Shutdown issues on HP Omnibook 800 CT
Forum: Laptops
Topic: Shutdown issues on HP Omnibook 800 CT
started by: mrsongs
Posted by mrsongs on May 01 2006,13:13
I'm running a straight HD install on an old HP Omnibook 800 CT Pentium 166 laptop with 48MB memory. Mostly it works great, but the thing won't power down when the system goes down. To install it I had to use a floppy and USB key plugged into a docking station (no working CD-ROMs), which I don't wish to use on the road. APM is enabled in the BIOS; I deleted the "noapm" option from the grub bootline. At shutdown, I get a "DSL Halted" notice and a flashing cursor. Hitting the power button at that point does one of two things: if the unit is plugged in, the display powers off, although hitting it again brings up the "DSL Halted" screen and startup requires a ctl-alt-delete reboot. If the unit is not plugged in, hitting the power button does absolutely nothing.
In addition to removing "noapm" from the grub bootline, I've also commented out references in fstab to a floppy and a cdrom that were connected to the docking station but are not connected to the laptop. So far no effect. Any ideas? Many thanks.
Posted by mrsongs on May 02 2006,17:59
Okay--I've discovered that despite having inserted an apm=on command in /etc/boot/grub/menu.lst, then rebooting, then installing apmd via Synaptic, then invoking "apmd start", all I get is a message stating that there is no apm support in the kernel. I'm running DSL 2.3--should I be running another version?
Posted by mrsongs on May 03 2006,14:57
Well, it seems like I'm talking to myself here, but for the benefit of anyone listening in, I solved the poweroff/apm issue with a re-install from the usb key and boot floppy, no extraneous hardware on the dock, and the proper boot arguments (apm=on, dma). I should add for the benefit of anyone else owning one of these dear old machines that I got the sound working by moving the sound card to irq 7 in the bios and adding the line "modprobe sb" to the /opt/bootlocal.sh script. I finally have a production machine I can take on the road--thanks to all you folks who put DSL together. It's a great distro. What used to be an amazing machine (under 5 lbs and built like a tank) is once again doing what it was meant to do.
Posted by lovdsl on May 03 2006,20:56
Glad you got it going.. at last..hope you enjoy dsl on the road. 
Posted by Mathes75 on May 05 2006,21:17
I'm trying to get my old 800CT back to business as well, but I have serious trouble with the built in mouse! How have you got it to work? Choosing PS2 makes the pointer jump around and clicking is impossible. With the USB choice nothing works ... Any ideas?
Posted by mrsongs on May 05 2006,22:13
I've had a similar problem--mine was hardware-based (I had re-installed Windows to determine that). The mouse responded fine to the horizontal axis, but not the vertical. I'd try pulling the HP mouse out of its socket gently (you can do this and re-insert it with no harm), remove the battery, and use that little straw that comes with a compressed air duster can to try to blow out anything that may be messing up the mechanism. Whatever you do, don't blow WD-40 in there...:D Failing that, do what I did: find a 9-pin serial mouse (or google and buy a cheap one off the web) to plug in back, at which point, when you run xsetup.sh, bypass both "USB Mouse?" and "IBM PS/2 Mouse?" and you'll see the serial mouse menu. "COM1" ought to do it at that point.
Posted by Mathes75 on May 17 2006,23:12
Hmmm. The mouse worked fine with WinME a few minutes before DSL got its chance, so I don't think it's an hardware-based problem. I will try the COM-option in xsetup to get the build in mouse to work. Or my (very) old serial mouse will get back to business as well ;-)