GParted Live 1.7.0 Linux Distro Drops 32-Bit Support (nerds.xyz) 25
"GParted Live is a Linux distro with a focused purpose," writes Slashdot reader BrianFagioli. "It exists solely to give users a simple and effective way to manage disk partitions. Whether you're resizing drives, prepping for dual boot, or recovering data, this live operating system has you covered."
But "The 1.7.0 release brings a few key changes, starting with the end of 32-bit support." If you're still using old hardware, you're officially out of luck. This decision follows Debian's move to drop i386 kernel packages from its Sid repository. Because GParted Live is built on Debian Sid, it now ships only in 64-bit (amd64) versions.
This release also includes GParted 1.7.0 along with an updated Linux kernel, version 6.12.37. Another important tweak is the addition of a mechanism that helps avoid random ordering of block devices at boot. That change can prevent users from selecting the wrong disk by mistake, especially in systems with multiple drives.
But "The 1.7.0 release brings a few key changes, starting with the end of 32-bit support." If you're still using old hardware, you're officially out of luck. This decision follows Debian's move to drop i386 kernel packages from its Sid repository. Because GParted Live is built on Debian Sid, it now ships only in 64-bit (amd64) versions.
This release also includes GParted 1.7.0 along with an updated Linux kernel, version 6.12.37. Another important tweak is the addition of a mechanism that helps avoid random ordering of block devices at boot. That change can prevent users from selecting the wrong disk by mistake, especially in systems with multiple drives.
Unacceptable. (Score:1)
A handy tool (Score:2)
Re:A handy tool (Score:4, Informative)
To have on my ventoy stick
Sure, but while this ISO is only 580MB, you can do the same thing with a regular/full live distro ISO by booting it and installing GParted into the live instance, if it's not already available. I did this the other day using a Linux Mint 22 (Cinnamon) image I already had on my multi-boot thumb drive. So this is useful, but (probably) not essential.
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Kind of surprised that it's over half a gigabyte. I guess there are a lot of drivers for storage interfaces in there, but beyond that it's only using basic text for the interface, isn't it?
I suppose maybe they thought that as long as it fits on a CD there isn't any point trying to optimize the size.
unfair tone (Score:2)
I kind of agree with you that "XYZ distro that other distros don't depend on and isn't a top-line distro drops 32 bit support" isn't Slashdot-worthy, but "no one uses" is a bit over the top.
Rescue- and other special-purpose, one-task distros have their place, there is no reason to disparage them because they aren't most people's "every day distro."
I haven't used GParted Live recently but only because I have a similar "rescue" distro handy that has gparted on it.
Re: This passes as news that matters? (Score:2)
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Well, it's not like the 32 bit version is gone. It'll likely keep forking for a while yet, and by the time it's obsolete, how likely are you encounter a bit of 32 bit x86 hardware that you'd run it on?
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It seems unfortunate not to get the advantage of imnprovements to gparted. Of course, for most systems of that age, it's reasonably simple to remove the storage device.
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Are they purging all previous versions from the Internet?
Seems old software still works really well on old hardware. No, you won't get the most up-to-date kernels that have also discontinued support for your old hardware due to being old. But it will still rearrange partitions of old formats on old hardware just fine.
See what I'm getting at?
Re:This passes as news that matters? (Score:4, Informative)
Laugh all you want but we actually use this.
We tell our customers to "add +100GB to your virtual machine" before upgrading to the latest version of our software and they interpreted it as "add +100GB to the VM and then go in and start extending partitions" but they end up extending the wrong thing and causes headaches.
You can't reduce the root filesystem while it's mounted, so we give them this ISO and tell them exactly what to type to fix what they've done.
The 32-bit thing doesn't matter though. If you still have systems that aren't 64-bit capable then just keep using the old ISO.
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Not universally. You're entirely dependent on the resize process not hitting a file that is in use, otherwise it will fail. This is ultimately the same thing restricting ext fs resizes.
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The 32-bit thing doesn't matter though. If you still have systems that aren't 64-bit capable then just keep using the old ISO.
It's bordering disgraceful how many people around here didn't instantly come to the conclusion that old software versions still exist and work just fine on the same vintage hardware it's meant to run on.
I mean, really.
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I *did* come to that conclusion...but I also wonder what systems this would put limits on. So far nobody's mentioned any, but they probably exist.
OTOH, for any full system you should be able to compile it in 32bit mode...at least I think so. Possibly only an older version, but GParted is a special purpose tool, so that shouldn't be too limiting. (But perhaps it depends on libraries that are also only available in 64 bit mode. That would make building it more challenging.
That said, I'd probably just keep
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Of course, it might hit those in the retro computing community quite hard, but again, it's not like the i386 versions will cease to exist. You just won't have the latest cutting edge features and su
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Some rando distro no one uses drops 32 bit support?
At least remember the old Slashdot byline properly - "News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters".
And, for the record, yes - this qualifies as both.
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Well, it definitely fits into "news for nerds". As for "Stuff that matters"...that depends on your use case. I no longer have access to any 32 bit computers. (I may still have a 16 bit computer somewhere.)
The nice thing about "rescue" distributions (Score:4, Informative)
A 20-year-old rescue disk that "gets the job done" without the network turned on is a perfectly cromulent solution.
Got 32-bit hardware that won't ever get a post-2024-technology upgrade? You'll be able to use the "final" 32-bit-supporting GParted Live distro for years to come without problems, at least until the end of time [wikipedia.org] (if your system predates 64-bit time on 32-bit systems).
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Why would the year 2038 problem cause trouble for booting this on a 32-bit system?
Would some time calculation make a difference?
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I plan to reincarnate as Trump's mother that day.
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So many things depend on dates that it would be irresponsible to assume nothing would go wrong until proven otherwise.
Also, GParted itself calls fsck for some operations. It's very likely that at least some file systems' fsck.* tools use or check dates and would prevent a successful fsck under certain postend-of-epoch scenarios.
I could easily be wrong here, but the rational assumption is to assume something could go wonky under certain post-rollover scenarios until someone proves it can't.
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This is why I still have a DOS boot floppy (Score:3)