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As a disabled vet I cannot switch hardware to something Ubuntu finds more agreeable due to cash restraints. Will there be an i386 Desktop version?

purlmon
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  • I guess the OP has a 32-bit CPU and is looking for a 32-bit Desktop Ubuntu (which doesn't exist anymore). – PerlDuck Apr 15 '18 at 10:21
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    @PerlDuck 32-bit Ubuntu desktop ISOs exist for some currently supported Ubuntu releases. To get subsequent releases running on 32-bit hardware one can upgrade Ubuntu, install from the minimal CD and select a task, or install a different flavor and install a task or metapackage. I'm not sure what the best thing is that we have on this, but there's this (with an answer using dd but one needn't use dd) and that. – Eliah Kagan Apr 15 '18 at 10:30
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    @PerlDuck Yes, installing Ubuntu Server, then installing the ubuntu-desktop task or metapackage, works too. It has the advantage that (I believe) the server version is more likely to boot and install properly on UEFI systems with secure boot enabled. It would be like this (but I hope we have something else, with instructions), except that the goal would be to install ubuntu-desktop rather than to avoid installing it. But note the "64 bit" in the title here! The others explain that i386 means 32-bit. purlmon: You may want to [edit]* to clear this up.* – Eliah Kagan Apr 15 '18 at 10:47
  • @pomsky Again, given that the OP "cannot switch hardware" I doubt he is asking for the advantage or differences of various 64-bit flavours. It's just the "64 bit" in the title what suggests so. The rest of the question clearly asks for a 32-bit desktop version. But I agree with Eliah: we need to wait for purlmon to clarify this. – PerlDuck Apr 15 '18 at 12:26
  • @PerlDuck "... question clearly asks for ..." and "... need to wait for purlmon to clarify this" should not go together, sounds like an oxymoron ;-) – pomsky Apr 15 '18 at 13:09
  • You might be looking for this: Install 17.10 on 32 bit machine (Also check this answer on a duplicate question.) – wjandrea Apr 15 '18 at 19:52

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If you absolutely cannot switch hardware you can still install the 32-bit desktop version through HTTP or if you'd like through a torrent client.

You're not the only one: there are currently 1537 seeders seeding that torrent...

It's not available any more from the download page as Canonical is moving away from 32-bit but it'll buy you some time until the cash situation becomes a bit more favourable. (You'll still have full support from Canonical till April 2021 for 16.04)

Beware that the 32-bit version is now pretty niche as not many people are aware of its existence, so support for anything outside the standard Ubuntu software repository (read:PPAs) is disappearing fast, so you'll end up having to build all your software from source if you're planning on using this for an extended period of time...

Fabby
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  • Is Launchpad no longer building i386 .deb packages for PPAs? Binary packages provided by PPAs are built on Launchpad, rather than on the PPA maintainers own machines, and they're built automatically, so unless some error prevents the build from succeeding, I would expect those builds to remain available. At least for 16.04 (the release you linked to) I wouldn't expect any lesser availability of PPA packages. I'm not sure what will happen in the future, though. Do you know of any sources that give details on this topic? – Eliah Kagan Apr 19 '18 at 22:52
  • Lubuntu has promised to keep supporting it. and I read 2023 or 2028 somewhere but cannot remember where – Fabby Apr 20 '18 at 03:27
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    There's Ubuntu flavors that offer 32bit version. Particularly Mate and Budgie. I've Budgie running on one i686 machine from like 2004, works alright. – Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy Jun 02 '18 at 02:44