My vintage gaming laptop dosn't appear to work properly

[steve7233]

Here are some errors from syslog from /var/log/installer
2026-07-06T21:33:32.470867+00:00 kubuntu kernel: DMAR: Parse DMAR table failure.
2026-07-06T21:33:32.473870+00:00 kubuntu systemd[1]: apport-autoreport.path - Process error reports when automatic reporting is enabled (file watch) skipped, unmet condition check ConditionPathExists=/var/lib/apport/autoreport
2026-07-06T21:33:32.473926+00:00 kubuntu systemd[1]: apport-autoreport.timer - Process error reports when automatic reporting is enabled (timer based) skipped, unmet condition check ConditionPathExists=/var/lib/apport/autoreport
2026-07-06T21:33:32.475878+00:00 kubuntu kernel: ACPI: thermal: [Firmware Bug]: Invalid critical threshold (-274000)
2026-07-06T21:33:32.479157+00:00 kubuntu sensors[1358]: Core 0: +80.0°C (crit = +90.0°C)
2026-07-06T21:33:32.479167+00:00 kubuntu sensors[1358]: Core 1: +87.0°C (crit = +90.0°C)
2026-07-06T21:33:32.480934+00:00 kubuntu kernel: ACPI Warning: SystemIO range 0x0000000000000428-0x000000000000042F conflicts with OpRegion 0x0000000000000400-0x000000000000047F (\PMBA) (20251212/utaddress-204)
2026-07-06T21:33:32.480941+00:00 kubuntu kernel: ACPI Warning: SystemIO range 0x0000000000000500-0x000000000000052F conflicts with OpRegion 0x0000000000000500-0x000000000000050F (\GPIO) (20251212/utaddress-204)
I am sure which parts to post. Most of what I posted is in red, so I thought it might be important. It also showed problems with hibernate. I am not surprised since I can never recover the computer if it hibernates. I always have to hold the power button in and then press the button to restart it. Sleep mode also breaks the system!

[steve7233]

I am going to downgrade to Kubuntu 24.04, not because I don't like it but because 24.04 is better optimised for my old laptop. For one thing, 26.04 has that experimental WOW64 stuff that won't let me create a 32-bit Wine prefix for my 32-bit games. I guess Ubuntu decided to move away from 32-bit support! I personally think it's too early to start abandoning support for 32-bit, and hopefully WOW64 will eventually get optimized for both 32-bit and 64-bit. Until then, also until I get my new computer up and running... I think I installed the processor wrong and bent a few of the Intel I1151 pins, and now the machine won't post.

[steve7233]

I can think of two options: get my very old laptop working with KDE/Plasma. Option 1: Kubuntu 24.04, then change the swap file to 32 GB. Option 2: Lubuntu 24.04, then download and switch to KDE? Plasma, so it is in between a lightweight and heavy buntu version. I guess you call it medium x,buntu, and of course I would still make a 32 GB swap file. The reason is that, although I have 4 GB of RAM, it also uses integrated graphics, so it uses some of that RAM for the graphics. BTW, I will be using BRTFS, so the way to make a swap file is different from, say, EXT4.

[claydoh]

Option 2: Lubuntu 24.04, then download and switch to KDE? Plasma, so it is in between a lightweight and heavy buntu version.

This will not make Plasma lighter at all Not one bit. Lubuntu and Kubuntu are the same Ubuntu under the "skin", and installing Plasma on top of Lubuntu will just get you the same thing as straight-up Kubuntu, but using a bit more disk space.
You might try doing a minimal install, but even so, Plasma itself won't be any lighter on resources. You can do little things like disabling file indexing, keeping extra services away, like Snap. And I think sticking to ext4 may be less resource intensive than btrfs, again I *think*.

Just use Lubuntu proper for a lighter overall system.


What do you need 32gb of swap for? That will do nothing useful on 4Gb of ram. Swap on the old system will be dreadfully slow, as in locking up your system to a standstill slow.

What you need is more ram, and an SSD if you have any available, and the computer supports having more. I know that this may not be possible, though, but it is the real solution here, with an old SSD actually making the biggest difference.
I *assume* a SATA ssd will work on the system, but I have not gone down any rabbit holes here like I usually do,

[steve7233]

This will not make Plasma lighter at all Not one bit. Lubuntu and Kubuntu are the same Ubuntu under the "skin", and installing Plasma on top of Lubuntu will just get you the same thing as straight-up Kubuntu, but using a bit more disk space.
You might try doing a minimal install, but even so, Plasma itself won't be any lighter on resources. You can do little things like disabling file indexing, keeping extra services away, like Snap. And I think sticking to ext4 may be less resource intensive than btrfs, again I *think*.

Just use Lubuntu proper for a lighter overall system.


What do you need 32gb of swap for? That will do nothing useful on 4Gb of ram. Swap on the old system will be dreadfully slow, as in locking up your system to a standstill slow.

What you need is more ram, and an SSD if you have any available, and the computer supports having more. I know that this may not be possible, though, but it is the real solution here, with an old SSD actually making the biggest difference.
I *assume* a SATA ssd will work on the system, but I have not gone down any rabbit holes here like I usually do,

I already use a 2TB SSD, and enlarging the swap file does make a difference. According to others, using KDE PLASMA on Lubuntu results in fewer frames and a few other things. I suspect the SSD technology might be better than the weak DDR2 memory that this laptop uses.

[steve7233]

I just checked the system monitor, and I am currently using 3.6 GB of 32GB of my swap file space, so apparently it is doing something for the machine. I noticed that Firefox works a lot better.

[claydoh]

And your system is not running at a crawl? Interesting. Definitely not my experience doing similar things with an ssd on a less old system (2011)

I will guess that swap is being used in a more proper manner in recent kernels, paging out things that are not needed immediately as opposed to the swap just being an overflow catcher lol.

Oh, I betcha that Lubuntu is using zram or maybe zswap, that would also explain it.

That can be done on Kubuntu, but obviously is extra work. I shoulda thought of that before. It might be less work than installing Lubuntu then adding Kubuntu, assuming it does use zram.

[die.boer]

I just checked the system monitor, and I am currently using 3.6 GB of 32GB of my swap file space, so apparently it is doing something for the machine. I noticed that Firefox works a lot better.

So to be clear , you are on lubuntu now ,with KDE ?

[steve7233]

And your system is not running at a crawl? Interesting. Definitely not my experience doing similar things with an ssd on a less old system (2011)

I will guess that swap is being used in a more proper manner in recent kernels, paging out things that are not needed immediately as opposed to the swap just being an overflow catcher lol.

Oh, I betcha that Lubuntu is using zram or maybe zswap, that would also explain it.

That can be done on Kubuntu, but obviously is extra work. I shoulda thought of that before. It might be less work than installing Lubuntu then adding Kubuntu, assuming it does use zram.

You mentioning the new memory usage in the new kernel got me thinking about what I just read from Linus about the new version 7 of the Linux kernel and how they enabled better memory blocks and so forth. I checked with Google AI. This is what the AI said:
Kubuntu 24.04 uses the Linux Kernel 6.8. Kubuntu 26.04 uses Linux Kernel 7.0. Lubuntu 24.04 uses Kernel 6.8. Yes, Lubuntu utilizes ZRAM by default, activating compressed block devices in memory to improve performance and responsiveness. I used copy/paste to copy that part, so the text formatting is from the AI. Supper is ready, so I will check back here later.

[claydoh]

AI misses things.

*buntu 24.04 uses 6.17 now; it started on 6.8. And it will have 7.0 by ~October-ish.
But zram doesn't depend on that her at all.

I have just noticed more sane ram/swap usage on the same hardware in recent kernels, starting with the original 6.8 in 24.04

[steve7233]

AI misses things.

*buntu 24.04 uses 6.17 now; it started on 6.8. And it will have 7.0 by ~October-ish.
But zram doesn't depend on that her at all.

I have just noticed more sane ram/swap usage on the same hardware in recent kernels, starting with the original 6.8 in 24.04

Then maybe 24.04 is the right answer along with a bigger swap file, though it seems I probably don't need more than 12GB; that should be enough from how things look so far.

[steve7233]

I just checked. While playing the game Banished, the swap file usage is 5.6 GB! I am going to downgrade to 24.04 in a few hours. I will change from the default swap file to 12 GB. The machine should perform better. No offense, but that WOW64 in 26.04 is experimental and won't execute 32-bit code. For now. I suspect something gets patched later, which is understandable. You want to test the first part before adding more stuff to test.

[claydoh]

WoW64 is Wine's defualt now (for about a year-ish?), but you do need to create or recreate 32-bit prefixes.
Check out WineHQ forums, documentation etc

Me, I always use Lutris. bottles, etc to manage prefixes

But also note that in Debian and Ubuntu-land, there are separate wine64 and wine32 packages now.
Installing just the wine meta-package does not install the 32 bit one.

sudo apt install wine
Installing:
wine

Installing dependencies:
libasound2-plugins libcapi20-3t64 libodbc2 libodbccr2 libwine libz-mingw-w64 wine-common wine64

Suggested packages:
odbc-postgresql gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad ttf-mscorefonts-installer winbind winetricks wine-binfmt wine32
tdsodbc gstreamer1.0-plugins-ugly q4wine fonts-wine playonlinux dosbox wine64-preloader

Summary:
Upgrading: 0, Installing: 9, Removing: 0, Not Upgrading: 0
Download size: 209 MB

I bet that installing wine32 allows you to create/use 32-bit prefixes.

otherwise, most users seemed to need to recreate 32-bit prefixes for things

There is a description here, among other sources:
https://wine.htmlvalidator.com/insta...ntu-26.04.html
https://linuxcapable.com/how-to-inst...0Wine%20prefix


So you may not really need the 32bit wine package (or the 32-bit support enabled in the OS)

[steve7233]

I have Lutrie, POL, and bottles, and they all have too much overhead stuff that was added in the past few years that prevents vintage machines from running 32-bit games. I only got Banished to run after I switched to an old Proton 5.13-6 and even then I use the launch string MESA_GL_VERSION_OVERRIDE=2.0FC MESA_GLSL_VERSION_OVERRIDE=130 PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 PROTON_AUDIO=pulse WINEDLLOVERRIDES="xaudio2_7,xaudio2_8=n,b" %command% -dx9 /nosplash /novideo and that still doesn't run it the way it used to play on this machine back in 2015. I will try Kubuntu 24.04 with a 12 GB swap file and X11 after I get some sleep.