headers
Larry Howard | 2 Nov 2003 17:35

Newbie Linux Questions

List:    Looking for a recommendation and procedure:
        1) Have an very old Compaq portable with a Windows 3.1 and docking
station. The unit only has a 3 1/2 floppy input. Would love to install any
flavor of Linux from floppies.
                a) Can anyone make a recommendation? What, where to get
disks etc.
        2) Have another, much later model portable, again a Compaq. Would
like to install Redhat 9.0. Have the RH 9 box set and will attempt
installation but I would like to hold off if we are going to have an
installfest soon.
      oilcanlarry@...

Larry Howard .... From the beautiful shores of the Saint Johns river in
Jacksonville (Cowford) Florida USA

_______________________________________________
Jaxlug-list mailing list
http://mailman.jaxlug.org/mailman/listinfo/jaxlug-list
Send email to jaxlug-list-admin@... for any problems.
Permalink | Reply | 9 comments |
headers
Ozz | 2 Nov 2003 19:59

Re: Newbie Linux Questions


On Sunday 02 November 2003 11:35 am, Larry Howard wrote:
>
> List:    Looking for a recommendation and procedure:
>         1) Have an very old Compaq portable with a Windows 3.1 and
> docking station. The unit only has a 3 1/2 floppy input. Would love to
> install any flavor of Linux from floppies.
>                 a) Can anyone make a recommendation? What, where to get
> disks etc.

What are the specifications of the laptop?  Processor, RAM, HDD?  Does it 
have a network connection?

Without the above information it would be hard to recommend a distro and 
installation method...

>         2) Have another, much later model portable, again a Compaq.
> Would like to install Redhat 9.0. Have the RH 9 box set and will
> attempt installation but I would like to hold off if we are going to
> have an installfest soon.

Again, the specifications would be useful.

Regards,
Ozz.
_______________________________________________
Jaxlug-list mailing list
http://mailman.jaxlug.org/mailman/listinfo/jaxlug-list
Send email to jaxlug-list-admin@... for any problems.
(Continue reading)

Permalink | Reply | 7 comments |
headers
Tim Holloway | 2 Nov 2003 21:03
Favicon

Re: Newbie Linux Questions

Docking Station. Do you have the ability to connect network, cdrom 
and/or external hard drive? It would make life easier. Otherwise you're 
probably best off cutting Slackware floppies. I started off with 
Slackware, though I had the advantage of getting my images from a CD.

the quickest thing to do is probably boot up a copy of the Tomsrtbt 
Linux floppy.

Caveat: if you're running a 386, you'll need a kernel built for a 386. 
Most modern builds are for at least 486's. Also, if you have < 16MB 
RAM, forget X windows. Though a Windows 3.1-era laptop's screen 
resolution is so low that web browsing is pretty much impossible anyway.

   Tim

Larry Howard wrote:
> List:    Looking for a recommendation and procedure:
>         1) Have an very old Compaq portable with a Windows 3.1 and docking
> station. The unit only has a 3 1/2 floppy input. Would love to install any
> flavor of Linux from floppies.
>                 a) Can anyone make a recommendation? What, where to get
> disks etc.
>         2) Have another, much later model portable, again a Compaq. Would
> like to install Redhat 9.0. Have the RH 9 box set and will attempt
> installation but I would like to hold off if we are going to have an
> installfest soon.
>       oilcanlarry@...
> 
> 
> Larry Howard .... From the beautiful shores of the Saint Johns river in
(Continue reading)

Permalink | Reply | 0 comments |
headers
Larry Howard | 3 Nov 2003 02:39

RE: Newbie Linux Questions

This portable computer is a COMPAQ AERO 4/33C
	1) It is a 33MHz 80486 SX ... As I recall the SX suffix refers to some
aspect of the CPU chip that sucks(SX). They disabled something.
	2) The system ROM Date is 06/08/94.
	3) It is a VGA video.
 	4) The humongous hard drive(C:) has a capacity of 255 MB.
	5) It has a PCMCIA slot and an external floppy that can use that slot.
	6) Does not have an ethernet port although I have an ethernet
adapter/dongle that would probably work through the PCMCIA slot.
	7) Has, in addition to the base unit, an adapter to attach an external
mouse, external serial port, and video outlet port.

Larry Howard .... From the beautiful shores of the Saint Johns river in
Jacksonville (Cowford) Florida USA

-----Original Message-----
From: jaxlug-list-admin@...
[mailto:jaxlug-list-admin@...]On Behalf Of Ozz
Sent: Sunday, November 02, 2003 2:00 PM
To: jaxlug-list@...
Subject: Re: [JaxLUG] Newbie Linux Questions

On Sunday 02 November 2003 11:35 am, Larry Howard wrote:
>
> List:    Looking for a recommendation and procedure:
>         1) Have an very old Compaq portable with a Windows 3.1 and
> docking station. The unit only has a 3 1/2 floppy input. Would love to
> install any flavor of Linux from floppies.
>                 a) Can anyone make a recommendation? What, where to get
> disks etc.
(Continue reading)

Permalink | Reply | 6 comments |
headers
Ozz | 3 Nov 2003 02:56

Re: Newbie Linux Questions


On Sunday 02 November 2003 08:39 pm, Larry Howard wrote:
>
> This portable computer is a COMPAQ AERO 4/33C
> 	1) It is a 33MHz 80486 SX ... As I recall the SX suffix refers to some
> aspect of the CPU chip that sucks(SX). They disabled something.
> 	2) The system ROM Date is 06/08/94.
> 	3) It is a VGA video.
>  	4) The humongous hard drive(C:) has a capacity of 255 MB.
> 	5) It has a PCMCIA slot and an external floppy that can use that slot.
> 	6) Does not have an ethernet port although I have an ethernet
> adapter/dongle that would probably work through the PCMCIA slot.
> 	7) Has, in addition to the base unit, an adapter to attach an external
> mouse, external serial port, and video outlet port.

The SX bit (with 486) meant the co-processor was disabled, as well as it 
being 16-bit addressing to the motherboard.

How much RAM does it have?

It sounds very similar to the one used in this study:

http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/other-formats/html_single/4mb-Laptops.html

<quote>
Compaq Contura Aero 
25MHz 486SX CPU
4mb RAM
170mb Hard Disk
1 PCMCIA Type II slot
(Continue reading)

Permalink | Reply | 0 comments |
headers
Tim Holloway | 3 Nov 2003 12:50
Favicon

Re: Newbie Linux Questions

On the SX there was no on-chip math co-processor. Systems like these 
usually came with an empty socket for the co-processor chip. A Linux 
boot log can tell you if it's been filled.

So as long as you have the requisite memory, at least you can run an X 
system - just forget web browsing, because too many sites demand 
1024x768 to be viewable anymore. 640x480 never really worked that well 
anyway on the web.

Chances are good that you can run RedHat 6 out-of-the-box on this 
machine, though you may have to pare down the packages to what fits on 
the hard drive.

   Tim

Larry Howard wrote:
> This portable computer is a COMPAQ AERO 4/33C
> 	1) It is a 33MHz 80486 SX ... As I recall the SX suffix refers to some
> aspect of the CPU chip that sucks(SX). They disabled something.
> 	2) The system ROM Date is 06/08/94.
> 	3) It is a VGA video.
>  	4) The humongous hard drive(C:) has a capacity of 255 MB.
> 	5) It has a PCMCIA slot and an external floppy that can use that slot.
> 	6) Does not have an ethernet port although I have an ethernet
> adapter/dongle that would probably work through the PCMCIA slot.
> 	7) Has, in addition to the base unit, an adapter to attach an external
> mouse, external serial port, and video outlet port.
> 
> Larry Howard .... From the beautiful shores of the Saint Johns river in
> Jacksonville (Cowford) Florida USA
(Continue reading)

Permalink | Reply | 4 comments |
headers
Read, Greg | 3 Nov 2003 15:14

OT: Console Root On OSX up to 10.2.8


-----Original Message-----
From: Jason Storm [mailto:jms@...] 
Sent: Friday, October 31, 2003 4:27 PM
To: bugtraq@...
Subject: Console Root On OSX up to 10.2.8

On all versions of OSX up to and including 10.2.7 and possibly 10.2.8,
init can be crashed using a USB keyboard by holding down CTRL-C
immediately after boot, and keeping it held down.

Init crashes two or three minutes into the boot process and drops you
into
a root shell.

At this point, you can of course modify the file system, or selectively
run components of the rc scripts to bring up full OSX functionality
without the GUI layer, which will demand a root password and lock you
out
once its spawned successfully.

The 'exploit' is dependant on a USB keyboard being used; it wont work on
a
powerbook without a USB keyboard attached, for example.

This was originally reported to Apple in 1998, and I was informed that
this was an 'internal development feature' that would be removed.

Three years later I reported this 'internal development feature' again,
and received no reply at all.
(Continue reading)

Permalink | Reply | 0 comments |
headers
Patrick Martin | 3 Nov 2003 15:53

Re: Newbie Linux Questions

640x480 isn't as bad as all that in part due to the limitations of web-tv.
I kind of miss the SX because it allowed programmers such as myself to
come up with neat/fast alternatives to real math routines.

A machine of this diminutive stature screams for debian.

But in the larger picture...

IMHO any machine less than a pentium isn't worth the electricity it
takes to run it.  Used PII's systems can be had for 50-100 bucks a pop.
Pentiums can be had even cheaper.  Why deal with the frustration of
antiquated hardware?  Certainly your time is worth more than that?

PS: At the computer show I saw a row of PIII HP Vectras probably
liquidated from some company.  They were 169 a pop.  I thought
that was a pretty good deal for such a solid machine.

- Pat

Tim Holloway wrote:

> On the SX there was no on-chip math co-processor. Systems like these 
> usually came with an empty socket for the co-processor chip. A Linux 
> boot log can tell you if it's been filled.
>
> So as long as you have the requisite memory, at least you can run an X 
> system - just forget web browsing, because too many sites demand 
> 1024x768 to be viewable anymore. 640x480 never really worked that well 
> anyway on the web.
>
(Continue reading)

Permalink | Reply | 3 comments |
headers
John Boynton | 3 Nov 2003 17:38

RedHat 7.2 and Wireless

Running RH 7.2 on a Gateway Laptop
Kernel 2.4.20-20.7
256 MB Ram
8.6 Gig 1.8 used and 6.3 Free
I have F5D6020 Belkin Wireless PCMCIA Card

I have it set up dual boot with win2k and using LILO. The card is working in
2K.
Followed the directions here http://web.belkin.com/support/kb/kb.asp?a=1512
but to no avail. Suggesions are greatly welcomed.

Thanks,
John B

_______________________________________________
Jaxlug-list mailing list
http://mailman.jaxlug.org/mailman/listinfo/jaxlug-list
Send email to jaxlug-list-admin@... for any problems.
Permalink | Reply | 2 comments |
headers
Gene Cronk | 3 Nov 2003 17:53

Re: RedHat 7.2 and Wireless


According to SeattleWireless.net, there are two revisions of this card.
~ If you have revision one, it's a Prism2 chipset.  You should be able to
do a 'modprobe orinoco_cs' and have it come up.

If you have the 2nd revision, it's an Amtel chipset.  I don't have a
whole lot of experience with this, but according to:

http://www.wireless.org.au/~jhecker/atmeldrv/atmeldrv.html

the driver has been OSS'ed and you should be able to drop it into your
kernel as a module fairly easily.

John Boynton wrote:

| Running RH 7.2 on a Gateway Laptop
| Kernel 2.4.20-20.7
| 256 MB Ram
| 8.6 Gig 1.8 used and 6.3 Free
| I have F5D6020 Belkin Wireless PCMCIA Card
|
|
| I have it set up dual boot with win2k and using LILO. The card is
working in
| 2K.
| Followed the directions here
http://web.belkin.com/support/kb/kb.asp?a=1512
| but to no avail. Suggesions are greatly welcomed.
|
|
(Continue reading)

Permalink | Reply | 1 comment |

Gmane