,

try the newest Lite version:

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=6917

I made just a short benchmark to Zorin 8 Lite downloading it and running it here in my HP 530 laptop now. The outlook seems to be very similar to LXLE os. using the same LXPanel and Windows XP outlook. Zorin 8 Lite seems to be even more reduced os. from applications point of view than LXLE and it is more a starter kit compared to LXLE, that fulfills more the average users needs "out of the box". Additional to Main menu in LXLE there is a hiding Launch Panel on default left side to start applications like in Ubuntu Unity desktops. That panel can be ie. relocated and resized to right or to top of the screen. Personally I like that addition. That is however not implemented to Zorin 8 Lite distro.

What comes to how they work, both does work ok, as far as I have tried, however in Zorin internal wifi did not start to work, as also expected. So I use now a USB Wifi Adapter. There are differences also in selection of the application software. In Zorin 8 Lite there is Chrome instead of FF browser and only a Abi Word text editor instead of full Libre Office pagage. In graphics there is not GIMB image editor installed. There is not any Games and so on. There is some first aids to assemble additional application programs in Lite, like "Browser Manager" to add or change the web browser and "Zorin Lite Extra Software" to add some other selected software. More can be installed then from Lubuntu Software Center.

The selection here is also how to get support to these os.es than what the content of the distros are. Zorin has a good Forum and support. Experience of that in LXLE I do not have. Both are modified Lubuntu distros having a long term support I suppose. In downloading the .iso file of these os.es there are the difference that LXLE uses a bitTorrent that requires a Torrent client installed from software center (or somewhere else) to Download. Lite can be downloaded using only a web browser.

My suggestion here is that both are wort trying. If You want a ready installed distro so LXLE is for that. If You want to make a customized os. installing and removing software to your needs then Zorin 8 Lite is better choice having good support for that. The best selection for you is that it works (also support) and that you like it.

Thank you very much Henriolavi, Swarfendor437 and Wolfman for your replies and sorry for my delay in getting back to you.

I edited the boot command as Swarfendor437 suggested and the good news is that Zorin Core runs! The bad news is that it runs very slowly on the LiveDVD – looking at the System Monitor the CPU is running at 100% and the memory at 35%.

I understand from the installation notes that the LiveDVD runs much slower than a full installation – and as the spec of my PC is over twice as powerful as the minimum requirements for Zorin Core, I am tempted, after backing up my files, to try and install it as a dual boot with Windows XP. Unfortunately 1GB RAM is the maximum this PC supports so I can not upgrade it.

As I had to edit the boot command to get the LiveDVD to run, is there anything I need to change, or setting to select, when installing? Or do those changes just apply to running the LiveDVD?

If I can not get Core 6.4 to run I will have a look at the new Lite 8.

Thanks again for your replies and I will let you know how I get on.

Mike

Hi Mike,

you should still use those commands to boot the live Cd, once installed and you have installed all the updates, you shouldn't need to worry about them again.

Read the post install guide too:

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2054

If you have an Nvidia graphics card:

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2490

For updating:

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2247

I am wondering if you would be better with Zorin 8 Lite?

You said that you can run Zorin 6.4 from CD/DVD but it runs slowly. Also you said that the CPU run 100% and you have only 1 Gb RAM used up to 35%. If CPU runs 100% all the time that might be the bottleneck. For some reason CPU has more to do than it can execute. This might be related to some application software or some driver used or only to task allocation of the os. to run. To use DVD does not mean that it will be slow all the time. Normally to run from DVD it only load starting some new application after booted up. There can be seen the slower loading times compared to HDD. Other activities there should run more normal speed.

The speed depends also how it loads data from DVD when starting the os. Some os.es loads all data some only the minimum to start ie. some menus open slowly when opening those first time.

My suggestion here is that try some other os. than Zorin 6,4 Core to look if there the CPU load could be lower than 100%. There might be different softwares, drivers and task allocations to run CPU to get it better going. Normally the CPU load should be something 10 to 50% even lower if any heavy applications is not running. Only running some Full HD videos with full screen on line will require up to 100% CPU capacity.

Lubuntu and it's derivatives (Zorin 8 Lite and LXLE) according to the delivered information can be more optimized to the low performance hardwares.

Do not know why your HP Pavilion is that stubborn not to run Zorin 6.4 Core. My HP 530 has not much better performance data and I run there Zorin 8 Ultimate without any big difficulties. Only some graphigs effects from Combiz Conf. Manager does not work perfectly. I believe that Compiz Config Manager is that heavy application which is the first problem to a low performance computer. The original specs. were 32 bit Intel Celeron M 1 core 1,86 GHz, 1 Gb RAM and 80 Gb HDD then I upgraded to 2Gb RAM and 320 Gb HDD. Now there is installed Ubuntu 13.10 and Zorin 8 Ultimate dualboot on HDD. Additionally I have tried Zorin Core 6.4 , 8.1 and Zorin 8 Lite and LXLE from a Persistent USBDrive and all these works more or less as they should. It is only question does the os es work ok. the hardware works reasonable well. Only difficulty there was that any Zorin distro couldn't start the internal Wifi out of the box. Both Ubuntu and LXLE managed to do that.

What you also have to bear in mind is that 'live' distributions are running entirely in RAM (with the help of the processor of course) so it is always going to be slower - every time you launch an application for example starts a slow whir of the DVD to access where it is on the DVD before sending the 'run' element through memory to the CPU - hence overload! I would go for a Lite version but as Zorin Lite is very short life-span, try LXLE (http://lxle.net) or Trisquel (http://trisquel.info) then come back when Zorin 9 Lite is released - according to Wolfman the latter will be LTS!

Warning: There is a experienced problem with Trisquel with internal wifi. If you use some Broadcom 43xx internal wifi shipset, it probably does not work. There is not a known solution how to fix it. All USB wifi adapters does not either work. (tested in HP 530 laptop having a Broadcom BCM 4312 802.11 b/g LP PHY internal wifi).

OK, the only dongle that Trisquel that I can get to work with out of the box is:

Netgear WG111 v3 - I am using it as I speak in Trisquel 5.5 live!

trisquel@trisquel:~$ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 009: ID 0846:4260 NetGear, Inc. WG111v3 54 Mbps Wireless [realtek RTL8187B]