Baslinux mailing list

[baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org]

On Fri, 15 Jan 2010, baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org wrote:

> Works online with external serial modem, booted with 2-floppy BL3.5 FB.

> Dials and connects with DOS kermit on DOS boot floppy.

BL3.5 standard and BL2.1 standard 2-FD also dial and connect.

BL2.1 ext2 with my 2.4.31 kernel tries to dial but nothing happens.
I boot using loadlin on a DOS boot floppy, pointed to /dev/hda7
since hda1 is NTFS so I cannot boot from there.

I hypothesized that the problem is in using ppp_generic/ppp_async, which 
2.4 and later kernels use instead of ppp.  Puppy and Slitaz use 2.6 
kernels and 'ppp0 dies'.

So I tried to boot BL2 (DOS boot floppy, ext2 BL2, loadlin)
with 2.2.26 zimage, p1 and p2 kernels

FATAL:  kernel too old

BL2 boots with 2.2.26 p2 kernel and loadlin (from hda1 not fd) on my 
desktop.

I checked BL archives and on a PIII 700Mhz desktop BL3 booted, but BL2 
with 2.2.26 or 2.2.16 kernel would not. Apparently BL2 ext2 won't work on 
some hardware with 2.2 kernels, but the 2-floppy version with standard 
zimage 2.2.16 did boot on the laptop. In both cases with loadlin.  Why is 
the kernel too old for ext2 BL2?

BL2 and BL3 do not find USB or pcmcia devices, so no need for 2.4 kernel 
since no USB storage. (Puppy and Slitaz don't find pcmcia either, and 
maestro3 sound in Slitaz just makes a loud noise).

DOS finds the USB devices.   So do Puppy and XP.

BL2 does work with crc32.o and tulip.o and onboard NIC.  The library has 
wireless not wired ethernet.

This laptop is NOT recommended for linux if you want sound (did not check 
BL but unusable with ALSA), USB, or pcmcia.  Onboard ethernet is found 
(did not test if it connects).  Don't know (or much care) if BL3 ext2 will 
dial and connect via modem.  Maybe a 2.2 kernel won't boot to ext2 BL.

I have also not checked if the modem works with Win2K.  2001 computer 
given to me already upgraded (?) to XP (on a 3GB partition which did not 
allow SP3 to install due to only 1GB free space.  Enlarging and adding SP3 
did not fix the modem problem).

Makes a good XP piano tuner (speed helps on the low notes) or DVD player.

Sindi