Ubuntu Server installation with 128M ram hangs

[Paul Larson]

Installing quantal 20120913 server image hangs at detecting disks and all other hardware with 128M. Our currently stated minimum system requirements include 128M ram for -server installs, so I'm using a KVM session with 128M to test this.

Bumping this to 256 will allow it to make it through the install, but still get's lots of OOMs throughout the installation process.

[Paul Larson (pwlars)]

Here's a log from an install with 256M that finished, but had lots of OOMs throughout. As another datapoint, with 512M I am able to complete the install without OOM.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Where did you find these minimum requirements stated?

[Paul Larson (pwlars)]

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/SystemRequirements and from discussions with the release team about past requirements.

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

The 256MB case is failing because no swap is configured, which isn't surprising; but I'll see what we can do about the 128MB case.

[Robbie Williamson (robbiew)]

Maybe the "fix" is upping the memory requirements. Are there any useful cases where a server has this little amount of RAM?

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

Robbie, the reason I took this bug was that the increase in base memory requirements surprised me and I wanted to investigate it. I have no problem with the ultimate solution being to increase those requirements, but I would like to have the freedom to investigate it first.

[Robbie Williamson (robbiew)]

Colin, sure thing. I just wanted it known that we weren't necessarily tied to having the 128mb limit, if that became a huge issue for Foundations, specifically you...but if you want to take a look, more power to you ;).

[James Page (james-page)]

See attached branch for details of proposed documentation updates for this bug and the install size problem as well.

[Doug Smythies (dsmythies)]

Having received and e-mail on both the docs and server lists about serverguide minimum memory requirements changes, I found this bug report.

I have a 200 Mhz computer with only 128 Mbytes of memory.
The computer was used throughout the 12.04 release cycle as a minimum requirements test case. Until today I have not been involved with any 12.10 testing.

Todays 12.10 i386 ISO was downloaded and put to CD-ROM.
Installation went fine, except the install-grub stage was incredibly slow. Now the server is running fine.

The only time this computer has run out of memory is with 11.10 when I tried to compile the kernel. It took 33 hours 4 minutes and 57.6 seconds before it gave up with an out of memory error.

Myself, I don't think the minimum memory requirements needed to be increased, at least for real hardware. I don't really care if they are, I'm just saying is all.

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

As this is an installer issue, since it didn't get done for release there doesn't seem to be any sense in keeping it open for quantal.

[Jeremy Bícha (jbicha)]

I believe the 12.10 serverguide has been updated with this info:
https://help.ubuntu.com/12.10/serverguide/preparing-to-install.html

[Oibaf (oibaf)]

bug 381059 may definitively help with this problem.

[Doug Smythies (dsmythies)]

In post #10 above, I said I didn't care if the hardware requirements were changed. However, it turns out I do care.
The 32 bit 13.04 server edition installs and works fine on my pathetic old 200Mhz computer with 128 Megabytes of memory.
I don't know if the memory problems experienced in this bug report were because of a virtual machine installation or if it was a 64 bit installation or both. Someone on Ubuntu forums, had troubles with a virtual 64 bit install with 128 megabytes yesterday.
My suggestion is to figure it out and detail such in the documentation. I.E. I wonder if a 32 bit virtual installation would work with only 128 Megabytes of memory? (Maybe that is what the OP tried?)
I am willing to to the work, but I would have to learn how to build vitrual machines first.
I think the probability of finding a real 64 bit computer with only 128 or even 256 megabytes of memory is 0%.

The changes to the 12.10 serverguide also introduced a "Standard" and a "Minimal" Server but didn't define what they are.

[Doug Smythies (dsmythies)]

"I.E. I wonder if a 32 bit virtual installation would work with only 128 Megabytes of memory? (Maybe that is what the OP tried?)"

It does not work.

[Doug Smythies (dsmythies)]

However, after allocating more memory for installation phase, the virtual machine works fine with 128 megabytes thereafter.

[codeslinger (codeslinger)]

for what it's worth...

yes, there are real-world cases where there is only 128 megs available.

Quite a few hosting companies that offer VPS packages, have low end virtual hosts with as little as 64 megs of memory, with 128 megs being a common entry point.

I know that OpenVZ is not exactly the same as a hardware install, but I've got a VPS that runs 12.04 in 64 megs. It's only used for backups, so it would be a waste of resources to give it any more memory.

there are lots of these hosting companies out there. doubleing the memory requirements would have a substantial effect on their profitability.