Lubuntu In A Toshiba NetBook w/Atom Processor

I am trying to install Lubuntu 20.04.2 LTS onto a USB stick that I can boot from in a Toshiba NB505 NetBook computer, which uses an Intel Atom processor.

The only dowload I see is specified as using an AMD64 cpu. Does anyone know if it will work with the Atom processor, or should I just try it and see?

Thx.

Hi @IBM650

Unless I’m missing something, you can definitely use the AMD64 download for Lubuntu 20.04 on your NetBook PC.

The “AMD64” part can be confusing since it can give folks the idea that it only works on AMD builds but that notation is actually used to denote that whatever you’re getting will only run on x64 processors (see EDIT). Lubuntu should run fine on your PC for sure so please give it a try.

You can always come back if you run into any issues but I recommend taking a look at the Lubuntu Manual as a guide to get you started. Also, it can be confusing sometimes so if your intent is to install Lubuntu on your USB, please be sure to select the correct device when going through the installation otherwise you run the risk of installing onto your actual laptop (i.e. hard drive).

EDIT: updated links to point to correct manual for specified Lubuntu version install.

Also, please see the following comment for an accurate description for the AMD64 notation:

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Thx TRG. I will give it a try. Thx for the clarification on what the AMD means.

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This is just FYI.

Intel wanted the market to move to IA64 or a new 64-bit architecture when they moved from 32-bit to 64-bit. However IA64 (intel itanium 64-bit) was not backwards compatible with x86 (32-bit) meaning everyone had to start with new systems (including all new software).

AMD created AMD64 or what can also be called x86_64 (official name is amd64) which was backward compatible meaning it could run older 32-bit code, and it sold well in the marketplace.

IA64 or intel’s system failed (in the marketplace), AMD’s very quickly became the standard. Intel have since dropped IA64 and produce amd64 CPUs (under agreement with AMD).

Also not all intel Atom cpus are amd64, early ones are x86 only, eg. the intel atom n270 in my asus eepc runs Lubuntu 18.04 LTS perfectly (even later 18.10 & 19.04 x86) but as it’s not amd64 it can’t run later releases.

Your intel atom appears to be a much later n455 atom which is amd64 as @That_Random_Guy said

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You are right, mine is the N455. Now I am beating my brains out trying to find the hash code for lubuntu-20.10-desktop-amd64.iso. Can you either publish the code or provide a link where I can get it?
Thanks for your help.

They are the links on this page:

https://lubuntu.me/downloads/

So, for the 20.04.02 release it’d be:

https://cdimage.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/releases/20.04.2/release/SHA256SUMS

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Thanks. The codes aren’t matching so I will run SHA256 again. But right now my brain is fried, so I will take a break and try later. Thanks for the help.

The manual only has 20.10 at the moment.

https://manual.lubuntu.me/stable/1/1.1/retrieving_the_image.html

I could have sworn it had all the current releases, but my memory is most likely faulty.

The manual for the LTS is still there but at a different URL https://manual.lubuntu.me/lts/1/1.1/retrieving_the_image.html

Just substitute lts for stable.

The default is to point to the last released version.

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Thanks guys. I finally got everything to match. I will try to burn a USB stick tomorrow and see if my Toshiba NB505 will execute it.

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Perfect! I actually did want someone to chime in on this subject since I knew my answer was not entirely accurate—what with ARM being it’s own thing and all—so thank you for clarifying things! Hope this helps a bit @IBM650

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Success! I got Lubuntu 20.04.2 LTS installed on a USB stick and my Toshiba NB505 booted from it without any problem. It even put an icon on the desktop that allows me to install Lubuntu! Now I can uninstall Windows 10 from it (which overwhelmed it and was unusable) and move that to a bigger machine.

My next step will be to install a 2GB memory module in place of the 1GB it came with. Thanks to everyone for your help. I look forward to participating in this blog.

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Your processor has enough cpu power to run Lubuntu and access internet and perhaps play 720 P videos without problems.
If you only has 1 GB RAM and only will use internet access you may enable a zram using 256 MB thus avoiding swap to disk, but the recommended is 2 GB to run internet without swap on disk.

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I upgraded the memory on my NetBook to 2GB and installed Lubuntu on it. Everything seems to be working well, but it looks like there is still some vestige of Windows on the hard disk. It seemed to have a very small partition labeled Windows. The machine started with W7 and then I installed W10 on it. I no longer want W7 on it and I will now try to move W10 to a larger machine. How can I remove the Windows jetsam to make sure the machine is totally Lunbuntu? Or is better to leave it like it is?
Thx.

Here is what the partition table looks like now:
Partition Type Mount Pt Label Size Used
/dev/sda1/ ntfs System 1.46 GiB 473.96 MiB
/dev/sda2/ ext4 padlock 223.23 GiB 5.73 GiB
/dev/sda3/ ntfs HDDRECOVERY 8.19 GiB 7.65 Gib

padlock means there is an image of a padlock there. Hope this is readable. It was hard to format.

My first guess would be to use a partition manager to get rid of those remaining Windows partitions. If you prefer terminal, you can use parted or fdisk/gdisk (might have to install). If you’re comfortable with GUI, you can probably make use of KDE’s partition manager:

https://apps.kde.org/en-gb/partitionmanager/

That one you also will likely have to install. I believe Discover (the software catalog) will find that one but the terminal-based tools you’ll likely have to get via the apt command or via Muon if you prefer GUI.

Once those partitions are removed and depending on where they actually are on the disk relative to your other partitions and whether or not you’ve elected to make your Lubuntu install fully encrypted or not, this will probably give you an opportunity to reclaim any hard drive space you may have lost before completing the install without the space those partitions claimed.

I think someone else will need to chime in on this since in my head I can only recall being able to reclaim what’s to the right of a given partition so long as it is contiguous free space. It’s been a while for me. :laughing:

@IBM650
remember to enable zram using 512 MB.
I recommend to use Firefox or SeaMonkey configuring to use less system memory.

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