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Anyone know if it's possible to run a modern distribution on this? I had a bit of difficulty running full-fledged Linux on a Thinkpad X60 due to it being 32bit

by dm319 4y ago

Anyone know if it's possible to run a modern distribution on this? I had a bit of difficulty running full-fledged Linux on a Thinkpad X60 due to it being 32bit. Linux mint debian edition came to my rescue, but I wonder if you'd need linux from scratch or something like that.

winrid 4y ago
Yeah, but it'll probably be more useful running Windows. At least it can play games. :)
jtwaleson 4y ago
It’s a 486, you will probably be able to run a lightweight Linux distro but it will be sloooooow.
- doublepg23 4y ago
  I don’t think most distros compile for i486, minimum is i686 (not too familiar with the jargon though, before my time). Even the kernel itself was going to trash i486 support entirely. https://www.phoronix.com/news/Intel-i486-Linux-Possible-Drop https://www.phoronix.com/news/Intel-i486-Linux-Possible-Drop
- guessbest 4y ago
  They'll have to run it with a 2.2 era kernel. Everything after that ran dog slow on these machines.
cpach 4y ago
NetBSD should work according to their docs: https://www.netbsd.org/ports/i386/hardware.html https://www.netbsd.org/ports/i386/hardware.html
- nix23 4y ago
  Or OpenBSD: https://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq4.html#Download https://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq4.html#Download
  - cpach 4y ago
    Maybe…? I’m not too familiar with OpenBSD but this page mentions “All CPUs compatible with the Intel Pentium or later”: https://www.openbsd.org/i386.html https://www.openbsd.org/i386.html
qbasic_forever 4y ago
Debian still has 32bit x86 binaries: https://www.debian.org/distrib/ https://www.debian.org/distrib/
- cpach 4y ago
  32-bit yes. But not 486. That port requires “686” or higher. https://wiki.debian.org/SupportedArchitectures https://wiki.debian.org/SupportedArchitectures
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
guestbest 4y ago
There is a big slowdown from win98se to win2k, it is the same on Linux with 2.2 kernel and the 2.4. You would best using an older operating system, shutting down most of not all services and connecting through a very strict proxy
haunter 4y ago
Xwoaf-rebuild-4.0 http://pupngo.dk/xwinflpy/xwoaf_rebuild.html http://pupngo.dk/xwinflpy/xwoaf_rebuild.html One floppy image, full GUI and tons of applications through busybox. Here is a video showing the full distro https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8or3ehc5YDo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8or3ehc5YDo On the other hand it's not "modern", 2.2.26 kernel is from 1999
cosgrove 4y ago
Not quite what you asked, but there was someone who did a "brain transplant" recently: https://www.tomshardware.com/news/ibm-thinkpad-701c-receives-21st-century-brain-transplant https://www.tomshardware.com/news/ibm-thinkpad-701c-receives...
luke2m 4y ago
I run MX Linux on my T60.
- Rediscover 4y ago
  Slackware-current on my ThinkPad R61i https://mirrors.slackware.com/slackware/slackware-current/ https://mirrors.slackware.com/slackware/slackware-current/
opencl 4y ago
The kernel itself is still fine on 486s and there are a couple of distros that should still technically work. Obviously nothing 'full fledged' is going to fit in the RAM on the thing or run at any sort of reasonable speed. Gentoo is probably the easiest mainstream distro to get running just because you can fiddle with all the compiler flags and kernel options. A few people have also put together small custom images with modern kernels for this class of hardware.
- sgtnoodle 4y ago
  The problem with Gentoo is that it will take several months to compile everything!
  - bombcar 4y ago
    Yeah I would be sure to learn how to use distcc first.

by dm319 4y ago

winrid 4y ago

Yeah, but it'll probably be more useful running Windows. At least it can play games. :)

jtwaleson 4y ago

It’s a 486, you will probably be able to run a lightweight Linux distro but it will be sloooooow.

doublepg23 4y ago
I don’t think most distros compile for i486, minimum is i686 (not too familiar with the jargon though, before my time). Even the kernel itself was going to trash i486 support entirely. https://www.phoronix.com/news/Intel-i486-Linux-Possible-Drop https://www.phoronix.com/news/Intel-i486-Linux-Possible-Drop
guessbest 4y ago
They'll have to run it with a 2.2 era kernel. Everything after that ran dog slow on these machines.

cpach 4y ago

NetBSD should work according to their docs: https://www.netbsd.org/ports/i386/hardware.html https://www.netbsd.org/ports/i386/hardware.html

nix23 4y ago
Or OpenBSD: https://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq4.html#Download https://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq4.html#Download
- cpach 4y ago
  Maybe…? I’m not too familiar with OpenBSD but this page mentions “All CPUs compatible with the Intel Pentium or later”: https://www.openbsd.org/i386.html https://www.openbsd.org/i386.html

qbasic_forever 4y ago

Debian still has 32bit x86 binaries: https://www.debian.org/distrib/ https://www.debian.org/distrib/

cpach 4y ago
32-bit yes. But not 486. That port requires “686” or higher. https://wiki.debian.org/SupportedArchitectures https://wiki.debian.org/SupportedArchitectures

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

guestbest 4y ago

There is a big slowdown from win98se to win2k, it is the same on Linux with 2.2 kernel and the 2.4. You would best using an older operating system, shutting down most of not all services and connecting through a very strict proxy

haunter 4y ago

Xwoaf-rebuild-4.0 http://pupngo.dk/xwinflpy/xwoaf_rebuild.html http://pupngo.dk/xwinflpy/xwoaf_rebuild.html One floppy image, full GUI and tons of applications through busybox. Here is a video showing the full distro https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8or3ehc5YDo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8or3ehc5YDo On the other hand it's not "modern", 2.2.26 kernel is from 1999

cosgrove 4y ago

Not quite what you asked, but there was someone who did a "brain transplant" recently: https://www.tomshardware.com/news/ibm-thinkpad-701c-receives-21st-century-brain-transplant https://www.tomshardware.com/news/ibm-thinkpad-701c-receives...

luke2m 4y ago

I run MX Linux on my T60.

Rediscover 4y ago
Slackware-current on my ThinkPad R61i https://mirrors.slackware.com/slackware/slackware-current/ https://mirrors.slackware.com/slackware/slackware-current/

opencl 4y ago

The kernel itself is still fine on 486s and there are a couple of distros that should still technically work. Obviously nothing 'full fledged' is going to fit in the RAM on the thing or run at any sort of reasonable speed. Gentoo is probably the easiest mainstream distro to get running just because you can fiddle with all the compiler flags and kernel options. A few people have also put together small custom images with modern kernels for this class of hardware.

sgtnoodle 4y ago
The problem with Gentoo is that it will take several months to compile everything!
- bombcar 4y ago
  Yeah I would be sure to learn how to use distcc first.