This laptop was my first experiment into installing linux, I have since expanded to installing linux OS to all my devices. Since then, I now would like to circle back to this very slow, very old PC and install a light weight distro on it. It would act like a back up for writing emails and using Obsidian for putting together client info sheets if my main PC ever had an issue. I would only need to install Waterfox and Obsidian.
But I had a curiosity about SNES emulators? What if I could use this lil guy to play old super mario? Is there an emulator for that and will this junk be able to run it? Which distro would be ideal for this, if at all possible? Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.
Specs:
System:
Kernel: 6.14.0-36-generic arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 13.3.0 clocksource: tsc
Desktop: Cinnamon v: 6.4.8 tk: GTK v: 3.24.41 wm: Muffin v: 6.4.1 vt: 7 dm: LightDM v: 1.30.0
Distro: Linux Mint 22.2 Zara base: Ubuntu 24.04 noble
Machine:
Type: Laptop System: SAMSUNG product: 905S3G/906S3G/915S3G/9305SG v: P13RBV
serial: <superuser required> Chassis: type: 9 serial: <superuser required>
Mobo: SAMSUNG model: NP915S3G-K02CA v: SAMSUNG_SW_REVISION_1234567890ABCD
serial: <superuser required> part-nu: SAMSUNG SENS Series uuid: <superuser required>
UEFI: American Megatrends v: P13RBV.083.140805.FL date: 08/05/2014
Battery:
ID-1: BAT1 charge: 26.5 Wh (98.1%) condition: 27.0/30.6 Wh (88.2%) volts: 8.2 min: 7.5
model: SAMSUNG Electronics SR Real Battery type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: discharging
cycles: 452
CPU:
Info: quad core model: (up to ) bits: 64 type: MCP smt: <unsupported> arch: Jaguar rev: 1 cache:
L1: 256 KiB L2: 2 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 602 high: 611 min/max: 600/1000 boost: enabled cores: 1: 611 2: 599 3: 599
4: 599 bogomips: 7985
Flags: avx ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm
Graphics:
Device-1: AMD Temash [Radeon HD 8250/8280G] vendor: Samsung Co driver: radeon v: kernel
arch: GCN-2 ports: active: LVDS-1 empty: HDMI-A-1,VGA-1 bus-ID: 00:01.0 chip-ID: 1002:983d
class-ID: 0300
Device-2: Silicon Motion WebCam SC-10HDD13335N driver: uvcvideo type: USB rev: 2.0
speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 3-3:3 chip-ID: 2232:1054 class-ID: 0e02 serial: <filter>
Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.11 with: Xwayland v: 23.2.6 driver: X: loaded: radeon
unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa dri: radeonsi gpu: radeon display-ID: :0 screens: 1
Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1366x768 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 361x203mm (14.21x7.99") s-diag: 414mm (16.31")
Monitor-1: LVDS-1 mapped: LVDS model: AU Optronics 0x152c res: 1366x768 hz: 60 dpi: 118
size: 293x164mm (11.54x6.46") diag: 336mm (13.2") modes: max: 1366x768 min: 640x480
API: EGL v: 1.5 hw: drv: amd radeonsi platforms: device: 0 drv: radeonsi device: 1 drv: swrast
gbm: drv: kms_swrast surfaceless: drv: radeonsi x11: drv: radeonsi inactive: wayland
API: OpenGL v: 4.5 vendor: amd mesa v: 25.0.7-0ubuntu0.24.04.2 glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes
renderer: KABINI (radeonsi ACO DRM 2.50 6.14.0-36-generic) device-ID: 1002:983d
Audio:
Device-1: AMD Kabini HDMI/DP Audio vendor: Samsung Co driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
bus-ID: 00:01.1 chip-ID: 1002:9840 class-ID: 0403
Device-2: AMD FCH Azalia vendor: Samsung Co driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:14.2
chip-ID: 1022:780d class-ID: 0403
API: ALSA v: k6.14.0-36-generic status: kernel-api
Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.5 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse status: active
2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin
Network:
Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8211/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet vendor: Samsung Co
RTL8111/8168/8411 driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: e000
bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8168 class-ID: 0200
IF: enp1s0 state: down mac: <filter>
Device-2: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9565 / AR9565 Wireless Network Adapter vendor: Samsung Co
driver: ath9k v: kernel pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 02:00.0 chip-ID: 168c:0036
class-ID: 0280
IF: wlp2s0 state: up mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
Device-1: Qualcomm Atheros AR3012 Bluetooth 4.0 driver: btusb v: 0.8 type: USB rev: 1.1
speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 4-2:3 chip-ID: 0cf3:3004 class-ID: e001
Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 1 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 4.1 lmp-v: 7 sub-v: 1
hci-v: 7 rev: 3101 class-ID: 7c010c
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 119.24 GiB used: 24.63 GiB (20.7%)
ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Samsung model: MZMTD128HAFV-000 size: 119.24 GiB speed: 6.0 Gb/s
tech: SSD serial: <filter> fw-rev: 1K0Q scheme: GPT
Partition:
ID-1: / size: 116.32 GiB used: 24.62 GiB (21.2%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
ID-2: /boot/efi size: 511 MiB used: 6.1 MiB (1.2%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sda1
Swap:
ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 4.39 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 file: /swapfile
USB:
Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: full speed or root hub ports: 4 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1
chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900
Device-1: 1-3:3 info: Realtek RTS5129 Card Reader Controller type: <vendor specific>
driver: rtsx_usb,rtsx_usb_ms,rtsx_usb_sdmmc interfaces: 1 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1
power: 500mA chip-ID: 0bda:0129 class-ID: ff00 serial: <filter>
Hub-2: 2-0:1 info: full speed or root hub ports: 4 rev: 1.1 speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1
chip-ID: 1d6b:0001 class-ID: 0900
Device-1: 2-2:2 info: Elan Micro Touchscreen type: HID driver: hid-multitouch,usbhid
interfaces: 1 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 power: 100mA chip-ID: 04f3:012e class-ID: 0300
Hub-3: 3-0:1 info: full speed or root hub ports: 4 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1
chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900
Device-1: 3-3:3 info: Silicon Motion WebCam SC-10HDD13335N type: video driver: uvcvideo
interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 power: 500mA chip-ID: 2232:1054 class-ID: 0e02
serial: <filter>
Hub-4: 4-0:1 info: full speed or root hub ports: 4 rev: 1.1 speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1
chip-ID: 1d6b:0001 class-ID: 0900
Device-1: 4-2:3 info: Qualcomm Atheros AR3012 Bluetooth 4.0 type: bluetooth driver: btusb
interfaces: 2 rev: 1.1 speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 power: 100mA chip-ID: 0cf3:3004 class-ID: e001
Hub-5: 5-0:1 info: hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1
chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900
Hub-6: 6-0:1 info: super-speed hub ports: 2 rev: 3.0 speed: 5 Gb/s lanes: 1 chip-ID: 1d6b:0003
class-ID: 0900
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 54.5 C mobo: N/A gpu: radeon temp: 53.0 C
Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A
Repos:
Packages: pm: dpkg pkgs: 2190
No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list
1: deb https: //dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/ focal main
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
1: deb http: //packages.linuxmint.com zara main upstream import backport
2: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble main restricted universe multiverse
3: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-updates main restricted universe multiverse
4: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-backports main restricted universe multiverse
5: deb http: //security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ noble-security main restricted universe multiverse
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/winehq-noble.sources
1: deb [arch=amd64 i386] https: //dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu noble main
Info:
Memory: total: 4 GiB note: est. available: 3.28 GiB used: 1.13 GiB (34.5%)
Processes: 207 Power: uptime: 2m states: freeze,mem suspend: deep wakeups: 0
hibernate: disabled Init: systemd v: 255 target: graphical (5) default: graphical
Compilers: gcc: 13.3.0 Client: Cinnamon v: 6.4.8 inxi: 3.3.34
Lakka, Batocera ?
This laptop is more than capable of running SNES emulation; its 1GHz quadcore, and 4gb ram.
SNES is an old system which had 3.58Mhz CPU and 128kb ram; you’ll be able to emulate it without much issue on that laptop. BSNES has low requirements (like an Athlon or Pentium 4, and 512mb ram, and Open GL2), although if you have problems then Snes9x and ZSnes are less accurate but lighter weight. RetroArch is pretty convenient way to deploy emulators and has BSNES, Snes9x and Snex9x_Next cores to use.
A lightweight Desktop Environement may help make the laptop feel snappier; Xfce or Lxqt. If it feels slow then you want a minimal desktop which doesn’t have overhead like compositing. Also don’t use flatpaks especially if you multitask; use native apps as flatpaks have some overhead.
Mint as a distro is fine for installing lightweight desktop environments, and if you wanted you could install Linux Mint Xfce edition from scratch.
If I were handed that hardware, the first thing I’d try is…
If what is currently being used is usable, and I don’t want to risk making it unusuable, shrink/resize the active partition with a partitioning tool. Then, assume I’m multibooting and I’d install on the secondary partition:
Raspberry Pi Desktop. I’d choose Pi OS because it is designed for an ultra low power 700MHz ARM11 that comes with the 2012 Pi 1. The drawback is it’s an older Debian install (Bullseye), but still getting long-term support until August. I assume they will release a new Desktop version when that date comes.
RetroPie. I’d grab the RetroPie script for ease of use on installing SNES emulation. It should prompt every emulator choice available for your system, and set up controller support (or keyboard+mouse) and emulationstation so you can browse your legally dumped roms after putting them in the correct directory.
I used to run RetroPie on a Raspberry Pi 1 and it was able to play most of the SNES games I tried. Of course that was with no shaders or upscaling.
I got retrorangepi on an old orange pi zero W with an H2+ processor and 512mb of ram that could run little big planet, the psp one, and had no problem with any ps1 game or most Dreamcast games.
SNES emulators ran just fine on <100 mHz CPUs three decades ago. You’d have to try pretty hard to find a PC that couldn’t do that nowadays.
I think I have a 386DX in storage somewhere…
Batocera.
It has all the emulators built in and supports literally every game controller out of the box. It fits on 16Gb drive.
It can be a bit to configure until you find the optional combination.
I run it on my 2011 HP laptop with i5-2430M and Intel HD 3000 graphics.
edit: typo
You could try Arch with dwm for the display manager. That will run on a Samsung 905S3G pretty decently well.
that’s an incredibly slow cpu (I’ve literally never heard of a 600MHz cpu in anything this century).
You’re free to try, but I wouldn’t expect it to run any web browser (including obsidian, because that’s electron). I’d recommend using it to experiment with extremely lightweight software like Alpine Linux with some lightweight WM
It’s a quad core, max speed 1Ghz, min 600
Believe or not, it’s running a web browser & obsidian now on Linux mint. It just takes it’s time.
Jaguar with 4GB of RAM. It’ll do all the normal desktop stuff and games up through maybe PS2 no problem.
Make sure you add at least 4GB of swap though.
Its a slow CPU, but will do fine for SNES emulation. But if you already have 24.04 on it (or is this a live boot), just go ahead and try. Might be fine. Xfce if it is just too slow to use but I would even give a “normal” KDE or gnome distro a shot.
This is currently running slowly but functionally on Linux mint. I just want to free up some stuff with something a tad lighter. What SNES emulators are worth looking into?
What do you think a “lighter” distro looks like? Just uninstall stuff you don’t want.
I did, it’s still very slow, wanted to see what options were out there.
Depending how minimal you want to go, Puppy or TinyCore might be good options.
Try Mint Mate, the desktop environment is lighter than Cinnamon. When I was running systems from that era, Mate was much speedier than KDE / Gnome 3.
After that it’s just looking at what’s running after boot up and deciding whether you need it or not. As long as it’s not hogging precious RAM/CPU don’t worry about disabling it.
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