I got an old Windows 7 laptop that was going to be thrown out and decided to put Linux on it (see previous thread here). Most people suggested I go with the latest stable version of Debian, so that’s what I installed. I’ve mostly used Windows, but I do have some experience with Ubuntu.

The installation went smoothly, but I’ve had a few problems getting it set up to my liking:

  1. I can’t figure out how to setup flatpak. Everything seems to be working fine until I enter the last line in the terminal:

flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://dl.flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

I hit enter and nothing happens. No error message or anything. I restarted the computer but flatpak doesn’t work, either through the software center or the flatpak website. I found a few forum posts with the same problem, but no solutions.

  1. I somehow set it up so that my username is not the super user, so I have to type a password in the terminal every time I want to use sudo. Is there a way to fix this without a clean install?

  2. I somehow set up the hard drive partitions so that the OS is on an encrypted partition, so I have to put in a password for the BIOS to boot up. Is there a way to fix this without a clean install?

  3. I’m used to a desktop interface with a toolbar/start menu that I can pin frequently-used programs to, but with Debian it seems like I need to click “Activities” to do anything. Is there a way to set up the interface so it’s more like Windows in that regard?

  4. If I need to do a clean install, I’m thinking of switching to Ubuntu, since I’m more familiar with the interface. Is there any reason why I should stick with Debian? I’ve heard some people trashing Ubuntu but I’m not sure why. Is Debian better for older hardware?

Edit: Thanks for all the knowledgeable replies. For reference, this is a Dell XPS M1530 running the 32 bit version of Debian 12 and Gnome.

  • Bobson_Dugnutt [he/him]OPEnglish
    1•2 years ago

    I was under the impression that it’s old enough to only work with the 32 bit OS. I’ll double check that and try installing the 64 bit version if I can.

    If the 32 bit version is all that will run, am I shit out of luck when it comes to running any modern software?

    • @Patch@feddit.uk
      1•2 years ago

      I’ve just googled Dell XPS M1530 and it seems like it shipped with a Core 2 Duo CPU, which is 64 bit.

      For reference, the last mainstream 32 bit desktop processors were launched over 20 years ago. As a rule, if you’re trying to run a 32 bit machine in this day and age it is probably an antique, and running modern software on it would not be all that sensible even if you could.

    • WFHEnglish
      1•2 years ago

      What’s your CPU? 99% sure that w7 era CPUs are all 64 bits.

      • Bobson_Dugnutt [he/him]OPEnglish
        1•2 years ago

        It’s an intel core 2 duo t9300, which I’m pretty sure is 64 bit. I guess I was confused because it was previously running a 32 bit version of windows 7.