Not a cry for help, but rather an observation...

[TWPonKubuntu]

What are the specifications of your 'old 32 bit system'?

If this is not a hijack of the thread:

Dell Latitude D820, 4GB RAM, 250GB HD / 80GB HD

This configuration has, in the past, ran Kubuntu 14.04 (the prior/first release) without problems. At some point during the update cycle, it began to have trouble (video hashing, unable to finish a fresh OS install). I tried to move to Kubuntu 16.04 with a fresh install (complete drive overwrite) but the install would not complete.

I ran a full drive analysis and it reports that both of my SATA drives are "good", no bad sectors and fully writable. I've been using EXT4 format (Yes, I follow the glowing reports on btrfs, but have not attempted to make that change)

At that point, I tried several other distros; Magia seemed to work, but was a little uncomfortable to work with for my workflow. Linux Mint 18.0 xfce worked "out of the box" on first install and I've stayed with that distro. I note that when I try (on the 80GB HD) to install Linux Mint 18.1 KDE, it does install, but has some cosmetic blemishes such as fonts not displaying all letters on the Desktop, but everything runs.

Please don't take this as a rant, and I thank Snowhog for even asking about the problem.

Bottom line, since 32bit systems are losing future support in many Linux distros, I'll be limited to older code and that will force me to (arghhhh!) invest in a newer 64bit system. I acknowledge that reality, but my wallet still tells me emphatically NO!

Just for those who don't know Linux Mint, it uses the Ubuntu/Debian base, just as does Kubuntu. That gives me access to essentially the same software repositories so I can keep the configuration of tools which I use for my workflow.

[Snowhog]

The specifications of importance are the CPU (brand and version) and GPU/video card (brand and version).

In almost all situations where a user experiences issues with an installation, it can be linked back to the GPU/video card, and, in those cases, there is almost always a solution.

[GreyGeek]

Dell Latitude D820, 4GB RAM, 250GB HD / 80GB HD
...
Just for those who don't know Linux Mint, ...

Ah, the Dell D820, the last laptop I used at the dept of Revenue before I retired in 2008. It ran, IIRC, PCLinuxOS and Mandriva just fine. Nice box. Mine was mounted into a dock that also attached to a 19" monitor, a mouse, a printer, the LAN and my local Linux PostgreSQL server. In 2010 I went to a used equipment sale held annually by the State and the D820 for parts was selling at $75 and if it ran $175-225. I *was* going to pick up an extra laptop, but not at those prices.

No apologies needed for running Mint. I tried Mint 17 KDE for about 3 months, a year ago, and decided that its use of Btrfs was not good enough to use. After I switched to Btrfs a couple years ago I tried several distros to see how they used Btrfs and came to the conclusion that the way Ubuntu deploys (@ & @home) is far and away the best method. IMO.

[TWPonKubuntu]

Showhog:

Graphics: NVIDIA G72M [Quadro NVS 110MGeForce GO 7300]
Driver: xserver-xorg-vidio-nouveau version 1:1.0.12-1build2

Yes, it uses the infamous NVidia graphics chip, so I use nouveau because it gives me control on screen resolution (the proprietary nvidia drivers do not)

CPU
product: Genuine Intel(R) CPU T2400 @ 1.83GHz
vendor: Intel Corp.
physical id: 2
bus info: cpu@0
version: 6.14.8
serial: 0000-06E8-0000-0000-0000-0000
size: 1GHz
capacity: 1833MHz
width: 32 bits

[TWPonKubuntu]

Ah, the Dell D820, the last laptop I used at the dept of Revenue before I retired in 2008. It ran, IIRC, PCLinuxOS and Mandriva just fine. Nice box. Mine was mounted into a dock that also attached to a 19" monitor, a mouse, a printer, the LAN and my local Linux PostgreSQL server. In 2010 I went to a used equipment sale held annually by the State and the D820 for parts was selling at $75 and if it ran $175-225. I *was* going to pick up an extra laptop, but not at those prices.

No apologies needed for running Mint. I tried Mint 17 KDE for about 3 months, a year ago, and decided that its use of Btrfs was not good enough to use. After I switched to Btrfs a couple years ago I tried several distros to see how they used Btrfs and came to the conclusion that the way Ubuntu deploys (@ & @home) is far and away the best method. IMO.

GreyGeek; That's the beast. I too use a dock which gives me lots of access ports. I use an external keyboard so I have access to a separate keypad and my wrists don't get cramped from using a laptop keyboard. External mouse rather than the almost useless joystick or touch pad. I use a pci wireless card because the internal adapter is Broadcom, which does work but requires jumping through too many hoops to keep the driver installed when I do an re-install (happens too frequently).

I too like to have my home folder on a separate partition, so much easier to protect my data during an update/re-install.

[GreyGeek]

Ah, I forgot the keyboard, which was also attached to the dock. It took me years to get use to these chicklet keyboards. Now, when I pull down one of my old big keyboards they feel klunky!

IF you use a separate partition for /home you'll love Btrfs! See Oshunluver's posts on how to set it up. (80Gb may be too small, however )

[TWPonKubuntu]

I've been following oshunluver's thread(s) on btrfs.

I like the capability to do snapshots and I'll probably go with btrfs on my next system. It will, of necessity have much larger HD space. "Data will expand to fill all available space"...

[oshunluvr]

80Gb may be too small, however )

Well, the use of subvolumes instead of partitions means all free space is shared. So actually with small device there can still be an advantage to BTRFS.

[GreyGeek]

.... "Data will expand to fill all available space"...

Isn't that the truth!

With my new 750GB HD I've installed almost every program I've ever run since I began using Linux in 1998 (all that were still available and could run under Neon, which is most of them).

[oshunluvr]

"Data will expand to fill all available space"...

Geez, I hope not!

Filesystem     Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda       5.5T  2.6T  2.9T  48% /mnt/pool1
/dev/sdb3      1.8T 1000G  807G  56% /mnt/pool2

[GreyGeek]

GreyGeek's corollary the bigger the drive the more rapidly it will fill!

[TWPonKubuntu]

@oshunluver I see that your clock is ticking...

@GreyGeek Does that mean that the converse is also true: Using a raid config made of old 10MB Seagate drives will theoretically last forever? I might still have one in my junk box.

PS: none of us is really a newbie, so we have well and truly hijacked this thread:

[GreyGeek]

Argg, Mate, hijacked we have! (Seagates theoretically lasting forever? Only if they can get past the warranty period, or close the back door!.

[vsreeser]

Years ago I started a site called Raiden's Realm

Would like the URL to raidens realm. A google search turned up other stuff but not your site. If posting the url is not allowed, please send me a pm with it.. thanks