Thursday, October 31, 2002
Wednesday, October 30, 2002
Trying to get sound working now, and it's troublesome....:)
Fount the following page at the Linux for Computational Chemistry Software Development which gives the IRQ's for key components, and this site on Linux for Toshiba laptops, which might prove useful......
Fount the following page at the Linux for Computational Chemistry Software Development which gives the IRQ's for key components, and this site on Linux for Toshiba laptops, which might prove useful......
RPM's
There are a few reasons I chose Red Hat. Mostly, it's because they look strong in the commercial world, with robust enterprise server products and a real desktop offering, as well as a certification track. Basically, they're the strongest brand from where I sit.
Another reason is RPM's - these are the easiest way to install software on Linux (Red Hat Package Manager, I think). I have no idea how to compile stuff from tarballed libraries (yet!), but RPM's are no worries!
Basically, in Gnome (or KDE) there is an RPM manager - it's called GnoRPM in Gnome. You just open it, tell it you want to install some software packages (from RPM files), point it at the RPM files, and away you go.
The two I installed were pump-0.8.11-7 and Opera.
Pump allows you to reset DHCP settings on your NIC, much the same as ipconfig /renew in the microsoft world. I downloaded the pump RPM to a floppy disk, and installed it using GnoRPM. Then you can just go to a command prompt and use the syntax pump -i eth0 to get a DHCP address.
Then we're on the net via the LAN, and can use Mozilla to download the Opera RPM from their website directly to the laptop. Another RPM install, and Opera is up and running (it's a way faster browser than Mozilla with a smaller footprint).
Now we're getting somewhere!......
There are a few reasons I chose Red Hat. Mostly, it's because they look strong in the commercial world, with robust enterprise server products and a real desktop offering, as well as a certification track. Basically, they're the strongest brand from where I sit.
Another reason is RPM's - these are the easiest way to install software on Linux (Red Hat Package Manager, I think). I have no idea how to compile stuff from tarballed libraries (yet!), but RPM's are no worries!
Basically, in Gnome (or KDE) there is an RPM manager - it's called GnoRPM in Gnome. You just open it, tell it you want to install some software packages (from RPM files), point it at the RPM files, and away you go.
The two I installed were pump-0.8.11-7 and Opera.
Pump allows you to reset DHCP settings on your NIC, much the same as ipconfig /renew in the microsoft world. I downloaded the pump RPM to a floppy disk, and installed it using GnoRPM. Then you can just go to a command prompt and use the syntax pump -i eth0 to get a DHCP address.
Then we're on the net via the LAN, and can use Mozilla to download the Opera RPM from their website directly to the laptop. Another RPM install, and Opera is up and running (it's a way faster browser than Mozilla with a smaller footprint).
Now we're getting somewhere!......
X!
Nightmare! - hours and hours wasted over this.
Basically, Xconfigurator is no good for the Tecra 500CDT - it generates XF86Config files that work, but the desktop flickers all over the place so much that it's unuseable.
Fortunately, there are a lot of friendly people out there, and with help from Martin Ruckert's Page and J. Maurer's notes I was able to cobble together an XF86Config file that works well. I have posted it here - just copy it directly to your /etc/X11 directory.
I found both articles via the incredibly useful Linux on Laptops page.
Nightmare! - hours and hours wasted over this.
Basically, Xconfigurator is no good for the Tecra 500CDT - it generates XF86Config files that work, but the desktop flickers all over the place so much that it's unuseable.
Fortunately, there are a lot of friendly people out there, and with help from Martin Ruckert's Page and J. Maurer's notes I was able to cobble together an XF86Config file that works well. I have posted it here - just copy it directly to your /etc/X11 directory.
I found both articles via the incredibly useful Linux on Laptops page.
Mounting a floppy
At this point I was at a mate's house, and needed to get a sample XF86Config file from the web for reference. However, no network meant that I needed to use a floppy from the command line.
Just a little tidbit that I didn't know before, but the default mount point for the floppy disk is /mnt/floppy
Unfortunately, my kernel or configuration doesn't support FAT as a filesystem (normally would use mount -f FAT /dev/fd0 /mountpoint), so another tip is that the -a switch seems to overcome filesystem issues, so I used: mount -a /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy, and job's a good'un!
At this point I was at a mate's house, and needed to get a sample XF86Config file from the web for reference. However, no network meant that I needed to use a floppy from the command line.
Just a little tidbit that I didn't know before, but the default mount point for the floppy disk is /mnt/floppy
Unfortunately, my kernel or configuration doesn't support FAT as a filesystem (normally would use mount -f FAT /dev/fd0 /mountpoint), so another tip is that the -a switch seems to overcome filesystem issues, so I used: mount -a /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy, and job's a good'un!
Install Basics
I let the Red Hat installer partition my disk, which gives me (roughly):
/boot = 50MB
swap = 100MB
/ = 1.15GB
The default laptop option in the RH 7.2 installer is too big for the 1.15GB / partition, so I stepped back and chose to "select individual packages", using the RH installer laptop options as the starting point. I then removed any crap that I didn't think I'd need, although I'm not a great judge of that, as I still ended up with 800MB of stuff in /.
At the next stage, module dependencies will then almost ceratinly bump the total capacity required tight back up - the key here is to go through the dependencies list, find out which packages are dependent on the bulky bits you don't want and then go back and remove them as well.
Install then went smoothly, and I am using 808MB at the time of writing.
I let the Red Hat installer partition my disk, which gives me (roughly):
/boot = 50MB
swap = 100MB
/ = 1.15GB
The default laptop option in the RH 7.2 installer is too big for the 1.15GB / partition, so I stepped back and chose to "select individual packages", using the RH installer laptop options as the starting point. I then removed any crap that I didn't think I'd need, although I'm not a great judge of that, as I still ended up with 800MB of stuff in /.
At the next stage, module dependencies will then almost ceratinly bump the total capacity required tight back up - the key here is to go through the dependencies list, find out which packages are dependent on the bulky bits you don't want and then go back and remove them as well.
Install then went smoothly, and I am using 808MB at the time of writing.
My first post.
Well, I've been playing with Linux for a short while, and it tends to go in fits and bursts, but I thought I'd start taking notes, hence this blog.
My current project is to get Red Hat running usefully on a crappy old Toshiba Tecra 500CDT.
This is an ancient machine, with a Pentium CPU (not even MMX!), 32MB RAM and a 1.2GB HDD.
I am using Red Hat 7.2 at the moment, as I reckon the GUI overhead for Bluecurve in 8.0 might be a bit much - I'll wait for a beefier machine.
Well, I've been playing with Linux for a short while, and it tends to go in fits and bursts, but I thought I'd start taking notes, hence this blog.
My current project is to get Red Hat running usefully on a crappy old Toshiba Tecra 500CDT.
This is an ancient machine, with a Pentium CPU (not even MMX!), 32MB RAM and a 1.2GB HDD.
I am using Red Hat 7.2 at the moment, as I reckon the GUI overhead for Bluecurve in 8.0 might be a bit much - I'll wait for a beefier machine.
