On 08/20/2024 04:30 AM, Andrew M.A. Cater wrote:
On Tue, Aug 20, 2024 at 03:44:03AM -0500, Richard Owlett wrote:
On 08/19/2024 02:51 PM, Andy Smith wrote:
Hi,
I'm afraid I have not got the kind of answer you request for your
actual question but…
Hi Richard,
A first question: is this your main computer?
No. But it is one of my *NEWER* machineS.
My i386 based desktop preceded Debian Stretch by several years ;}
Its primary attraction is that it is a conveniently available and
suitably capable machine.
The R61 is from 2007 or so - so more than 15 years old.
It has a 160GB spinning disk, if I'm reading the specs correctly, and 1GB of
memory.
I routinely use a Dell Latitude E6410. [circa 2010 IIRC ;]
On Mon, Aug 19, 2024 at 06:19:26AM -0500, Richard Owlett wrote:
I'm over 80 and doing first "from scratch" install since Squeeze ;}
Hardware is Lenovo R61 ThinkPad (64 bit).
I multi boot [Grub will have at least three options]:
1. minimalist installation - primarily command line usage
2. 64 bit Debian with maximum features
3. 32 bit Debian - couple of applications require a 32 bit OS
All 32-bit x86 software runs on a 64-bit kernel no problem¹ on
Debian, so it's unlikely you actually need to dedicate a whole
install to a 32-bit kernel, which also as previously mentioned has a
single digit of years of remaining lifetime in Debian.
I don't see anything on https://wiki.debian.org/LTS that implies shorter
lifetime for i386 than anything else.
There will be non i386 installer medium for Trixie when released though
i386 will be retained as a release architecture.
Can you point me to the details. I have two i386 I wish to use as long
as possible.
[I suspect I could satisfy much of my usage with my Kaypro 10 if dial-up
service still existed ;]
There are already
packages which cannot be built within i386 limitations so the architecture
is mostly built using amd64. Some packages for i386 will not now build
even on amd64 because of compiler changes. i386 is dead but won't lie down :)
You mean there are others like me out there? *ROFL*
4. other installs with strong project dependencies
Dependencies can indeed get out of hand sometimes.
I wasn't speaking of "software dependencies". For different projects I want
different "working environments".
A single install with all directories in one partition using LVM would be
most straightforward. In 160GB and booting using MBR/legacy, you may
run out of disk physical partitions anyway.
Install with GUI for general use. Switch to a full screen VT for
command line use, maybe?
I'm a GUI person. Though I date from 026/KSR35 era I do like some modern
conveniences.
I don't know how much you are up for a learning experience but
virtual machines or containers can often be a good way to
compartmentalise projects and their dependencies without needing to
do whole separate installs.
Absolutely agreed: the problem is the 1GB memory
<snip>
I looked into VMs long ago. For my style - no advantages worth the effort.
Finally there can be systemd .mount units outside of fstab, but
again that is not typical and you'd know if you added those.
Thanks,
Andy
Richard,
You are going to be *significantly* limited by hardware here with the
size and memory requirements of modern Debian. Make life simpler:
install a desktop environment with lower memory requirements like XFCE
and try and minimise diverse requirements.
*DO* read the release notes. If you want to make significant customisations,
I'd suggest a text only install, maybe using the expert install option.
All the very best, as ever,
Andy
(amaca...@debian.org)
