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Please bear with me here. It has been a long time since I have had to look at any of this, and I built this setup around 10 years ago.

I am currently running Ver 16.04 Lts on my old system. It is primarily used for web surfing, and some simple Libra Office stuff. AMD Athlon II X4 630 (95W) Quad Core Socket AM3 , 2.8GHz, 2Mb Cache, 1800MHz HT, 45nm

ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO AM3 AMD 785G HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard

Patriot Signature DDR3 1333MHz, 6GB CL-9 PC3-10600 Desktop DIMM, etc. (Will give more details if needed)

From what I understand that CPU is a 64 bit processor. My OS says 32 bit.

It seems that my system is unable to support higher versions of Ubuntu because they are now 64 bit.

I really don't feel like having to upgrade to a new motherboard, CPU, and ram, when what I have runs perfectly well, but I am concerned about falling behind security update wise with 16.04

Can I do a fresh install of the latest 64 bit version with what I have, or is it just time to bite the bullet and upgrade?

user68186
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Paul
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  • The CPU is 64-bit. What is the problem? Backup data, format and install supported 64-bit Ubuntu version. – N0rbert Feb 17 '22 at 20:41
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    Does this answer your question? How do I install Ubuntu? – N0rbert Feb 17 '22 at 20:41
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    Download the Latest Ubuntu LTS (20.04 at the time of writing) and install it on an USB drive. Boot from the USB drive and select the Try Ubuntu option. Make sure everything works. If you are happy, select Install Ubuntu from the desktop. During installation select Erase Everything and Install Ubuntu 20.04. Oh! I forgot, if you do this, it will delete all your precious data. So backup before you do this. – user68186 Feb 17 '22 at 21:04
  • Forgot to add the graphics card AMD Turks PRO [Radeon HD 6570/7570/8550] Will that make any difference? – Paul Feb 17 '22 at 21:28
  • Your graphics card doesn't make a difference Paul. – HomerSimpson Feb 17 '22 at 21:36
  • FYI: I used devices as old as from 2003 to QA-test Ubuntu flavors as recent as into the disco or 19.04 cycle when the last of the 32-bit i386 ISOs stopped being produced for it. Whilst 18.10 & 19.04 are EOL now, 18.04 also fully supported x86 or i386 (in Debian/Ubuntu terms) for the life of the product, so I'd not be using 16.04 which is EOL anyway (unless your box is off-line). Here I'm talking about actual 32-bit hardware (eg. pentium M, D, 4 etc). Many makes sold 32-bit windows on 64-bit boxes as m$fs charged $5 less for 32-bit, buyers understanding $5 more than 32/64 bits – guiverc Feb 17 '22 at 21:52
  • Also note: The last 32-bit i386 ISOs I was involved in (Quality Assurance) testing were only released in August 2020 so using 16.04 makes no sense to me even if your hardware is 32-bit only (and it sounds like it isn't). Yes fewer ISOs were produced from 17.10 onwards; but i386 remained fully supported until 18.04 for most; with two flavors continuing past that point too; though only 18.04 remains supported for i386 now. – guiverc Feb 17 '22 at 21:53
  • It was quite a while ago, but I tried to upgrade from 14. ?? and had issues with an older graphics card, and remember not being able to. ended up having to do a fresh install, and yes...forgot to back up some minor stuff. :-( I'm in the process of downloading ver 20.04 now and will be doing some backups later. Just checked and it says OS Type: 32 bit – Paul Feb 17 '22 at 22:09
  • Was there ever an online system requirement checker, or am I just confusing downloading an iso onto a USB stick and plugging it in, to do a "Try," and it said "does not meet system requirements?" I did this so long ago that I have forgotten a lot, and am sure there was a reason why I just didn't do the system upgrade in the software updater, as they came up. – Paul Feb 17 '22 at 22:15
  • I had problem with an older graphics card(very old) after 12.04 till 16.04. 12.10 to 15.10 would not work. Sometimes things do go wonky. – crip659 Feb 17 '22 at 22:15
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    If older system, you may now want a lighter weight distribution. Light weight flavors: Lubuntu, xubuntu, Ubuntu MATE, Budgie https://ubuntu.com/download/flavours I did install Kubuntu on my 2006 Laptop (64 bit) with 1.5GB of RAM. It would not install Ubuntu. Kubuntu is more of a middle weight system. – oldfred Feb 17 '22 at 23:08

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