Baslinux mailing list

[qwms-avib AT dea.spamcon.org]

ljones wrote:
>
> I'm running basiclinux on a bit of an odd laptop, it is an 
> old Commodore Pentium 75 Mhz (upgraded to 133Mhz) laptop. 
> I've updated its hard drive to 4GB, the only thing that 
> remains the same is its ram, which is stuck on 8MB as I am 
> unable to find the memory for it 

I assume you are using BL1 ?

> Firstly, I'm having to use a PCMCIA based cdrom with my 
> laptop as it does not have a cdrom built in. Right now I 
> don't know how to setup a PCMCIA cdrom in linux 

In order to use PCMCIA, you will need to install the pcmcia.tgz
package from Slackware.  Then, do the following:
-------------------------
/etc/rc.d/rc.pcmcia start
-------------------------
You will probably get some sort of error message.  Write it down.

> I have seen files (such as) /etc/pcmcia but I don't know if 
> I'm even looking at the right files or what I'm supposed to do.

The PCMCIA device definitions are in /etc/pcmcia/config.  If you
are lucky, your CDrom device will already be in the database
(and will be automatically configured when you execute the above
start command).  If not, the device parameters will probably be
shown in the error message (you will need to edit the database
and add them).

> Secondly the same laptop has onboard sound, the sound chip 
> is a Vibra 16. 

Assuming you are using BL1, get the sound.o module from 
Slackware 3.5 and put it in the /lib/modules/2.0.34/misc
directory.  Then do the following:
-------------------------
insmod sound trace_init=1
-------------------------

> Finally....I'd like to say X Windows installed fine and I got 
> a 256 colour video driver to work with it too :) ; icewm works 
> fine! But there  are a few other programs I'd like to install 
> but can't work out how. I'd like to put on a small web browser, 

For BL1, Netscape 3.04 is the best choice for a graphical browser.  
However, it is very slow with 8mb RAM.  The default links browser
(linked to zgv) will probably provide the best browsing experience.

> mp3 player and some sort of simple text editor or WP 

It might be fun to try AbiWord.  I haven't tried it with 8mb RAM.
Or, if that is too slow, you could try installing the joe editor
(/slakware/ap1/joe.tgz).  Personally, I prefer pico.

> and a "file manager" type program.

Several people have installed mc (and seem to like it).  
It's a CLI utility.  For a GUI file manager, you could 
try xfm (slakware/xap1/xfm).

> The programs I had in mind (all X) are "dillo" for web 
> browsing - though it dosen't do Java or Javascript it is 
> newer than Netscape 3 and more likely (and less resource 
> intensive?) than Netscape. 

Even though Netscape 3 is older, it does *much* more than
dillo.  dillo might have the edge when it comes to speed,
but I don't expect the difference to be huge. 

> For text editiing, I'd like to use Ted - it is quite a 
> large program but it seems that its requirements might 
> not be too high given its user interface. 

I used Ted as my primary wordprocessor for several weeks
(while I was finding a way to compile AbiWord successfully).
IMHO AbiWord is *far* superior.  AbiWord is available at 
the BasicLinux download site.  It has no library dependencies 
(so it works on either BL1 or BL2).

> The problem is that all these different programs although 
> simple all need different libraries, I tried to copy the 
> files from my mandrake 9.1  install into basiclinux noting 
> down where they came from (/lib) or (/usr/lib) 

After installling a new library, you need to execute "ldconfig"
to link it into the system.

> noting down the names of the libraries that were needed but 
> it didn't work :( .

Before running a new binary, check whether it has all the
libraries it needs:
------------------
ldd name_of_binary
------------------
If it shows a missing library, that means either (1) the library 
is not present, or (2) the library is present but not linked.

Cheers,
Steven