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I am trying to upgrade Ubuntu 18.04 to 21.04 (i386 architecture) on a Dell laptop in order to be able to install proton VPN.

Output message:

There will not be any further Ubuntu releases 
for this system's 'i386' architecture. Updates for 
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS will continue until April 2023.

Are there any options to upgrade perhaps to another newer Linux platform that would support a GTK version that would be compatible with Proton VPN or is my only option to upgrade my hard disk?

Nmath
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iirinak
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  • 19.04 was fully-supported the life of release; though disco installation media was only generated into the alpha stage of the product. If you release-upgraded during the eoan cycle builds were still occurring until late beta stage, but turned off in the ~week+ before eoan actually became 19.10; meaning and i386 system was two kernel patches behind at release and fell further behind - as i386 builds were stopped. 19.04 was the last release with full package support for i386, 18.04 was the last supported being an LTS – guiverc Sep 03 '21 at 21:24
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    Are you sure your laptop cannot run a 64-bit OS? lscpu can tell you whether your machine is 64-bit capable (look for CPU op-mode(s):). – Michael Hampton Sep 04 '21 at 15:21
  • thank you Michael. yes, my machine can run both 32 and 64 and it is i686, not i386! hooray !! "me@me:~$ lscpu Architecture: i686 CPU op-mode(s): 32-bit, 64-bit' So does it mean I am able to upgrate to ubuntu 21.04? – iirinak Sep 04 '21 at 16:37
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    You will have to do a fresh install, though. There is no way to upgrade in place from 32-bit to 64-bit. – Michael Hampton Sep 04 '21 at 17:19
  • @Vikki you can upgrade via re-install which allows you to switch from an i386 system to an amd64, without touching any user file(s), and having it restore all additional packages you had installed yourself (where from Ubuntu repositories) as I mentioned in my prior comment. This install was amd64, but my other install (dual boot on this box) was an i386 install long ago that was switched to amd64; the process is done via install though. The new desktop installer (available for testing; canary) will make this option easier to use, but it's been there for decade+ that I'm aware of. – guiverc Sep 05 '21 at 01:30
  • @guiverc: Yes, but why do you have to reinstall Ubuntu in order to upgrade from 32-bit to 64-bit? – Vikki Sep 05 '21 at 01:43
  • @Vikki because it's an architecture change which is a huge deal, it ensures no ABI breakage (kernel panic, segfault) etc. Only system directories are wiped & re-created; nothing user related gets touched/changed so the upgrade via re-install looks the same to the user; same wallpaper, any user configs are unchanged (if same release is used) so user doesn't even notice change; but it's a new architecture underneath & thus new system. – guiverc Sep 05 '21 at 02:03

3 Answers3

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First check if your CPU is really 32 bit. You may be running a 32 bit version of Ubuntu in a 64 bit CPU, and then you can install a 64 bit version of Ubuntu on this.

Run the command lscpu and look for CPU op-mode(s):. If the output is 32 bit, 64 bit, you can fresh install a recent, 64 bit version of Ubuntu/Xubuntu/Lubuntu on this computer (the last two need less resources). If it is 32 bit, head on to the next part of the answer.

Ubuntu does not support i386 architecture (which is 32 bit) beyond version 19.04. If you want to continue using a recent operating system with updated packages, you will have to migrate to a different operating system. You have several options.

  1. Raspberry Pi Desktop for PC and Mac - The lightweight user interface of Raspberry Pi, for regular computers. It has a customized LXDE interface based on Debian 32 bit.

2.AnTiX - Extremely lightweight operating system based on Debian, with a desktop environment suitable for old computers.

  1. Debian i386 -- Debian is very similar to Ubuntu. You can install the LXDE or XFCE desktop environments, which are lightweight.

  2. Q4OS -- Debian based OS, optimized for older computers. The Trinity desktop environment (actively maintained fork of KDE 3.5) requires only 128 MB RAM, and is super fast.

  3. MX Linux -- Debian based distro tailored for old computers.

  4. Arch Linux 32 -- Hard to install, but can be made extremely lightweight, and it hosts the latest version of packages in its repositories.

  5. Tiny Core -- Extremely light weight operating system, which works on systems with 48 MB RAM or greater.

Note: None of these operating systems are supported on this site.

Archisman Panigrahi
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You will need to sign up for ESM in order to install a 32-bit Ubuntu release with a x86 CPU since all 32-bit versions are now outside of community support.

Unfortunately, ESM releases do not receive community support, including here on Ask Ubuntu. For this device, you might want to look for another Linux distribution outside of Ubuntu if you want community support and/or don't want to use ESM.

As 32-bit only hardware is quite old now, fewer and fewer operating systems are supporting it, including Ubuntu. Debian still has 32-bit releases and is similar to Ubuntu, since Ubuntu is actually based on Debian.

Nmath
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emmabuntus is an interesting ubuntu like system that still has a 32 bit version. it seems easier for beginners than debian an has a nice list of installed apps .enter link description here

Carol McAnulty
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