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  • From: baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • To: baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [BL] Compaq Armada 4120 very very slow boot from floppy
  • Date: Fri, 8 Jan 2010 03:48:29 +0000 (UTC)

Compaq LTE5280 (part of LT5000 series), 120MHz, 16MB RAM onboard plus 2x32MB = 80 MB, 3.2GB hard drive (originally 1.3GB), floppy in a multibay (which can also take battery or CD-ROM drive). Was originally sold with a base station containing two multibays and NIC (not present). Has Win95 and the remains of Win31. March 1996. We have a 486 LTE. This series must predate the Armadas. The 4120 I think is 1997.

Same speed as Compaq Armada 4120 (48MB RAM= 16 + 2x16 added) and Compaq Armada 1510 (32MB RAM - 16 + 16 added?), which both have 8-bit color. The LTE5280 has 16-bit color, a nice TFT screen, and enough RAM for Opera. (CPU speed might slow it down, not good for Firefox). Have not tried Xvesa because I cannot get the standard 2-floppy BL3 to boot. The 4120 has black strips top and bottom, and the LTE 1" black margins in text mode which someone fixed with SVGAtext mode (more lines) but I will ignore.

Another 10 min boot of the first disk of my framebuffer version of BL3.5 2-floppy. The 4120 booted faster from standard BL3.5. This one won't boot from it at all due to Machine Check Exception error (pages and pages of it), the same as Compaq Armada 1510 (120MHz) and 1573 (233MHz, with USB). My modified BL3 includes nomce in lilo (which any future BL based on 2.2.26 should have). (I did not try the 1-floppy USB syslinux BL which did not boot on the 4120, and there is no CD-ROM drive to try live CDs.)

The 4120 found pcmcia network and modem cards but would not connect until I modified pcmcia start (insmod i82365 fast_pci=1). This one has no such problems. Like the 4120, sb pro sound. Dual speakers in the screen itself for better stereo sound (aimed at you).

Apart from lack of CD-ROM drive (we have a pcmcia one) and what someone else also considered a crummy keyboard (hit it hard) this is an ideal basiclinux computer. Someone collected for use with linux three in the
series (75-200MHz). Has run Slackware 9 and 10.

Last but not least, a friend just gave us a cardbus 2-port USB (1) card.
Most laptops with cardbus already have USB and vice versa. The list on the box mentions as having cardbus Compaq LTE500(0) series and a cardbus card does indeed fit. The Armada 1510 and 1573 (which has USB already) are also on the list. I also have a cardbus USB 2.0 2-port card.

ADS Technologies USB Port TM for notebooks. Cardbus card type II.

So there are good reasons for BL3 to support both cardbus (kernel and modules) and USB. This is a 1996 computer and surely qualifies as obsolete and suitable for BL. Ditto for the Armada 1510 (which with 32MB RAM and 8-bit LCD is okay for links but not Opera).

I am online with an external modem. I disabled IR port in setup (F10) because it shared an IRQ with Com1. PCMCIA modem also worked. No need for fast_pci=1 (needed by 4120).

Only problem is the MCE error preventing booting regular BL3 FD.

Sindi Keesan




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