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Interesting thread. I'm toying with the idea of ripping up my laptop and using it as an HTPC. Never done anything like it before though.
It's a HP Pavilion (3 years old). So:
AMD Turion II Dual-Core Mobile Processor M520 2.3 GHz,
2GB RAM
Nvidia Graphics card.
Will these specs run a USB stick with XBMC or openelec on it? Can I also run Ubuntu?
The hard drive is fine so I presume I wouldn't need to buy another one.
Thanks
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The great thing about running these OSes from the USB is that they don't touch the data on the existing hard drive.
In other words,..you can boot from the USB and give it a run for it's money.
Works,..Great! Doesn't,...no harm, no foul,...just shut down, remove USB stick and boot normally.
Ubuntu seems to be the most liberal Linux Oses,..as far as hardware goes.
I had an old HP laptop that wouldn't allow me to install Windows XP on it,..let alone anything newer,...even though it had XP installed prior to this.
I tried Red Hat,..no dice,..and 3 other Linux OSes,...no dice.
But Ubuntu worked like a charm.
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Can you run Ubuntu and Openelec on the same USB stick and then choose which OS to use on Bootup?
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Netix
Senior Member
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So I could keep my window 7 instal intact and just run ubuntu from a usb stick ?
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I spent 5 hours trying to install Openelec then XBMCBuntu on my laptop last night but no joy. Just blank screens and a weird login screen. (AMD Turion™ II Dual-Core Mobile Processor M520 2.3 GHz)
Put me right off the laptop route or indeed installing anything myself.
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Just bumping this thread to see if anyone else has comments,..or experiences using their laptop as a media device. (was going to say XBMC,...darn,..I actually liked XBMC as a name,..guess you say soemthing enough times,..it sticks).
1 - Has anyone "scrounged" what was supposed to be a dead laptop,.only to have a great media device?
2 - What OS did you install on the supposed "dead" device?