What would you do? [Done with it]

[pin]

Two years ago, I gave my father my old Asus eee pc 1001px with PM7 installed.
I'm visiting my parents this week and just installed over 500 updates 
Now,...
Kernel 4.4.0-83 boots fine, but the latest updated 4.4.0-154 doesn't boot at all. I've installed 4.14.133 and it boots ok.

What to do?? Freeze his system on 4.4.0-83? Or just let it be on 4.14.133?
He has NO clue how to do this and I won't be around for another year or two...
Options?

Thx!

[PCNetSpec]

Move him to the hwe-16.04 track which will put him on the 4.15 (18.04) kernel (with updates until 16.04 EOL's in April 2021).
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/LTSEnablementStack#Ubuntu_16.04_LTS_-_Xenial_Xerus

[pin]

Thx!
Will fix soon...
For now he's frozen on 4.4.0-83, but this is actually running rather well 
Kind off regreat, I gave it away 
 

[PCNetSpec]

I'm pretty sure I still have one of those somewhere, but the power jack needs re-soldering to the board.
(it works only if you put some lateral pressure on the power connector)

[pin]

  Just cleaned everything he doesn't need and I'm down to 3.8GB used disk space and about 50sec boot time (yes, its still a HDD inside).
The 1GB RAM is the limiting factor, but I won't upgrade it. He doesn't want to pay for it  ...
...this thing would fly with a SSD and 2GB of RAM.
Well, whatever. I'm done with it.

[PCNetSpec]

Tell him he has no option .. that 1GB RAM and HDD's reach end of life in August

[pin]

 
It won't work! He only got cable tv after almost a year watching unfocus and deformed picture broadcast.
Most probably because he couldn't see what was on any longer 

[pin]

Anything patched for spectre and meltdown seems to have issues on this machine... 
4.4.0-83 is, as mentioned working as it should;
4.4.0-154, latest auto-updated on this series doesn't boot;
4.4.0-185, latest from mainline on this series doesn't boot;
4.14.133 installs, obviously after manually pulling libssl-1.1, and boots but, it has issues with ACPI;
4.15.0-54, boots but, with wrong screen resolution.

Anyway, the system is now back on 4.4.0-83 and I've stopped kernel updates, everything else will still be rolling in as usual.

Not the solution I was looking for, but I won't bother with it anymore. Even if I get another kernel to work, there's always the risk that a coming update will screw things up and I won't be around to fix it.

[VinDSL]

Don't know how I missed this thread... but, I've been mad busy with real-life shiz. 

Here's my Eee PC. It's a slightly different model variation, and it's running on P10.





I had a hella time installing P10 on this thing - almost gave up, but the OEM install worked a treat.

I ran the gamut finding a kernel that worked properly, but it's all good now.

I can truthfully say, it's never run better, especially with the addition of the SSD 

Have you tried the Linux 4.18.x kernel?

[pin]

I did think about you, as I remembered your posts 
Nope, I haven't tried 4.18... shall do 
Thx!

EDIT: Just took it for a spin...
4.18.20 boots fine but, according to dmesg, it fails to load eeepc-wmi driver 
This causes trouble, at least with power management, the system is unaware of battery life 
Back to 4.4.0-83 
It could be related to this, https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=876303. Anyway, 4.4.0-83 it is 

[VinDSL]

Interesting.

I wonder if the differences in outcome have anything to do with Atom vs Celeron 

Oh, well, I suppose we should be happily surprised when any Linux kernel works with these antiques.

I really like the overall form factor of netbooks, in some odd way.

I suppose a Peppermint-powered Apple MacBook Air 11.6" would be the next logical progression. 

[pin]

  Yes, I think you're right. We should be happy that it still works.
I kind of like it also, although its not mine anymore 

Guess that in a few years, I'll be needing NETBSD i386 if I wish to keep it alive. Need to replace the wifi-card, though as there's no support for the one inside this box 

[pin]

@ VinDSL
Couldn't resist. Fetched the NetBSD-8.1_STABLE i386 image from the daily builds and booted the eee pc.
  dmesg shows no warnings, errors or failures. Moreover, wifi and acpi work perfectly.
I didn't install it. There's no way he could handle the system  but, it really caught me by surprise. The hardware is fully supported.
Thought you'd like to know.

[spence]

I'd probably look around for a newer Dell E series locally and offer to trade with Dad @pin... "here this will work better for you... "

[VinDSL]

@ VinDSL
Couldn't resist. Fetched the NetBSD-8.1_STABLE i386 image from the daily builds and booted the eee pc.
  dmesg shows no warnings, errors or failures. Moreover, wifi and acpi work perfectly.
I didn't install it. There's no way he could handle the system  but, it really caught me by surprise. The hardware is fully supported.
Thought you'd like to know.

Now you did it. I need to see this...





I'm such a sucker for BSD