No Distros working for my Computer

Hey-

So I have an IBM Thinkpad that's really old with Windows XP on it. However, it runs really slowly, not to mention it looks ugly too. Because I've been wanting to try Linux for a while now, I decided to go for it with this computer. After many tries I could not get it to properly boot or install. Now, I believe, I'm left with no OS.

I started off by trying to boot it from a usb but it didn't work so I switched to CD. I've tried Lubuntu, Unity, and Bodhi. Considering the fact that my computer has only 128MB memory, I've gone for the smaller Distros. All not booting properly or installing. By not booting properly I mean that it freezes during the process. For Bodhi, I successfully booted it from a CD but after a few minutes it froze. And sometimes it freezes while at the theme choosing theme.

For Lubuntu, it seems to have been installed. I go the the last screen(I believe) that says something like the installation is done, restart but make sure you take the CD out so it doesn't boot from the CD again and start the installation process over. At which point I take the CD out and then turn off the computer and turn it back on.

I don't know what I'm doing wrong, and I don't want to spend any more time trying to install Linux-- I want to start to learn more about it by using it. Any suggestions and advice would be helpful. Thank in advance.

Get a netinstall CD of Debian from debian.org its size is about 100 MB and to install you need an internet connection and a cable to wire your computer to your router.

Hello and Welcome!:)

With low specs, you might want to look to something like antiX, Puppy or Slitaz.
You'll probably have better results that way.

Jay is right, with just 128 mb ram, it is going to b difficult for even Lubuntu. AntiX, SliTaz, Tinycore, or one of the other minimal linux may run better. Start by going to distrowatch.com and doing a search for older computers. This will return a list of distro's which typically do well on computers with less than 1 GB ram. Unfortunately, some distro's can be hard to find out just how little ram they will work with, often citing no figures, or figures that were accurate 4 or 5 releases ago. Easiest thing to do is download several likely candidates and try them as a live cd.

Thanks a lot. I want something easy to get used to and customize because I'm new to this whole thing. I eventually want to install Fedora onto a different computer once I use Linux a little. And does anyone know where to get more ram and memory for my IBM... for cheap?

Anyways thanks a ton for the help

I usually use Tigerdirect.com or Newegg.com for parts. You can find stuff a little cheaper at some other sites, but you spend a lot of time chasing down that "good deal", and tiger or newegg are usually pretty close in price.

Thanks a lot. I'm going with antiX and see how it goes.

I've installed Gentoo on very small systems, but Debian is a good choice. I've installed Edge on ARM embedded systems with 32-64MB of RAM.