Baslinux mailing list

[Sindi Keesan <keesan AT iamjlamb.com>]

1.  Usually when Xvesa does not work due to himem.sys incompatibilies this 
is in MS-DOS, and it does work with DR-DOS or Win98 DOS.  I think you get 
an error message instead of the Xvesa screen.

I have one Gateway PII 233 Intel with Win98 DOS that will not boot Xvesa 
unless I bypass the system files.  It gives no error messages, just a 
blank screen.  I hit Ctrl-Alt-Del three times before it will reboot.

An identical-looking motherboard with PII 266 Intel works fine with Xvesa.

The 233 also will not run syschk (DOS diagnostic software) unless I first 
add D=64 to the emm386 line in config.sys (autoexec.bat?) as instructed to 
when I try to run syschk. (First it suggested D=48 which did not work).  
The 266 does not need D=64.  It was something to do with emm386 buffer 
size.

Does this give  any clues as to why Xvesa is not working here?

2.  My computer which will not load linux most of the time from DR-DOS 
(but will from Win98 DOS) will boot linux from a DamnSmallLinux bootable 
CD sent me by James, so the problem is again in DOS.  How does DOS 
interfere with running Linux?

3.  I have a new oddity.  I normally use an 84-key AT keyboard.  One 
computer would not work at all with the first one I plugged in - the plug 
appears to be too short.  With the second one it worked fine in DOS, but I 
typed in linux and nothing appeared on the screen.  I rebooted (cold) a 
few times to check this.  Finally plugged in a 101 key keyboard (with F 
keys on teh left but the rest of the keys in the wrong places) and that 
works.  Any ideas why?  This was supposed to be my one perfect computer 
for use with DOS (wordperfect) and linux.  Is there some way to fix it so 
my other keyboards will work in linux?  They work on other computers, 
including Gateway 266.  This is a 1997 PI.  

Would it be worth trying any other 84-key keyboards in the computer?
Has anyone else run into a keyboard that works in DOS but not linux?  
One of these two 84-key models (the too-short one) worked on my other 
linux computer (486) perfectly.

4.  On top of that, the Tseng pci video card with 2MB RAM, which does 80
and 100 and 132 columns in text mode in linux or DOS, does only 1M in VESA
mode (DOS and probably also Linux but I have not checked that).  Why?
2M in Tseng mode.  Linux does not have a Tseng driver that I know of.  

5.  Hal has been trying to explain how to use cdrecord in linux.  Bare.i
plus ide-scsi module and hdc=ide-scsi with loadlin.  In order to get the
CD-R drive working on the computer in question, first I need to attempt to
mount it as hdb (which it is not) and then hdc works, not before then.  
Would I need to modify hdc=ide-scsi before doing the emulation hdb mount?  
He said to mount /dev/sr0.  Do I mount /dev/hdb first anyway, or call it
something else?  We put the Cd-R drive in our fastest computer, but would
it work just as well in some other computer instead, with fewer problems?  
It is a 2X burner.  I might first try this in DOS.  The Cd-ROM drive works
fine in DOS and Windows, just has mounting problems in linux. This is the
computer that had a linux hard drive reset problem until I ran hdparm with
the right number.  Compaq.  

Apart from these minor problems, we have several new linux computers
running, one of which should maybe be put out of its misery.  It is
running a 200 MHz cpu at the speed of a 100MHz Intel (slow board, slow
WinChip 200MHz cpu, we set the board to 200 and it resets itself to 150),
can't find one of the hard drives part of the time, will not warm boot,
lost its floppy drive once, but does Xvesa okay and boots linux when it
can find that drive.