I Built Gamma Linux to Give Old PCs Another Life 🇩🇿

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I Built Gamma Linux to Give Old PCs Another Life :algeria:

Hi everyone :waving_hand:

I’m building Gamma Linux, a free and open-source Linux distribution from Algeria :algeria:.

The idea behind Gamma is simple:

No PC deserves to die.

I started the project around one question: what if old computers could still be useful instead of being thrown away?

Gamma is designed specifically with older and low-resource hardware in mind, with different editions for different hardware targets:

  • :shield: Legacy-32 — for older 32-bit x86 systems
  • :ghost: Lite-Ghost — lightweight x86-64 systems
  • :fire: Pro-MaxMini — systems with more resources

What Gamma focuses on

:high_voltage: Lightweight system design
:brain: Edition-specific ZRAM tuning
:desktop_computer: Lightweight desktop environment
:package: Minimal base / 0-bloat philosophy
:optical_disk: Calamares graphical installer
:globe_with_meridians: BIOS + UEFI boot support
:wrench: Hardware compatibility and old-PC testing
:unlocked: Open-source build system and configuration

The current release is Gamma Linux 2.7 — Warden.

I’m trying to keep the project honest: no fake benchmark numbers, no “faster than everything” claims, and no pretending that every old PC will magically become fast.

The goal is simply to make old hardware useful again.

:globe_with_meridians: Official website

:laptop: Source code

I’d really appreciate feedback from the Linux community.

If you have an old laptop or desktop sitting around, I’d especially like to hear about your hardware and how Gamma behaves on it.

Try it, break it, criticize it, improve it.

Even negative technical feedback is useful.

Gamma Linux — Reviving Every Computer. :algeria::penguin:
All together against the E-Waste

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Welcome to the community @taki_at_gamma_linux, and our forums! :handshake:

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Thanks, John! :handshake:

Really glad to be here. Looking forward to getting involved in the community, learning from everyone, and hopefully contributing something useful with Gamma Linux. :penguin::algeria:

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Very nice project!
It’s encouraging to see folks want to keep older hardware running.
Old =/= obsolete or useless.
And your website, simple and to the point.

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Thank you so much! :folded_hands:

That’s exactly the idea behind Gamma Linux: old hardware still has value, and it deserves a second life instead of being treated as obsolete.

Really appreciate the feedback on the website too! :wilted_flower:

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The website is a marvel, it looks and navigates way better than most websites I encounter and works perfectly, even without javascript !! :star_struck:. Also the information on it is perfect. It contains everything I want to know when looking for a distro.

Also, I am very much a fan of the Moksha desktop ( I used Bodhi on my 1GB netbook) and I think that it is hugely overlooked and underrated.

Two minor things:

  1. The link to the license points to
    https://githubgamma-linux.is-local.org/#source but should be https://github.com/takismartgamer123-rgb/Gamma-linux/blob/main/LICENSE.md so I landed on a 404
  2. MIT licence might be a legal problem because almost all software in the distro is GPL. I don’t know if that will go down well, but I am not a lawyer so don’t take my word for it.

I will try it out soon on my netbook, I’m stoked :slight_smile:

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Thank you so much! :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

I’m really glad you like the website, especially the fact that it still works without JavaScript. That was something I intentionally wanted to keep simple and accessible.

And yes, Moksha deserves way more attention! It fits the whole “give old hardware another life” idea surprisingly well.

Thanks for catching the broken LICENSE link too — that one definitely slipped through. I’ll fix it.

As for the MIT/GPL point, that’s something I’m going to review carefully. Gamma’s own code and the software included in the distro are separate things, so I want to make sure the licensing is presented correctly and that each component keeps its proper license.

And please let me know how Gamma runs on your netbook when you get a chance to try it! I’d genuinely love to hear how it performs on 1GB-era hardware. :penguin:

Note : If ISOLINUX entries dosen’t boot , Press Tab and remove quiet splash and write nomodeset acpi=off .
I use Bodhi too :laughing:

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Finally found some time, sorry for the wait.

No luck I guess: Kernelpanic , even with changed bootoptions:

kernel panic
kernel panic4160×3120 382 KB

Can you make something of this kerneldump ? I have no clue how to continue. Any tips welcome :slight_smile:

EDIT: This is Gamma Linux 2.7 warden legacy.
I’m going to try the light version next :slight_smile:

EDIT: Same kernelpanic with the ‘lite’ version (although it gives an exitcode of 0x100 instead of 0x200)

I wonder if it has something to do with the bootpartition itself being recognized as a ‘hidden NTFS/HPFS’ type instead of ‘Linux’ but I assume that if that was the case then it wouldn’t even find the kernel. What do you think ?

EDIT: I don’t think it is a partition problem. I tried the 2.6.5 Tank release which reported correct partitions but same result: kernel panic.

EDIT: I tried on another computer, my old 32-bit P4 laptop (2004), same kernelpanic.
( b.t.w. I wrote the image as I usually do, with ‘gnome-disk-utility’ )

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Hello Thom , sorry for my disapperaence because i am so busy with my high school , i am writing to tell you that i fixed this kernel panic and the iso will be uploaded during this days , sorry again, i will send you when i uploaded it.

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Hi Taki,

No need to apologise, take your time :slight_smile:

I know how time consuming life can be, and developement too.
I deemed it important to report to you on my findings with respect to your distro because I love your initiative and you definitely have my support.

School comes first, fun can wait a bit. I am not in a hurry so don’t overstress yourself ok ? :slight_smile:

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OK Bro , I really appreciate that :heart:

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Hello Again Thom :waving_hand: ,
As i said , i found a bit of time yesterday and uploaded the new Gamma Legacy Fixed kernel panic iso , now you are free to test it or no , your feedback is very important for me like my name :joy: , wishing message finds you well , any suggestions welcome , THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT !!! ,

All the best,
Taki.

Pay attention to user login credentials: gamma:gamma

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:+1:

gamma-legacy
gamma-legacy1920×1440 172 KB

thom@deimos:~$ free -h
               total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:           725Mi       250Mi       320Mi       804Ki       262Mi       475Mi
Swap:          7.7Gi          0B       7.7Gi
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Hi Taki (@taki_at_gamma_linux),

Network works physically, i can ping 8.8.8.8
but not ping google.com so DNS is not working.

I tried connmancli but that doesn’t seem to work (I’m also not familiar with connman so that might be the reason)

Any tips ? :slight_smile:

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Thanks for testing Gamma Linux 2.7.1! :slightly_smiling_face:

Since ping 8.8.8.8 works but ping google.com doesn’t, the connection itself is working and the issue is most likely DNS configuration.

First, please try:

sudo sh -c 'printf "nameserver 1.1.1.1\nnameserver 8.8.8.8\n" > /etc/resolv.conf'

Then:

ping -c 3 google.com

If that fixes it, please let me know — that would confirm a DNS configuration issue in 2.7.1.

If it still doesn’t work, please send me the output of:

ip addr
ip route
cat /etc/resolv.conf
systemctl status NetworkManager --no-pager
systemctl status connman --no-pager

Also, the command for ConnMan is connmanctl, not connmancli.

I’ll use the output to fix the networking configuration in the next build. Thanks for helping test Gamma Linux! :algeria:

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Yes, that fixes it :slight_smile:

Now also installing on my ‘Medion 41300’
( 32-bit single core hyperthreading Pentium 4, purchased in 2004 )
The moment calamares installer starts installing it shows up as a black rectangle. This is probably the videochip not cooperating (GeForce Go5300) but looking at ‘top’ it seems to progress… fingers crossed. :slight_smile:

EDIT:
No, it was not the videochip.

Since the install refused to boot (filesystem error, filesystem bigger than device, fsck->superblock or FS corrupt) and the next clean install the same, I decided to partition the disk manually.

It seems that the installer forces GPT on old BIOSes.
This should theoretically work as long as the BIOS is standards compliant.

In my experience, more than half of the legacy BIOSes deviate from the standard and therefor refuse or choke on GPT for this reason.

I forced the partitioning to MBR/DOS and installed again:
Calamares worked as it should (no longer a black rectangle during copy) and after reboot, I could login and found myself a running system. :slight_smile:
:+1:

medion-41300
medion-41300720×960 48.8 KB

thom@roamer:~$ free -h
               total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:           2.0Gi       365Mi       1.4Gi       1.4Mi       404Mi       1.6Gi
Swap:          8.2Gi          0B       8.2Gi
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Excellent! :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes: And thank you for testing it on such an old machine — a 2004 Pentium 4 is exactly the kind of hardware Gamma Linux is meant to bring back to life. :algeria:

The MBR/GPT finding is especially useful. If Calamares is defaulting to GPT on legacy BIOS systems, that can definitely cause compatibility problems on older firmware.

I’m glad forcing MBR/DOS made the installation and boot work correctly. I’ll look into making the installer handle legacy BIOS systems more safely in the next build, rather than relying on GPT compatibility.

Also glad the DNS fix worked! :+1:

Thanks for the detailed report — this is exactly the kind of real hardware testing that helps improve Gamma Linux.
Thank you for your support :heart_eyes:

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Oh, by the way, the DNS fix was not needed on the Medion 41300 so I will try again on the Asus eeePC netbook and experiment some more. :slight_smile:

EDIT:
Nope, on the eeePC the DNS resolver does not work out of the box. On the Medion41300 however, DNS resolve works. Strange… :thinking:

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Really strange :joy:
But i think that’s a modem-related or config errors , brain cross .

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Maybe processor related ?

DNS out of the box:

DNS after manually adding nameservers to /etc/resolv.conf:

  • Asus eeePC: AMD-C60 64-bit, 1GB-RAM

Maybe network card related ?
I used wifi but I can install again using UTP if that is helpful.

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