this post was submitted on 03 Jul 2024
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I found this netbook(?) somewhere in old things and just wonder: can linux be installed on it?

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[–] [email protected] 63 points 5 months ago (1 children)

No, you're not allowed. Now go to your room and think about what you've done.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

*what you have NOT done.

Fixed that for you 😉

[–] [email protected] 51 points 5 months ago (20 children)

It’s already running Linux. You just showed us a screenshot of it running Android, which is Linux.

[–] [email protected] 103 points 5 months ago

Clearly not the point of OP’s question though

[–] [email protected] 74 points 5 months ago (3 children)

the ACKSHYUALLY is strong with this one

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 5 months ago
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[–] [email protected] 47 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Surely its easier to install Linux than android.

I want to know how they put android on it

[–] meekah 11 points 5 months ago (2 children)

I mean, the internals might just be the ones of a tablet or something. With android I'd be guessing its an ARM chip

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[–] [email protected] 44 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Probably Yes

[–] archy 32 points 5 months ago

Looks like you already did

[–] [email protected] 28 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Most likely yes, as many others have said. Of course you'll likely have to pick a very lightweight DE.

As a fallback there is always NetBSD.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 months ago (1 children)

NetBSD will not work at all with Broadcom Wireless

[–] [email protected] 14 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

I mean if you're down to NetBSD as your pick you've probably already made some big concessions so plugging into Ethernet isn't a huge leap at that point.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 5 months ago

Well of course you can.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 5 months ago
[–] [email protected] 18 points 5 months ago (1 children)

This looks like one of those low cost netbooks from the time where "EPad" and "MID" tablets were a thing. There is an edition of Windows CE floating around for these - but WiFi will not work, neither the modem if this has one built in.

No idea about Linux - there is a kernel so you're technically half way there, but considering most of these had a slow single core ARM CPU and 256MB of RAM on a good day, practical use is limited IMO

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago

It probably has USB, wifi adapters are cheap.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Yes you can, it won't be great though.

I used to maintain a Linux distribution called "OpenWM8650" (back in 2011 / 2012) which was specially aimed at the WM8650 and WM8505. It would run off the SD card. Which wasn't great, but the flash onboard support was horrible at best.

Maybe you can find some old information on it, on XDA because the website for the initial distribution is long gone.

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[–] Veraxis 15 points 5 months ago (2 children)

I think you would need to provide more detail to know what you have. Does it have a model number on it anywhere?

[–] [email protected] 17 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (3 children)

that's it: CPU: WM8650 800Hz Memory:DDR 256MB

It's information on back cover

[–] sugartits 44 points 5 months ago
[–] [email protected] 20 points 5 months ago (3 children)

"WM8650" seems to indicate a VIA WonderMedia WM8650 armv5te chipset, used by a lot of anemic Android laptops circa 2011 (sold under various brandnames, but apparently all made in the same factory). People have installed Linux on them in the past (there seems to have been a fad for Arch on these for a while, given the search results), but you might have trouble getting a device tree that will work with a modern kernel.

Honestly, though, it has less processor than a Raspberry Pi 3. Unless you've already thought of a specific use for this, I'd dump it back in the junk drawer.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago

Probably not worth trying to actually use today. I'd leave it as it is, imo it's better as a small piece of history - Android on PC is pretty niche

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

I just can't find

[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

This device should be able to run Linux fine of the specs you provided are correct. You can either use CLI or a Light weight Window manager like IceWM. Web browsing and video playback are out of the question but it most certainly can run vim.

I would just install Debian. It is likely a 32bit machine.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)
[–] [email protected] 14 points 5 months ago

Just want to say good luck. Someone brought me one of these and asked to make it ready to be their university laptop in 2013. I worked real hard not to laugh because money was obviously tight but I just told them to return the pos to Amazon.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 months ago

The first image for wm8650 that comes up is a Debian boot logo.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Take a picture of the bottom pls

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

that's it: CPU: WM8650 800Hz Memory:DDR 256MB and information about screen. Literally

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Wow

The other guy’s getting started link is a good place to start. It will take some work

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago

I'm not sure its appropriate here

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

If not, there's probably one or the other security hole to root it and use chroot.

[–] Rustmilian 5 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Can you access the BIOS/Bootloader?
Is it x86 or ARM?

[–] turbowafflz 5 points 5 months ago

Looks very similar to the Windows CE device action retro has in this video so what he used could be helpful https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=anz17CNMixU

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

You can install Linux on anything you can get it on.

E: Please check out https://www.linuxfromscratch.org/

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

maybe you have some instructions?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

Was a bit tongue-in-cheek mate, I’m sorry and it wasn’t fair because you are here looking for guidance.

Please check out Linux From Scratch: https://www.linuxfromscratch.org/

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