I need some help finding a distro for a very old machine.
It’s my family’s old desktop with 2001 components (bought in 2004) and a Pentium CPU that is NOT i686. I checked the exact model and architecture once but I don’t remember it now. The only thing I remember is that it’s not i686 so 99% of modern 32 bit distros don’t work on it (stuck right after grub).
The machine has 1 Gb of DDR1 RAM though so I think it may be useful or at least fun to play around with.
Now it’s on Windows XP that runs quite well but doesn’t support modern SSL certificates so it can’t browse the internet (idk how to fix it ok?).
A long time ago I tried to run multiple distros in live mode on it and got only one (Puppy) to work. Display, sound, ethernet and pretty much everything worked fine. GPU seemed to be an issue though because NVidia and I couldn’t install the driver (it was skill issue and I think it’s possible to do). But now it doesn’t work for some reason.
Are there any Linux distros or other operating systems (preferably not deprecated) that I can install on it? And btw it does have bootable USB support.
EDIT: There are way too many answers and a lot of ones that don’t mind the architecture limitations. I’m grateful to everyone who replied but I have to close this discussion now and I will not reply to further answers. I have received enough information and I cannot physically read so many replies.
There’s gentoo options for a lot of older architectures. I even got it running on a 32bit power machine.
Back in the day gentoo meant compiling everything from source, but nowadays there’s precompiled binaries.
If you’re doing the evanescence routine on older hardware, check to see if there’s cheap ram and ssds available that work with its interfaces. Usually the trick with pata is to use old cf to sata adapters because cf is pin compatible with the little pata interfaces they’d put on laptops.
Consider cleaning and reapplying thermal paste to the cpu. You won’t even need to take it out of the socket, just don’t dump isopropyl all over the board while cleaning.
If your old computer has a cool old sound card there’s never been a better time to use a tracker that takes advantage of its built in synthesizer!
doing the evanescence routine on older hardware
That was one of the best deep-cut comments I have read in a while! The helpful advise to OP was also nice. lol
antix never let me down…
looks like they have an i386 iso.
http://ftp.halifax.rwth-aachen.de/mxlinux/isos/ANTIX/Final/antiX-23.1/- LeFantome ( @LeFantome@programming.dev ) 1•5 months ago
Antix 23.1 is based on Debian bookworm, so I think it requires i686 now. Older Antix releases ( based on Bullseye or earlier ) should work.
haven’t testet, but looks like there are bookworm i386 isos.
https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/i386/iso-cd/- LeFantome ( @LeFantome@programming.dev ) 1•5 months ago
They are really i686 though ( from Bookworm on ).
- LeFantome ( @LeFantome@programming.dev ) 1•5 months ago
On Debian, i386 is now i686.
https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/release-notes/ch-information.en.html#i386-is-i686
Are you sure it’s not a 686? Because apparently the Pentium Pro from 1995 is already a 686, by 2001 the Pentium 4 was already out.
- LeFantome ( @LeFantome@programming.dev ) 2•5 months ago
Could even be Cryix or a VIA or something from back then. VIA lacked cmov and will not boot i686.
Yes I am sure it’s not 686. 686 distros don’t boot anyways
I’m still skeptical. At the time of the original Pentium (the last 586 from Intel, the fastest of which was 300 MHz), the usual amount of RAM was something like 16 or 32 MB. A 586 with 1 GB of RAM is extremely weird and probably impossible unless it’s some sort of high-end server. This does not check out.
Oh and DDR is also from around the time of the Pentium 4. I don’t think there exists a machine that has both DDR and an original Pentium (aka 586). Again, this does not check out and is probably impossible.
There could be another reason it won’t boot.
Yeah, I’m with you. 2001 and DDR… there’s something else going on with the failure to boot. I don’t think the Pentium 3 ever supported DDR, so this is probably a Pentium 4. If truly a model released in 2001, it would be Willamette, but that required RDRAM. DDR support was introduced with Northwood in 2002. On the other hand, it could be the P4 that was new in 2004, Prescott, and the 2001 statement comes from the first year the P4 was released.
We really need to see info from the BIOS — exact CPU model, RAM speed, etc.
As others have pointed out, this is a pretty anachronistic build — i586 with DDR1 is just weird, so it’s possible there’s some really niche hardware and you may need an exotic kernel (or kernel options) to get anything to boot.
That said: have you just tried running a standard live or install CD from that time period? You could try booting a 2001 Slackware installer to see what happens.
Maybe let go of this ancient hardware? Seriously: Get a Raspberry Pi (or whatever SOC computer is the latest trend) and install whatever distribution you want. You get 100x the performance for 100x less power consumption. It’s great to reuse old hardware and all, but THAT old?
It’s just for experiments and learning. Why judging? Also a Pi is like $100 here and it is a big deal for me
Technically, Ubuntu supports it’s LTS versions for something like 12 years I think?
Anyway, you can get Ubuntu 14.04 LTS still with the i386 32bit ISO.
https://www.releases.ubuntu.com/14.04/
I personally would install that and install something like FVWM95 or Blackbox WM or some other ancien desktop environment.
A long time ago I tried to run multiple distros in live mode on it and got only one (Puppy) to work. Display, sound, ethernet and pretty much everything worked fine. GPU seemed to be an issue though because NVidia and I couldn’t install the driver (it was skill issue and I think it’s possible to do). But now it doesn’t work for some reason.
Puppy linux has 3 versions, based on different distros. Maybe you tried one version back then, and now a different one?
I know and I think I tried the same version
Consider antiX. It’s very lightweight, supports 32 bit and you’ll have access to the Debian Repos.
Check out Slackware. There is still a 32-bit version that is said to work on older Pentium-class machines.
Can you post the CPU info? I think it should be available from the BIOS.
- LeFantome ( @LeFantome@programming.dev ) 3•5 months ago
What 32 bit distros have you tried? I would think most would still support Pentium as kernel support has not been removed.
AntiX and Q4OS are both decent choices.
For a machine that limited, I would probably give Damn Small Linux a shot:
https://www.damnsmalllinux.org/
It is Debian based ( actually AntiX ) and so it has access to the full Debian universe ( 32 bit at least ) but has a curated list of applications well tailored to low-resource environments.
Some have said Debian is i686 only but this is what Debian says:
https://www.debian.org/ports/#:~:text=Debian supports all IA-32,)%2C%20Cyrix%20and%20other%20manufacturers.&text=Port%20to%20the%20little%2Dendian,ISA%20and%20hardware%20floating%2Dpoint.
Edit: I take it back
https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/release-notes/ch-information.en.html#i386-is-i686
Debian, AntiX, DSL, MX, and Q4OS are all Debian based and so no longer support i586. What a shame.
Edit edit:
That said, this is a recent change ( Debian Bookworm ) and so Debian 11 ( Bullseye ) still supports Pentium. Debian 11.9 was just released in February.
- LeFantome ( @LeFantome@programming.dev ) 2•5 months ago
Slackware says it still supports everything that the Linux kernel supports ( which would include Pentium ).
http://www.slackware.com/faq/do_faq.php?faq=general
Find it here:
https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/slackware-isos-and-torrents-4175709111/
I found this in the wastelands of Google: https://www.howtogeek.com/linux-distributions-to-breathe-new-life-into-old-hardware/
I read the guide and it seems pretty solid.
If it is not x86 is it the Itanium ISA?
Looks like a whole bunch of conversation about this topic can be found here:
Hannah Montana Linux. Unironically.
Debian still works on i586 I think.
- LeFantome ( @LeFantome@programming.dev ) 2•5 months ago
I thought so too but nope…
https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/release-notes/ch-information.en.html#i386-is-i686
That said, this is a recent change ( Debian Bookworm ) and so Debian 11 ( Bullseye ) still supports Pentium. Debian 11.9 was just released in February.