Older Hardware support

sagsaw · 2018-10-15 12:10:36

I am new to Bunsen labs and want to know if it supports older hardware/processors like VIA C7-D 1.6GHz VIA Nano X2 L4050 1.4GHz VIA Nano L2007 1.6GHz and the like especially in the 32-bit version.

That is if the kernel has support for the same and also for the VIA Chrome 9 graphics and the VX900 chipset.

Or even more specifically is it very similar to the DISTRIBUTION LXLE ... which ensures that older drivers are in the KERNEL as well as the KERNEL has older processor support.

Thanks.

sagsaw · 2018-10-17 05:41:42

Will compiling the driver from source code by via work .. but its for an older version of Ubuntu Linux available as source.

The question was asked because linux kernel dropped support for many old processors.

sagsaw · 2019-02-04 12:40:13

LXLE distro which has its kernel supporting the most oldest hardware is now not active.

Wonder if Bunsenlabs can adopt same philosophy ... Oldest hardware support and latest softwares support.

Chk here ...

http://www.lxle.net/about/

So if Bunsenlabs can do the same it will be quite helpful to most users of LXLE.

Bearded_Blunder · 2019-02-04 22:26:18

If you really want to use old-old hardware look at Gentoo, they still support i486 though it's impractical unless you compile on something else for it, compile times are just too long. Frankly though, anything less than Debian's minimum requirements is too feeble for a web-browsing capable desktop environment, & you're already limited in browser choice with any 32 bit processor. Trying to support really old hardware is a losing game. Having kernel support is not much use when you then don't have software support, so why drag the legacy kernel code forward?

FWIW i586 = Pentium i686 - Pentium 2 ( I think Intel marketing suddenly realized the stick they'd get if they called it "Hexium" & anything went wrong ) I kinda wish they'd continued teaching us to count in Latin though, PIII = Septium P4 Octium, where would we be now?

I've had Buster on a P2 & it's not really useful, light document editing, forget the web, Firefox loads eventually, but you start to wonder with all the swapping which will arrive first, your page or Bullseye being the stable version, to get reasonable load times you're reduced to dillo, which loads nice n quick, for that fraction of the web it can render. It's just plain not worth keeping support around for something with that sort of user experience or worse, your average throw-away blue-box router has more computing power these days.

Last edited by Bearded_Blunder (2019-02-05 12:31:12)

hhh · 2019-02-07 00:16:54

Moving to Help & Support (Other).

Last edited by hhh (2019-02-07 00:17:56)

hhh · 2019-02-07 00:20:47

I clicked the wrong entry and now I'm locked out of Admin privelages. Please move the thread to Help & Support (Other) and please may I have Admin rights to Areas 51 and 52?

johnraff · 2019-03-13 06:35:19

Now moved.
@sagsaw apologies for losing your topic for a month!

Bearded_Blunder · 2019-03-15 00:39:17

sagsaw wrote:

I am new to Bunsen labs and want to know if it supports older hardware/processors like VIA C7-D 1.6GHz VIA Nano X2 L4050 1.4GHz VIA Nano L2007 1.6GHz and the like especially in the 32-bit version.
That is if the kernel has support for the same and also for the VIA Chrome 9 graphics and the VX900 chipset.
Or even more specifically is it very similar to the DISTRIBUTION LXLE ... which ensures that older drivers are in the KERNEL as well as the KERNEL has older processor support.
Thanks.

The support *ought to* match Debian's as regards to going forward, I suspect that extending support beyond what Debian does would be too great a burden on our limited supply of Devs.

That said, as a user of *much* old hardware myself I sincerely hope that Bunsen support as a derivative with regard to old hardware will match *Debian's*

Last edited by Bearded_Blunder (2019-03-15 00:39:48)

johnraff · 2019-03-15 02:43:13

Debian devs seem to work hard to make the system support as much hardware as possible, and we at BL are trying not to impede that, mainly by making our UI as modular as we can, so users can remove any parts that are weighing down their machines. There shouldn't really be too much of that though.

We do nothing to the underlying default Debian system, so the kernel and, yes systemd, are what comes from them. Trimming down the Debian system itself is another topic altogether...

PS I have two 32bit 1GB RAM laptops from the XP era, ~2007, and BL still runs well on both of them. They will continue to be my personal benchmark, though with every release Debian gets heavier in its RAM requirements.

Last edited by johnraff (2019-03-15 02:46:21)

hhh · 2019-03-15 03:13:45

Slightly heavier. The bump from stretch to buster seems quite small.

#1 2018-10-15 12:10:36

Older Hardware support

#2 2018-10-17 05:41:42

Re: Older Hardware support

#3 2019-02-04 12:40:13

Re: Older Hardware support

#4 2019-02-04 22:26:18

Re: Older Hardware support

#5 2019-02-07 00:16:54

Re: Older Hardware support

#6 2019-02-07 00:20:47

Re: Older Hardware support

#7 2019-03-13 06:35:19

Re: Older Hardware support

#8 2019-03-15 00:39:17

Re: Older Hardware support

#9 2019-03-15 02:43:13

Re: Older Hardware support

#10 2019-03-15 03:13:45

Re: Older Hardware support

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