frugal on IBM Thinkpad 560X
Forum: Laptops
Topic: frugal on IBM Thinkpad 560X
started by: victorv
Posted by victorv on Oct. 26 2005,01:41
Hi, I have been using DSL on my desktop for weeks now and bought an IBM 560X cheap thinking DSL would be great running on it. Let me start with, it has 233 mhz PII, 96Ram, 4g HD, pcmcia cdrom, pcmcia IBM 56k modem with xjack and ex.floppy.The first problem was to get DSL on the HD due to the cdrom was not going to boot, so I pulled the HD and installed 1.5 frugal by way of 2.5 to usb of my desktop. Now I need to install Grub for a duel boot with Win98 so I'm booting up with Grub floopy but modem is not working and I have no sound.
I have read that I may need to HD install but I tried frugal first. I have been using Linux distros for a year now but still would consider my self a newbee, Please Help I don't want to use windows!
Posted by tempestuous on Oct. 26 2005,05:18
In your bios, disable "ThinkPad Simple Boot" or "Quick Boot".There is a thorough discussion of this here - < http://damnsmalllinux.org/cgi-bin....61;st=0 >
Since your Thinkpad is not ACPI-aware (it's PentiumMMX, not PentiumII), you should also be booting DSL with the boot parameter "acpi=off"
Your ISA-based Crystal/Cirrus Logic CS4237 sound chip is not automatically detected by DSL, so once booted, load its OSS sound driver manually, as such -
modprobe cs4232 io=0x530 irq=5 dma=1 dma2=0
Later, you can automate this by adding these commands to /opt/bootlocal.sh, then do a backup.
If your PC Card modem is the IBM 10L7393 or 10L7394, these are Winmodems and will not work with Linux.
You should get a a PCMCIA hardware modem, then there is no driver required at all, just a dialler program.
Posted by victorv on Oct. 26 2005,16:49
tempestuous thanks for the fast reply!winmodems don't ya hate 'am. droped in a US robotics and works great so does my sound now! Thanks,
I'm still trying to install grub by the wiki "installing grub" and when i get to "grub-install /dev/hda" it said not found or not a block device. If i use "grub-install hda" it said "'format of install_device not recognized." I'm booting with Grub floopy and if I try to install from there it said grub stage1 not found. I have looked and looked at documentation everything i try is a dead end. Can you help me with this! Thanks
victorv
Posted by victorv on Nov. 02 2005,03:45
I guess not!
Posted by victorv on Nov. 02 2005,04:06
I'm still trying to install grub by the wiki "installing grub" and when i get to "grub-install /dev/hda" it said not found or not a block device. If i use "grub-install hda" it said "'format of install_device not recognized." I'm booting with Grub floopy and if I try to install from there it said grub stage1 not found. I have looked and looked at documentation everything i try is a dead end. I'm using Grub floppy to boot every time. Also now file system not writable, can't even fire up Firefox or Opera, or move files ect.. I put "write" in boot string and still no luck. What is the deal? Problems, problems. I am losing my mind and starting to play with Puppy but like DSL better when it works! Help
Victorv
Posted by doobit on Nov. 02 2005,19:15
I would back up to a USB drive first using the backup/restore button on the control panel. Is your CDROM drive not working at all? You could boot from the floppy and run DSL from the liveCD. Then do a hard drive frugal install with grub right from the tools menu on the desktop. That would probably solve all of your problems.
Posted by victorv on Nov. 03 2005,03:54
Thanks doobit,No PCMCIA CD-ROM and no boot from usb.
I'm working on using Wingrub, maybe I can get that to work a soon as I school myself on it.???
Posted by doobit on Nov. 03 2005,15:49
I remember seeing a thread here about someone that got it working under some very difficult circumstances, so I believe it's possible. I think they used the poorman's floppy install to get it working somehow. I don't have any experience with that though. Another place I saw that someone put a functional version of Linux on a floppy allong with grub-install and got it working. I think that's similar to the poorman's install. Try the info in this thread: < http://damnsmalllinux.org/cgi-bin....3;st=20 >
Posted by victorv on Nov. 04 2005,02:50
Thanks,lots of info. in thread.I'm going to keep working on Wingrub for now even though that means using W98. I am also working on booting Puppy from inside W98. I'm waiting for my copy of MEPISlite that will most likly go on the lappy too, couse I am running SimplyMEPIS on my desktop and hay a copy of Ubuntu will be in the mailbox anyday now, Linux is great!!!
Thanks for all the help.
Victor V.