Laptops :: IBM Thinkpad 760 XL



I looked thru that  XFree86 SVGA server  thread,  and I'm TOTALLY confused on all that...isn't there a simple 1 page wiki or something?

because I'm sitting here reading all 4 pages, being passed from one link to the other, seeing nothing but discussion, but no actual instruction....

I may end up going with another distro if I can't figure this out,  DSL was my last hope at getting an OS installed on this laptop though :(    why do they use vesa instead of  XFree86  anyway is what I don't understand.  XFree86 as I understand it, is the most compatible with all displays,  so why did they even switch to vesa for, strange.

I give up!
They use VESA because it is smaller and uses less RAM and also there is not enough room to put the full Xfree86 on a 50MB livecd.

If you go to another distro, make sure that it comes with XFree86 version 3.3 and not version 4.x or newer.

For example, some old Red Hat or Slackware will come with this.  You can also install it in Debian if you are patient.

But your best alternative would be to try something like Deli Linux.
I cannot afford another laptop.  I have no credit score, thats why I'm having to fight with this one,  I don't have a spare $1000 lying around.

Quote

For example, some old Red Hat or Slackware will come with this.  You can also install it in Debian if you are patient.


no I cannot install it in Debian, I cannot boot from the CD-ROM drive, remember??!! That's why I can't use the other distros out there, because they all require booting from the CD-ROM drive,   slackware and redhat won't detect the pcmcia CD-ROM I've tried that, I've been trying to get an OS on here for the last 3 years now!!  nothing works except a win95 28 disk floppy install.....so its hopeless.
Really old versions once had the ability to do a floppy  or floppy + network install.  Also, you could pull the hard drive from the laptop and then use a cheap laptop HD to IDE converter ($5-10 US) to do the installation on a friend's desktop PC.  Then put the  hard drive back into your laptop and you are in business.

I would expect that this would work fine for an older version of KNOPPIX with an older Xfree86 version.  You could even do a "poorman's install" on the other computer and then boot up from floppy on your thinkpad with full autodetection.

But then again, I think that it is still possible to get DSL up and running with such a laptop + 3rd party Xfree-SVGA driver.  I just don't have any specific help that I can give you on the subject.
its ok, thanks for the help though :)

I don't know how to pull the HD out of the laptop.  I can pop the keyboard open and see the HD sitting in there, but have no clue how to remove it, and I'm afraid to try it, for I am afraid I won't be able to get it back in there once I take it out,  I have not been trained on taking apart laptops so I have no clue how to do it.  I took a troubleshooting college course a few years ago on how to take apart desktop PC's, but it didn't cover laptops, so I'm afraid to even try it unless I am with someone who knows what there doing.

as for the "poormans install"  I did do that, it detected the pcmcia CD-ROM just fine, but I cannot have the network card and pcmcia cd-rom in the machine at the same time otherwise I get an IRQ conflict, thats how I got that "f0" error in the first place was by performing a poor mans install....

someone on the IRC channel said I could always "modprobe" it, but I don't know all the command parameters of that.
Next Page...
original here.