# What is the best Linux OS for non-cmov computers?



## HaloEffect17 (Feb 24, 2016)

I have an ancient Dell Latitude CP and wish to dual-boot a Linux OS/distro alongside Windows XP.  I have tried the standalone Windows Installer for Slacko Puppy 6.3, but when I booted it, it said that my kernel doesn't have 'cmov'.

What Linux OS would you recommend for me that is non-cmov?  The computer is 128MB ram, it that helps.  I am very, very new to Linux so if I sound like a complete newbie here, I apologize in advance.  Thanks.


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## AnukWolf (Feb 24, 2016)

Take a look at this thread. If the guy there is correct, you should be able to install any distro that is compatible with i486 or i586.
You'll also find some OS recommendations there.


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## HaloEffect17 (Feb 24, 2016)

AnukWolf said:


> Take a look at this thread. If the guy there is correct, you should be able to install any distro that is compatible with i486 or i586.
> You'll also find some OS recommendations there.


Just looking at some of the lists there... so it is true that the latest Linux's (ex/ Slacko, Lucid, Precise, Saluki, etc.) don't support i486 or i586 systems anymore?  I should have noted that I was looking for a standalone Windows Installer from here http://puppylinux.org/main/Download Latest Release.htm that would work.  I'd much rather install Linux through an .exe rather than a USB or CD.  That leads to a link of standalone downloads for Linux here that I've randomly been testing to see if one works.

And I wish to have the latest Linux OS that works for this computer if possible.


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## AnukWolf (Feb 24, 2016)

I just looked into Puppy Linux a bit more and apparently the normal versions are for i686 only.
What you are looking for are the so called retro builds. On the website itself I only found iso files of those
but there is a Windows installer for a retro version here that should work. (The precise retro build is for i486+)


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## HaloEffect17 (Feb 24, 2016)

Great, thanks.  I'll give that one a shot.


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## HaloEffect17 (Feb 24, 2016)

AnukWolf said:


> I just looked into Puppy Linux a bit more and apparently the normal versions are for i686 only.
> What you are looking for are the so called retro builds. On the website itself I only found iso files of those
> but there is a Windows installer for a retro version here that should work. (The precise retro build is for i486+)


So, just installed it (Precise retro), and after trying to run Precise in the boot menu, I set the following error.  I am trying to Google a solution at the moment, but I thought I'd throw out my error here first:

Loading the 'puppy_precise_5.7.1.sfs' main file...
Setting up the layered filesystem...
Performing a 'switch_root' to the layered filesystem...[    15.226430] Kernel pan
ic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!
[    15.226588] Pid: 1, comm: init Not tainted 3.2.48 #1
.
.
. <bunch of miscellaneous code jargon>


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## HaloEffect17 (Feb 24, 2016)

I managed to find this: http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=71691&sid=e3577981b72828cd77dca7c57d5c4095.  Not sure how this helps, though.


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## loco365 (Feb 24, 2016)

Ubuntu is a very popular distro of Linux that works on most computers out-of-the-box. They even supported PowerPC Macs back in the day when people actually had those.

They also have a large community for getting help if you ever need it.


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## HaloEffect17 (Feb 24, 2016)

Team Fail said:


> Ubuntu is a very popular distro of Linux that works on most computers out-of-the-box. They even supported PowerPC Macs back in the day when people actually had those.
> 
> They also have a large community for getting help if you ever need it.


Hey, I was wondering if I could install Linux Mint since its based off Ubuntu and claims to run i386 or higher.  Would this be a viable alternative?


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## Minox (Feb 24, 2016)

HaloEffect17 said:


> Hey, I was wondering if I could install Linux Mint since its based off Ubuntu and claims to run i386 or higher.  Would this be a viable alternative?


Best way to find out would be to try it, but I don't see any concrete reason why it wouldn't work.

Though if the default version of Linux Mint doesn't work you could try the LMDE2 32bit variant which supposedly has compatibility with 486 but with a few limitations such as it not recognising more than one CPU core which may or may not be what you want depending on what CPU you have.


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## loco365 (Feb 24, 2016)

HaloEffect17 said:


> Hey, I was wondering if I could install Linux Mint since its based off Ubuntu and claims to run i386 or higher.  Would this be a viable alternative?


It should work just as well, yes. Just make sure to check your checksums so you don't have the recent version with the backdoor that was hacked onto the site the other day.


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## HaloEffect17 (Feb 24, 2016)

Team Fail said:


> It should work just as well, yes. Just make sure to check your checksums so you don't have the recent version with the backdoor that was hacked onto the site the other day.


Thanks.  I just Googled about this at: https://micahflee.com/2016/02/backdoored-linux-mint-and-the-perils-of-checksums/.  I am unsure of how to check if my .iso is legit or not (via checksums) - perhaps you know of a quick and easy way to do this?  I've never done this before.

*It says the following:*
_If you look at the directory structure in the Linux Mint folder on one of the download mirrors, like http://mirrors.kernel.org/linuxmint/stable/17.3/ for example, you’ll see a bunch of ISO files as well as sha256sum.txt and sha256sum.txt.gpg. The sha256sum.txt file includes SHA256 checksums of all of the ISO files, and you can use sha256sum.txt.gpg to verify the signature of that file.
_
So how would I use that .gpg file to verify the iso?


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## loco365 (Feb 24, 2016)

HaloEffect17 said:


> Thanks.  I just Googled about this at: https://micahflee.com/2016/02/backdoored-linux-mint-and-the-perils-of-checksums/.  I am unsure of how to check if my .iso is legit or not (via checksums) - perhaps you know of a quick and easy way to do this?  I've never done this before.


In Windows Explorer, go to the folder where your ISO is, and open a command line window in that folder (Shift + Right Click). Then, using the following command:

FCIV -md5 -sha1 <filename.type>

You can calculate the MD5 and SHA-1 checksums. Match them to the Linux Mint website and you should be fine to go. Additionally, I've read that the torrented versions of the ISO that they provide was safe from the intrusion, so you can use that one instead if you want to be 100% certain.


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## HaloEffect17 (Feb 24, 2016)

Team Fail said:


> In Windows Explorer, go to the folder where your ISO is, and open a command line window in that folder (Shift + Right Click). Then, using the following command:
> 
> FCIV -md5 -sha1 <filename.type>
> 
> You can calculate the MD5 and SHA-1 checksums. Match them to the Linux Mint website and you should be fine to go. Additionally, I've read that the torrented versions of the ISO that they provide was safe from the intrusion, so you can use that one instead if you want to be 100% certain.


Alright, so I'm currently downloading a mirror right now.  So, according to the blog post and what you said, I'm going to use cmd and calculate the checksums.  Then I will compare it to this (from the blog post):

pub dsa1024/0FF405B2 2009-04-29 [SC]
Key fingerprint = E1A3 8B8F 1446 75D0 60EA 666F 3EE6 7F3D 0FF4 05B2
uid [ unknown] Clement Lefebvre (Linux Mint Package Repository v1)
sub elg2048/0F346519 2009-04-29 [E]

And if they match, they're fine.


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## The Real Jdbye (Feb 24, 2016)

HaloEffect17 said:


> Thanks.  I just Googled about this at: https://micahflee.com/2016/02/backdoored-linux-mint-and-the-perils-of-checksums/.  I am unsure of how to check if my .iso is legit or not (via checksums) - perhaps you know of a quick and easy way to do this?  I've never done this before.
> 
> *It says the following:*
> _If you look at the directory structure in the Linux Mint folder on one of the download mirrors, like http://mirrors.kernel.org/linuxmint/stable/17.3/ for example, you’ll see a bunch of ISO files as well as sha256sum.txt and sha256sum.txt.gpg. The sha256sum.txt file includes SHA256 checksums of all of the ISO files, and you can use sha256sum.txt.gpg to verify the signature of that file.
> ...


The backdoored version is long gone from their website, so if you've just downloaded the ISO or haven't downloaded it yet, you don't need to worry. The backdoored version was hosted off a 3rd party FTP site so it would be easy to tell in your download history if your version came from there.


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## HaloEffect17 (Feb 24, 2016)

Team Fail said:


> In Windows Explorer, go to the folder where your ISO is, and open a command line window in that folder (Shift + Right Click). Then, using the following command:
> 
> FCIV -md5 -sha1 <filename.type>
> 
> You can calculate the MD5 and SHA-1 checksums. Match them to the Linux Mint website and you should be fine to go. Additionally, I've read that the torrented versions of the ISO that they provide was safe from the intrusion, so you can use that one instead if you want to be 100% certain.


Actually, no -- I would compare the MD5 only to this, right?  Where is the SHA-1 checksum on their website?






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The Real Jdbye said:


> The backdoored version is long gone from their website, so if you've just downloaded the ISO or haven't downloaded it yet, you don't need to worry. The backdoored version was hosted off a 3rd party FTP site so it would be easy to tell in your download history if your version came from there.


Ok, that's reassuring.  Thanks.  Now I'm just learning the process on how to check checksums in the future should this occur again.


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## The Real Jdbye (Feb 24, 2016)

HaloEffect17 said:


> Actually, no -- I would compare the MD5 only to this, right?  Where is the SHA-1 checksum on their website?
> 
> View attachment 40129
> 
> ...


The easiest way on Windows is using HashTab. It integrates checksums right into the properties window in Explorer 

Edit: Looks like this


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## HaloEffect17 (Feb 24, 2016)

The Real Jdbye said:


> The easiest way on Windows is using HashTab. It integrates checksums right into the properties window in Explorer
> 
> Edit: Looks like this


Awesome, I tried it and the MD5 matches with the one on the Mint website.  Thanks a bunch!  I'm going to see if Mint works.


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## HaloEffect17 (Feb 25, 2016)

Shoot.  Linux Mint doesn't work, it keeps coming up with that cmov error.  This time, pae cmov.

I'm going to try LMDE2 32bit variant as @Minox's suggestion.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Now I just saw this online...

Welcome to the Linux Mint forums Ceddrwyn!

Mint has no i486 or i586 version...

You need to use another distro, AntiX has a i486 version and Debian proper also has one. However, for such old computer you may need to go for something like DSL, Puppy or an older version of Debian. All depends on the amount of RAM you have. How many MB of RAM does your computer have?

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I can confirm that I am running an Intel Pentium which according to this is a i586.

i386 = Intel 386 and above
i486 = Intel 486 and above
i586 = Pentium and above
i686 = Pentium 2, Pentium 2 Celeron, and above


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## HaloEffect17 (Feb 25, 2016)

It looks like I need to find a Linux distro that works with i586.  Do you guys have any other ideas on the best and latest i586 distros?


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## HaloEffect17 (Feb 25, 2016)

Minox said:


> Best way to find out would be to try it, but I don't see any concrete reason why it wouldn't work.
> 
> Though if the default version of Linux Mint doesn't work you could try the LMDE2 32bit variant which supposedly has compatibility with 486 but with a few limitations such as it not recognising more than one CPU core which may or may not be what you want depending on what CPU you have.


So, you're saying this would work then?  http://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=185.  It says it has 586 by default.


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## HaloEffect17 (Feb 25, 2016)

LMDE2 32bit doesn't work.  I get the following error: end kernel panic not syncing no working init found.  Try passing init= option to kernel.


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