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  • Insanely frustrating finding older distributions

    From Daemon Bernstein@21:1/5 to All on Wed Jan 11 11:30:01 2023
    This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
    Hi,
    I just spent way too much time trying getting the run around trying to
    find the older distributions. I have an older computer that locks up
    using versions 10 and 11 when I use VLC. Also, there are NO Nvidia
    drivers for my old video card on those newer distributions, and older
    drivers will not install. I cannot use the the newer distributions on
    that machine. It would be nice if you changed one thing:

    1. put/maintain a link (or links) to the archive page where it can be
    easily found, like on the current release page.

    Linux to me has always been synonymous with logic, rational thinking,
    common sense, horse sense or whatever you want to call it. Linux makes
    sense. What does not make sense is not being able to find archive
    distros. For some machines, it is the only option. Using Linux on older machines is a common practice, always has been. Certainly, it is
    massively better than the 'other' (non)option. And I have no interest in
    the many modern bloated Linux distributions, or learning a new
    non-debian distribution.

    I had to keep searching on a search engine to find the archive. Debian's website search could not find it.

    The machine is a Dell Precision M6600. It has a Nvidia M4000. I also
    have another card for it with an M3000. Personally, I don't like Nvidia.
    But that is what I have.

    Sorry this email is so long.

    Daemon (Yes, that is on my original birth certificate which predates
    Unix. My mother liked the spelling. Not my idea.)
    <html>
    <head>

    <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
    </head>
    <body>
    Hi,<br>
    I just spent way too much time trying getting the run around trying
    to find the older distributions. I have an older computer that locks
    up using versions 10 and 11 when I use VLC. Also, there are NO
    Nvidia drivers for my old video card on those newer distributions,
    and older drivers will not install. I cannot use the the newer
    distributions on that machine. It would be nice if you changed one
    thing: <br>
    <br>
    1. put/maintain a link (or links) to the archive page where it can
    be easily found, like on the current release page.<br>
    <br>
    Linux to me has always been synonymous with logic, rational
    thinking, common sense, horse sense or whatever you want to call it.
    Linux makes sense. What does not make sense is not being able to
    find archive distros. For some machines, it is the only option.
    Using Linux on older machines is a common practice, always has been.
    Certainly, it is massively better than the 'other' (non)option. And
    I have no interest in the many modern bloated Linux distributions,
    or learning a new non-debian distribution.<br>
    <br>
    I had to keep searching on a search engine to find the archive.
    Debian's website search could not find it.<br>
    <br>
    The machine is a Dell Precision M6600. It has a Nvidia M4000. I also
    have another card for it with an M3000. Personally, I don't like
    Nvidia. But that is what I have.<br>
    <br>
    Sorry this email is so long.<br>
    <br>
    Daemon (Yes, that is on my original birth certificate which predates
    Unix. My mother liked the spelling. Not my idea.)<br>
    </body>
    </html>

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  • From gregor herrmann@21:1/5 to Daemon Bernstein on Wed Jan 11 12:20:01 2023
    On Wed, 11 Jan 2023 03:45:42 -0600, Daemon Bernstein wrote:

    I had to keep searching on a search engine to find the archive. Debian's website search could not find it.

    I was curious and tried …

    If I go to https://www.debian.org/ and type "archive" in the search
    box at the top right, the first search result is

    "Debian -- Distribution Archives"

    which sounds promising, when I click on it I land at

    https://www.debian.org/distrib/archive.en.html

    which seems to be what you are looking for.

    Cheers,
    gregor

    --
    .''`. https://info.comodo.priv.at -- Debian Developer https://www.debian.org
    : :' : OpenPGP fingerprint D1E1 316E 93A7 60A8 104D 85FA BB3A 6801 8649 AA06
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    `- BOFH excuse #226: A star wars satellite accidently blew up the WAN.

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  • From Daniel Lange@21:1/5 to All on Wed Jan 11 14:00:01 2023
    I find

    https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/archive/ https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/cd-including-firmware/archive/

    useful as these have the Free and non-free (i.e. including proprietary firmware and drivers) installers for older Debian versions.

    Additionally

    https://www.debian.org/releases/${CODENAME}/debian-installer/ has media links and errata per distribution.
    ${CODENAME} can be obtained from https://www.debian.org/releases/ .

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  • From Russ Allbery@21:1/5 to Daemon Bernstein on Wed Jan 11 18:00:02 2023
    Daemon Bernstein <bach@daemonbernstein.com> writes:

    Also, there are NO Nvidia drivers for my old video card on those newer distributions, and older drivers will not install.

    Just as a side note, we're not very happy about this situation either, but because the drivers are non-free and NVIDIA doesn't keep supporting them, there's not a lot we can do about it. They constantly drop support for
    newer cards and don't port older drivers to newer kernels or X servers,
    and thus force this endless upgrade treadmill. We would have to keep
    around old Linux kernels and old X servers in order to keep the old
    drivers working, and that has too many tentacles and other problems (not
    to mention the lack of security support for the older software).

    I now avoid buying any products from NVIDIA if I can possibly avoid it, in large part because of this. That of course doesn't help if you already
    own them, sadly.

    --
    Russ Allbery (rra@debian.org) <https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>

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  • From Adam Borowski@21:1/5 to Russ Allbery on Thu Jan 12 18:00:01 2023
    On Wed, Jan 11, 2023 at 08:54:19AM -0800, Russ Allbery wrote:
    Daemon Bernstein <bach@daemonbernstein.com> writes:
    Also, there are NO Nvidia drivers for my old video card on those newer distributions, and older drivers will not install.

    Just as a side note, we're not very happy about this situation either, but because the drivers are non-free and NVIDIA doesn't keep supporting them, there's not a lot we can do about it. They constantly drop support for
    newer cards and don't port older drivers to newer kernels or X servers,

    Unless you want to run newest games or mine coins, nouveau tends to work
    better -- or at least used to (before I dumped any nvidia hardware).
    It won't have fancy video encoding acceleration and the like, but there's
    no premature droppage.

    The upstream kernel has no trouble supporting stuff like Amiga or Hercules graphics card from 1984, both ATI/AMD and Intel cards continue to work,
    it's only Nvidia who's user-hostile.

    I now avoid buying any products from NVIDIA if I can possibly avoid it

    +1

    That of course doesn't help if you already own them, sadly.

    As you haven't mentioned that you tried nouveau, I'd give it a try.


    Meow!
    --
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