No Cap, I used to have an old HP Pavillion where the case had to be pried apart for servicing and there was a screw on the Battery connector that would keep the computer from starting unless it was put back after battery removal. They work fine without batteries, but not without the screw. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The new chromebooks need special cables to unlock, either you have the skills and supplies to build a cable and adapter board or you buy a cable from a random company that is rarely in stock
I didn’t think it too hard but it ended up being kind of fruitless, those things have almost no harddeive and I mostly did it to fuck around with Linux. Chromebooks, at least that one, had something like 16gbs and equally weak CPU to match (granted it might have changed since then but woof.)
The whole point of a chrome book is to push you to use Google’s online services. I think you are still better off if you can do that with Linux running the machine.
Same, I did this back in college because my Windows laptop shit out and I couldn’t afford another proper computer. I ended up duct taping an external drive to the back.
Right. If it’s not getting updates, then it’s only a matter of time before it has a critical security vulnerability. If not Linux, then what? Will GNU Hurd run on it?
In practice, you tend to need something not too out of date. Just about any distro ships with internationalization support, and the fact is that it takes a lot of RAM to do that. A Pentium 1 may not support enough.
I did an install on a Pentium II a few years ago. I used Debian 2.2. Since I had used it back in the day, it seemed easier than finding something more modern that would work.
In reality, only some Pentium 1 compatible motherboards can support enough ram for you to actually run Linux on a Pentium 1. Even if you don’t run into ram problems, you’ll run into bios related problems. I would suggest anyone trying this in 2024 to not even attempt it unless you can get a socket 7, and preferably a later socket 7 motherboard at that. The closest thing I can come up with to a reason not to drop support for 486 (the cpu before the Pentium 1) is that a 486 is a lot more possible to put on a custom pcb than a Pentium 1. Some of the more basic arm cpus aren’t even as powerful as an upper tier 486 (but better arm cpus aren’t that hard for hobbyists to get). Anyone die-hard enough to want to try to run Linux on a fully custom made computer like that would have better results using an arm or risc-V chip instead.
I am curious why they’re dropping support for 486 but not Pentium 1, pentium 2 and anything not capable of SSE1 or later. mmx isn’t even that good but I guess gcc does technically support it.
I wonder if they’re going to drop 486 support in gcc as well. It can still compile for 386. You have to seriously strip down the kernel to run Linux on anything that old. Maybe 486 users (all 2 of them) should switch to Temple OS.
Ubuntu is nearly 20 years old so we wanted to see how the first versions compare with the upcoming LTS. Unfortunately installing Warty turned out to much harder than we thought it would be.
I don’t usually like all the Linux posts on Lemmy, but this is 100% the correct answer here. The computer will likely run a lot better if you do everything right!
Install Linux and have updates for the Rest of your life. And more performance.
Edit: typo
I have a Chromebook and it’s ridiculous how difficult they made it to install another OS.
I eventually did, but I needed to get something to flash a third party boatloader and at first I was told my laptop was not supported.
But getting an actual Linux distro has been so much better than ChomeOS.
Back when I had a Chromebook I actually had to open it up and remove a screw to be able to do it.
The droid restraining bolt?
Yeah. Write protect screw.
No Cap, I used to have an old HP Pavillion where the case had to be pried apart for servicing and there was a screw on the Battery connector that would keep the computer from starting unless it was put back after battery removal. They work fine without batteries, but not without the screw. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The new chromebooks need special cables to unlock, either you have the skills and supplies to build a cable and adapter board or you buy a cable from a random company that is rarely in stock
Wow that’s even worse.
I didn’t think it too hard but it ended up being kind of fruitless, those things have almost no harddeive and I mostly did it to fuck around with Linux. Chromebooks, at least that one, had something like 16gbs and equally weak CPU to match (granted it might have changed since then but woof.)
The whole point of a chrome book is to push you to use Google’s online services. I think you are still better off if you can do that with Linux running the machine.
Same, I did this back in college because my Windows laptop shit out and I couldn’t afford another proper computer. I ended up duct taping an external drive to the back.
i hate that this is now the future of computing
thankfully, once you get a proper UEFI bios on it, it’s free, forever.
But yeah, i agree, total bullshit how much work they put into not using UEFI from the get go lmao.
It wouldn’t be lemmy if this was not the top comment
It’s a Chromebook. That’s just the real answer to OP’s issue regardless of where they ask about it.
Right. If it’s not getting updates, then it’s only a matter of time before it has a critical security vulnerability. If not Linux, then what? Will GNU Hurd run on it?
False. They’re dropping support for 20+ year old cpus like it doesn’t even matter!
Big tech wins yet again. Soon you’ll need at least a Pentium 1 to run the Linux kernel.
That is real enshitification!
In practice, you tend to need something not too out of date. Just about any distro ships with internationalization support, and the fact is that it takes a lot of RAM to do that. A Pentium 1 may not support enough.
I did an install on a Pentium II a few years ago. I used Debian 2.2. Since I had used it back in the day, it seemed easier than finding something more modern that would work.
In reality, only some Pentium 1 compatible motherboards can support enough ram for you to actually run Linux on a Pentium 1. Even if you don’t run into ram problems, you’ll run into bios related problems. I would suggest anyone trying this in 2024 to not even attempt it unless you can get a socket 7, and preferably a later socket 7 motherboard at that. The closest thing I can come up with to a reason not to drop support for 486 (the cpu before the Pentium 1) is that a 486 is a lot more possible to put on a custom pcb than a Pentium 1. Some of the more basic arm cpus aren’t even as powerful as an upper tier 486 (but better arm cpus aren’t that hard for hobbyists to get). Anyone die-hard enough to want to try to run Linux on a fully custom made computer like that would have better results using an arm or risc-V chip instead.
I am curious why they’re dropping support for 486 but not Pentium 1, pentium 2 and anything not capable of SSE1 or later. mmx isn’t even that good but I guess gcc does technically support it.
I wonder if they’re going to drop 486 support in gcc as well. It can still compile for 386. You have to seriously strip down the kernel to run Linux on anything that old. Maybe 486 users (all 2 of them) should switch to Temple OS.
You may find this interesting:
Do you want to maintain that?
You can still run it. It’s just slightly more inconvenient.
I don’t usually like all the Linux posts on Lemmy, but this is 100% the correct answer here. The computer will likely run a lot better if you do everything right!
It already has Linux, that’s the issue.