How to change from Ubuntu to Lubuntu?

Lubuntu Support
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Hi there,
I have an old HP laptop bought in 2013. It has windows 10 and Ubuntu 16.04LTS, already. It has too limited resources to run either OS smoothly, and I heard Lubuntu is extremly like Ubuntu without demanding too much resources. I’d like to try Lubuntu.
Since Ubuntu can be removed with just a few of commands, I was wondering if there is some easy way, maybe like running a bunch of commands in Ubuntu, to replace Ubuntu with Lubuntu on my laptop.
Any suggestion would be most welcomed.
Thank you some much.

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Welcome to the community.

Lubuntu 16.04 LTS is EOL & thus unsupported (https://lubuntu.me/xenial-released/).

Yes Ubuntu 16.04 LTS using

  • desktop with Unity 7,
  • server with no desktop
  • Kylin desktop

came with five years of support, flavors however only came with 3 years which ended 2019-April (ie. 2016-April or 16.04 + 3 years = 19.04) http://fridge.ubuntu.com/2019/03/01/ubuntu-16-04-6-lts-released/

I have Lubuntu 18.04 LTS running on a thinkpad t43, 1.5gb of ram with single-core pentium-M processor from 2003-4; and used that laptop (and others like it) to test Lubuntu up to and including Lubuntu 19.04, so I can’t see why you’re saying you can only run 16.04 LTS. Lubuntu is much lighter than Unity 7 found on Ubuntu 16.04.

Yes a command is available, but I don’t think it’s your answer as you’ll be using software that is EOL.

1 Like
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Hi guiverc,
Thank you so much for your welcome and reply.
I try but failed to figure out the relation between your suggestion and my question. Maybe I didn’t make myself clear. The question has been rephrased.
My question is whether I can use a bunch of commands on Ubuntu to remove Ubuntu and install Lubuntu automatically, So that Ubuntu can be totally replaced by Lubuntu on my laptop.
By the way, my laptop has Win10 and Ubuntu now.
Thank you again for your help.

4

Lubuntu 16.04 LTS is end-of-life; it’s support has ended. You’re now asking for support on an unsupported product?

My prior comment was a suggestion to use a supported Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, the options for which I listed if you want to use 16.04.

Currently supported releases of Lubuntu are

  • Lubuntu 18.04 LTS (2018-April release with 3 years support; LXDE desktop)
  • Lubuntu 19.04 (end of life next month so I’d not recommend it for new installs; it’ll upgrade to 19.10; LXQt desktop)
  • Lubuntu 19.10 (what you’ll get after upgrading 19.04, has most of it’s 9 months of supported life remaining; this release can be upgraded to Lubuntu 20.04 when it releases next year; LXQt)

We support, and will help with those releases of Lubuntu.

You’re asking however for support on an no-longer-supported release which could be a security risk, and we no longer support it. Yes you’re very welcome to keep using it, but why ask us for help?

We recommend you use fully supported and maintained software which gets security fixes.

Additional note: If you want to check the support status of your installed 16.04 (or any Ubuntu) system; use ubuntu-support-status to check, it allows you to see the security risk you’re taking, especially useful when using a only partially supported release; 5 years applies only to software found in ‘main’ repository

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I suggest the following method:

  • Backup all valuable data to another drive (both in Windows and in Ubuntu 16.04 LTS) just in case. The data in Ubuntu will be overwritten, but if you have bad luck also Windows will be overwritten.
  • Download a current Lubuntu iso file (I would suggest 18.04.1 LTS, that is the version I installed and I am still running it, but you can also install 18.04.3 LTS or 19.10).
  • Check with md5sum that it is good.
  • Create a USB boot drive (you have done it before, so I think you how to do it).
  • Try Lubuntu (boot into the USB boot drive and run it live in order to see how it works)
  • If you are happy with it, install Lubuntu. At the partitioning page of the installer, select ‘Something else’ alias ‘Manual partitioning’ (depending on version of Lubuntu) and select the partition where you have Ubuntu.
  • Format that partition to ext4 (to remove old cruft from Ubuntu) and select it as root partition /.
  • Continue the installation …
  • After installiing, boot into Lubuntu and restore from your backup the personal files, that you want in your new operating system.
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