MATE on 32 bit machine

Support & Help Requests
#1

This is a little off topic but I thought I might ask anyway. I have an old netbook that I wanted to see if I could use it. Naturally I wanted to install Ubuntu-MATE on it. But the processor is only 32-bit. So I installed Debian with the MATE desktop. It actually works pretty well. One thing is missing, however. I would really like to setup the "netbook" panel layout from U-M. Is there a script or guide to doing this or am I on my own?

Thanks for any help,

Bill

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#2

Welcome back to the Ubuntu MATE community, @Bill!

Currently you have only one variant to get 32-bit UM - install 18.04 LTS. But many user-space applications from third-parties are more and more 64-bit only. So you may have problems in near feature with 32-bit OS.

Could please specify full model number of the processor and/or laptop? How much RAM it has?
If you can please show the full output of lscpu command.
Did you tried to run 64-bit OS on this laptop?

#3

lscpu results:

Architecture:        i686
CPU op-mode(s):      32-bit
Byte Order:          Little Endian
Address sizes:       32 bits physical, 32 bits virtual
CPU(s):              2
On-line CPU(s) list: 0,1
Thread(s) per core:  2
Core(s) per socket:  1
Socket(s):           1
Vendor ID:           GenuineIntel
CPU family:          6
Model:               28
Model name:          Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU N270   @ 1.60GHz
Stepping:            2
CPU MHz:             1424.673
CPU max MHz:         1600.0000
CPU min MHz:         800.0000
BogoMIPS:            3191.87
L1d cache:           24K
L1i cache:           32K
L2 cache:            512K
Flags:               fpu vme de tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe nx constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts cpuid aperfmperf pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl est tm2 ssse3 xtpr pdcm movbe lahf_lm dtherm

Netbook is a Dell Mini-9 aka Inspiron 910 with 2 GB. Never tried installing a 64-bit OS.

I am fine with running Debian. I would just like to get the desktop looking and running more like U-M with Netbook panels. I find the default Debian settings rather annoying.

Thanks for the quick response,

Bill

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#4

According to Intel (https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/36331/intel-atom-processor-n270-512k-cache-1-60-ghz-533-mhz-fsb.html) this CPU is 32 bit only.

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#5

I see, it is really 32-bit.

I would recommend to test Ubuntu MATE 18.04 LTS from LiveCD/LiveUSB first.
It supports 32-bits and is still supported.

#6

Thanks, 18.04 works fine. Hope it gets supported for a while.

Bill

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#7

The Ubuntu base has almost three years of support left, the MATE portion only 1 year, but I would not worry about that.

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