Laptop Part Swapping Project

Back of the laptop

Removed backing plate

Removed the old battery and SSD

Replaced the SSD with a new 1TB SSD

Swapped in a new battery

Booted it up with Ubuntu

Setup and configuration of the OS

Finished and added new life to an old laptop

Offline Knowledge Upgrade

After upgrading the SSD and optimizing the OS on my refurbished 2015 MacBook Air (4GB RAM, 1TB SSD), I transformed the system into a fully functional offline knowledge hub capable of operating without internet access.

System Optimization

Initially Installed Ubuntu but later whiched to Xubuntu (lightweight XFCE environment) to reduce RAM usage.
Added a 4GB swap file and enabled zRAM compression for smoother multitasking and stability.
Gained an effective working memory of 6–8GB by combining RAM, swap, and zRAM.

Swap and zRAM successfully enabled

Offline Content & Tools

Kiwix installed to load offline copies of websites via .zim files.
Downloaded and indexed:
- Wikipedia (Mini and Full versions)
- Wikibooks and Wiktionary
- Stack Exchange snapshots
Installed Zeal and downloaded offline documentation for Python, Bash, JavaScript, HTML/CSS, Git, and more.
Curated a digital survival library including the U.S. Army Field Manual, Red Cross First Aid Guide, WHO Emergency Handbook, and off-grid living PDFs.
Created a clean, organized folder structure under ~/Knowledge_Hub to house all reference material, books, cheat sheets, and LLM models.
Created a custom Bash script for full-text search across all stored materials.

Kiwix running offline Wikipedia

Zeal loaded with offline programming docs

Organized offline archive in ~/Knowledge_Hub

XFCE desktop customized for offline productivity

Why This Matters

This project turns aging hardware into a powerful self-reliant machine — a reference archive, a programming assistant, a survival guide, and a complete library, all functioning offline. It serves as a foundation for my cybersecurity and data research projects, and represents my ability to repurpose older technology for real-world resilience.