On Wed, Sep 7, 2016 at 3:08 AM, Ryan Cunningham <levantamos.para.u...@gmail.com> wrote: > > I have heard recently that Ubuntu has plans to cancel support for processors > in the Intel 80386 family (and clones of the same). This is impacting me > because I have a 32-bit Ubuntu machine (powered by an Intel 80586) which runs > Ubuntu 16.10. This machine, a home laptop converted into a server, is only in > the testing phase right now and probably will remain there for 6 years at > most. That is, until I obtain my bachelor's degree in elementary/high school > education and my teaching certificate (I am going to use this machine for a > school I will thereafter create).
Hi! First of all, regardless of all other decisions that be taken, you are fine with 16.04 at least until the year 2021. I am not addressing your request, I am focusing on the practicalities of maintaining an old laptop as a server. I assume your laptop was made around the year 2000-2003 because the CPU is Intel 80586. The mechanical harddisk should be a PATA (that is, IDE and not SATA), meaning that it is not replaceable with a new disk; PATA disks are not manufactured any more. In addition, it cannot accept a converter between PATA and SATA so that you can use a new hard disk (no space for converter in a laptop). By using the laptop as a server, it is always on. This causes issues with the mechanical hard disk that would limit its lifespan. In addition, the thermal paste that transfers heat away from the CPU and towards the heatsink should probably be dry by now. That is, the thermal paste might not work at all. You should get health metrics from this laptop in order to assess whether it can work reliably until 2021. Specifically, A. Hard disk health status. Install "smartnontools" (extract health data from inside the hard disk) with sudo apt install smartmontools Then, obtain the hard disk health status report by running sudo smartctl -a /dev/hda This command will read the internal attributes that are stored on the hard disk. Among those attributes, the important ones are 1. Power_On_Hours (how many hours the hard disk was on, which coincides with the laptop being on). The "Raw Value" is the number of hours. The maximum I ever saw on a working disk was 10000. I am really interested in seeing your value for this one. 2. Reallocated_Sector_Ct (how many bad sectors have been reallocated to the buffer space). Here the Raw value should be 0. B. CPU Temperature Install "lm-sensors" (read motherboard sensor values) sudo apt install lm-sensors Configure "lm-sensors" sudo sensors-detect (answer Yes to the autodetection). Finally, read the current sensor values with sensors The temperatures when your laptop is idle, should be below 50C. If they are over 60C when idle, you have heating issues. Nowdays, instead of having an old laptop as a server, the common thing to do is get a Small Board Computer (SBC), like the Raspberry Pi. There are cheaper versions, and they start at around $15. You can get them to run Ubuntu just fine. Hope this helps, Simos -- Ubuntu-devel-discuss mailing list Ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel-discuss
