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Volker Jahns wrote:
>
> > > Has anybody got successful installation reports of Basiclinux 
> > > on Thinkpad 560X, esp. serial and sound.
> > 
> > Is that USB serial?
> No, that is RS232 native ;-)

Does standard Linux serial not work on your thinkpad?
How old is the 560x ?
 
> There are kernel modules to drive most of the laptops interfaces 
> like sound

On my (Compaq) laptop I use the same kernel modules for 
sound that I use on my desktop:
---------------------------------------------------
insmod soundcore 
insmod sound 
insmod uart401
insmod sb io=0x220 irq=5 dma=1 dma16=0 mpu_io=0x330
---------------------------------------------------

> pci

The default BL3 kernel does pci.

> irda

There is an irda module for BL3.  There are also some 
other modules that might be related:
----------
ircomm
ircomm-tty
irlan
irport
irtty
----------
But I have never used any of those, so I can't tell you
how to use them.

> serial

The default BL3 kernel does standard serial (not USB).

> apm 

I don't see an apm module for BL3.  I'm not sure whether
a module is actually required for that.


> In the 2.6 series the modules are called tp_smapi.ko, 
> thinkpad_ec.ko resp.

Yeah, there are a lot of 2.6 kernel modules.  It's a
monster.

> I forgot about the 2.4 kernel naming. 

I don't know much about 2.4 kernels.  I run everything 
on 2.2 kernels.

> The 2.2 series kernel I have never tried on the Thinkpad.

Good luck.  A couple of years back, somebody was running
BL1 (kernel 2.0) on a Thinkpad.  IIRC his only significant
problem was the floppy driver (which we fixed).

> tpctl is userland to configure the Thinkpad's bios via 
> the smapi interface.  

Why would someone splice a module into the kernel to do 
BIOS config?  Surely a simple executable could do that.

> I can use the 2.4 series kernel w/ basiclinux, can't I?

Yes and no.  A properly compiled 2.4 kernel will work fine.
But many 2.4 kernels expect devfs and other fancy stuff
that the BL3 filesystem does not provide.  Moreover, if
you are running the loop version of BL3, the kernel must
have that capability built-in.

Cheers,
Steven