this post was submitted on 07 Jan 2026
23 points (89.7% liked)
Linux
61043 readers
196 users here now
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
Rules
- Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
- No misinformation
- No NSFW content
- No hate speech, bigotry, etc
Related Communities
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I was considering doing that as a last resort. My understanding is that nomodeset just pretty heavily nerfs GPU performance, you can't do GPU acceleration, things will be a lower resolution etc, and again this machine doesn't even have a dedicated GPU so for the use case I imagine the device in that shouldn't really matter. I've been using it with nomodeset just fine and everything looks great and I don't feel like I'm getting a lesser experience, but if I can get a permanent fix that works I'd rather go with that.
Are you sure about nomodeset still nerfing the GPU once in a desktop session? I remember having to use nomodeset on my own PC to get text displayed at boot. However once booted and inside the graphical desktop Ubuntu would use the proprietary NVIDIA driver just fine. That was a few years back though (around 2010)
I for one appreciate your integrity in trying to set things up such that they're working properly before you pass the machine off to someone else
Best of luck my friend!
Can it play Youtube in HD without lagging?
I guess that would be roughly my bar for what I'd feel OK with passing on to someone clueless.
Your bar is high! Does it boot to a GUI? That's mine, and it sounds like it doesn't -- so no YT.
In that case I'd give it away for free. Or sell it without an OS to someone who knows what they're getting and leave them to figure it out.
Me, I'm big on free, but I recently noticed something.... What was it?.... Someone told an anecdote about something they valued, and it seemed clear that it was because they paid. And it got me to thinking money is effectively now what church was thru the 1990s. And, like, is that weird and probably dysfunctional? Yes. Does that make it less true? No.
OK?
I think 2013 gear and low-end hardware can still be useful in 2026. And that it can be win-win to give old gear a new home.
But it wouldn't be honest selling stuff that can't physically handle what a reasonable user would expect from a PC to someone who is not capable to install an OS themselves and doesn't understand what the limitations are.
Not too dissimilar to marketing CMR HDDs as "NAS drives", which I hope we all agree is a scam.
And just so I don't get misread on that part, "HD" = 720p.