Why no i386 for Ubuntu 18.04/Debian 10?

[PanicMaven]

Trying Linux for the third time in 8 years or so. Loaded Mint 18.3 Cinnamon, tried installing VB through Software Manager. Wouldn't take XP install disk. (paid for it, looks official reman) Tried i386 for Ubuntu 17 from VB website, had some missing dependencies I didn't know what to do about. Tried the AMD, same story more or less. Just did a clean install of Mint 19-xfce for less complication, I'd prefer to install the VB file, but there's no i386 for Ubuntu 18, only AMD, and AMD didn't work before. I have an i5-6600 CPU. Any suggestions?

[socratis]

Your description is a little complicated, I couldn't really understand the problem that you're having, so I'm going to answer your topic question until I get some clarification regarding the body of your post.

but there's no i386 for Ubuntu 18, only AMD, and AMD didn't work before

Well, you got to ask Ubuntu about it. They most probably decided that i386 is dead and it's not worth the effort to keep a 32-bit alive, only 64 bit. But the question is, why do you say that 64-bit Ubuntu didn't work before?

[michaln]

They most probably decided that i386 is dead and it's not worth the effort to keep a 32-bit alive, only 64 bit.

They didn't decide that i386 is dead. It just is. I'm sure the Ubuntu people know how many of their users are on a 32-bit OS and it's a tiny percentage. Moreover the number of users who can't upgrade to a 64-bit variant is probably near zero, given that 32-bit-only PCs stopped being made over 10 years ago. The last wave was Core Solo/Duo laptops in 2006, but even then many desktops were already 64-bit.

In fact 32-bit CPUs are so old that Intel won't even support the older 64-bit CPUs (Core 2), leave alone anything 32-bit.

[PanicMaven]

Sorry, should have kept better notes. Like I said, with Cinnamon VB installed through the Software Manager, but wouldn't take my XP disk to make the VM. Then I tried downloading the Ubuntu 18.04 AMD file from VirtualBox.org, got a "vboxdrv not loaded". Tried with Ubuntu 17.04 i386 file, no joy there either. If you go to https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Linux_Downloads, you'll see that each release of Ubuntu has a choice for "i386" or "AMD64". I assumed that this was a choice for Intel or AMD motherboards, and I'm wondering why no Intel for 18.04, since that seems to be what I need. I don't think 32-bit figures into this at all.

[mpack]

i386 == 32bit.

amd64 == 64bit, whether the CPU is AMD or Intel or anything else.

It's called amd64 because AMD invented the technology, not because nobody else can do it. The Intel equivalent technology failed in the marketplace.

[socratis]

I tried downloading the Ubuntu 18.04 ... Tried with Ubuntu 17.04

Please do not try things at random. They are numbered for a reason. If you have 18.04 as your host, you go with the 18.04 release, not a random one! What's next, you're going to try the OSX version?

[PanicMaven]

Socratis, the point of my thread is that 18.04 AMD didn't work, and I was thinking the i386 file was for Intel processors, since x86 was the abbreviation for so long. Guessed wrong, I see, but it wasn't what you call random. Anyway, I'll experiment some more. Sayonara.

[socratis]

Socratis, the point of my thread is that 18.04 AMD didn't work

But unfortunately you still haven't told us what didn't work, at which point it failed, what was the error message that you received.