Small 32bit distro recommendation

Operating Systems & Open Source Linux
1

I have an old thin client, a wyse Cx0.
1ghz 32 bit cpu
2gb ram
32gb flash

I want to make it into at the very least a print server, likely using cups, and if it is powerful enough maybe service like pihole and homer, both low usage.

I have mostly used distro’s in the red hat style and would pref to stick more with what I know, but have had very limited linux use in the last few years (I do run an alma vm with docker on it but have not done much with it).

I would also like it to be fairly cut down as other than these functions it does not need to do anything.

And obviously needs to be a distro that has a 32bit version easily available.

Thanks in advance

Mark

2

When it comes to 32 bit I’ve only ever had luck with debian. Maybe it’s something about the age of the hardware and graphics drivers, I dunno

1 Like
3

You might want to look into FreeBSD 13.x, ditch PiHole and use blocky instead which will help memory usage a lot.

4

Debian… Nowadays, most distributions are heavy, or to be more precise, software is hell heavy.

I used to install debian on P4 for fun and 512MB RAM with xfce, it worked, but apart from operating in the menu it was a waste of time, firefox was a killer. :slight_smile:
In contrast, I currently have a Cortex-A7 with 512MB with Debian 11 + pihole and it’s doing great.

You have 2GB of ram … so there is no tragedy, but the cpu is a snail, it will work especially without the gui, with the gui it will probably be less pleasant. :wink: But as a print server or something small it should manage to some extent.

I would start by testing Debian 11 and see how it works. Other more dedicated small distros will still have a similar cpu load as debian, the main difference will be only in the amount of ram required, while you don’t need a distro that for example runs on 128MB…

Alternatively, see Tiny Core.

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5

CentOS-7 has an i386 release you can use. Supported for about another year. I’ve got it on an old netbook, it installed and worked on 1GB or RAM. Works fine, but definitely holes in the 32-bit software selection… I had to do a lot of compiling from source RPMs to fill-in missing dependencies. And once you’ve gone that route, how do you know when updates are available??? It works alright, but not ideal. And it’s the end-of-the-line… I don’t expect any such options will be forthcoming for any newer RHEL releases.

I don’t believe you’ll find any other RedHat-like options, so you’ll need to give-up on that point.

6

32-bit is the biggest challenge.

I’m a MATE loyalist, even with recent mid-tier hardware (think 1X600k’s)

I think some distros abandoned 32-bit at some point. Therefore the latest 32-bit supported MATE is 18.04 which can be obtained here:

Ubuntu MATE - from Ubuntu Releases

22.04/10 Requirements

image
image1675×581 36.5 KB

EDIT:

I also run this on Raspberry Pi and a HP EliteDesk 705 G4

7

Oh! I forgot about knoppix. That has run pretty well for me on 32 bit. Enough to play around with anyways.

8

Alpine Linux

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9

Even $30 thin clients are mostly 64-bit these days (10years old but usually 64bit) and so are various small arm boxes and boards, it’s getting tough.

  • OpenWRT … super tiny
  • Alpine … a bit more comfortable with hardware, lot saner package build flags for something as large as your thin client
  • Debian … yeah 2GB ram will fit kernel and filesystems and a couple of systemd managed daemons.

I haven’t really used Alpine out of containers and VMs, but it sounds like the right mix for what you have, OpenWRT packages and kernel are very stripped down, e.g. great if you have 64MB of ram, with 2GB you can live a little and get big SSL and Unicode libraries and maybe even some Go software like Caddy or other stuff to serve http and manage your SSL cert rotation.

IMO ram is the limiting factor in this case, not the “bitness” per se.

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10

Debian will feel like a fish in water at 2GB. :wink:
One of my Deb11(64) booted with xfce/xrdp and active X session without tuning, straight from the box…

deb
deb938×94 26.5 KB

Let’s say up to 1GB for the basic system and the rest for a few small things and imho 2GB will be ok. :wink:

11

Alpine Linux is really your best bet if you want the smallest footprint distro possible, but it comes with some downsides, such as using rc init system and busybox instead of systemd and gnu tools

12

Thanks for all the replies and help, a few distro’s to look at.

And forgot to say I would not be using a gui so that isn’t needed.

I have used Tiny Core before but for some reason I had thought it had been abandoned, I was incorrect so I will try that first.

32bit is the major issue and I probably should just buy a cheap 64bit thin client off ebay but I have this one and it is only 7 watt power draw at idle which is not bad.

13

I’m telling you, test Debian. :wink:
11 is supported until June 2026 and there are no plans to drop 32 in the next few years.

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14

i concur debian is probably the best option.
x11 is absolutely usable.

but if you really must, most distros will have archives you can raid and find what you need.
its just a case of googling distro name + “32bit version” will in most cases get you there.

when you apply quotes to a google search your telling google that the search must include. :slight_smile:

15

I use bunsen linux, which itself sits on top of debian on an early atom palmtop and in a vm or two I like to keep lightweight but graphical. Pretty happy with this, but expect a post-install text adventure.

https://www.bunsenlabs.org/