Help for Lubuntu testers: 1. Test with the daily build as it is but with zRAM turned off If you want to test how the installation and installed system works, turn off zRAM with the following commands (as shown briefly above in post #8). Do it *before* you start the installation, or at the beginning of the installed session. If you select 'Install Lubuntu' you can right-click on the background and select a terminal emulator (LXterminal). Will it solve the problems in your computer, or will it still freeze? Open LXTerminal sudo swapoff /dev/zram0 sudo swapoff /dev/zram1 ... until all zram devices are switched off. Check with sudo swapon -s and finally run sudo rmmod zram 1a. Test to install with low RAM - AMD64 (64-bit kernel) This time testing the newest daily build (Sep 17 2013) of saucy-desktop-amd64.iso in my Toshiba (a direct install, no virtualisation) http://www.toshiba.se/laptops/satellite-pro/c850/satellite-pro-c850-19w/ using mem=xxxM to limit the RAM usage RAM = 512 MB, 768 MB and 1024 MB i. Finished gracefully, but froze after I clicked reboot. Working system installed (available after 'force reboot' looooong press of power button, SysRq REISUB not responding). ii. Tried again and it froze very early, before copying files. iii. Powered off for a long time. Removed the USB pendrive. Tried again and had the same result as the first time: Finished gracefully. I could peek behind the curtain with ctrl+alt+F1: I could see that a lot of data were swapped (more than 250 MB), which might not be available in a virtual system with a small virtual disk. But it froze after I clicked reboot ... as the first time Something in the system remembers old data. It seems that all variables are not initiated, which is a horrible bug. I've had such problems long ago, when I was developing and debugging programs. It is hard to tell if it is some firmware, the BIOS or Lubuntu that is guilty. Tried only once with 768 MB RAM and 1024 MB: Finished gracefully, but froze after I clicked reboot. RAM 1280 MB Finished gracefully, and no freeze. "Please remove ... and press Enter" not visible because graphics mode, bug 966480. And it did reboot after pressing Enter. Working system installed. -- Comment 1: Install was selected directly at the syslinux screen (not via live desktop). I did not use the mouse only keyboard keys, and used the very simplest install 'use the whole disk'. Comment 2: at RAM = 1280 MB KVM behaved like the real computer except that plymouth run in graphical mode in the real computer, but in text mode in KVM. 1b. Test to install with low RAM - i386 (32-bit kernel) Finally, I tested the newest daily build (Sep 17 2013) of the 32-bit Lubuntu saucy-desktop-i386.iso in the same machine and with the same conditions. RAM = 384, 512 MB, 768 MB Finished gracefully, but froze after I clicked reboot. Working system installed. RAM = 1024 MB No freeze, but waiting for Enter, and then finishing and rebooting properly. This is only slightly better than the 64-bit version, and it is much worse that during early Saucy alpha (or pre-alpha) stages, when the 32-bit desktop installer for Lubuntu might work with 384 MB RAM, and definitely worked with 512 MB RAM. *Try this with the current daily build and zRAM switched off to test if the following assumption is true or false* "The freezing is caused by bad cooperation between the kernel and zRAM" -o- 2. Test of a bug-fix that improves the cooperation between the kernel and zRAM (only for the AMD64 version) Will it solve the problems in your computer, or will it still freeze? In order to 'keep all the ducks in a row' I include the details of how to install the test kernel below. Open LXTerminal wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~jsalisbury/lp1227202/linux-image-3.11.0-7-generic_3.11.0-7.14~lp1227202v1_amd64.deb wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~jsalisbury/lp1227202/linux-image-extra-3.11.0-7-generic_3.11.0-7.14~lp1227202v1_amd64.deb sudo dpkg -i linux-image-3.11.0-7-generic_3.11.0-7.14~lp1227202v1_amd64.deb sudo dpkg -i linux-image-extra-3.11.0-7-generic_3.11.0-7.14~lp1227202v1_amd64.deb reboot Please note that there is currently only an AMD64 version of this kernel. 2a. Test installing programs with the bug-fix and low RAM. I have tested the kernel 'Linux lubuntu 3.11.0-7-generic #14~lp1227202v1 SMP' for several days now. I tested it as an installed system running in my Toshiba giving it only 384 MB RAM. Add the boot option mem=386M at the end of the line in the grub menu with boot options (for example quiet splash). I alternated between this kernel and the default one. I made it swap, for example running some youtube video. Then if I installed something with apt-get, I often had freezes with the default kernel but never with the #14~lp1227202v1 kernel.