Firstly I did look at the template but was confused by it as it looked like command lines?
So here goes with my first post…!
Enjoyed - My Story; 70 years old Roy Davies shows us how he is reviving his 13 year old laptop with Linux.
So I should be able (69) to have a go with my 32 bit HP G60 laptop running terrible Vista Home Premium SP2. - Intel® Core™ Duo 2.00Ghz 3.00 GB RAM with about 90GB of free space on Drive C. Would like to install ubuntu as I am currently using 16.04 LTS on my Dell Latitude E6420 laptop. I am worried about your articles on support being dropped by ubuntu and then the backtracking. Also my HP laptop, expensive in its day, has excellent sharp vivid screen driven by Nvidia GeForce 9200M GE Driver 187.66 though strangely with 64bit memory interface which you say is no longer supported - is this a real issue - can I live with it?
Any advice welcome - should I follow tutorial for Win10? I connect with a 3 dongle 10GB data allowance. I do not use social media.
I have worries about later 18 and 19 ubuntu releases which are possibly better covered under another topic - are they designed to be more intrusive? Later folks in another topic?
it makes sense to be concerned about ubuntu dropping 32-bit support if that was the main distribution you were considering installing. according to @abhishek’s article about it, there is an option called netboot for 18.04 (the current stable version) but that installation sounds quite a bit more complicated than the usual graphical installer environment you are probably used to. ubuntu 16.04 still has a 32-bit installer that you can download, but that will run out of service in just over a year.
another thing to consider with older computers like the one you are trying to revive is the desktop environment (de) that the distribution has. regular ubuntu 16.04 uses unity and regular ubuntu 18.04 uses gnome. if you want to try installing 16.04 or 18.04, you might want to look at one of the “lighter” (i.e. uses less system resources like ram and cpu) de’s like xfce, mate or lxde.
there are other distributions that will continue to support 32-bit installation for now if you wish to consider those. debian still does, but installation can be a bit more technical than ubuntu. it looks like there is a puppy version of 32-bit ubuntu 18.04 (called BionicPup32 8.0 in the table). the puppy versions (which i have not used or tested. just read about) are supposed to be designed for ease of use and a wide range of older and newer hardware.
There is Peppermint OS too, I only mention Peppermint because I run it and today I’m going to try to install it on a old Acer Vista machine from 2007, bought by my wife to be from PC World and they sold her antivirus that she did not need. She now has a full Desktop with Windows 10 on, as try as I might to convert her to Linux, she won’t full stop and the fact the Paddington Bear stare she gives me scares the hell out of me.
This Acer is 64bit and running 4GB of Ram, but will install 32bit as the innards are so old. There are a lot of stupid laptops out there with only 3GB of ram and try as you might to run a 64bit machine, you’ll find it struggle or won’t boot at all. I tried installing Peppermint 9 on a weird tablet Windows 8, it has a 64bit processor but a 32bit UEFI, the stupid thing is, is that they intentionally made it not to be made for any other OS Windows only, which is a waste of time and as soon as that tech has been released it’s obsolete within a few months, from Acer who go on to other things.
I got it to boot to the Grub but passed that just freezes, tried for hours with different Grub commands, must be a way to unlock the Processor? Or would that be adding another pin or undoing a pin on the actual processor it self? Who knows? Just would of been nice to have Peppermint running on a tablet, other than a run of the mill laptop or Desktop.
I’m in the process of shopping for a gaming Laptop one that I can run Linux on with at least 16GB of Ram two hard drive bays for SSD, one drive for booting and the other as my home folder, to store all the games on. I want one for work, as I work nights and after doing all my chores I’m bored with TV. Have been looking on Amazon I don’t want one with Blackpool Illuminations, I want a Ryzen 5 processor with a Nvidia card with lots of storage up to 2TB as that 2TB drive would be my home folder. Boot drive can be 250GB and for as long as they are both SSD’s. I’m willing to pay up to a thousand pounds. I’ll let you know how the install goes on the old Acer Laptop. I was never a I wanting child, it’s since becoming a adult I want and I make sure I get too, has come into play. If I had even contemplated as a child to even utter the two words of I want, I would not be here today.
Yes, thanks for that. I had noticed the 32 bit 16.04 LTS on ubuntu to download but unfortunately found that I could not hook up to the web and trying to fix by repair or update was futile as no longer supported. Can I download 32 bit version using my dell 64 bit laptop and transfer it to USB stick? Or should I try this method with a lighter version. Note that this HP laptop used to run SolidWorks full 3D CAD without problem.
Perhaps seek help at shop here in Derby or can you buy distro on CD or DVD disc?
Hey Dude, that stare is reaching me out here; tread carefully my friend
Have vague memory of trying to reinstalling OS when laptop was new but could only run with HP version of it? Hope Linux will go over the top of this?
i need some clarification in order to answer this question. you said you tried to download 32-bit ubuntu 16.04 but that didn’t work for some reason. so which 32-bit version of which distribution are you inquiring about?
that is still my recommendation. even in light of:
for example, the firefox that i used to run on my pentium 4 machine with 1.5 gb of ram is not the same piece of software that now runs on my i5 with 8 gb of ram. though the name is the same, the program is designed to use far more system resources because that is what is standard. i have two core 2 duo machines with 3 gb of ram. they are the reason i started looking at lightweight linux distros. both of them will run the same firefox as my i5, but the performance is markedly slower.
this one i can’t really answer. you just have to figure out if this is a project you want to work on for yourself. there is no way for someone else to know your skill and comfort level for such things.
i did a quick search for “buy ubuntu dvd” and didn’t see anything that looked like something i would recommend. when i had a limited internet connection, i went to the library to download several distro iso’s so i could make a multiboot usb to test them since each one can be close to 2 gb in size.
Many thanks for your reference to My Story from 2015. Sadly that old Acer laptop is no more, but my passion for Linux will never falter.
Like you, five years ago I needed help. Now it’s my turn to give something back, so here goes.
I am assuming, from your notes, that you are only able to use a 32bit version of Linux. There are still many available, so not to worry.
Many replies have mentioned Peppermint. Peppermint is based on Linux Mint, itself derived from Ubuntu. They both use a very similar installation procedure to Ubuntu. and are both based on the Ubuntu LTS (currently 18.04, with 20.04 coming in April).
My recommendation to you is to try Linux Mint Mate. Go to www.distrowatch.com and download the iso file for the 32 bit version of Linux Mint 19.3 Mate edition. The link below will give you clear instructions on how to proceed.
You can download any Linux iso from DistroWatch (see my other response), using any computer that has an internet connection, then burn to either dvd or usb. usb seems to be the recommended route these days. Check first to see that the laptop you are installing to supports usb. Most shops have never heard of Linux, unless it is a repair shop when you might stand a chance.
Thanks to All, I was lacking the confidence to take the plunge, so I copied all files and photos to hard drive of XP pro Cad station via 32GB stick - plenty of space. Was then less worried about loosing stuff and OS.
Plenty of distros for sale in US and at Linux Store then realised how stupid I am as I had a couple of issues of Linux format magazines with one having a DVD with four different distros, two 32 and two 64bit. Hay presto, dropped it in the tray and up came welcome to GRUB followed by a list and then even more options. I chose Trisquel 32 bit and in about a minute there it was running just fine from the disc. Did not like the others as they were pretty empty and seemed a little flaky. A friend and good neighbour downloaded a 64bit version of Trisquel onto a stick and managed to get the old girl to boot from this.
So here I am communicating with you using Trisquel 64bit and Epiphany from this old laptop with T5800 chip – Windows Vista Home Premium gone forever. Tried their version of Ffox with Addblock Plus and NoScript – it did not work well – very slow and would not run web mail or this page.
Now I am free to try your suggestions out too. Thanks Guys!
