I have an old i5 Win7 laptop DVD. Probably need to swap the HDD with an SSD.

Ive been considering putting some variation of Linux on it (#SteamOS, Mint, Ubuntu) to learn #linux or #ChromeOS.

What possible uses for it can/should I consider? Some ideas Ive considered:

- #Kodi for media center / NAS
- #RetroArch for retro video game emulation
- Spare laptop for guests

Anything else I should consider doing with it? Some #HomeAutomation or kiddie laptop?

🧵So my "toe-dip" in to Linux feels like Ive fallen in to the deep end.

After buying a new ssd for the laptop and an usb drive for the iso, Ive been trying to work with a few idiosyncrasies of Linux Mint and my circa 2010 Toshiba M645-S4045:

1) The laptop has weird partitioning requirements due to (I think) a partial implementation of UEFI or dedicated recovery partition specified in BIOS. (?)

I had to manually partition to get it to boot, but..

... I can only seem to get a successful boot in recovery boot. Whichifht be related (or not) to:

2) Linux Mint will only let me use a resolution of 1024 x 768 instead of the native resolution of 1366x768

I believe this is due to the unique integrated graphics card (nvidia laptop model) for which the drivers are no longer supported....

...At this point Im wondering if I could find a different linux distro that is a little more turnkey or if I should continue shaving the yak to get this one working.

I'm open to suggestions of other distros that might have better compatibility with this laptop, or specific ways to attempt to resolve both the boot and screen resolution problem.

@ike Music Streamer and music libray. Outout to a DAC and run through a stereo or to headphones.