Post
Linux Question... (I welcome all responses and advice):
Debian 13.x Trixie (and beyond presumably) no longer supports 32bit architectures (no x86 / i386 etc).
While Debian Bookworm LTS does and is still supported for now, are there any other distros that maintain a supported 32bit version of linux?
(I'm developing and maintaining OS's that run on 32bit CPUs. Yay permacomputing!)
@tinker DSL (Damn Small Linux) runs on just about anything. It was originally designed to be CD-bootable portable OS that you can take with you and run on whatever hardware you come across. Now it works from USB drives, and supports writable partitions. It's super light-weight, and will run on anything upwards of a 386 CPU. It looks like the new version also supports debian packages, though I only ever used the version that used their own package format. They still appear to have no intention of dropping 32-bit support - they are literally a perma-computing project.
@cybervegan - oh wow. i'm going to dive into this thank you!
@tinker Years ago, I made an SMS-controlled digital sign out of a scrap laptop, and I started off with DSL but eventually moved over to TinyCore. I can't quite remember why, but I think it was to do with available web browsers (I was using a full-screen web browser to display the digital sign). Both are good systems for where you have very limited resources, though.
@tinker not “Linux” per se but NetBSD runs on damn near anything with a CPU
@tinker
Download either Slackware or Slackware64 depending on your needs: https://mirrors.slackware.com/slackware/slackware-iso/
@tinker MX-Linux supports 32-bit.
Others in this thread have mentioned Alpine, OpenSUSE, and Slackware. Those are all good choices, although Alpine is probably the best choice for #permacomputing .
@tinker mx kinux/antix
@tinker Alpine Linux continues to actively maintain x86 support. At least to the extent possible.
@tinker Gentoo Linux
@tinker Looks like OpenSUSE still has a 32-bit version:
https://get.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/?type=desktop#download
Raspberry Pi Desktop also looks to have a 32-bit version. But that is basically Debian Bullseye: https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/operating-systems/
@tinker Looks like OpenSUSE still supports it for now.
But also considering noting that the Linux Kernel itself may deprecate 32 bit support within the next few years.
@JessTheUnstill - Yeah... My specific use case does not require networking (generally), so I may just have to build a "final" image and leave it up with the notice that the kernel is no longer maintained and it won't receive any security updates.
It'll still run and complete its use case though, so that may be all I can do.
@tinker This article is from 2021 so please check for actuallity
@tinker I *think* tinycore linux still supports 32 bit, I'm only somewhat familiar with it because it's what PiCorePlayer (a raspberry logitech squeezebox player client) is based on. It runs entirely out of RAM. Kinda neat for embedded uses, which may be adjacent to your use cases
A space for Bonfire maintainers and contributors to communicate
