Posted on 03/31/2022 7:40:00 AM PDT by Red Badger
Mostly working - https://github.com/burzumishi/linux-baytrail-flexx10
I've installed various flavors of Ubuntu on a dozen older laptops and a couple of newer ones and have no idea what you're talking about. HDDs are automatically mounted when you boot up on the Live USB or boot up on installed Ubuntu. For install, the drive you're installing to has to be unmounted but the GUI partitioning program does that for you.
32 bit linux distros - https://www.chippiko.com/2021/10/list-of-32-bit-linux-distro-available.html
Just in time ping!
Is a laptop anything like a lap dancer? ;)
It depends on the hardware............
What is a good VPN for streaming on a Smart TV? Pros and Cons. Do’s and Don’ts, etc.
I am trying to set up my father’s Smart TV and he lives 900 miles from me and is 87 years old.
Thank you in advance. You can create a post with my information and have an open forum about what apps to try.
Dacula
Thanks for the link... That is by far the best claimed success that I have seen. I have done a fairly thorough check every time we have had issues with it. I am surprised to find that someone finally claims to have gotten the touch screen digitizer and touch pad to work. They were a little marginal to start with.
I’m the wrong person to ask, drac...
sorry..
MSFT has spent a huge amount of money getting its OS to work with the most obscure hardware in the world. Google? Not so much. The difference in philosophy is huge. You get Android apps that stop working in Android phones that are maybe 6 or 7 years old. Whereas 20-year-old Windows software continues chugging along without any issues.
Bflr
What are the specs. CPU speed, RAM etc?
Linux Mint 20.03 is not a LTS release(Long Term Support) and probably won’t even install on a PC made for XP. Linux Mint 20.04 which is based on Ubuntu is a LTS, as was 18.04 which is still supported and has 32 bit variants available.
An XP machine is pretty old so you might be better going with one of the lightweight versions and it’s likely a 32bit system - https://www.chippiko.com/2021/10/list-of-32-bit-linux-distro-available.html
Of those,
MX Linux is good.
Zorin is nice but isn’t as configurable as I like but that’s just me.
Bodhi and Peppermint OS are good but I think Peppermint is dropping 32bit support soon.
AntiX was weird to me but I was already used to Ubuntu variants.
The rest, I have no experience with. There are a couple of other lightweight variants of Ubuntu. Xubuntu and Lubuntu are two with Lubuntu being a little lighter.
Linux is weird due to the open source nature of it. There’s the basic Linux Kernel which is like DOS is to Windows. Command line only, no graphic user interface. Then, anyone is free to build on top of that. Debian is probably the most popular but there are others like Arch Linux, Redhat Linux etc that have a graphic user interface. Then, people build on top of those to add more features. Then finally, there are different desktop environments and those can be used with Debian, Arch etc based systems.
I run Kubuntu which runs the Plasma desktop and is a tweaked version of Ubuntu. Ubuntu is built on top of Debian. Debian is built on top of the Linux Kernel.
Linux > Debian > Ubuntu > Kubuntu > Plasma
If you already have a Windows PC and have a USB stick, download Rufus.exe - https://rufus.ie/en/
You can buy a 4gb or larger USB stick cheap. Rufus will burn a Linux OS ISO to the USB stick that will work as a Live USB. You boot the PC to that USB stick and can run MX Linux, Zorin, Bodhi, Lubuntu or whatever version as a Live operating system that is running from the USB stick. Test it out. Connect to your wifi and surf the web. Check if sound and other hardware work. Tweak the looks. See if you like it. Use Rufus to try another one and so on.
No need to buy a CD.
Go through as many as you like doing that and then decide which one you want to install. There are tons of tutorials out there on installing Linux and there are some options like keeping Windows and running as a dual boot system where you get a screen to choose between Windows or Linux/Ubuntu to boot up to. The Linux installation can shrink Windows and install itself beside it. If you decide to do that, it is best to run Windows Disk Defragmenter first as that will pack all the data together on one section of the hard drive as opposed to scattered across it.
Another option is Raspbian OS for PC which is based on 32bit Debian - https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/raspberry-pi-desktop/
Ubuntu 18.04 is supported through April 2023 and Debian Buster (10), which is what Rasbpian OS is currently based on, is supported through Aug 2022. Anything above Ubuntu 18.04 is likely to be 64 bit and probably won’t work on an XP machine.
Here’s another list of 32bit Linux distributions which has one I forgot about, LXLE. I liked it. It just looked nice out of the box. Some of the distros mentioned in this and the above article are not easy peasy installations. ie Tiny Core which comes with no graphic user interface. You have to install that later at the command line. https://www.techradar.com/news/best-lightweight-linux-distro
No problem. Looks like bluetooth and sound need some sort of configuration.
I’ve got an old Acer AspireOne that has been killing me. The very light distros don’t support the display. I just get a garbled screen. It has an HDMI port so I’ve been trying to make it a Streaming Box. Kodi workes fine but using a browser for cackle, plutoTV or other free streaming site doesn’t work worth a damn. In fact, general web surfing doesn’t work well at all. Wifi or Cat5 cable makes no difference.
Some models of the Acer AspireOne actually came wit Linux pre-installed. I’ve got a few older Thinkpads that will surf and stream from web just fine but they don’t have a HDMI port to connect to the TV and my TV doesn’t have a VGA port like our prior TV did.
I’m not looking for High Def - 4k or anything like that. The PlutoTV addon for Kodi works great but is only available for Kodi Krypton, the latest. I did figure how to install Krypton on Ubuntu 18.04 but it was tricky. Normally 18.04 comes with Kodi Leai which the PlutoTV addon doesn’t work for.
PlutoTV is the best free streaming I’ve found. The rest have super B grade stuff I’ve never heard of. I still do a little bit of the torrent thing for stuff that I just can’t find anywhere else. Stuff I download play fine on the old Acer. Just found Firefly and my son hasn’t seen it yet. Both he and I are into Sci-Fi and the boy makes me proud because he loved the original Star Trek series but has no use for the newer versions of the series.
😂
Bkmk old computer
Sorry for what has become a rambling post. I started commenting because we actually come from slightly different perspectives. You are trying to figure out how to use old computers for streaming, and I am often trying to figure out how to repurpose retired streaming devices. Even using pay services they are so cheap and save so much compared to cable that I do not mind buying extras when they are on sale, but then I don't know what to do with them.
Years ago my AppleTV box that we were using to stream DirecTV Now started overheating and working poorly. It had been infected with some kind of malware that was being used for data mining. So I thought that there must be other computing tasks other than streaming that it could be good for. Of course there are game, calculating and other tasks that you can download apps for, but it is a little pointless if you already have a decent computer, or two, or three, or... The old AppleTV is just sitting in a drawer these days.
We stream all the content that we watch. We haven't had cable for over 6 years. We use pay services quite a bit, but we share them with my elderly parents. The Sling TV plan we pay for can stream to up to 3 devices at once and has a couple hundred hours of DVR. I don't even know what the limitation is for Amazon Prime services. We also get specials from Hulu, Netflix, Showtime, HBO, and the like. I typically get a special for a month or two or however long they are offered and dump them as soon as the price goes back to normal.
Of course our first streaming experience came from Netflix after we bought a Blu-ray player that had it included. When DirecTV Now first became available they provided free AppleTVs or Amazon Fire TV players depending on how long you subscribed for up front... We thought that we had an agreement where the price would not increase, but they started jacking things up within the first year or so. After it became "AT&T Now" the prices became so exorbitant that the only advantage over cable was that we have two houses and we could watch our paid content at either. We dumped them as did most of their other customers.
At this point we have tried most of the widely known pay and free streaming services and have tried several types of streaming players as well. Despite others loving Rokus, AppleTVs, and Android players, my favorites have been the FireTV sticks and boxes, which are actually based on Android but with some mods that I actually appreciate most of the time. I have a quite a few older generation versions that I no longer use and am always trying to figure out what to do with them. Over the years almost all of them have been on sale for $30 and the newer ones are much better than previous generations.
I have a couple TVs with more than one attached so that I can have a different selection of apps that would normally use up all the storage. I did appreciate 2nd generation the FireTV box because it had expandable SD card storage built in. You actually can buy a cheap adapter that adds storage to the 4k firesticks as well, but its a little more complicated.
I use small Windows PCs hooked to a couple of TVs for streaming because I use a program called Audials One to capture streams. It is on “sale” for about $20 most of the time. They add features every year so I typically upgrade. The computers were inexpensive school and government surplus from eBay. The ones that I use actually have 3rd generation core I-5 and I-7 processors along with SSDs. These are actually about 10 years old but still run Windows 10 and can easily capture high definition streams. Neither has a dedicated GPU. It does take a little tweaking and I do not compress as much as I would with newer processors.
We use fire sticks on the same TVs for a more cable like experience when we don't feel like capturing the shows and movies.
There is not a Linux equivalent for Audials One that I know of.
I spent half a day deleting ANYTHING that remotely seemed connected to Google, Chrome or otherwise from my computer. Best thing I ever did. Won’t have it, won’t even consider it.
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