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[baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org]

Can you fix google email not to add 5 lines of HTML?

On Thu, 1 May 2008, baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org wrote:

> Time for a half-time report. :)
>
> Ok, I tried putting DSL on the toshiba. In the end, I had to take out the
> hard drive, install it on another computer (the IBM) and then put it back
> into the toshiba. Long winded, but (as far as installing went) it worked.
> Unfortunatly DSL didn't get far on the toshiba, in fact it didn't even get
> as far as any sort of command line prompt! It pretty much ran out of memory
> *long* before that time.

boot:  dsl 2  (type this in at prompt)
This avoids the GUI and is advised for memory under 32MB.

There are various install to hd options.  Look at 'frugal' but that may 
just use less hard and just as much or more RAM.

> So I wondered what other versions (namely slackware) would do. So I tried
> slackware 9,4 and 7. Slackware 9 did exactly what DSL did, namely didn't get
> very far in and stopped preumably because it ran out of memory. 4 was more
> successful though a lot of hardware (such as sound) wasn't supported. 7
> worked better and after modprobing with the correct IRQs and DMAs the sound
> playback worked. And although I never got a chance to try it, the 3com
> 3CCFE574BT card was detected ok (listed in dmesg and no errors). Though none
> of these detected the MA401.

Slackware 10 used up 64MB of RAM before running any programs, because it 
starts all sort of daemons.  You can edit rc* to stop this.  You can also 
unload unused modules.  The MA401 could be added to pcmcia/config.

Have you tried BL3 on the computer where the card was working?  My kernel 
2.4.31 works only read-only in loop (I don't know where I went wrong) so 
you need to install to HD.  If MA401 still won't work with BL3 there, it 
is just a software problem.

I found a Quick HOWTO : Ch13 Linux Wireless Networking which discusses 
IRQs, at http://linuxhomenetworking.com

> So I'm probably going to try to use the network card and go through a
> wireless bridge which is probably the best (and only!) possibility.

I wish I could just lend mine to experiment with.

> For a laugh :) I tried putting gnome from slackware 7 onto the liberetto.
> Definately slow (as I expected) but it certianly ran. I was expecting it to
> just run out of memory and grind to a complete and total halt. Kept on going
> though too slow to be really usable.

You have a swap partition.

> But now the question is should I stick with Slackware 7 or put BL3 and build
> it up with the needed modules? I'm still much more tempted to go with BL3 as
> it uses a *lot* less space (though I'd need to add 3CCFE574BT drivers and
> sound card drivers) but on the other hand SW7 got everything bar the MA401
> card ok. Even a PCMCIA cdrom was detected and I could mount it with *no*
> errors :) .

SW7 is more automated.  You don't sound like the type who wants to do 
things the easiest way.  BL2 is based on Slackware 7 with a glibc X (you 
can run precompiled X programs) and is also much smaller than Slackware. 
800MB will easily hold both BL3 and BL2 (and DSL if you run it without the 
GUI).  Download the drivers for BL3 and edit pcmcia/config (copy the card 
and device sections from Slackware config).  BL3 and BL2 will run in less 
memory and also boot much faster.  Busybox has newer versions of things 
than Slackware 7.

I have BL2 in 575MB including kernel source code (162MB), compiler, two 
versions of Opera (50MB), glibc and libc, lots of added programs (100MB in 
/usr/local/bin including many versions of links2 and ghostscript).  You 
don't need to compile on your laptop.  400MB should be overkill for BL2 
and use the rest for DOS (?) and BL3.  If you decide to keep just one you 
can store files in the other partition.  I have about 70MB of BL3 with 
Opera but no compiler or source code.


Why/where do you want to use wireless internet with the Libretto?
Sindi

> ljones

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