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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : What to do with a old netbook
| Author | Message | ||||
Gizmo Admin Group  Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5116 |
I bought this netbook on the weekend for $20. It runs Win7 starter, has 1Gig ram, 250G hd. Intel N450 at 1.66GHz, web cam, 10inch screen, wifi and network connector. 2 USB, card adaptor, VGA out and audio It boots up and runs fine, actually very snappy. Win7 complains its not authentic and its very outdated, none of the modern browsers will install. So I'm wondering what to do with it. Tempted to install a Linux distro, any suggestions? Thinking maybe as a terminal for programming over a USB/Serial adaptor.  Glenn The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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| PhenixRising Guru  Joined: 07/11/2023 Location: United KingdomPosts: 1358 |
A recent post reminded me of this. I had it many years ago and loved it. Might just a netbook myself, to try. |
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| hhtg1968 Senior Member  Joined: 25/05/2023 Location: GermanyPosts: 136 |
I made good experience with a linux distribution from raspberry which exists for x86 too. raspi os for x86 it is based on debian. |
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| Volhout Guru Joined: 05/03/2018 Location: NetherlandsPosts: 5050 |
Gizmo, Depends on what you want to do with it. Browse the internet: ditch it. don't even try. Even if you get it to work, it will be very slow. There are NO recent kernels anymore that support the build in video accellerator so you need to use framebuffer (the celeron has to do all the graphics). I think you will need to fall back to an older linux, or maybe XP may run on it. Maybe Ubuntu 12.04 will work. Ubuntu is know to have build in compatibility with a lot of hardware. I remember there even was a special "ubuntu netbook edition" Or try Puppy Linux. On the puppy linux forum you can ask advise what would work best. In linux the most critical HW relation is in 1/ touchpad 2/ audio 3/ WIFI 4/ screen backlight In most cases keyboards and video work oob, as does an external mouse. Volhout P.S. this is a 32 bit core. It will not run 64bit os. Ironically one of the few browsers that still compile to 32 bit is Chrome. Most only offer 64bit. P.P.S. On a 3 years more modern netbook I ran Ubuntu 16.04. Until it broke down 1 year ago. Edited 2025-02-06 17:48 by Volhout PicomiteVGA PETSCII ROBOTS |
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phil99 Guru Joined: 11/02/2018 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2603 |
Perfect for that. For MicroMites etc I have a very old Compaq Pentium 3 / Win 2000 laptop using TeraTerm. Though have not been able to install the USB driver for the Pico. |
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| Volhout Guru Joined: 05/03/2018 Location: NetherlandsPosts: 5050 |
deleted Edited 2025-02-06 17:51 by Volhout PicomiteVGA PETSCII ROBOTS |
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Bryan1 Guru Joined: 22/02/2006 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1448 |
Glenn I do have some old linux disks UBUNTU V6.06.1LTS and KUBUNTU V7.04 they are genuine linux disks too. So if you want them just sing out and PM me your address and I can send them off this week.  I did use these back in the days of 32 bit when a HD would fail on a computer and winsucks just wouldn't load. Now getting the net shouldn't be a problem using this old version. Edited 2025-02-06 17:57 by Bryan1 |
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Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 7852 |
I installed Puppy Linux on an old netbook. It's a nice little lightweight distro which is also rather good for rescuing errant Windows machines as it can run totally from USB. Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
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| Volhout Guru Joined: 05/03/2018 Location: NetherlandsPosts: 5050 |
Bryan, The n455 core is from 2010. Any distro before it (Ubuntu 6 or 8) will not have a kernel that supports the peripherals. The netbook is probably from 2011/2012. Earlies that would work is Ubuntu 10, but I know 12.04 has had a very long support time. That is probably your best guess, -or- the Ubuntu Netbook edition. netbook edition Volhout P.S. I have Ubuntu 8.04 disk. Nowadays you cannot imagine that anymore, but at that time Canonical send out FREE CD's if you wanted them. I received one in the normal mail. Edited 2025-02-06 18:37 by Volhout PicomiteVGA PETSCII ROBOTS |
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| robert.rozee Guru Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 2436 |
XP is not a bad choice, but not for web browsing - or, indeed, getting anywhere near the internet! linux mint 19.3 will work, and available for 32-bit. PLUS, the nice folks from Mozilla will offer to upgrade your firefox to the current version built for 32-bit i686; i've recently had a couple of machines running 19.3 (one 64-bit, the other 32-bit) out of the blue offer in the browser to upgrade. the instructions are fairly easy to follow and gives you ongoing firefox upgrades via Mint's update manager. btw, your machine will almost certainly accept a 2gb SODIMM, which while not ideal (4gb would be ideal) will still help considerably. both the above mentioned netbooks have just 2gb. cheers, rob :-) Edited 2025-02-06 19:28 by robert.rozee |
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electricat Senior Member Joined: 30/11/2020 Location: LithuaniaPosts: 299 |
Install FreeDOS , enjoy oldies. Instant DOOM pleasure?? or Install FreeDOS --> install MpxPlay --> Listen music or Install FreeDOS --> install WARAJEVO ZX spectrum emulator --> configure so it will boot stright to WARAJEVO --> play ZX spectrum games Mentioned already Puppy Linux is  Personally I always found these oldies being too much power hungry  My MMBasic 'sand box' |
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stanleyella Guru Joined: 25/06/2022 Location: United KingdomPosts: 2534 |
https://twisteros.com/twisterui.html Edited 2025-02-07 03:04 by stanleyella |
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PeteCotton Guru Joined: 13/08/2020 Location: CanadaPosts: 543 |
Turn it into an Amiga! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbDJBZQ-NR4  Edited 2025-02-07 02:41 by PeteCotton |
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| stanleyella Guru Joined: 25/06/2022 Location: United KingdomPosts: 2534 |
Duke nukem |
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Martin H. Guru Joined: 04/06/2022 Location: GermanyPosts: 1220 |
Maybe build a small Game-Machine Batocera 'no comment |
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