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For a while now, I've been trying to think of a way to install some distro of Ubuntu on an old tower I have.

The tower is running dual Xeons, with a Quadros graphics card, 4GB RAM and SCSI type hard drives. It originally came with Windows XP installed, and might be 32 bit.

I attempted loading a Live image of Ubuntu 14.04, but it failed. I'm under the impression that 14.04 is too new for the machine.

Anyone have suggestions?

Edit: The machine in question is an IBM IntelliStation Z Pro, Type 6221-47U. Components: CPU: x2 Xeon 3.06 GHz RAM: 2 GB DDR (1? 2?) GRAPHICS: unspecified

It does have a DVD drive (two actually) so booting from a disc shouldn't be an issue. If I remember correctly, that's what I tried before.

A couple specific questions I have:

Does Ubuntu have any trouble handling multi-CPU systems, or should I expect it to work as normal?

Does Ubuntu natively support SCSI drives?

This machine will hopefully be used for a CNC mill control station, so it just needs basic functionality.

Pheonix
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  • The machine is to old for usb bootable readers most likely. Installing from a dvd or cd should still work. – DnrDevil Jan 06 '16 at 19:38
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    You don`t want an old version, you just want a light version try http://xubuntu.org/ or http://lubuntu.net/ old versions are unsupported and the repos are off line. – Mark Kirby Jan 06 '16 at 20:33
  • @markkirby I was not aware that the repos go offline. – Pheonix Jan 07 '16 at 01:09
  • @Fabby You may be right, but I'm not sure yet. – Pheonix Jan 07 '16 at 01:10
  • Yep , when a release is end of life, that's it, no updates or support but if you use an lts (14.04) you will get 5 years of support (from the day it was released), see this for supported versions http://www.ubuntu.com/info/release-end-of-life – Mark Kirby Jan 07 '16 at 01:13
  • See the links in my first comment for two options that are Ubuntu, modern, upto date and light. Yhey will work great on your hardware. – Mark Kirby Jan 07 '16 at 01:15
  • I think I've determined that it's just an issue with the machine. Despite what appeared to be a straightforward way of booting to a CD (Boot menu -> CDROM) it's not able to boot from my Ubuntu 12.04 disc. (What was in the disc tray when I fired it up just now). I also attempted booting a disc of LinuxCNC 2.7, but that didn't work either. – Pheonix Jan 07 '16 at 02:59
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    Welcome to Ask Ubuntu! We're sorry, but Ask Ubuntu is not a forum, but a Question & Answer site: it works best if you ask one question, so you can receive one answer. When you ask multiple questions, you need to find one expert versed in multiple areas, which becomes unlikelier the more questions you put into, well, one question! ;-) So please, split up your question into multiple questions and drop me a comment so I can answer one of your questions. – David Foerster Jan 07 '16 at 12:07
  • About Release EOLs: They don't go offline, they just get moved to old-releases.ubuntu.com and are kept as they are until their servers fully go down. – Dominic Hayes Jan 07 '16 at 17:02
  • @DavidFoerster My apologies! I'll direct things like this elsewhere in the future. I imagine there's a subreddit? – Pheonix Jan 07 '16 at 18:36
  • @Pheonix Make different questions, you can have multiple questions. This is not a forum but a Q&A site. – Mark Kirby Jan 07 '16 at 18:43

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You don`t want an old version, you just want a light version.

Old version have no updates or support (here or official) and the repository’s are off-line.

I would recommend Xubuntu or Lubuntu for your hardware, both are official Ubuntu, have light weight desktops (L is a bit lighter than X), they are modern and fast and designed for exactly your kind of dated hardware.

To answer your two direct questions in the edit

Does Ubuntu have any trouble handling multi-CPU systems, or should I expect it to work as normal?

If you are referring to physical chips, Ubuntu will handle them just fine.

Here is a question with a detailed answer on the subject of multi cpu.

Does Ubuntu natively support SCSI drives?

Yes it does there is a driver built right in to the kernel, should work out of the box on 14.04 or 15.10

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Mark Kirby
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  • The repositories aren't offline, they are moved to old-releases.ubuntu.com and kept in their current state... – Dominic Hayes Jan 07 '16 at 17:00
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    @DominicHayes apt-get will not work is my point, it will produce a 404 error, you would have to download each package and then install it manually, not to mention the lack of updates and security fixes. You are right that you can get packages for old releases but many devs will remove them once the release becomes eol. – Mark Kirby Jan 07 '16 at 17:04
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You could try Ubuntu MATE or Lubuntu, (I prefer MATE) because they are especially designed for old PCs (Besides the Nostalgia of old versions of Ubuntu Mimicking) and also they are lightweight enough that they even run on PowerPC(s) and Pi(s). The easiest way is to just right-click on the downloaded ISO, get a blank DVD disk, hit Burn to Disc (Or open in Brasero Disc Burner if your on Ubuntu) and then follow the steps there and once done, then insert it into your OLD Computer, boot into the CD/DVD Drive (Search how as it depends on what PC you use) and then install from there...

Though if you want old (dead) Ubuntu releases, go into the old Ubuntu release download page at http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/releases/ (Little Warning: Very old versions of Ubuntu (4.10, 5.04, etc) had the CD in 2 parts, the Live ISO and the Install ISO so be aware of that when downloading the ISO of an old Ubuntu release that didn't have Ubiquity on it)

Dominic Hayes
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If you need an older version of Ubuntu you can get one at http://releases.ubuntu.com

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