I need a 32 bit dist for netbook
from Droechai@piefed.blahaj.zone to linux@lemmy.ml on 31 Aug 19:08
https://piefed.blahaj.zone/post/262760

Anyone know of anything fitting an Eeepc?

#linux

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anon5621@lemmy.ml on 31 Aug 19:09 next collapse

Antix,Debian ,arch i386 project

bunitor@lemmy.eco.br on 01 Sep 15:56 collapse

i wouldn’t recommend debian since they’ve dropped 32 bit support in trixie, their latest release. the previous release, bookworm, still supports 32 bits archs, but it eol’s less than a year from now

chloroken@lemmy.ml on 01 Sep 17:12 collapse

This is not true. (Edit: nevermind, I was wrong)

They’re dropping support for i586 and below. 32-bit systems with i686+ processors will still run fine.

[deleted] on 01 Sep 22:16 next collapse

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bunitor@lemmy.eco.br on 01 Sep 22:16 collapse

www.debian.org/releases/trixie/…/issues.html#redu…

From trixie, i386 is no longer supported as a regular architecture: there is no official kernel and no Debian installer for i386 systems

[…]

Users running i386 systems should not upgrade to trixie. Instead, Debian recommends either reinstalling them as amd64, where possible, or retiring the hardware.

chloroken@lemmy.ml on 02 Sep 01:37 collapse

Not all 32-bit systems are i386. For example, my 32-bit Debian thinkpad runs Trixie just fine. Because it’s i686 which is still supported.

So again, Debian 13 isn’t dropping 32-bit support. Just i586 support and below.

bunitor@lemmy.eco.br on 02 Sep 04:02 collapse

Not all 32-bit systems are i386

but the debian i386 architecture means all 32 bit x86 processors. there’s no “i686” build of debian

there are no i586 or i686 kernel or iso available, you can look for them. i386 packages only exist for compatibility reasons, so you can run 32 bit applications on amd64 machines. please read the release notes

chloroken@lemmy.ml on 02 Sep 04:35 next collapse

I was wrong. Thank you. And I don’t have Trixie on the 32-bit Thinkpad, it was my other laptop.

JackbyDev@programming.dev on 02 Sep 14:56 collapse

but the debian i386 architecture means all 32 bit x86 processors.

wiki.debian.org/i386

That was very confusing to me. I’m sure they have their reasons, but calling it something like x86 would’ve been more clear to me.

The original x86 platform. Now requires “686” class CPU. Unsupported in trixie and newer except in chroots on amd64 hosts.

wiki.debian.org/SupportedArchitectures

bunitor@lemmy.eco.br on 02 Sep 19:35 collapse

I’m sure they have their reasons

maybe compatibility reasons. i guess they used to support i386 back in the day and didn’t want to break the couple of systems that were installed on bo and have been upgrading ever since

afk_strats@lemmy.world on 31 Aug 19:34 next collapse

My eepc is also 32 bit with 2gb of RAM. I did Debian 12 with LXDE from the net installer and it works really well.

hexagonwin@lemmy.sdf.org on 31 Aug 19:36 next collapse

slackware, netbsd, openbsd

edit: i forgot tinycore, you gotta try that too

m33@lemmy.zip on 31 Aug 20:29 collapse

+1 for NetBSD it’s such a great OS for ressource limited platforms. Rough edges by today standards but it worth a try on OP’s PC.

Edit : would you please post something like neofetch screenshot when your eeepc is up and running ? :)

Eggymatrix@sh.itjust.works on 31 Aug 19:56 next collapse

Since I doubt the latest and greatest drivers interest you, I suggest debian. Might as well profit from extreme stability and reliability

JackbyDev@programming.dev on 02 Sep 14:59 collapse

Debian has dropped support for 32 bit in Debian 13.

Eggymatrix@sh.itjust.works on 03 Sep 11:33 collapse

Use debian 12 then, again, its not like you need the latest and gratest

JackbyDev@programming.dev on 03 Sep 14:50 collapse

Debian Security Support ends in 9 months and the LTS’s supported platforms haven’t been announced. It could very well be that in 9 months the i386 version of Debian 12 stops getting security updates. wiki.debian.org/LTS

floofloof@lemmy.ca on 31 Aug 20:48 next collapse

I’ve had good luck with Antix on very old machines.

A_norny_mousse@feddit.org on 31 Aug 20:59 next collapse

antiX

That said this machine will not be able to cope with the www of 2025.

PetteriPano@lemmy.world on 31 Aug 21:04 next collapse

OpenSUSE has a 32-bit build.

Running modern web browsers is no fun.

bad_news@lemmy.billiam.net on 31 Aug 22:03 collapse

I assume there will be a not too distant date in the future when Firefox ESR drops 32bit altogether…

NOOBMASTER@lemmy.ml on 31 Aug 21:50 next collapse

Void

HereToday@lemmy.world on 31 Aug 22:22 next collapse

MX runs fine, but applications such as browsers are very slow because of the old CPU 😐

jhdeval@lemmy.world on 31 Aug 22:52 next collapse

Another issue others are not addressing is the memory limitations of 32bit software. I am facing it now with a large database that is stuck in a 32 bit world. You may have issues finding 32 bit builds of software as well.

kibiz0r@midwest.social on 01 Sep 00:38 next collapse

I loved my Eee PC so much.

I’ve been watching and hoping for a modern ARM equivalent, but haven’t seen anything quite right so far.

vortexal@lemmy.ml on 01 Sep 01:29 next collapse

I’m not familiar with Eee PCs but I’m assuming you’d want something lightweight. Q4OS has a 32-bit version available.

transientpunk@sh.itjust.works on 01 Sep 01:50 next collapse

This thread is making me nostalgic for Ubuntu Netbook Remix

ikidd@lemmy.world on 01 Sep 04:05 next collapse

Debian. Just Debian. No drama.

[deleted] on 02 Sep 14:27 next collapse

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JackbyDev@programming.dev on 02 Sep 14:27 collapse

Not Debian 13. www.debian.org/releases/trixie/…/issues.html#redu…

Also note that the Debian team uses i386 to mean what we think of by 32 bit x86, not just CPUs from the very old i386 generation. wiki.debian.org/i386

Sina@beehaw.org on 01 Sep 05:09 next collapse

Bunsenlab Linux…

Though don’t expect miracles, that cpu is too slow for the modern internet. It’s not usable for web browsing on any OS.

NauticalNoodle@lemmy.ml on 01 Sep 06:48 next collapse

slow internet could make for a fun opportunity to play around with a text-based browser from the terminal like Lynx, w3m, and browsh.

notthebees@reddthat.com on 01 Sep 16:47 collapse

I think it should be okay. I have a pentium M machine that did alright with web browsing on Bunsenlabs. Had 2 gb of ram. I used an original eeepc and an MSI u230 wind with the same cpu. The atom and pentium M are about the same

Sina@beehaw.org on 03 Sep 12:09 collapse

When? Currently 240p youtube will produce frame drops on these. Typical javascript laden web pages can take minutes to render. I guess it largely depends on the websites you plan to visit. Phoronix will work ok.

notthebees@reddthat.com on 03 Sep 12:44 collapse

I also have a gpu in it (ATI mobility Radeon 9700) so there is that. Web browsing was slow but not impossible. I did use discord with my old pentium M machine. (only web bc 32 bit). YouTube did work but not well. I was using smplayer for YouTube. Also this was before everything went to av1 encoding and I haven’t tried it since.

Multiplexer@discuss.tchncs.de on 01 Sep 05:19 next collapse

Depending on the age of the EEE, you might run into problems because the old low end CPU doesn’t support instruction set extensions that are assumed to be present by distros nowadays. I think it was SSE2…?

[deleted] on 01 Sep 05:23 next collapse

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infjarchninja@lemmy.ml on 01 Sep 09:13 next collapse

Hey Droechai

How about trying Sparklinux

They have stable, oldstable and oldoldstable images.

based on debian.

I use sparky on both my raspberry pi 3B’s.

Sparky 7 still supports i686 architecture (32 bit).

ISO MinimalGUI i686 (32 bit)

sparkylinux.org/iso-minimalgui-i686/

distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=sparky

ace_garp@lemmy.world on 01 Sep 09:53 next collapse

Something with LXDE or XFCE Desktop Environment, that is usually the DE for low-spec distros.

flubba86@lemmy.world on 01 Sep 10:34 next collapse

+1 for Gentoo

nyan@sh.itjust.works on 02 Sep 12:46 collapse

Gentoo will work if you have the time to work through the install, and stick with provided binaries for large packages (or have a lot of patience with updates).

0x0@lemmy.zip on 01 Sep 13:40 next collapse

Puppy, Porteus, antiX, Q4OS, Slax run on 32-bit x86 and are supposed to be under the 256 MiB RAM mark.
Zorin Lite and Xubuntu ~512MiB.
Mint, LXDE and Bunsenlabs ~1GiB.

YMMV

hobbsc@lemmy.sdf.org on 01 Sep 15:32 next collapse

Lots of good recommendations here. I use antiX on an ASUS EeePC X101CH and it works pretty well. I think the last release is a year old, though.

bunitor@lemmy.eco.br on 01 Sep 15:59 next collapse

@ everyone recommending debian: it no longer supports 32 bit x86 machines: www.debian.org/releases/trixie/…/issues.html#redu…

[deleted] on 02 Sep 14:41 collapse

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TerkErJerbs@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 01 Sep 16:44 next collapse

One of the OG eeepc is what got me into Linux. The distro it shipped with was ass (it was a Linux variant) so I went hopping and discovered Puppy Linux and a bunch of others. Ended up sticking with !# (crunchbang) which later renamed to BunsenLabs and I still run it on most of my devices to this day.

ArsonButCute@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 01 Sep 17:30 next collapse

FreeBSD offers a 32 bit variant still via their i386 image.

Expect a small learning curve if you’ve never used UNIX, but most things are similar enough that you’ll be fine. If you’re ok picking up the FreeBSD handbook.

ICastFist@programming.dev on 02 Sep 15:16 next collapse

MenuetOS or KolibriOS

Maybe Haiku if you’re feeling fancy

OhVenus_Baby@lemmy.ml on 03 Sep 04:44 collapse

Lets say I had 8 chromebooks 4gb ram idk CPU and their all working. What realistically could I do with them? Some lenovo some google.

mvirts@lemmy.world on 03 Sep 13:35 collapse

… Run ChromeOS? :P which is basically android. Maybe run Linux if the bootloader is unlockable