HP G60 and Mint19.3

[dottney]

I have been running 17.3 on an HP G60-441US laptop for a couple of years. I just noticed that 17.3 is no longer supported so I was going to update to 19.3 like I have running on a older Dell laptop I just rejuvenated. Then I read somewhere that HP laptops have had problems with 19.X.

question 1- will I encounter problems putting 19.3 on this HP laptop? Its 32 bit and I have the 32 bit image.
question 2- If there are problems with 19.3 should I try 18.3 on it?

I realize this is an old machine but that's the appeal of Linux. You can continue to use old hardware. I use these machines to interact with control hardware in my hobbies and a bit of web surfing for the hobbies.
Thanks for any advice offered.
Dave

[Kadaitcha Man]

question 1- will I encounter problems putting 19.3 on this HP laptop? Its 32 bit and I have the 32 bit image.

Nobody here that I'm aware of can see into the future. You're just going to have to try it.

question 2- If there are problems with 19.3 should I try 18.3 on it?

You can if you wish.

I realize this is an old machine but that's the appeal of Linux. You can continue to use old hardware.

Er, no. The days of unreasonable expectations from old hardware are long gone. Linux has advanced quite a lot so to get your old hardware working you may need to try a different distribution, one that's geared towards old hardware such as antiX.

[Hoser Rob]

Best to just try them but for an old machine I'd suggest trying 19.2 rather than 19.3, it ships with the 4.15 Linux kernel, and that one's usually better with old hardware. You get the same EOL date with 19.2 as 19.3.

[cliffcoggin]

What the previous two responses have hinted at is to try a different OS on a live installation medium, which is a not very helpful term for a USB stick (or DVD) with a bootable OS installer. You plug that into your computer before start up, then select "boot from USB" from the BIOS menu. The installer will start from the memory stick with two options: test without installation and install. You can then test the hardware functions such as wifi, keyboard, monitor, mouse etc. before deciding whether to install. If you don't like the chosen OS, try others until you find one that appeals. All it will cost you is the price of a 4 GB memory stick.

If Mint 17 has the USB Writer in its menu it can create that installer, otherwise you will need to create it another way.

[JoeFootball]

Then I read somewhere that HP laptops have had problems with 19.X.

That would be an experience contrary to mine. I have at least three HP laptops that have worked fine with LM 19.x, and versions previous, and LM 20 as well.

[SMG]

LM18.3 reaches end of life in less than six months (April 2021), so I would recommend going with a version of LM19 and would second Hoser Rob's recommendation of using one with the 4.15 kernel.

[dottney]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'm just going to 19.3 a try. If it doesn't work out I'll try something else. I can't remember where I read about issues with HP machines.
Again thanks.
Dave

[JoeFootball]

I'm just going to 19.3 a try.

For hardware from that era, I'd recommend LM 19.3 Xfce.

By the way, are you sure that's a 32-bit system? For the specs I saw, it was a 64-bit, but yours may certainly be different.

[dottney]

I put 19.3 Cinnamon and all seems to be working fine.
Thanks to all of you for your advice.
Dave

[dottney]

On a whim I decided to try Mint 20 before I got deep into installing apps. I also reread my system specs and indeed it is a 64bit dual processor machine. I'm using an external monitor because the monitor on the laptop died and would have been too expensive to repair. Because of this I can't see the BIOS menu when I do a reboot holding the F10 key , so I have to do installations via DVDs rather than USB thumb drives (I can't see the BIOS to change the boot order).
Well Mint 20 is working just fine. I installed the Cinnamon version because that's what I'm familiar with.
Just thought I'd add this in case anyone is interested..
Dave

[mikeflan]

dottney wrote:
Then I read somewhere that HP laptops have had problems with 19.X.

That would be an experience contrary to mine. I have at least three HP laptops that have worked fine with LM 19.x, and versions previous, and LM 20 as well.

I agree. I run LM 19.3 on an HP DV9830 and it works good, though a little slow. This HP computer is about 11 - 12 year old and came with Win Vista on it! I think my LM is 64 bit on this thing.