Mageia forum

I've got a old laptop setup from someone else, who asked me to install Linux on it. It's a Itautec Itautec W7635 with an old VIA integrated GPU. I've choosen Mageia since it's one of the few user-friendly Linux distros that supports 32-Bits CPU. Using LXDE.
It defaults the video setting to OpenChrome upon installation, but the system bootloops with a blinking "_". Removing the "VGA" parameter from GRUB manages to book, but display gets stuck on a blank screen with some flickering.
I've booted into recover mode and replaced "openchrome" driver to "vesa" on Xorg.conf, it works and i can see the desktop environment, but i've got no 2D hardware acceleration i'd like to have.
The Xorg.0.log reports that it "Failed to open DRM device for pci" because "no such file or directory". So i've researched about it and it seems VIA DRM driver got removed on Kernel 6.3. ¿Is that what OpenChrome driver requires?

I've not tried an older kernel, but if it was removed on the latest kernel version it means i can't use the GPU in the future, so i'll have to stick to VESA which is not really a good option.

Laptop specs:
Model: Itautec W7635
CPU: Intel Pentium T2060 Dual-Core 1.60GHz 32-Bits
GPU: VIA Chrome 9 HC
Display: 1280X800 60Hz
RAM: 1GB DDR (2x 512MB)
WiFI adapter: Qualcomm Atheros AR2413/AR2414
HDD: 75GB

Maybe its time to retire this 17 years old box. You can not even use it as a ship anchor…

Welcome to the forum volpejosesk
Thank you for trying Mageia
But i suppose some distro that is specifically aimed at old computers would be a better choice in this case.
I am not an expert here but as example i used Antix on a less old laptop than yours.

sturmvogel wrote:Maybe its time to retire this 17 years old box. You can not even use it as a ship anchor…

If it turns on, it has to be used x3

morgano wrote:Welcome to the forum volpejosesk
Thank you for trying Mageia
But i suppose some distro that is specifically aimed at old computers would be a better choice in this case.
I am not an expert here but as example i used Antix on a less old laptop than yours.

I tried MX Linux before, it had same symptoms using VESA (like screen flickering after changing resolution and black screen resuming suspend). I have not tried OpenChrome though.

Mageia also was the best option i've found for this computer and for the use it'll going to have

Have a look at some older threads about this:
https://forums.mageia.org/en/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=6374
https://forums.mageia.org/en/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=1627
https://forums.mageia.org/en/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=4269