laptop satellite vs DSL

Forum: Laptops
Topic: laptop satellite vs DSL
started by: koper

Posted by koper on Feb. 03 2006,00:12

I try to start with DSL 2.1b, 2.0, 1.5, 1.4 and the last the 0.6 versions of DSL in my little toshiba satellite 220 cds, 133 mhz + 16 ram...

the cd is recognized but in the startup-sequence... it crashes, i see some lines that i can read "segmentation fault", and other messages... panic kernel or something like that.
the last line i read "runlevel".

Can be enough 16 of ram? i read all the posts about problems on the start and laptops, i try all the commands, etc... but i'm not lucky.

The same cd's of DSL in other computers that i have, p266 + 92 ram, amd 500 + 400 ram, runs fine... all the versions, knoppix 3.1, 3.7, 3.9...

i think that better buy a simm with 64 mb of ram, because i prefer do that, and not see win in my little dear machine. I hope that can run DSL.

the only thing that i don't understand... is how w98 can run with only 16 ram, and DSL not. Probably is because i'm not an expert.

thx all the ways

sorry for the english, congratulations for your web and forums from Spain - Catalonia.

Posted by cbagger01 on Feb. 03 2006,04:50

Try this boot code:

failsafe mem=16M

or

dsl mem=16M

or

fb800x600 mem=16M

Note that "mem" is lowercase and the "M" at the end is uppercase.

With only 16MB of RAM, you should definately create a DOS swap file or a linux swap partition in order to better use DSL.

Posted by AwPhuch on Feb. 04 2006,00:16

you should also try fb800x600 at boot time

16Megs of RAM is very light...most of the xserver will be taking that space up..If you can find more RAM I would recommend it

Brian
AwPhuch

Posted by koper on Feb. 05 2006,10:16

hello again, thx for your interest, i'm going to test it.

the 64 ram that i buy did not arrived to my house this week, and i try to put another linux, mandrake 6.1 '99... and it works fine.

Posted by Przemcio on Feb. 06 2006,10:56

Hi !
I have similar problem with Toshiba 300CDS (P166MMX 32MB RAM) .
32 Mb RAM is visible in BIOS.
DSL info : Total memory found 29548 kB.
After "Processor 0 is Pentium MMx 166MHz" system stoped and hanging. Why?
After comand "dsl mem=16M" - Total memory found 13232 kB -and to same situation.
Where is 3152 kB memory?
DSL not recognized RAM in Toshiba laptops ?

DSL Linux Kernel 2.4.31
CD is OK because DSL working on computer PIII 733MHz with 256Mb RAM.

Best regards
Przemcio

Posted by Vance on Feb. 06 2006,23:06

Przemcio,

I have a Toshiba Satellite 4000CDS and my sytem hang also after the processor check. Some where in the forum I read that the most likely cause is problems with pcmcia. So I gave as boot parameter 'dsl nopcmcia'. This resolved the hangup and DSL started.

But because I disabled pcmcia I couldn't use my networkcard. After more searching I found out that in the BIOS I had to change the 'PC Card Controler Mode' from 'Auto selected' to 'CardBus/16-bit'. After that I didn't need the 'nopcmcia' boot parameter and DSL found the networkcard. This might work for you too.

I don't know anything about your memory problem but I doubt it is the reason for DSL not starting.

Success, Vance

Posted by Przemcio on Feb. 07 2006,23:03

Hi !!
It`s working ,very good and very fast !!
But im not testing boot option "dsl nopcimcia".
I have too in BIOS option [PC Card Controler Mode] and change from [Auto selected] to [CardBus/16bit].

First my big problem with DSL solved on this Forum.
Thank you very much Vance !!

Best regards
Przemcio

Posted by Przemcio on Feb. 07 2006,23:04

Posted by koper on Feb. 10 2006,19:36

hello again,

i have the simm 64mb ram in the little laptop satellite 220 cds and DSL runs OK, thx all!

well, the problem now is the sound. i try xmms with oss, but i see no device to play one of my dear cd's mp3.
i installed alsa, and the same trouble, output plugin -> audio device i see nothing.

what can i do? thx!

p.d.: someone can tell me the way to open my BIOS?ż

thx!

Posted by koper on Feb. 10 2006,19:46

finally i open the bios with esc + f1
:P

Posted by Guest on Feb. 11 2006,06:40

Did you run alsa setup? It should be under MYDSL section if you right click on desktop.
My toshiba started to sing, after i installed alsa and runned alsa setup.

Posted by koper on Feb. 11 2006,23:19

yes, i run alsa, and nothing happens... i see no audio device in the config of the xmms, try OSS and alsa... nothing

i think the "soundcard" is not detected.

in w98 in this laptop runs perfectly... in 8 bits in mandrake 6.1 also.

dsl in this amd 2200+, in the lines of the startup, i see, before the mouse, i can read a line that says the soundcard of the amd is detected... this thing never occurs with the laptop.

in the bios, i check and see that:

wss i/o adress = 530h
sbpro i/o adress = 220h
synthesizer i/o adress = 388H
wss & sbpro & mpu401 irq level = irq5

wss (play) dma = channel 1
wss (rec.) & sbpro dma = channel 0

control i/o adress = 370h
mpu401 (midi i/f) = 330h

i have to change anything in this?

thx!

Posted by koper on Feb. 11 2006,23:51

sorry i post 2 times the same post, don't read this :P

Posted by Alkeli on Feb. 20 2006,17:50

Hi, I also have the same problems on my toshiba 480CDT. I did all the proper installs for alsadebs and I get nothing.

If I do "modprobe sb" or "sudo modprobe sb" the system hangs. When I do "cat /proc/modiles" i get nothing about my soundcard, only soundcore shows up.

HELP!

P.S I'm running DSL 2.2 with a frugal HD install.

Posted by doobit on Feb. 20 2006,18:35

The 480CDT is very easy to set up. You do not need alsa since it uses the opl2 or 3 drivers that are already compiled in the kernel. You just need to put this line in your /opt/bootlocal.sh

modprobe opl3sa2 io=0x370 mss_io=0x530 mpu_io=0x330 irq=5 dma=1 dma2=0

here is the link to the thread where this information is located:
< http://damnsmalllinux.org/cgi-bin....56;st=0 >

Posted by Alkeli on Feb. 20 2006,20:45

Ok, I tried that, at least xmms doesn't freeze now, but there's still no sound

I even used the exact line that was posted in the link you posted with modprobe(since my HW is the same) and nothing. When I hit play on XMMS, I hear a click from the speakers, and then nothing, it just sits there. I can stop it and hit play again, and just "click".

mpg123 does the same thing, only it clicks about every second when you play something. Do I have to maybe uninstall alsa? It tried to load it when the system starts up... If I do have to remove it, how do I do that on this distro?

Thanks in advance!

Posted by doobit on Feb. 20 2006,21:48

Yes, get rid of alsa to avoid any conflicts.
Also, do you have your sound volume turned up with the control on the front of the laptop? You may need to drag the volume button on xmms a little to the left as well.

Posted by Alkeli on Feb. 20 2006,23:48

Yes I have the speaker turned up. So how can I get rid of alsa? I don't see an uninstall anywhere... Never played with DSL too much...

Posted by doobit on Feb. 21 2006,00:26

I'm not sure how you installed it. There is no uninstall, however for Frugal, normally. You need to find out where the files went, and remove them, that's all. If you put the the easy thing is just to move the alsa.dsl to someplace where it doesn't get loaded at boot up.

Posted by Alkeli on Feb. 21 2006,23:47

Ok, so I got it working, sorta. I'm gonna just trash the whole distro and start over though, I can't seem to get rid of ALSA, and now my windows managers are all screwed up.

Note to self: Don't install icewm-lite!!! It screwed up my whole system

Thanks for the help doobit