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

We have a total of four 385SX20s, two with 5MB.  BL3 worked on one but not 
on the other.  Compushow won't work on that one either - says it cannot 
find one of the four required files.  They are there and are identical
the files on another computer with the identical Cirrus video (non VESA 
but displays at 256 greyscales in 320x200 res).

The computer which works with Compushow works with BL3 loop version and 
and the swap file.  It took about 1 min 40 sec to boot, 1 min of which was 
for the swap file.  The HD light kept blinking.

On the second try I was able to dial and connect.  I got an odd error 
message on the first try, perhaps a time-out.  I could telnet (but this 
account was down at the time).    Starting programs is slow but once 
online things seemed normal.  The video speed (7K/sec) is such that my 
words appear onscreen slower than my typing speed but that has nothing to 
do with linux.

This is a Tempo (made by Everex) and we have a nearly identical Zeos, and 
three batteries and a charger.  We were able to rebuild one battery with 
newer cells and it ran for an hour.  We moved the 2MB RAM from the Zeos 
(30MB HD) to the Tempo (60MB HD) and I now have lots of DOS programs on 
there (including lynx with lxpic, Arache which is ridulously slow even 
without icons, and Nettamer) as well as loop BL3.

The computer that does NOT run linux is a Midwest Micro Ultra with 5MB 
RAM.  Cheap keyboard, no Compushow, and no brightness or contrast control, 
leading me to think they cut corners somewhere.  It tests out at 10K/sec 
video and 1400 (KB/sec?) HD transfer speed and the Tempo is 7K and 1000 
but the Tempo loaded Arachne about twice as fast so maybe something is 
also broken in the Ultra. The Ultra has a 32MB hard drive which tests 
faster than the 60MB in the Tempo (usually the larger ones are faster).

Anyway, BL3 works on a 386SX20 with copro and 3MB RAM.  I don't plan to 
test without copro but I will try putting zgv on and using links.  That 
combination worked fine on the 486DX33.

I will compare speed of displaying a JPG with compushow and then with zgv. 
I suspect the limiting factor is not cpu, copro, or RAM but the LCD screen 
itself.  The older ones were quite slow to respond and even text appears 
blurry as it scrolls down the screen.



keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org
SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org