User Feedback :: DSL on the IBM Thinkpad 560E



Legacy laptops are inexpensive and still quite functional machines. A couple of years ago I purchased a used IBM Thinkpad 560e. I installed Windows95 and used it with a single hard disk partition until recently when I concluded it was no longer advisable to surf the web using that operating system. This document explains one way to set up Damn Small Linux as an alternate operating system on the Thinkpad 560e.

The first task in setting up the machine is to prepare and configure space on the hard drive for Linux. First I defragmented the hard drive using Windows95; then I removed the Windows swap file. Following that, I booted to DOS from a floppy that also included the files necessary to run fips.exe (the First nondestructive Interactive Partition Splitting program). Fips is freeware that is easily found on the web. I used Fips to  create three new partitions for Linux. One of them is a 60 meg partition for Damn Small Linux itself; the second is about 100 meg, to be used as a Linux swap drive; and the third has about 250 megs of free space for future Linux files and software. I formatted all three new drives as DOS vfat partitions. (Later when I had Linux running, I used it to reformat the third drive as a Linux ext2 file system.) Finally I created three subdirectories on the 60 meg DSL partition. I named one of them KNOPPIX, the second LINUX, and the third MYDSL. None of this is, in fact, absolutely necessary since Damn Small Linux will run quite happily from three new subdirectories (named as suggested above) on your main DOS partition. I am assuming - and I believe - that there is some performance gain in proceeding as I have suggested above. Unless one has abundant RAM, however, it is very desirable to have a swap partition of at least 60 megs. My Thinkpad has 80 megs of RAM, which is enough to run DSL Linux briskly; even 48 megs is sufficient with a swap drive.

The Thinkpad 560e does not have an internal cd-rom drive. Not having access to a pcmcia cd-rom drive, I decided to install DSL linux so that it boots from my 60 meg partition using loadlin.exe. Loadlin is an alternative to the standard Lilo boot launcher and is freely available on the web.

Using another laptop with an internal cd-rom drive I transferred the DSL software onto a pcmcia compact flash adaptor.  Then I booted my Thinkpad 560e into Windows95 and plugged in the compact flash adaptor. Using drag-and-drop, I copied the 48 meg 'knoppix' file into the KNOPPIX folder that I had prepared  for it. Then I copied all of the other files on the CD into the LINUX subdirectory of my DSL drive. The LINUX subdirectory should now include the following files:

  boot.cat
  boot.msg
  f2
  f3
  german.kbd
  isolinux.bin
  isolinux.cfg
  linux24
  loadlin.exe
  logo.16
  minirt24.gz

Now, by putting one more file into the LINUX folder, I was able to boot up Damn Small Linux from DOS. This file, which I named lin.bat, contains the following text:

  loadlin linux24 initrd=minirt24.gz lang=us vga=text dma acpi=off pnpbios=off noapic nousb noscsi nodhcp pci=irqmask=0x0e98

Before you boot DSL for the first time on your Thinkpad 560e, I recommend that you download a copy of XF86_SVGA and the associated configuration file XF86Config. The Thinkpad 560e cannot run X (Linux's windows GUI) with the typical installation of DSL from CD-ROM. Without XF86_SVGA you are limited to running Linux in text format only. A Google search for knoppix_svga.tgz should guide you to a location where you can download the file.

To start Linux for the first time, boot to DOS and switch to the drive and directory of your LINUX folder. Type in 'lin' (without the quotes) and hit return. You should see the various boot messages on your screen and end up in Linux text mode after about a minute. If you find yourself in the X-windows setup routine, just work your way through it. If it fails or seems to lock up your computer, push ctrl-alt-F1 to escape to text mode.

Now you need to make several small alterations in the X-windows start-up files. First you need access to the knoppix_svga.tgz file that you saved earlier. If you saved it on your Windows C-drive, type in 'mount -t auto /dev/hda1 /mnt/hda1' (without quotes) and hit return. (Hda2 would be your D-drive; hda3 the E-drive, etc.) Now type 'mc' (without quotes) and hit return. This starts a useful and convenient file management program that works much like a Windows file management program. Note that the program starts with dual columns and that the Tab key allows you to switch from one column to the other. Navigate through the directories until you get your knoppix_svga.tgz file in one column and you have the /home/dsl directory in the other. Copy knoppix_svga.tgz into the /home/dsl directory.  Now quit 'mc' and from the command prompt in the /home/dsl directory type:

  gunzip -c knoppix_svga.tgz | tar xvf -

This will unpack the file, giving you access to XF86-SVGA and XF86Config.

Use 'nano XF86Config' to edit the configuration to eliminate screen flicker. Find the following line:

  # 800x600 @ 60 Hz, 37.8 kHz hsync

The next line should be changed to read:

  Modeline "800x600"     40.1     800  840  968 1056   600  601  605  628 +hsync +vsync

Finally, you need to edit the .xserverrc and .xinitrc files that are
located in your /home/dsl directory. By typing 'nano .xserverrc'
(without quotes), you will open the .xserverrc file in a tiny text
editor.  Edit the file until it has the following text:

  # exec /usr/bin/X11/Xvesa -2button -mouse /dev/psaux -screen
  800x600x16 -shadow$
  exec /home/dsl/XF86_SVGA -bpp 16 -nolisten tcp 6> /dev/null
  bash .xinitrc

Now, open .xinitrc ('nano .xinitrc'). Add the following lines to the beginning of the file:

  xmodmap -e "keycode 22 = BackSpace"
  xmodmap -e "keycode 107 = Delete"

Be sure to save both files after you have edited them. Now shutdown and reboot your computer into Damn Small Linux again. You should come up in a terminal shell showing the prompt dsl@box. If that is not the case, navigate through the X-windows setup utility again until you can reach the prompt by pushing crtl-alt-F1. From the prompt type in 'sudo startx' (without the quotes) and hit return. This should get Damn Small Linux up and running in its graphical interface. The only problem with it that you may have is in using mydsl. Since you are running X-windows as root, you cannot load mydsl extentions. To do so you have to exit from X-windows and then load your mydsl extentions directly from the dsl@box prompt by using the mydsl-load utility. Type in 'mydsl-load' and then the full directory address of the .dsl program that you wish to use. Then get back into X-windows by typing 'sudo startx' again.

If you wish to enable sound, you will need to click on ATerminal and type in the following command:

modprobe sb io=0x220 irq=5 dma=1

If you turn the sound up too high, though, you will get a piercing squeal as the sound from the speakers backfeeds through the microphone. The easiest way to get around this is to use headphones, which you will probably wish to do anyway to take advantage of the improved sound quality they provide.

Damn Small Linux is a fine distribution that, with a little tweaking, gives the IBM Thinkpad 560e a perfectly usable, modern operative system.

original here.