Distro for old 32-bit AMD Athlon CPU

IsaacKuo · 10-20-2016, 02:01 PM

I'd recommend Debian with XFCE4 desktop. I still run a few 32 bit AMD Socket 754 Sempron machines (1.8Ghz), with amount of RAM ranging from 512MB to 2GB. They run nicely, although you really need at least 1GB of RAM to really do web browsing with Firefox or Chromium.

The 32 bit install of Debian works fine for CPUs going back to Pentium II, although the oldest I'm personally running them on is Pentium III (512MB of RAM). I run even that one with XFCE4 desktop, because I feel safer using the graphical GParted for partitioning tasks than text console utilities. I use that computer for various tasks involving 2.5" PATA hard drives, because my newer computers have PATA interfaces that don't work nicely with 2.5" -> 3.5" adapter.

Tyro65 · 10-23-2016, 10:25 AM

I just tried Debian firmware-8.6.0-i386-netinst.iso. The installation went smoothly, but upon booting up, it freezes at input: Power Button as /devices/LNXSYSTM:00/LNXPWRBN:00/input/input5.

I tried Gnewsense. It works fine, especially if I use the default display manager. I don't care for Gnome3, but I can live with it. Now I'm trying to find a way around the non-free restrictions so that I can install a few programmes that I like.

IsaacKuo · 10-24-2016, 09:39 AM

The official Debian install file would have been named debian-8.6.0-i386-netinst.iso

I did find a file named "firmware-8.6.0-i386-netinst.iso" on an unofficial CD image page for CD images that include non-free software (hardware drivers that aren't open source). There may be some bugs with the non-free software, which would be harder to debug due to the nature of non-free software.

If Gnewsense worked, then that means all of your hardware is supported by non-free hardware drivers. Therefore, the standard official Debian install file should work well. If you wish to install non-free software after installing the official Debian GNU/Linux distribution, then do the following:

1) Open a terminal

2) Type in the command "su -" to log in as root.

3) Type in the command "pico /etc/apt/sources.list" to add "contrib non-free" to the end of each line. The result will look something like this:

Code:

deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free

deb http://security.debian.org/ jessie/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ jessie/updates main contrib non-free

# jessie-updates, previously known as 'volatile'
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ jessie-updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ jessie-updates main contrib non-free

deb http://www.deb-multimedia.org jessie main non-free

(In this example, I have added deb-multimedia.org as a source - it's a great place for all of the non-free audio/video codecs, DVD support, and so on.)

4) Type in the commands:

Code:

apt-get update
apt-get dist-upgrade

Gnewsense is a specialized GNU/Linux distribution specifically tailored for people who want to use nothing but free open source software. You'll have to fight its customizations to get any sort of non-free software running on it. In contrast, Debian is maintained to be a reasonable compromise between free software by default - but easily switched to add non-free software (which is what the majority of users and maintainers use).

As before, I suggest installing with the XFCE4 desktop suite rather than the GNOME3 suite. It's much easier on your hardware.