Installing on a very, very old laptop...
Forum: HD Install
Topic: Installing on a very, very old laptop...
started by: The_Pirate
Posted by The_Pirate on Mar. 07 2006,19:31
Hi -I have a ancient laptop: A ICL ErgoLite S4/33c. The Thing.
It has run a MuLinux for a while, but Mu is hopelessly outdated. I would like to have DSL running.
Thing is, Thing only has a diskette drive. I ripped the harddisk out, installed DSL on it in another machine... and it didn't work.
Problem is, Thing only has a i486 SX processor (no builtin math coprocessor) - and DSL needs a DX. Kernel_panic.
Does one of the older DSL's have a kernel that accepts a SX, please?
Posted by cbagger01 on Mar. 08 2006,17:37
Get DSL version 0.5.3.1You still need a decent amount of RAM, though.
16MB is a good starting point.
Posted by The_Pirate on Mar. 09 2006,12:22
Too bad - 12 Megs is the max for the Thing. 
With MuLinux, it runs pretty smooth, even with X.
Perhaps i should stick to Mu. But it would be nicer with a newer Linux. And i don't really want to do a hardware update.
It has certain geek value to throw the Thing on the table at meetings, when everybody else comes dragging their multi-GHz machines, limping and whimpering with a XP... (evil laughter) ...i just need to find a way to make the Thing give a faint blue glow, then it's perfect!
Posted by cbagger01 on Mar. 12 2006,05:27
You can get DSL up and running in text mode with 12MB of RAM if you specify certain cheatcodes. They all might not work for older versions of DSL, but you can try typing:| Code Sample |
| dsl 1 vga=normal atapicd noideraid nosound noapic noacpi acpi=off noscsi noapm nousb nopcmcia nofirewire noagp nomce |
at the boot prompt. For very old versions, substitute the word "dsl" with the word "knoppix"
Posted by skaos on Mar. 13 2006,15:15
You could also take a look at < http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/baslinux/. >
Posted by The_Pirate on Mar. 15 2006,06:15
Cbagger01 - thanks, but the problem is the missing math coprocessor. The kernel doesen't find it and panics....I may get the source an recompile it myself, just to try. :)
Skaos - thanks, i'll give it a try. Up to now the Thing has run a MuLinux, and it also works fine with HAL91 - they are just a bit old.
Posted by skaos on Mar. 15 2006,10:57
Another possibility:Is it possible to take out the disk and put it into another PC? If so, you can do a hard disk install, replace the kernel (and modules) with e.g. the lowmem kernel from slackware 10.x and then put it back. I haven't actually tried it, but in principle it should work.
Posted by cbagger01 on Mar. 15 2006,17:28
No math coprocessor?Give DSL version 0.5.3.1 a try. It should have builtin match coprocessor emulation.