This laptop was my first experiment into installing linux, I have since expanded to installing linux OS to all my devices. Since then, I now would like to circle back to this very slow, very old PC and install a light weight distro on it. It would act like a back up for writing emails and using Obsidian for putting together client info sheets if my main PC ever had an issue. I would only need to install Waterfox and Obsidian.
But I had a curiosity about SNES emulators? What if I could use this lil guy to play old super mario? Is there an emulator for that and will this junk be able to run it? Which distro would be ideal for this, if at all possible? Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.
Specs:
System:
Kernel: 6.14.0-36-generic arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 13.3.0 clocksource: tsc
Desktop: Cinnamon v: 6.4.8 tk: GTK v: 3.24.41 wm: Muffin v: 6.4.1 vt: 7 dm: LightDM v: 1.30.0
Distro: Linux Mint 22.2 Zara base: Ubuntu 24.04 noble
Machine:
Type: Laptop System: SAMSUNG product: 905S3G/906S3G/915S3G/9305SG v: P13RBV
serial: <superuser required> Chassis: type: 9 serial: <superuser required>
Mobo: SAMSUNG model: NP915S3G-K02CA v: SAMSUNG_SW_REVISION_1234567890ABCD
serial: <superuser required> part-nu: SAMSUNG SENS Series uuid: <superuser required>
UEFI: American Megatrends v: P13RBV.083.140805.FL date: 08/05/2014
Battery:
ID-1: BAT1 charge: 26.5 Wh (98.1%) condition: 27.0/30.6 Wh (88.2%) volts: 8.2 min: 7.5
model: SAMSUNG Electronics SR Real Battery type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: discharging
cycles: 452
CPU:
Info: quad core model: (up to ) bits: 64 type: MCP smt: <unsupported> arch: Jaguar rev: 1 cache:
L1: 256 KiB L2: 2 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 602 high: 611 min/max: 600/1000 boost: enabled cores: 1: 611 2: 599 3: 599
4: 599 bogomips: 7985
Flags: avx ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm
Graphics:
Device-1: AMD Temash [Radeon HD 8250/8280G] vendor: Samsung Co driver: radeon v: kernel
arch: GCN-2 ports: active: LVDS-1 empty: HDMI-A-1,VGA-1 bus-ID: 00:01.0 chip-ID: 1002:983d
class-ID: 0300
Device-2: Silicon Motion WebCam SC-10HDD13335N driver: uvcvideo type: USB rev: 2.0
speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 3-3:3 chip-ID: 2232:1054 class-ID: 0e02 serial: <filter>
Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.11 with: Xwayland v: 23.2.6 driver: X: loaded: radeon
unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa dri: radeonsi gpu: radeon display-ID: :0 screens: 1
Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1366x768 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 361x203mm (14.21x7.99") s-diag: 414mm (16.31")
Monitor-1: LVDS-1 mapped: LVDS model: AU Optronics 0x152c res: 1366x768 hz: 60 dpi: 118
size: 293x164mm (11.54x6.46") diag: 336mm (13.2") modes: max: 1366x768 min: 640x480
API: EGL v: 1.5 hw: drv: amd radeonsi platforms: device: 0 drv: radeonsi device: 1 drv: swrast
gbm: drv: kms_swrast surfaceless: drv: radeonsi x11: drv: radeonsi inactive: wayland
API: OpenGL v: 4.5 vendor: amd mesa v: 25.0.7-0ubuntu0.24.04.2 glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes
renderer: KABINI (radeonsi ACO DRM 2.50 6.14.0-36-generic) device-ID: 1002:983d
Audio:
Device-1: AMD Kabini HDMI/DP Audio vendor: Samsung Co driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
bus-ID: 00:01.1 chip-ID: 1002:9840 class-ID: 0403
Device-2: AMD FCH Azalia vendor: Samsung Co driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:14.2
chip-ID: 1022:780d class-ID: 0403
API: ALSA v: k6.14.0-36-generic status: kernel-api
Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.5 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse status: active
2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin
Network:
Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8211/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet vendor: Samsung Co
RTL8111/8168/8411 driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: e000
bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8168 class-ID: 0200
IF: enp1s0 state: down mac: <filter>
Device-2: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9565 / AR9565 Wireless Network Adapter vendor: Samsung Co
driver: ath9k v: kernel pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 02:00.0 chip-ID: 168c:0036
class-ID: 0280
IF: wlp2s0 state: up mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
Device-1: Qualcomm Atheros AR3012 Bluetooth 4.0 driver: btusb v: 0.8 type: USB rev: 1.1
speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 4-2:3 chip-ID: 0cf3:3004 class-ID: e001
Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 1 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 4.1 lmp-v: 7 sub-v: 1
hci-v: 7 rev: 3101 class-ID: 7c010c
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 119.24 GiB used: 24.63 GiB (20.7%)
ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Samsung model: MZMTD128HAFV-000 size: 119.24 GiB speed: 6.0 Gb/s
tech: SSD serial: <filter> fw-rev: 1K0Q scheme: GPT
Partition:
ID-1: / size: 116.32 GiB used: 24.62 GiB (21.2%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
ID-2: /boot/efi size: 511 MiB used: 6.1 MiB (1.2%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sda1
Swap:
ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 4.39 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 file: /swapfile
USB:
Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: full speed or root hub ports: 4 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1
chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900
Device-1: 1-3:3 info: Realtek RTS5129 Card Reader Controller type: <vendor specific>
driver: rtsx_usb,rtsx_usb_ms,rtsx_usb_sdmmc interfaces: 1 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1
power: 500mA chip-ID: 0bda:0129 class-ID: ff00 serial: <filter>
Hub-2: 2-0:1 info: full speed or root hub ports: 4 rev: 1.1 speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1
chip-ID: 1d6b:0001 class-ID: 0900
Device-1: 2-2:2 info: Elan Micro Touchscreen type: HID driver: hid-multitouch,usbhid
interfaces: 1 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 power: 100mA chip-ID: 04f3:012e class-ID: 0300
Hub-3: 3-0:1 info: full speed or root hub ports: 4 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1
chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900
Device-1: 3-3:3 info: Silicon Motion WebCam SC-10HDD13335N type: video driver: uvcvideo
interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 power: 500mA chip-ID: 2232:1054 class-ID: 0e02
serial: <filter>
Hub-4: 4-0:1 info: full speed or root hub ports: 4 rev: 1.1 speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1
chip-ID: 1d6b:0001 class-ID: 0900
Device-1: 4-2:3 info: Qualcomm Atheros AR3012 Bluetooth 4.0 type: bluetooth driver: btusb
interfaces: 2 rev: 1.1 speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 power: 100mA chip-ID: 0cf3:3004 class-ID: e001
Hub-5: 5-0:1 info: hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1
chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900
Hub-6: 6-0:1 info: super-speed hub ports: 2 rev: 3.0 speed: 5 Gb/s lanes: 1 chip-ID: 1d6b:0003
class-ID: 0900
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 54.5 C mobo: N/A gpu: radeon temp: 53.0 C
Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A
Repos:
Packages: pm: dpkg pkgs: 2190
No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list
1: deb https: //dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/ focal main
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
1: deb http: //packages.linuxmint.com zara main upstream import backport
2: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble main restricted universe multiverse
3: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-updates main restricted universe multiverse
4: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-backports main restricted universe multiverse
5: deb http: //security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ noble-security main restricted universe multiverse
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/winehq-noble.sources
1: deb [arch=amd64 i386] https: //dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu noble main
Info:
Memory: total: 4 GiB note: est. available: 3.28 GiB used: 1.13 GiB (34.5%)
Processes: 207 Power: uptime: 2m states: freeze,mem suspend: deep wakeups: 0
hibernate: disabled Init: systemd v: 255 target: graphical (5) default: graphical
Compilers: gcc: 13.3.0 Client: Cinnamon v: 6.4.8 inxi: 3.3.34
If I were handed that hardware, the first thing I’d try is…
If what is currently being used is usable, and I don’t want to risk making it unusuable, shrink/resize the active partition with a partitioning tool. Then, assume I’m multibooting and I’d install on the secondary partition:
Raspberry Pi Desktop. I’d choose Pi OS because it is designed for an ultra low power 700MHz ARM11 that comes with the 2012 Pi 1. The drawback is it’s an older Debian install (Bullseye), but still getting long-term support until August. I assume they will release a new Desktop version when that date comes.
RetroPie. I’d grab the RetroPie script for ease of use on installing SNES emulation. It should prompt every emulator choice available for your system, and set up controller support (or keyboard+mouse) and emulationstation so you can browse your legally dumped roms after putting them in the correct directory.
you can usually try a live version of the distro your aiming for to see how it behaves on your hardware. no need to repartition anything that way.
that’s good for testing if a device will work or not, but it’s terrible for judging how the OS performs. Mostly because your DVD/USB is going to be a serious bottleneck for I/O. Combine that with the 4GB of RAM and you’ve got some potentially crunchy performance ahead of you, which would not be indicative of the install performance.
I used to run RetroPie on a Raspberry Pi 1 and it was able to play most of the SNES games I tried. Of course that was with no shaders or upscaling.
I got retrorangepi on an old orange pi zero W with an H2+ processor and 512mb of ram that could run little big planet, the psp one, and had no problem with any ps1 game or most Dreamcast games.