Ubuntu Kernel upgrade on a non-pae processor
Hi. I have recently installed the latest Lubuntu on a non-pae intel processor, passing the option "forcepae" to the kernel at installation time. The installation completed succesfully, and automatically managed to configure grub to pass such option at the boot time. Now I have a new kernel to install, but if I run: apt-get dist-upgrade The installation (pre- or post-, I do not know) script gives an error notifying that the processor is non-pae, interrupting the upgrade. Moreover now I have an inconsistent installation state, since the generic linux-generic meta-package is installed, but the actual linux-image-4.4.0xxxx, which is a dependency for the former, is not. The ps works normally, but I can not install anything, neither upgrade any other ackage. Any hint? By the way do anyone have suggestion about a nice distribution I could install on that laptop? -- Mick
On 30/05/16 16:56, Michele Bert via luv-main wrote:
By the way do anyone have suggestion about a nice distribution I could install on that laptop?
I believe Ubuntu has stopped supporting non-PAE processors, which is why I switched to Debian on one of my older laptops. Debian supports LXDE just fine - you can even get an LXDE Debian install image: debian-8.4.0-amd64-lxde-CD-1.iso at http://mirror.internode.on.net/pub/debian-cd/8.4.0/amd64/iso-cd/ or for a 32-bit processor: debian-8.4.0-i386-lxde-CD-1.iso at http://mirror.internode.on.net/pub/debian-cd/8.4.0/i386/iso-cd/ Note that non-PAE CPU support looks like being dropped for Debian 9, so you'll probably want to retire that machine once Debian 8 is no longer supported in a few years time. Hope that helps, Andrew
On Mon, 30 May 2016 05:06:39 PM Andrew Pam via luv-main wrote:
On 30/05/16 16:56, Michele Bert via luv-main wrote:
By the way do anyone have suggestion about a nice distribution I
could install on that laptop?
I believe Ubuntu has stopped supporting non-PAE processors, which is why I switched to Debian on one of my older laptops. Debian supports LXDE just fine - you can even get an LXDE Debian install image:
Ubuntu is based on Debian and uses the same package management system. There's nothing stopping you from installing a Debian kernel on an Ubuntu system. You can configure apt repositories to have different priorities and have a Debian repository used for the kernel packages.
Note that non-PAE CPU support looks like being dropped for Debian 9, so you'll probably want to retire that machine once Debian 8 is no longer supported in a few years time.
Debian user-space usually works with kernels from the previous and the next release. For the things I work on I always try to make that work. There have been some exceptions (like udev and systemd depending on new kernel features in some versions and adding the "file:open" permission to SE Linux) but it's most likely that Debian 9 will work with a Debian 8 kernel and it's possible that Debian 10 will work with a Debian 8 kernel. You can cross-upgrade from Ubuntu to Debian as many packages have similar version numbers, but that might be too inconvenient for you. A reinstall to Debian might be best. Also Debian does work well with a Fedora or CentOS kernel. It is a little more effort to set it up so you might not want to do it. But it's technically possible if that gives you the best result. I've done it before. Different distributions have different policies about backporting features and supporting old versions. CentOS has a longer support cycle so it might be an option to use a CentOS kernel with Debian. As an aside I've talked to a client about retiring some non-PAE systems at some future time because CentOS is unsuitable and we don't want to support mixed OS systems. We are talking about a replacement cost of $50K for those systems which will probably happen a couple of years after Debian 8 support is dropped. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/
Any hint? By the way do anyone have suggestion about a nice distribution I could install on that laptop? From Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_Address_Extension: Distributions that still provide a non-PAE option, including Debian <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debian> (and derivatives like LMDE 2 (Linux Mint Debian Edition) <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_Mint#Linux_Mint_Debian_Edition>^[27] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_Address_Extension#cite_note-27> ), Slackware <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slackware>, and LXLE <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LXLE_Linux> typically do so with "i386", "i486" or "retro" labels.^[28] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_Address_Extension#cite_note-28> ^[29] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_Address_Extension#cite_note-29> I'd suggest LMDE2 could be a good candidate (with xfce desktop). I have used LMDE before and was quite happy with it. Cheers, Daniel.
participants (5)
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Allan Duncan -
Andrew Pam -
Daniel Jitnah -
Michele Bert -
Russell Coker