Tech Nerd Ramblings

[thecatumbrella]

Imgur. I use it and never get any spam.

I'll try it out!

There is a way to upload it to gallery here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/how-to-upload-videos-to-the-gallery.1631126/

Thank you! I started playing around with this last night, but didn't love how it looked on the page. I'm going to try again with this guide.

You guys are awesome!

 

[notabitail]

Well ok, I'm going to ramble for a short time.

I wanted to install Linux on one of my old laptops. I usually put Linux Mint or Ubuntu Unity on these things.

It turns out neither wanted to load right on this laptop. At all. They didn't want to use the device's internal display, instead wanting me to plug it in to an external.

I installed it, and then tried to get graphics drivers. The problem is that these are all NVIDIA cards, and they don't mix well with Linux AT ALL. Even worse, the drivers for these, the Nvidia 340 drivers, aren't packaged for Ubuntu 24.04 anymore. I tried some drivers someone had packaged for 24.04, but they didn't work.

Pretty much, these old laptops can't run the latest Ubuntu LTS.

I intended to try to try an older version, but it turns out in my infinite wisdom I didn't copy all of my piles of (real) Linux ISOs over to my NAS. Good thing it's got a gigabit connection, otherwise it'd take forever. I had to dig up my old laptop, plug the thing into my network, and copy over all of my garbage.

TL;DR: Linux isn't the universal panacea for all PCs, doesn't work with NVIDIA hardware well, and I forgot to back up files to a NAS.

 

[notabitail]

Since this lacks an nvidia chip, this computer can run Linux.

It wasn't doing the graphical glitching earlier. I get the feeling the GNOME system monitor caused that. YouTube at 360p with h264ify, vorapis v3, and ublock origin was smooth. And it was all on the Intel-grated graphics. I'm impressed.

Unity has held up very well on older PCs. It was designed for hardware that wasn't the latest and greatest and it seems to still be that way. 1GB RAM idle and barely any CPU usage.

This PC has 3GB of RAM and a Prescott 3GHz Pentium 4. If I were stuck with this I could probably make it work out well enough for me.

By the way, this is Ubuntu Unity 24.04. Not some outdated OS. Fully modern OS running on what is essentially garbage hardware with little to upgrade (only a PCIe 1x slot). Linux may not like NVIDIA chips, but it sure does love hardware like this.

 

[azurbanclucker]

TL;DR: Linux isn't the universal panacea for all PCs, doesn't work with NVIDIA hardware well, and I forgot to back up files to a NAS.

It's never been that. Hardware compatibility has long been an issue with all distros, and modern kernels hate old hardware. It will run on a lot more diverse hardware than other operating systems will, but it's not a magic bullet. If you want to run old hardware, pick something that's still on a sysV based kernel. That's the unfortunate reality of trying to adapt older gear in a world where support doesn't exist and even your best effort is outdated.

 

[notabitail]

It's never been that. Hardware compatibility has long been an issue with all distros, and modern kernels hate old hardware. It will run on a lot more diverse hardware than other operating systems will, but it's not a magic bullet. If you want to run old hardware, pick something that's still on a sysV based kernel. That's the unfortunate reality of trying to adapt older gear in a world where support doesn't exist and even your best effort is outdated.

What benefit does sysV have over other kernels? I have used antiX which says they use it, and it does seem to have pretty good compatibility. It ran on a computer LMDE flat out panicked on (32bit).

The problem that I'm having with Linux is on Core 2 Duo and early Core i3 laptop CPUs. Both have nvidia chips and it seems the Noveau driver doesn't work right any more. As far as my Linux knowledge goes, the CPU should be able to handle it just fine. I get the feeling the newer kernel Ubuntu 24.04 uses doesn't like the Noveau driver, let alone any kind of nvidia driver from some PPA.

My goal right now is to try and figure out where the "Linux Is Too Uncompatible" limit is with my computers. Right now, my (probably flawed) experiements have figured out that anything with a hyper-threaded or dual-core 64-bit CPU, 3GB of RAM, and an Intel or AMD GPU can handle a lighter-weight or lightweight modern Linux system and Firefox.

 

[azurbanclucker]

What benefit does sysV have over other kernels? I have used antiX which says they use it, and it does seem to have pretty good compatibility. It ran on a computer LMDE flat out panicked on (32bit).

It's not specifically because it's a sysV init stack, but more that the 2.2.x sysV kernels were prime time when that hardware was out. As the kernel progresses, it drops support for older hardware and legacy driver stacks to keep it from bloating (more). You will need to find both an nvidia legacy driver set AND a kernel that will properly compile it for your older stuff.

On the flip side, older kernels often have security bugs, so you will also need to make sure you're either mitigating the risks or not using them in a way they might get popped due to an un-patchable flaw from an older kernel/module/app stack.

I know we are coming at this from 2 different points of view with regard to old hardware. I respect your drive to keep it going as long as possible. I used to do that too. These days I just don't have the time or the interest to limp things along anymore. If they can't run a modern OS or are not beefy enough to keep around as a small multipurpose server (LTSP style, mini NAS, firewall, etc), I usually donate them to local maker spaces, LUG's or schools.

I also don't really use a linux-based laptop, and haven't for probably 15 years now. Work devices are either windows or macos and I'll run headless VM's for my linux stuff. When I need a laptop for personal use, I take my wife's MBP because 99% of the time I need photoshop or lightroom.

 

[notabitail]

It's not specifically because it's a sysV init stack, but more that the 2.2.x sysV kernels were prime time when that hardware was out. As the kernel progresses, it drops support for older hardware and legacy driver stacks to keep it from bloating (more). You will need to find both an nvidia legacy driver set AND a kernel that will properly compile it for your older stuff.

On the flip side, older kernels often have security bugs, so you will also need to make sure you're either mitigating the risks or not using them in a way they might get popped due to an un-patchable flaw from an older kernel/module/app stack.

That makes sense. I suppose I'll have to use an old version of Ubuntu, or maybe try and get an old 2x kernel on a newer version.

I know we are coming at this from 2 different points of view with regard to old hardware. I respect your drive to keep it going as long as possible. I used to do that too. These days I just don't have the time or the interest to limp things along anymore. If they can't run a modern OS or are not beefy enough to keep around as a small multipurpose server (LTSP style, mini NAS, firewall, etc), I usually donate them to local maker spaces, LUG's or schools.

I'm glad you give it to people who will hopefully enjoy it. It is time consuming trying to get them to do things, but at least I know I can use that experience from fixing them and stuff elsewhere in the future.

I also don't really use a linux-based laptop, and haven't for probably 15 years now. Work devices are either windows or macos and I'll run headless VM's for my linux stuff. When I need a laptop for personal use, I take my wife's MBP because 99% of the time I need photoshop or lightroom.

Do you have macOS 26 on it? I keep hearing people saying bad things about it, though I'm not certain how true all of them are.

 

[azurbanclucker]

Do you have macOS 26 on it? I keep hearing people saying bad things about it, though I'm not certain how true all of them are.

Nah, it's Tahoe. (26). Haven't had any major issues with it. I actually fight lightroom more on my windows desktop because my catalog is massive and it hates chewing through 300k objects.