93 lines
3.5 KiB
HTML
93 lines
3.5 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2 Final//EN">
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<HTML>
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<HEAD>
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<META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="SGML-Tools 1.0.9">
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<TITLE>4mb Laptop HOWTO: The Laptops</TITLE>
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<LINK HREF="4mb-Laptops-3.html" REL=next>
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<LINK HREF="4mb-Laptops-1.html" REL=previous>
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<LINK HREF="4mb-Laptops.html#toc2" REL=contents>
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</HEAD>
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<BODY>
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<A HREF="4mb-Laptops-3.html">Next</A>
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<A HREF="4mb-Laptops-1.html">Previous</A>
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<A HREF="4mb-Laptops.html#toc2">Contents</A>
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<HR>
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<H2><A NAME="s2">2. The Laptops</A> </H2>
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<P>This section describes the laptops that I have used this procedure on,
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the problems faced when installing Linux on them and the solutions to those
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problems (in outline).
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<H2><A NAME="ss2.1">2.1 Basic Specifications</A>
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</H2>
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<H3>Compaq Contura Aero </H3>
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<P>
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<UL>
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<LI>25MHz 486SX CPU</LI>
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<LI>4mb RAM</LI>
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<LI>170mb Hard Disk</LI>
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<LI>1 PCMCIA Type II slot</LI>
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<LI>External PCMCIA 3.5" Floppy drive
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<BLOCKQUOTE>The PCMCIA floppy drive has a proprietary interface which is partly handled
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by the Aero's unique BIOS. The Linux PCMCIA drivers can't work with it. According
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to the PCMCIA-HOWTO, if the drive is connected when the laptop boots it will
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work as a standard drive and Card Services will ignore the socket but it is
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not hot-swappable. However, I found that the drive becomes inaccessible as
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soon as Card Services start unless there is a mounted disk in the drive. This
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has implications for the installation process - these are covered at the relevant
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points. </BLOCKQUOTE>
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</LI>
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</UL>
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<H3>Toshiba T1910 </H3>
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<P>
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<UL>
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<LI>33MHz 486SX CPU</LI>
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<LI>4mb RAM</LI>
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<LI>200 mb Hard Disk</LI>
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<LI>Internal 3.5" Floppy drive</LI>
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<LI>1 PCMCIA Type II/III slot</LI>
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</UL>
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<H2><A NAME="ss2.2">2.2 The Problem</A>
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</H2>
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<P>The small hard disks and the lack of an internal floppy on the Aero make
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the installation more tricky than normal but the real problem is the RAM. None
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of the current distributions has an installation disk that will boot in 4mb,
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not even if the whole hard disk is a swap partition.
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<P>The standard installation uses a boot disk to uncompress a root-partition
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image (either from a second floppy or from CD-ROM) into a ram-disk. The root-image
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is around 4mb in size. That's all the RAM available in this scenario. Try it
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and it freezes while unpacking the root-image.
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<H2><A NAME="ss2.3">2.3 The Solution</A>
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</H2>
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<P>The answer is to eliminate the ram-disk. If you can mount root on a physical
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partition you will have enough memory to do the install. Since the uncompressed
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ram-disk is too big to fit on a floppy, the only place left is on the hard
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disk of the laptop. The steps are:
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<P>
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<OL>
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<LI>Find something that will boot in 4mb ram and which can also create ext2
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partitions.</LI>
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<LI>Use it to create a swap partition and a small ext2 partition on the laptop's
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hard disk.</LI>
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<LI>Uncompress the installation root-image and copy it onto the ext2 partition.</LI>
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<LI>Boot the laptop from the installation boot-disk, pointing it at the ext2
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partition on the hard disk.</LI>
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<LI>The installation should go more or less as normal from here.</LI>
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</OL>
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<P>The only question was whether a distribution that wouldn't install (under
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normal circumstances) on the laptops would run on them. The short answer is
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"Yes".
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<P>If you're an old Linux hand then that's all you need to know. If not, read
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on - some of the steps listed above aren't as simple as they look.
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<HR>
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<A HREF="4mb-Laptops-3.html">Next</A>
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<A HREF="4mb-Laptops-1.html">Previous</A>
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<A HREF="4mb-Laptops.html#toc2">Contents</A>
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</BODY>
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</HTML>
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