Baslinux mailing list

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

On Sat, 25 Jun 2005, David Moberg wrote:

> sindi keesan wrote:
>
> > Will you wait for 1.0 uClibc to compile against uClibc again?
>
> For MPlayer? I will wait until it will actually build against
> uClibc without problems. The libc size difference isn't much,
> because MPlayer is so large in itself.
>
> > My partner would still like the most recent dosemu for BL2 or BL3.
>
> OK. I will do this sometime. 1.32, right?

That is the latest one that I found, and they claim to have fixed the 
missing A S ^ i and , .

> > How will a CD-based linux let us flash the BIOS with a 2MB .exe file?
>
> I don't think it will. It is more useful for using MPlayer.

Only if the machine will boot reliably, and for that I may need to flash 
the BIOS (or pay $140 for a new battery, forget it).


> > Are there linux-based BIOS upgrade programs for Award BIOS (2A or
> > earlier)?  It has to be later than about April 2000.
>
> I think the BIOS update programs are always for a Microsoft operating
> system.

Maybe DOS will work here.

> > _WE_ are missing something - a hard drive and an enclosure for it.
> > The problem is how to run a 2MB .exe file with no hard drive, from
> > DOS.  I was hoping we could set up a RAM disk in DOS and transfer
> > the file to it and run it from RAMdisk (assuming we get the correct
> > update program)
>
> You could do that. Parallel port? Or burn the update program to a
> CD, along with a bootable DOS that reads CDs?

First I have to find an appropriate update program.  RAMdisk sounds easier 
to me.

> > > The pinout is likely completely different. Laptops are proprietary
> > > to the extreme. If you can plug it in, it should be IDE.
> >
> > If you can plug in the floppy drive or the DVD drive into the same
> > slot, I doubt it is IDE, so there goes that idea.
>
> Why not? Usually, the floppy is not IDE, but all of the drives are.
> You can sometimes plug batteries into the same slot.
The batteries go into a different slot.

The Gateway laptop appears to use some sort of SCSI connection for 
connecting the floppy drive and CD-ROM drive.  One of them is internal and 
the other external and you can switch the two.  Then I have a Toshiba with 
an internal CD-ROM drive and external floppy drive.  My brother's laptop 
takes either floppy or CD-ROM drive, internally only, like this one, so I 
will ask if he knows whether the connector is IDE.

> > Other people have used CD-ROM linux because they did not have a
> > floppy drive - has anyone used it instead of a hard drive?
>
> Yes.
>
> > I read that you can buy a new ROM and burn the BIOS to that.  Could
> > we move the BIOS ROM to some other computer and upgrade it from
> > hard drive there?  Or would it have to be the same motherboard to
> > run that program?
>
> It probably won't even fit in another computer. If it does, it
> might not even work. But you can try it. Make sure that it plugs
> in correctly, or the chip (and maybe other things) will fry.

I will first try the RAMdisk approach and hope the upgrade program can run 
in DOS.  This is assuming we can get it to boot again one more time.


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