Have found a very old Acer Laptop at the back of a cupboard. Aspire One Happy
Is this spec on it enough to do so? it has windows 7 on it. and intel atom N455 1.6GHZ
512 KB cache memory 1GB storage 2510GB HDD
It depends what you mean by 'enough'. It ought to run, but software has become more bloated since then, so it will be slow. You may find battery life fairly short compared to modern equipment, especially if it has the original battery.
I have an Aspire One A110 predating the Windows version, I've had it for fourteen years and it was a refurbished item. It's currently running the previous version of Debian Linux, and would probably run the latest if I had a need to. It has only an 8GB SSD, and a very slow one at that, so I can't use it for anything big, but it will do basic web and email OK. It does run web and SQL servers, but these are much smaller and lighter than Microsoft stuff.
In a word: no.
You want to install Chrome OS, and the minimum spec is 4GB of RAM these days.
Could I suggest you try Raspberry Pi Desktop, which will run in 1GB of RAM.
Can you get that for PC processors though?
Yes. Raspberry Pi Desktop is the version for PCs.
Am 01.09.2023 um 08:27:09 Uhr schrieb john curzon:
Maybe you can upgrade the RAM to 2GB or maybe even 4GB.
I dunno if ChromeOS has all drivers for that model, but you can simply give it a try.
If not, try Debian with LXDE or Mate desktop.
My Aspire A110 had 512MB RAM as standard, soldered in, plus a slot for up to 1GB, so it has 1.5GB. I would assume that a model which started with 1GB would have a spare slot which would probably take another 1GB at least.
I've just installed Debian 12 (bookworm) i386 version, though this may well be the last Debian to have 32-bit capability. As far as I can see, it has installed and run properly, though it will take a bit of tweaking to make sure. WiFi works, and there's nothing exotic like Bluetooth.
I'm using Xfce4, because Gnome and KDE are just silly for an underpowered machine, though LXDE and probably a couple of others will work. I use Xfce4 on my main workstation and laptops, so I'm familiar with it.
My guess would be that bookworm should run on the OP's Aspire, and if it doesn't, probably nothing will. It will never be quick, though. There will be many Linux distributions that don't do 32 bits.
Min spec these days for a current version of chromeos is 64 bit CPU, 4GB RAM, and 16GB HDD/SSSD
you could try linux 32-bit Mint xfce which would run on that but its not going to be very fast
The difference between distros and indeed window managers is slight. The problem with 1GB RAM is that firefox will eat most of that straight off.
The problem with a lot of "platform change" projects, is the lack of a driver for the graphics.
If the new OS platform expects to accelerate graphics, but uses CPU fallback code when no acceleration is available, then the processor needs to be a lot more powerful. And as is normal when questions like this come up, the N445 is just at the wrong end of the spectrum for "lifting heavy loads". It needs a new OS platform, where the CPU can "coast along". Lots of my little projects here have been ruined, by this dynamic.
Neverware CloudReady is the pre-cursor to ChromeOS Flex, and it asks for 2GB of RAM. In my testing of the free version, it installed and worked properly on one machine (4930K), but an attempt to install on a second machine, failed. And I think they even had a "list of approved models". When I went to a ChromeOS GPU benching site, I was awarded the "highest performance GPU we've ever seen" award, as they did not normally see Neverware users there. I only went there, because I wanted to see just what kind of a test they would run (whether their test was like a 3DMark one).
When an OS "asks for" memory, it does not always use it.
In Windows, the kernel memory footprint, hasn't changed too much. You have to ask, on Windows 11, why the OS "asks for" 4GB of RAM, when the W10 OS it is based on, the kernel uses 350MB (and that's being a bit generous, it might actually take less than that). Well, in Windows 11, 2.6GB of RAM is set aside for a mini-OS sandbox image. Not every user has clicked the button, to use that, which means in many cases, the user pays for that image, for no reason. And, if W11 is run on rancid hardware (you can do that), it simply does not load the sandbox image, and suddenly you have more slack space for applications to use (Firefox).
So then, you need to research whether or how, ChromeOS uses memory or wastes it, to understand what happens when the "asks for" amount is not available. In some cases, you can install an OS on one box, and move the drive to a second box. And if the OS has a runtime driver resolver, the transfer will actually work. Linux is flexible this way, and I can move my Linux boot drive between machines here. It's also how I got Linux running on a 440BX (PIII) with too little RAM. It would not have been possible to install on the machine itself, since the BIOS refuses to use DVD drives and will only use CD drives. No modern Linux could fit in that poor box now -- only Puppy would fit.
*******That GPU might even be on the CloudReady ban list. Some of these things get banned, because the graphics acceleration is too poor to work with. For example, Intel tried to run on Vista, with stuff having GMA in the name. Only the very last GMA item made, might have been fit for purpose. Intel graphics today are a lot better, in the buzz-word-compliance area.
There is one Intel CPU, if you were silly enough to buy that one, the GPU "isn't even an Intel and it isn't AMD either". It might have been something closer to a cellphone GPU (a separate die inside the CPU?). There was only ever one driver for it, which means it was an orphan from the word "go". Intel didn't write the driver, and hence, they felt no obligation to offer any sort of support (normally, you buy support for stuff like that with $$$, but they were not inclined to do so).
Not everything made, is fit for purpose, or even close.
There are lots of tablets, you "open the box, then thrown them in the tip".
There should be a law against making that sort of crap.
Paul
Frankly I managed to get a cracking little refurbed full HD HP laptop for just over £200 and I am not interested in trying to revive old hardware much.
If you want to run a modern browser, you need decent graffix and around
2MB RAM just to get out of bed.Modern INTEL onboard graffix are WAY better than they used to be. And everyone supports them
And, if all you want is browser/email/worrd processing Linux is a better choice for older machines anyway.
I thought chromebooks were basically Android devices, ie no intel chip. Brian
I have an elderly HP2033 (2GB, C7-M processor (wot???) on which I've installed the final 32-bit xfce-flavoured Mint. It works absolutely fine in "live" mode straight from the memory-stick but refuses to operate in anything other than 640x480 VGA mode from the installed version. It offers no alternative display sizes in the settings>display menu and I have no idea why.
Nick snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.ca
Do you mean the HP2133 (with the Via C7-M CPU)? That appears to have an S3 Chrome GPU (nothing to do with Google's Chrome browser or OS). I can't tell exactly which model, but some are supported by the OpenChrome driver. Try installing the xserver-xorg-video-openchrome package and see if it improves things.
This is the list of supported chips:
Theo
Thanks! Yes, you are right on both counts: HP2133 and the Via C7-M. I should dig it out again and try out your suggestion. I have an HP2140 which dual boots Linux and Windows (8.1) but the HP2133 had much sound - and is capable of much better screen resolution when not restricted to VGA.
Thanks again,
Nick snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.ca
What kernel version are you running? Some older kernels did not support that chipset.
There is an x86 port of ChromeOS.
The current search term might be "ChromeOS Flex".
I'll copy the important bit here, so you don't have to look at the link.
"On February 16, 2022, Google announced a development version of ChromeOS Flex - a distribution of ChromeOS that can be installed on conventional PC hardware to replace other operating systems such as Windows and macOS. It is similar to NeverReady CloudReady, a distribution of ChromiumOS whose developers were acquired by Google in 2020."
[ Link:Installing these, isn't always easy. But I would expect Google to use enough staff, to do a good job of it.
Paul
System: Host: mint Kernel: 5.0.0-32-generic i686 bits: 32 compiler: gcc v: 7.4.0 Desktop: Xfce 4.14.1 tk: Gtk 3.22.30 wm: xfwm4 dm: LightDM Distro: Linux Mint 19.3 Tricia base: Ubuntu 18.04 bionic (Info taken from my HP2140 which has Linux Mint installed from the same boot memory stick) NB The 2133 works perfectly in Live Linux mode: it's only after it's been installed on the hard disk that it becomes a problem.
Nick snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.ca
There are a few others:
'brunch' which is a tool to install a ChromeOS image from a Chromebook onto an x86 PC.
FydeOS which is a Chinese-developed distro of ChromeOS (but works fine in English)
Both support Android apps which Flex doesn't.
Theo
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