Lightweight Linux for a at least 12 Year old Belinea Laptop with Via C7-M Processor and Via Graphics

[Game-Gun]

Hi,

I am a Linux-Noob and tried to make this old Laptop usable with a Leigtweight Linux. So far i have tried Linux Light 32Bit (installation failed every time because of installation programm crashing) and AntiX. AntiX is currently running on the Laptop, but it doesent use the Via Graphics, so Youtube is impossible and it is generally running slow, the harddrive runs fine.

My Goal is to get at least 360p smooth Youtube Playback with this machine. The Laptop had Windows xp installed, but i want something that is still updated and secure. I researched a little bit, but i couldent find a 32bit Lightweight Linux thats supports Via Graphics and itself is still supported.

The processor is a Single Core 1,6 ghz, 1,75 gb Ram and some kind of via onboard graphics, i could not find what exactly it was...

Im sorry for bad english and hope that someone has any tips regarding this problem.

[Omega]

Xubuntu, Puppy Linux, MX Linux.

A light OS doesn't make a crap machine usable in heavy tasks.

If the machine is 64-bit capable get a 64-bit OS. If it is 32-bit only it's going to be hard to find and OS which will still run on it, most Linux distros are dropping 32-bit support.

Xubuntu 18.04 and MX Linux both support 32-bit.

[Game-Gun]

But do these both support the Via Processor and Graphics in the Laptop, the processor is 32bit only, sadly enough... ?

[Talby]

I have had the best luck with plain-old Debian on older laptops, I still have an old PIII laptop running Debian Jessie as a print server, should work just as well on the C7-M and whatever generic graphics it decided to use (didn’t really care as long as I can see the xterm window)... I think I used LXDE as the DE

[AbedsBrother]

Lubuntu is my go-to lightweight distro for old computers.

[DevaVictrix]

If it's 32bit I'd also go with Lubuntu 18.04. Mint Xfce will probably be OK too. I've got a netbbook... 1.6ghz Atom and 2GB RAM and both ran fine. LXDE is certainly easier on resources.

Or Debian of course. It can be a faff sometimes but difficult to fault.

[Game-Gun]

Which of these is the most userfriendly ? So far i only used Linux Mint and Light on different Laptops / Desktops, AntiX for example has a confusing layout, atleast for me...

[DevaVictrix]

I guess Lubuntu LXDE has a slightly easier desktop environment but Mint Xfce is still pretty simple.

I've found Mint works "out of the box" better than *ubuntu. I settled with Mint on my ageing 32bit laptop. Lubuntu, AntiX, Debian and whichever else I tried had some sort of Wifi or trackpad or Fn key issue. Mint Xfce just worked!

EDIT: The Linux Mint forums are also really helpful. It's a very responsive community. Linux Questions is also really good if you have any problems.

[DevaVictrix]

From the little bit of info you gave about the laptop it looks like you need the "xserver-xorg-video-openchrome" driver. It's in the Ubuntu and Debian repositories. I can't find it for Mint but I can't get Steam to show up in the online searches either! I'm sure it will be there!

sudo apt intstall xserver-xorg-video-openchrome

[Zairker]

Both Lubuntu and Xubuntu are lightweight, but for old PCs I'd suggest Lubuntu, it uses ~350 MB of RAM while idle.

[Game-Gun]

Thanks for the Helpful Info to all of you, i´ll start with Lubuntu and see how its performing :)

[Zairker]

The only thing is that you'll have to stick with Lubuntu 18.04 LTS; they dropped support for 32-bit computers in versions 19.04+.