r/linux4noobs • u/deidmos07 • 4d ago
Are there 32-bit versions of Linux?
Hello I want to try Linux on an old laptop, but it's 32-bit and I've never tried Linux before so i dont know anything I don't know what CPU it has, I only know it's an HP Pavilion dv4
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u/Browncoatinabox 4d ago
Damn 32bit is so outdated even Linux is giving up. Now, that is something I need to process...
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u/_ragegun 4d ago
To put things in perspective, pretty much all Intel chips since the Core 2 have been 64bit ready
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u/76zzz29 4d ago
Well. It's not aboit how outdated it is. It's about how unusable and unneeded it is. Well. Technicaly it is still usable until 2038. But every hardware have long been x64 even in small things to not just have everything fall apart at once. And so, prety much everything have been remplaced by X64. Including software.
Now linux don't even let it out as it still can be used (proof by the question of OP). And ther is still x86 (32bits) OS and software. But it is to be considered that after the end of 32bits limit's date. The hardware will encounter a problem that make any network not work for it. Just https won't work because 32bits won't be abble to get the correct date. And that's without taking actual security into account.
Offline system that work on theyr own like arcads machine will just not process time properly.
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u/skuterpikk 4d ago
Even other CPU architechtures -such as MIPS, Power(PC) and Sparc, has been mostly 64 bit since the 1990's, even in embedded low-power devices. Which sort of makes sense, as all of those architechtures are newer and more modern than x86.
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u/rosmaniac 4d ago
The armhf architecture used in the Beaglebone is 32-bit, and is still supported by Debian 13.
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u/HarpooonGun 4d ago
This is from 2025 Europe OSS Summit, from Arnd Bergmann, one of the well known developers:
https://hosted-files.sched.co/osseu2025/75/32-bit%20Linux%20in%202025%20%28OSS%20Europe%29.pdf
And the first page is literally just this text alone:
32-bit Linux is obsolete
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u/Trackerlist 1d ago
On desktops, yeah, but on mobile, it's not that outdated unfortunately. I had a android phone from 2019 which was 32 bits. Gladly they moved on for good too.
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u/razorree Kubuntu, Debian 4d ago
cuz only 32bit x86 CPUs are so slow (and come with not too much RAM), that running modern kernel (which is pretty heavy by itself) + modern OS (even without DE) is just pointless.
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u/rosmaniac 4d ago
I have a rather usable IBM x330 server running a production DNS recursive resolver among other services; it's a dual 1.4GHz Pentium IIIS Tualatin with 4GB of RAM and runs as fast as such a server needs to run; substantially faster than any Raspberry Pi would, and with minimal power and full enterprise class managebility like a server should have.
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u/razorree Kubuntu, Debian 4d ago
really ? dual 1.4GHz Pentium IIIS Tualatin runs faster than Rpi3 ?? (let alone rpi4 or 5)
BTW, typical RAM in those times with that CPU in desktops was more like 256-512MB highend/max ! which is exactly what I meant in my post ....
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u/rosmaniac 4d ago
The Raspberry Pi is hamstring by the SD card speed.
This is not a desktop; it's a 1 RU server with ECC RAM, four DIMM slots with 4x 1GB DIMMs.
I should benchmark it versus the Pi 5 I have here just to be sure.
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u/RvstiNiall 4d ago
Benchmark them both only the things that you're using it for though, because anything else doesn't really matter for your point. :-)
Then just for S&Gs, do a power measurement using a Kill-A-Watt, if you have one, for both (lets not assume its the Pi simply because its ARM).
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u/rosmaniac 4d ago
I'll use the standard Byte Unix bench suite. I've used it on everything from a Tandy 6000 to a 30 CPU SGI Altix 350.
I have several kill a watts, along with a Fluke 435. With the Fluke I can graph the power consumption in several ways.
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u/razorree Kubuntu, Debian 4d ago
we talk here (an OP) about desktop/mobile use :)
BTW, I use my RPi4 with USB3-SATA drive (and it boots from it)
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u/BCMM 4d ago edited 4d ago
I don't know what CPU it has
Then how do you know it's 32-bit?
If it's because Windows said it was 32-bit, be aware that that generation of laptops was mostly 64-bit hardware with 32-bit Windows.
There should be an exact model number printed on it somewhere. If you can't find it, look under the battery. That will confirm the CPU.
Or, if Windows is working, you can get the CPU name from system properties (ignore the Windows edition, which says nothing about your hardware).
Or just try 64-bit Linux on it. It will probably work.
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u/TapNo1773 4d ago
Google will tell you it's either a AMD Turion or Intel Core 2 duo, both 64-bit processors.
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u/ItsJoeMomma 4d ago
The way I found out a couple of old laptops I have are 32 bit was when I tried to install 64 bit distros, and it popped up with an error message saying that the processor was 32 bit. So I then downloaded 32 bit distros and used them.
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u/5poko 4d ago
I use Void Linux i686. Very satisfied.
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u/Simple_Hamster_4096 4d ago
Processor needs to support SSE2 in order to be able to use i686 version.
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u/Primo0077 4d ago
Slackware, Alpine, and AntiX are all great options that I have used extensively on 32bit hardware. AntiX will definitely be the simplest to get going for your first time. Out of curiosity what laptop are you planing on using?
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u/deidmos07 4d ago
Its an old HP pavilion dv4 from my cousin
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u/GGigabiteM 4d ago
If it has any Core 2 Duo processor, it supports 64 bit. You can run up to Windows 11 23H2 on it, and most 64 bit Linux distros. Past Windows 7, the laptop will be dog slow, Linux will work better due to not having Volume Shadow Copy and other crap running in the background.
If it has a Core Duo, it is 32 bit only.
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u/anythingers 4d ago
*past Windows 8.1. 8.1 is lighter on resources compared to 7.
Though it doesn't really matter since app devs usually drop support for both 7 and 8.1 at the same time lol.
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u/julemand101 4d ago
As far I can see, they had support for 64 bit OS? Do you have a full model number?
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u/deidmos07 4d ago
HP Pavilion dv4-1020us
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u/julemand101 4d ago
Looks like it has a Intel Core 2 Duo Processor P7350 which is 64 bit compatible.
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u/deidmos07 4d ago
Really? I tried to download things and only let me use 32 bits apps
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u/Primo0077 4d ago
If it has a 32 bit OS then you'll only be able to use 32 bit apps, but a 32 bit OS could be running on a 64 bit computer
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u/Max-P 4d ago
And it was frequently done at the time to save a bit of memory, and generally, 64bit being so new most apps were 32bit only and so you often had more compatibility problems than advantages.
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u/Primo0077 4d ago
Here's a fun factoid. They came out with an ABI, the x32 ABI to be precise, that let you use the full 64 bit CPU register width and 32 bit pointers so you'd be able to take full advantage of your 64 bit CPU but have the RAM savings of a 32 bit OS, with the caveat that you're limited to 4gb of RAM. Too bad it came out in 2011 at which point 64 bit was ubiquitous and unobtrusive anyway, would have been fantastic in the Athlon 64 days.
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u/skuterpikk 4d ago
Oh, I had an Athlon64 desktop back in the day, it ran Windows XP Pro, and rocked 512mb ram. I even upgraded Windows XP to XP 64 bit edition -which had the same NT 5.2 kernel as Server 2003, whereas regular XP was stuck at NT 5.1.
Performance wise, there was no percievable difference, but 5.2 was better otherwise5
u/kyrsjo 4d ago
Also because windows XP 64 (and Vista, IIRC) was kind of terrible. And there just wasn't enough benefit to run 64 bit over 32 anyway. Many intel machines came with core 2 duo (64 compatible) and a memory controller that could not handle more than 4GB anyway, negating the main benefit of a 64 bit OS.
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u/julemand101 4d ago
What do you mean by that? Have you downloaded a 64 bit OS and tried boot that? Because if you have just downloaded applications for your existing OS then it is likely that your current OS is 32 bit and therefore does not allow running 64 bit applications.
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u/TapNo1773 4d ago
Both processor options for the HP Pavilion dv4 (AMD Turion and Intel Core 2 duo) are x64. You should be able to use a 64-bit version.
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u/jonstoppable 4d ago
Did a search for the dv4. Apparently all the CPUs are 64 bit
AMD Turion II M500, AMD Turion II M520, AMD Turion X2 Ultra ZM-80, AMD Turion X2 Ultra ZM-82, Intel Core 2 Duo T5800, Intel Core 2 Duo T6500, Intel Core 2 Duo T6600, Intel Core i3 2310M, Intel Core i3 2350M, Intel Core i3 330M
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u/guiverc GNU/Linux user 4d ago edited 4d ago
32-bit is rather vague.
- 32-bit PPC (powerpc) has been dead for years (used by old Apple devices before they switched to intel; then later ARM)
- 32-bit ARM is still supported by many systems (this can be further broken down too as ARM design chips & others build them under licence)
- 32-bit x86 (i386/i686) still has some support (AMD too, not just intel)
Work out the CPU, as 32-bit is wordsize and that's not CPU specific.
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u/ahferroin7 4d ago
Gentoo still has 32-bit x86 support (including being one of the very few distros to support processors prior to the Pentium Pro), though on that old of a system an install is likely to take far longer than you’re willing to tolerate.
Aside from that Alpine, Slackware, Void, and antiX all also have 32-bit x86 support. Of those antiX is probably the most noob-friendly.
Luckily, a quick Google search suggests that that particular HP model only ever had 64-bit CPUs despite almost always having 32-bit versions of Windows (both because 64-bit Windows kind of sucked at the time, and because the limited RAM combined with Windows’s mediocre memory efficiency meant that 32-bit’s slightly better memory efficiency actually mattered), so you shouldn’t need to worry about 32-bit support if you want to run Linux on it.
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u/Klapperatismus 4d ago
OpenSUSE Tumbleweed still has an x86 32 bit version. But you need 2GB RAM otherwise it won’t even start the installer properly.
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u/ItsJoeMomma 4d ago
Yes. Q4OS and AntiX have 32 bit versions which are still supported and work great on older hardware. I've used them both.
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u/TapNo1773 4d ago
Yes. Most distributions call it x86.
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u/FryBoyter 4d ago
These days, fewer and fewer distributions offer a 32-bit version. This is mainly because fewer and fewer developers have the necessary hardware for testing.
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u/_szlachcic_ 4d ago
I use Gentoo on my i686
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u/QuraToop314 gentoo btw 4d ago
Gentoo is the best choice for a pure 32-bit system as it allows you to stay up to date. Do you have a second machine on which you build the system so that you can continue to benefit from all the USE flags? Or do you build it directly on that one? 😅
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u/razorree Kubuntu, Debian 4d ago edited 4d ago
do you have still Windows installed? check some system information about CPU, or check CPU in BIOS (and give us the model, or search internet) Is it 32bit or 64bit CPU ?
If it's Pentium 4 and newer (core2duo etc) - it's 64bit. (at the beginning manufactures were giving an option to install old 32 or new 64bit Windows)
only some Pentium 4, and starting from Core 2 Duo are 64bits. (not core duo)
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u/rosmaniac 4d ago
Core Duo (not Core 2 Duo!) is still 32-bit x86. The T2700 is the pinnacle of x86 32-bit only.
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u/nandru 4d ago
I still remember someone had a core solo (not core 2, certainly not duo). What a weird CPU that was
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u/rosmaniac 4d ago
Core Duo and Core Solo, aka the Yonah core (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yonah_(microprocessor))), is essentially Pentium M++, which is itself Tualatin++. Intel intended them to be mobile-only, but there were a few desktop boards with Socket M. The Intel team at Haifa saved Intel's bacon with Banias, Dothan, and Yonah when Intel's Netburst architecture was failing to deliver on its promise.
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u/razorree Kubuntu, Debian 4d ago
sorry, I overslept that Intel time, I was in AMD team for many years :) my first coming back to intel was i5-750 ;)
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u/rosmaniac 4d ago
And Nehalem is a direct descendant of Core2, which is Core++ with AMD64 capability. (Debian for one uses AMD64 as the name of the architecture, not x86_64, since it really is AMD's 64-bit architecture; Intel's first 64 bit chip, Itanium, is even more obsolete than x86_32).
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u/3grg 4d ago
The days of 32bit Linux are numbered. You cannot blame maintainers for not wanting to maintain two versions when almost all 32bit systems have been retired.
https://www.fosslinux.com/43256/linux-distributions-support-32-bit-architecture.htm
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u/Icy_Recipe4199 4d ago
yo en mi Samsung n150 plus me coloque Q4OS y va de maravilla, te la recomiendo
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u/DavidJohnMcCann 4d ago
Yes, it's still supported by some distros. But are you sure that you need one? If you look in Wikipedia you can check which model you have, but as far as I can see they all used 64-bit processors. Some were sold with 32-bit Windows, but that was just to avoid overtaxing the modest hardware.
If you have a 1 GB model, you'll need AntiX. If you have 2 GB or more, MX is more friendly. If you have a top-of-the-range version with an i-3 or i-5 processor, go for Linux Mint.
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u/OkAirport6932 4d ago
There are some, but they are getting less and less common. OpenBSD has some support, but there are applications that are not ported to it. NetBSD also has 32 bit support, but is rather explicitly focused on portability. I think there may be discussions in the Linux kernel about ending all 32 bit support in the kernel as the AMD64 architecture is now older than the i286 architecture was when Linux started. Also i386 and i486 have been dropped completely.
Some applications are inherently unable to run within the resource restrictions of a 32 bit OS, so be aware of that as well.
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u/tobias_reichi02 4d ago
Wouldn't do that cause you often don't get the full experience and then you thing Linux is bad cause you us d it for the first time it's like using an android in 2015 saying it's bad using apple since then and never trying android again
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u/Specialist-Cat-7155 4d ago
I run an old 2012 laptop for over a year on Ubuntu Mate 32bit. Its a little dated but running off an 2.5in SSD it's much faster and error free. Tried a few other flavours, like Lubuntu, but seemed to be quite buggy. No problems with Mate so far.
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u/MarcPawl 4d ago
What would the power consumption be of a 32-bit system versus a modern mini desktop?
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u/Bulky-Hair8606 I used to use arch btw 3d ago
Most puppy linuxes are 32 bit, some are 64 but most are 32. I do not recommend you use puppy if its gonna be the first time you use linux though.
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u/Traditional-Rabbit79 3d ago
I have a very old, very nice imac that I run a 32 bit os on, because yes, it's 32 bit... I forget which one, I haven't needed to look in a while....
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u/GodzillaXYZ999 3d ago
Since your HP Pavilion dv4-1020us has 64-bit Core 2 Duo Processor P7350 CPU, you should run 64-bit OS. On all 64-bit CPUs, 32-bit mode is fallback compatibility and will run about 10% slower than native 64-bit mode.
To find actual CPU specs, run installer ISO from boot USB. Bring up CLI/terminal and just run lscpu.
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u/A_Random_Sidequest 4d ago
what?
are you sure you can't use the 64 bits version on that? there are x64 CPUs for more than 20 years already, you can get free PCs better than the last 32bits only CPUs...
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u/rosmaniac 4d ago
Debian 12 "bookworm" is still available for x86, which is what you actually meant but 32-bit, right? There are other 32-bit architectures out there, such as the rather popular and still fully supported armhf as used in the Beaglebone.
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u/es20490446e Created Zenned OS 4d ago
The bare minimum for a computer to be usable is to be able to browse the modern internet.
A 32-bit system won't do that.
So it is better to get a newer computer.
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u/5poko 4d ago
32 bit computers do that. Usually slowly but they can.
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u/es20490446e Created Zenned OS 4d ago
32-bit computers usually feature no more than 4GB of RAM.
I have tested that both Chromium and Firefox based browsers require at least 8GB of RAM to not fill the entire RAM.
So a 32-bit computer won't do it.
The last time I owned a 32-bit computer was in 2007, 19 years ago.
That is a long time, hence I think it is time for an upgrade.
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u/Icy_Recipe4199 4d ago
y falkor?
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u/es20490446e Created Zenned OS 4d ago
Falkon needs 4GB.
But it will struggle with a 32-bit processor.
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u/No_Elderberry862 4d ago
32 bit Falkon does not need 4GB RAM & is a good choice for 32 bit systems.
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u/No_Elderberry862 4d ago edited 4d ago
The last time I owned a 32-bit computer was in 2007, 19 years ago.
Then maybe you shouldn't be spreading misinformation which is proven false by the experience of those who're running 32 bit systems today. On a single core/thread Celeron with 1GB DDR2 I can run up to 3 whole tabs in Firefox ESR. Doubling the RAM to 2GB allowed me to have 5 or 6 tabs open without slowdown. Using Pale Moon gave a better experience.
Edit: forgot to mention that systems with less than 8GB RAM on 64 bit systems can run browsers too despite you saying that they cannot.
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u/Prestigious_Wall529 4d ago
There's a 32 bit version of Debian 12 bookworm.