Snowballfighter

This laptop was my first experiment into installing linux, I have since expanded to installing linux OS to all my devices. Since then, I now would like to circle back to this very slow, very old PC and install a light weight distro on it. It would act like a back up for writing emails and using Obsidian for putting together client info sheets if my main PC ever had an issue. I would only need to install Waterfox and Obsidian.

But I had a curiosity about SNES emulators? What if I could use this lil guy to play old super mario? Is there an emulator for that and will this junk be able to run it? Which distro would be ideal for this, if at all possible? Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

UPDATE: Well, during another project I accidentally erased the partition on my HD for this Laptop and messed it all up (OMG lesson to new users, be patient and mindful!!) So I went ahead and put Xfce on it. It's good for what I need, and definitely faster!! It's missing some creature comforts that Cinnamon has, such as the ability to uninstall native apps with a right-click and some UI things that are nice but not necessary.

next step, the Emulator...

Specs:

System:
  Kernel: 6.14.0-36-generic arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 13.3.0 clocksource: tsc
  Desktop: Cinnamon v: 6.4.8 tk: GTK v: 3.24.41 wm: Muffin v: 6.4.1 vt: 7 dm: LightDM v: 1.30.0
    Distro: Linux Mint 22.2 Zara base: Ubuntu 24.04 noble
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: SAMSUNG product: 905S3G/906S3G/915S3G/9305SG v: P13RBV
    serial: <superuser required> Chassis: type: 9 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: SAMSUNG model: NP915S3G-K02CA v: SAMSUNG_SW_REVISION_1234567890ABCD
    serial: <superuser required> part-nu: SAMSUNG SENS Series uuid: <superuser required>
    UEFI: American Megatrends v: P13RBV.083.140805.FL date: 08/05/2014
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT1 charge: 26.5 Wh (98.1%) condition: 27.0/30.6 Wh (88.2%) volts: 8.2 min: 7.5
    model: SAMSUNG Electronics SR Real Battery type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: discharging
    cycles: 452
CPU:
  Info: quad core model: (up to ) bits: 64 type: MCP smt: <unsupported> arch: Jaguar rev: 1 cache:
    L1: 256 KiB L2: 2 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 602 high: 611 min/max: 600/1000 boost: enabled cores: 1: 611 2: 599 3: 599
    4: 599 bogomips: 7985
  Flags: avx ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Temash [Radeon HD 8250/8280G] vendor: Samsung Co driver: radeon v: kernel
    arch: GCN-2 ports: active: LVDS-1 empty: HDMI-A-1,VGA-1 bus-ID: 00:01.0 chip-ID: 1002:983d
    class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: Silicon Motion WebCam SC-10HDD13335N driver: uvcvideo type: USB rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 3-3:3 chip-ID: 2232:1054 class-ID: 0e02 serial: <filter>
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.11 with: Xwayland v: 23.2.6 driver: X: loaded: radeon
    unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa dri: radeonsi gpu: radeon display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1366x768 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 361x203mm (14.21x7.99") s-diag: 414mm (16.31")
  Monitor-1: LVDS-1 mapped: LVDS model: AU Optronics 0x152c res: 1366x768 hz: 60 dpi: 118
    size: 293x164mm (11.54x6.46") diag: 336mm (13.2") modes: max: 1366x768 min: 640x480
  API: EGL v: 1.5 hw: drv: amd radeonsi platforms: device: 0 drv: radeonsi device: 1 drv: swrast
    gbm: drv: kms_swrast surfaceless: drv: radeonsi x11: drv: radeonsi inactive: wayland
  API: OpenGL v: 4.5 vendor: amd mesa v: 25.0.7-0ubuntu0.24.04.2 glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes
    renderer: KABINI (radeonsi ACO DRM 2.50 6.14.0-36-generic) device-ID: 1002:983d
Audio:
  Device-1: AMD Kabini HDMI/DP Audio vendor: Samsung Co driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
    bus-ID: 00:01.1 chip-ID: 1002:9840 class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: AMD FCH Azalia vendor: Samsung Co driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:14.2
    chip-ID: 1022:780d class-ID: 0403
  API: ALSA v: k6.14.0-36-generic status: kernel-api
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.5 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse status: active
    2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8211/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet vendor: Samsung Co
    RTL8111/8168/8411 driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: e000
    bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8168 class-ID: 0200
  IF: enp1s0 state: down mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9565 / AR9565 Wireless Network Adapter vendor: Samsung Co
    driver: ath9k v: kernel pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 02:00.0 chip-ID: 168c:0036
    class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlp2s0 state: up mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Qualcomm Atheros AR3012 Bluetooth 4.0 driver: btusb v: 0.8 type: USB rev: 1.1
    speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 4-2:3 chip-ID: 0cf3:3004 class-ID: e001
  Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 1 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 4.1 lmp-v: 7 sub-v: 1
    hci-v: 7 rev: 3101 class-ID: 7c010c
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 119.24 GiB used: 24.63 GiB (20.7%)
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Samsung model: MZMTD128HAFV-000 size: 119.24 GiB speed: 6.0 Gb/s
    tech: SSD serial: <filter> fw-rev: 1K0Q scheme: GPT
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 116.32 GiB used: 24.62 GiB (21.2%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
  ID-2: /boot/efi size: 511 MiB used: 6.1 MiB (1.2%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sda1
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 4.39 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 file: /swapfile
USB:
  Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: full speed or root hub ports: 4 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1
    chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 1-3:3 info: Realtek RTS5129 Card Reader Controller type: <vendor specific>
    driver: rtsx_usb,rtsx_usb_ms,rtsx_usb_sdmmc interfaces: 1 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1
    power: 500mA chip-ID: 0bda:0129 class-ID: ff00 serial: <filter>
  Hub-2: 2-0:1 info: full speed or root hub ports: 4 rev: 1.1 speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1
    chip-ID: 1d6b:0001 class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 2-2:2 info: Elan Micro Touchscreen type: HID driver: hid-multitouch,usbhid
    interfaces: 1 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 power: 100mA chip-ID: 04f3:012e class-ID: 0300
  Hub-3: 3-0:1 info: full speed or root hub ports: 4 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1
    chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 3-3:3 info: Silicon Motion WebCam SC-10HDD13335N type: video driver: uvcvideo
    interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 power: 500mA chip-ID: 2232:1054 class-ID: 0e02
    serial: <filter>
  Hub-4: 4-0:1 info: full speed or root hub ports: 4 rev: 1.1 speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1
    chip-ID: 1d6b:0001 class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 4-2:3 info: Qualcomm Atheros AR3012 Bluetooth 4.0 type: bluetooth driver: btusb
    interfaces: 2 rev: 1.1 speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 power: 100mA chip-ID: 0cf3:3004 class-ID: e001
  Hub-5: 5-0:1 info: hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1
    chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900
  Hub-6: 6-0:1 info: super-speed hub ports: 2 rev: 3.0 speed: 5 Gb/s lanes: 1 chip-ID: 1d6b:0003
    class-ID: 0900
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 54.5 C mobo: N/A gpu: radeon temp: 53.0 C
  Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A
Repos:
  Packages: pm: dpkg pkgs: 2190
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list
    1: deb https: //dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/ focal main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
    1: deb http: //packages.linuxmint.com zara main upstream import backport
    2: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble main restricted universe multiverse
    3: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-updates main restricted universe multiverse
    4: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-backports main restricted universe multiverse
    5: deb http: //security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ noble-security main restricted universe multiverse
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/winehq-noble.sources
    1: deb [arch=amd64 i386] https: //dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu noble main
Info:
  Memory: total: 4 GiB note: est. available: 3.28 GiB used: 1.13 GiB (34.5%)
  Processes: 207 Power: uptime: 2m states: freeze,mem suspend: deep wakeups: 0
    hibernate: disabled Init: systemd v: 255 target: graphical (5) default: graphical
  Compilers: gcc: 13.3.0 Client: Cinnamon v: 6.4.8 inxi: 3.3.34

I am so close to completely being degoogled, the last nail in the coffin is my tv.

I have a very old Sony Bravia (over 20 years old), it has a Firestick to get access to Plex and Smarttube, these are the only apps I use. I also have a Mycloud server for Plex.

I have heard you can stream through Raspberry Pi, but am an absolute beginner in this area and don't even know where to start.

• Which Pi do I get?
• Can I get Plex and SmartTubeNext on it?
• How do I set it up?

I just need a start point, guide, tutorial, anything to get this last little bit of privacy interfering tech out of my life.

Thanks!

UPDATE 1: Right after posting this, got my mitts on a used RP4 for a handful of change (even got the micro HDMI thrown in for free), and after anxiously waiting til I had some time to research and do it, I installed Lineage OS on the lil guy to do an Android TV thing (via Konstakangs build.)

However, while I had success getting the OS on there, after many dumb little issues that I caused through ignorance or accident, the guides I followed for installation all focus on putting Google apps on there. This is the guide I used the most.

Now I am a little stuck on my next step. The only apps I have on the box are settings and a file manager.

How can I get, say, the Aurora app store or AFTVnews downloader on the device? I use lineage on my phone and tablet and that's easy as they have browsers and I can alternately do it through ADB on my Laptop.

One can get the APKs for these, but I have no idea how to apply them to the Raspberry Pi.

Other future issues are, a usable remote (I have an old amazon firestick remote) and the screen is a little cut off at the edges, my tv is so old it doesn't have any overscan options in settings. Plugging the laptop into an HDMI to the TV does this also. Didn't do that when I used Windows so that's a tomorrow problem I guess.

UPDATE 2:

Well, that was easier than I thought! Turns out ADB can connect to your pi via the simple method of finding the IP address of your Android TV (Settings - System - Network) Then on your PC in the terminal, run adb connect And you can install your APKs from there. This guide has all the details.