It appears that CentOS 7 was the last one with a 32-bit version. I'm trying to install it on an older laptop and having some trouble. I have CentOS-7-i386-Everything-1810.iso and have verified it. Using either dd or mediawriter to put a copy on a 16 GB thumb drive seems to work. But then the laptop reports, "no boot image found". Note that the first 32 KB of the iso is all zeros, meaning that there is no MBR or partition table included.
According to the 0_README.txt on the CentOS mirrors, the Everything ISO, "contains the complete set of packages for CentOS Linux 7. It can be used for installing or populating a local mirror. This image needs a 16GB USB flash drive as it is too large for DVD isos... You can burn these images to a DVD or 'dd' them to a USB flash drive. After the boot media has been prepared, boot the computer off the boot media."
Does anyone know what I don't understand about this procedure?
On Tue, 9 Jul 2019 at 14:40, Dave Close dave@compata.com wrote:
It appears that CentOS 7 was the last one with a 32-bit version. I'm trying to install it on an older laptop and having some trouble. I have CentOS-7-i386-Everything-1810.iso and have verified it. Using either dd or mediawriter to put a copy on a 16 GB thumb drive seems to work. But then the laptop reports, "no boot image found". Note that the first 32 KB of the iso is all zeros, meaning that there is no MBR or partition table included.
Depending on the age of the laptop, booting from USB sticks over 8 GB may not be possible. Larger usb images I believe use a different layout format (GPT?) which also may not work with older hardware. I would try a smaller one first and see if that works.
According to the 0_README.txt on the CentOS mirrors, the Everything ISO, "contains the complete set of packages for CentOS Linux 7. It can be used for installing or populating a local mirror. This image needs a 16GB USB flash drive as it is too large for DVD isos... You can burn these images to a DVD or 'dd' them to a USB flash drive. After the boot media has been prepared, boot the computer off the boot media."
Does anyone know what I don't understand about this procedure?
Dave Close, Compata, Irvine CA +1 714 434 7359 dave@compata.com dhclose@alumni.caltech.edu"Fairness is a concept that was invented so kids and idiots could participate in debates." --Dogbert
CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org https://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
On Tue, 9 Jul 2019 at 14:40, Dave Close dave@compata.com wrote:
It appears that CentOS 7 was the last one with a 32-bit version. I'm trying to install it on an older laptop and having some trouble.
I tried to resurrect a 32-bit desktop with a Pentium 4 processor by installing CentOS 7 32-bit version. Everything installed OK, but after the first boot, the performance was unusable. And, the X11 would crash repeatedly. CentOS 7-32 is completely useless.
Then, I tried Ubuntu 16-32 with the Gnome desktop. No crashes, but the performance was unusable, although much better than CentOS 7-32.
Then, I tried Lubuntu 18-32, and I have a usable system now. Lubuntu is Ubuntu with a light-weight desktop designed for computers with limited resources.
I have also installed Xubuntu 12 on a laptop with a Pentium M processor (pre-PAE capability for extended memory addressing). It performed acceptably. Xubuntu is another light-weight Linux with the XFCE desktop.
Todd Merriman
On 2019-07-09 15:01, MAILIST wrote:
On Tue, 9 Jul 2019 at 14:40, Dave Close dave@compata.com wrote:
It appears that CentOS 7 was the last one with a 32-bit version. I'm trying to install it on an older laptop and having some trouble.
I tried to resurrect a 32-bit desktop with a Pentium 4 processor by installing CentOS 7 32-bit version. Everything installed OK, but after the first boot, the performance was unusable. And, the X11 would crash repeatedly. CentOS 7-32 is completely useless.
CentOS will not be good choice of system for this case. Linux grows in its demands to hardware rather fast. Not as fast as MS Windows does (I remember when 2000 was released someone stuck "bloated pig" to it ;-)
Much better choice would be FreeBSD (or any of BSD descendants, e.g. netbsd).
I hope this helps.
Valeri
Then, I tried Ubuntu 16-32 with the Gnome desktop. No crashes, but the performance was unusable, although much better than CentOS 7-32.
Then, I tried Lubuntu 18-32, and I have a usable system now. Lubuntu is Ubuntu with a light-weight desktop designed for computers with limited resources.
I have also installed Xubuntu 12 on a laptop with a Pentium M processor (pre-PAE capability for extended memory addressing). It performed acceptably. Xubuntu is another light-weight Linux with the XFCE desktop.
Todd Merriman _______________________________________________ CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org https://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
On 10/07/19 8:01 AM, MAILIST wrote:
I tried to resurrect a 32-bit desktop with a Pentium 4 processor by installing CentOS 7 32-bit version. Everything installed OK, but after the first boot, the performance was unusable. And, the X11 would crash repeatedly. CentOS 7-32 is completely useless.
You need a light weight desktop like XFCE which is available for CentOS from epel. Epel 7 doesn't natively come in i386 but CentOS has provided a rebuild at https://buildlogs.centos.org/c7-epel.i386/
Peter
Dave Close dave@compata.com wrote:
It appears that CentOS 7 was the last one with a 32-bit version. I'm trying to install it on an older laptop and having some trouble. I have CentOS-7-i386-Everything-1810.iso and have verified it. Using either dd or mediawriter to put a copy on a 16 GB thumb drive seems to work. But then the laptop reports, "no boot image found".
Can you post the exact command you used with "dd"?
(How old is this "older laptop"? Debian is worth trying on older machines; it can be just as light as distributions specifically designed for old computers.)
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Dave Close -
MAILIST -
Peter -
Stephen John Smoogen -
Valeri Galtsev -
Yves Bellefeuille