Baslinux mailing list

[sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>]

On Wed, 22 Sep 2004, sindi keesan wrote:

> This is the computer where when I boot linux it sometimes won't boot and 
> tells me 'not a kernel image file'.  Recently, since we replaced the linux 
> hard drive and cpu fan, BL2 has been booting perfectly every time, but the 
> older BL3 and now the newer one will not ever boot from DR-DOS with loadlin. 
> It used to be neither of them usually booted.  Loadlin always works from 
> Win9x DOS, so I rebooted with that on floppy disk in a:.


Today I checked out this problem some more.  BL2 booted almost every time. 
It did NOT boot after I did a warm reboot when BL3 failed to boot with 
loadlin, and once when I did a cold reboot the computer played Fur Elise 
and made some noises so I turned it off and right on again, and then 
loadlin did not work for BL2. Otherwise BL2 has always worked with loadlin 
and BL3 has never (!) booted with loadlin, from DR-DOS.  I tried both a 
previous and the current version, then I tried booting BL3 with the kernel 
from BL2 - 'not a Image file'.  When I tried to boot BL2 after that 'I-O 
error while reading initrd' (same message as after Fur Elise - meaning my 
cpu is overheated or something).

Finally I stuck in the Win95-DOS boot disk without system files, which I 
can loadlin from every time, and booted into BL3.

Yesterday I was able to download links2.tgz and icewm.tgz after which I 
could not access any sites and the connection was apparently broken.  I 
typed ppp-off, then ppp-on, and it would not redial.  Before typing 
ppp-off when I typed ppp-on nothing at all happened.  When I typed ppp-off 
I was told PPP is off and a couple of other lines of text, and then when I 
typed ppp-on  Registered device ppp0  and then it hung.  I finally went to 
bed after trying to get it working by warm rebooting a few times - no
help.  I recall having assorted dialing problems with previous BL3 even 
after switching to the newer pppd for SW4.0.

More on this later.

Today I tried out BL3 with icewm and links2.  Now if I type links while in 
console mode it complains about no X server and I checked and Steven has 
apparently modified .profile to point links to links2 -g.  If I want 
nongraphical I can simply type links2.

So I typed startx and icewm works.  Two minor quibbles - ppp-on and 
ppp-off both start with an underlined p which means you need to type p 
twice to hang up.  Same for c in clock and calculator.  How about
dial ppp-on and hangup ppp-off?  (I don't know if d and h are already in 
use because I gave up dialing with BL3 and am back in BL2).

And then I decided to try the new links2 in X and found Applications, Web 
browser on the menu and links, and it took me to links-0.90.  Is there 
some way that the links2 setup could check whether icewm is installed and 
change that menu as well as .profile?  Or change the swm menu if that is 
what is installed (I did not check that, maybe it does so already). Not 
terribly important.  Anyone clever enough to install links2 can probably 
run it from rxvt.  But if the menus for swm and icewm are automatically 
modified during installation of links2 to use links2 -g as the browser, 
perhaps the alias in profile could be set to use links2 nongraphical (from 
CLI).

I discovered that you can use the mouse to make the rxvt larger.  The font 
chosen is a very nice one.  I could access links2 from the rxvt.

I tried to use links (0.90) from the menu.  I reset the options to number 
all links because I have not yet got my 84-key keyboard working in this 
BL3 (no arrow keys available to me).  The numbers did not appear.  I tried 
to access google.  Looking up host.  File not found.  I switched back to 
console mode.  Modem hangup.  I could not get it to redial no matter how 
many times I did ppp-off or warm reboot.  I finally rebooted in BL2 and it 
dials just fine.

I don't recall this modem hangup problem while telnetted, just when using 
links, and it apparently occurred at least this time while changing 
options.

In order to get BL3 to dial a second time, I always have to do a cold 
reboot.  Add this to the nuisance of having to boot from a floppy disk for 
BL3 to work on this computer, and it takes a few minutes to get my 
connection back when it is lost.

Anyway, this early version of pppd, tho better than the previous model 
used in the original BL3 (which had some serious problems), is not very 
stable and the problem is severe enough that I don't seem to be able to 
access more than one site before it loses its connection.  On other 
computers (other modems) half the time it won't dial at all, or takes 
several tries to dial.  BL2 always dials.

Steven, would you have time to compile pppd for BL3 using the same source 
code that is used for BL2 (SW7.1)?  I know it would be a good challenge 
for me to try it myself, but I am sure you could do it better and sooner.

I am using a USR 56K external modem at the moment but other modems have 
also had problems.  This might be more of a challenge than most, because I 
recall it not working too well in DOS either.  And on some laptops it has 
to have the port setting 57600 not 115200 or you get garbage, but on this 
desktop 115200 works fine for BL2 - maybe I should try BL3 with the slower 
setting?.   But BL3 also has problems dialing on slower modems.

Apart from the dialing problem, this BL3 seems to work fine with links2 
and icewm.  (An older version did not).

I look forward to trying out a more stable pppd.  And eventually Abiword.
But I should probably stick with BL2 not BL3 on this computer, since the 
former works with loadlin in DR-DOS, as well as dialing properly.
There are apparently sometimes advantages to using the later software - it 
is less buggy as well as larger.  This computer is 1997.

Sindi