# The old laptop from hell...

## aaronminute

I got a laptop from another person for free about two days ago. It is a Compaq Armada 4120 with 32M RAM, 150Mhz, and a 1G hard drive. I just want to use it for some console use, but I cannot seem to find a way to get linux on it, and the hard drive has been wiped. I really want to use either resiserfs or another journalling filesystem, but the only boot floppy I can find with this support, the Slackware install floppies, doesn't support my PCMCIA card. The only floppy that supports my old ethernet PCMCIA card is the Sisela boot floppy, but it only supports ext2. If I havent mentioned before, I cannot find a cdrom drive for this laptop, so I can't use the standard gentoo cd.   :Rolling Eyes:  As you can probably see I have a problem.

What I was wondering is does anyone know of a set of linux floppies that support both reiser and PCMCIA? I was thinking about if there was another way to transfer files, such as over the serial, but I have never heard of being able to use TCP/IP over serial, and without that I wouldnt be able to rsync. Thanks in advance.

----------

## barbar

There is a boot disk mentioned in the gentoo faq http://www.toms.net/rb/

Maybe your hardware is supported

EDIT: 

I just found out that reiserfs is not supported on this disk. 

You could split your hd, install a basic gentoo on this partition and then set up the other partition with reiserfs and install again. It will take a while for the old box to compile...

It should also be possible just to copy everything to the new partition. That should be much faster.

----------

## aaronminute

Yea, I've tried tom's disks, but they seem to have the same network problem. The device seems to be recognized, and everything is setup, but I cannot ping any other computer. If I set the ifconfig information up the same on the sisela disk, the network works fine.

----------

## PowerFactor

If you already have a linux system then why not just build a basic kernel with  the hardware and filesystem support you need and replace the kernel on the slackware boot disk.  Replacing the kernel on tomsrtbt would be more dificult since stuff is really packed on there.  Since you only have a 1G hard drive I don't think installing gentoo twice on it would be very easy.

As far as TCP/IP over serial, it does exist, SLIP.  And there is also TCP/IP over a parallel cable, PLIP.  I've actually used that one, it ain't fast but it works.  I don't know for sure if the slackware boot disk kernel supports them but you can always use the trick I mentioned above.  I know that support for both of these can be buit directly into the kernel, where you might need a module from pcmcia-cs for you ethernet card.

----------

## aaronminute

can reiserfs be resized? if so... I will just do that and start with ext2 on the siscila disk.

----------

## aaronminute

 *PowerFactor wrote:*   

> If you already have a linux system then why not just build a basic kernel with  the hardware and filesystem support you need and replace the kernel on the slackware boot disk.  Replacing the kernel on tomsrtbt would be more dificult since stuff is really packed on there.  Since you only have a 1G hard drive I don't think installing gentoo twice on it would be very easy.

 

I might do that if I can't do it the other way. I dont really feel like getting all the loopback filesystem settings configured right now on my desktop.

----------

## PowerFactor

 *aaronminute wrote:*   

> I might do that if I can't do it the other way. I dont really feel like getting all the loopback filesystem settings configured right now on my desktop.

   :Confused:  ?  

You don't neet looback support to replace the kernel on the slackware boot disk, mtools is good enough. :Wink: 

Perhaps you were thinking of the root disk, you would need loopback support to mess with that.

Reiserfs can be resized too.

----------

## aaronminute

AHHHHH! Well, the Sisila disk works fine, but there is nothing on it. It doesn't even have swapon, so that is out of the question. So the only real answer is to find what is wrong with the slackware disks... any suggestions? It detects and loads the drivers for my ethernet card, and even those for my modem, but when I actually try to ping nothing goes through. Even in the ifconfig -a screen, it says no packets have been sent through the interface. I dont really know where to start.

----------

## PowerFactor

What does "route" say.  Sounds like maybe it just isn't setting up a default route.

----------

## aaronminute

Here is the output from route and ifconfig from the laptop.

```
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:01:FA:89:CF:3A

          inet addr:90.0.0.7  Bcast:90.0.0.255  Mask:255.255.255.0

          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:100

          RX bytes:0 (0.0 iB)  TX bytes:180 (180.0 iB)

          Interrupt:5 Base address:0x300

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback

          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0

          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1

          RX packets:3 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:3 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0

          RX bytes:336 (336.0 iB)  TX bytes:336 (336.0 iB)

Kernel IP routing table

Destination     Gateway         Genmask         Flags Metric Ref    Use Iface

90.0.0.0        *               255.255.255.0   U     0      0        0 eth0

127.0.0.0       *               255.0.0.0       U     0      0        0 lo

default         90.0.0.2        0.0.0.0         UG    1      0        0 eth0

```

Here is the same from my desktop that runs perfectly.

```
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:A0:CC:E0:2D:9B

          inet addr:90.0.0.1  Bcast:90.0.0.255  Mask:255.255.255.0

          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

          RX packets:3533 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:1861 errors:223 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:222

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:100

          RX bytes:627723 (613.0 Kb)  TX bytes:114530 (111.8 Kb)

          Interrupt:11 Base address:0xa800

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback

          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0

          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1

          RX packets:616 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:616 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0

          RX bytes:40527 (39.5 Kb)  TX bytes:40527 (39.5 Kb)

Kernel IP routing table

Destination     Gateway         Genmask         Flags Metric Ref    Use Iface

90.0.0.0        *               255.255.255.0   U     0      0        0 eth0

loopback        localhost       255.0.0.0       UG    0      0        0 lo

default         dennis          0.0.0.0         UG    1      0        0 eth0

```

There are some minor differences I see, but nothing that sticks out to me. Im just wondering also, if the card, being dual, was set to 10baseT instead of 10base2, could that cause this to happen. I know the debian floppies asked me about this, and one setting worked while the other didn't, but the slack disks didnt ask me so I just assumed that is set right, as I dont know how you would change that. Thanks for the help.

----------

## PowerFactor

Well, routing looks right. I'm at a loss then.  My old pci combo cards autodetected which cable you had connected but yours sound different so you might have something there.  Unless you're getting the ip from dhcp, then the  physical link is working of course.  Kind of hard to tell from what you posted. And are you really using 10base2 or was that a typo?  

Anyway, post a little more info about your card. Maybe someone else has experience with it.

----------

## aaronminute

ok, thanks for the help. I dont know if its useing 10baset or 10base2, it autoset that. My network is actually 100T, with a 100T/10T hub. I am going to take the sisela disk and see if anything is set different, and mabey play around with a few other things.

The card simply says Compaq Ethernet on it, without even a model number. I might just go and buy a different one today that I know works.

----------

## OdinsDream

It may also be easier to buy a cheap adapter for the laptop drive. I picked one up for around $7 at a local store. With it, I can plug the drive into standard IDE cables, and mount it on a desktop system.

----------

## pYrania

would by nice to hav esome gentoo way to do it, i think of a tool like livecd-ng...

will add it to my todo list, maybe i can hack something up one day..

----------

## antik

 *pYrania wrote:*   

> would by nice to hav esome gentoo way to do it, i think of a tool like livecd-ng...
> 
> will add it to my todo list, maybe i can hack something up one day..

 

1. Try download Redhat bootnet.img and pcmcia.img from version 9.

2. Create floppy(s) and boot with command linux rescue

3. choose you language and keyboard and then insert pcmcia driver disk as instructed.

4. Configure your net card with dhcp or manually and choose FTP as you connection.

5. Enter mirrors.kernel.org for a server 204.152.189.120 and redhat/redhat/linux/9/en/os/i386/ (check it out before installation!)

6. After pressing ok it will download three images.

7. Now redhat wants to attempt to mount your supposed redhat installation- we are in rescue mode- remember. Just hit SKIP and continue the chroot as in installation guide.

----------

## pYrania

actually i meant the "creating a bootfloppy" progress.   :Wink: 

----------

## antik

 *pYrania wrote:*   

> actually i meant the "creating a bootfloppy" progress.  

 

I know but historically redhat had much better driver support than any other linux distro.

----------

## pYrania

but as a matter of fact, me and most other open source representatives hate redhat, because they are 'stealing' code.

anyway, why should someone use tools of other distributions, if gentoo could have it's own?

----------

## mpsii

With tomsrtbt, doesn't:

```
# mke2fs -j /dev/hdx
```

give you ext3?

reference: IBM Tutorial: Lightweight Linux Part 1

See the end of the tutorial or search for "mke2fs -j" and also Code Listing 6.17 in the Gentoo 1.4 rc4 Install guide for x86.

----------

## mpsii

 *pYrania wrote:*   

> but as a matter of fact, me and most other open source representatives hate redhat, because they are 'stealing' code.
> 
> anyway, why should someone use tools of other distributions, if gentoo could have it's own?

 

Uh... because we use what works without recreating the wheel? I don't want to start a flame war here... but geez, what an elitist, unproductive attitude.

BTW? Because RedHat "steals" code? From whom?

----------

## garion911

If you're willing to use ext3, just make the ext2 partition at first.. Then when you to the point where you have a kernel with ext3, you can just use tune2fs -j /dev/hdaX to "upgrade" to ext3.

As for a boot floppy with network, I ended up having to rebuild a tomrtbt disk with drivers for my laptop.. I forget the procedure, but it wasn't overly painful, if I recall...

--garion

----------

## aaronminute

We have a breakthrough! I noticed that, with the same routing information as below, the packets are being sent to the loopback interface! The only thing I cant figure out is how to remove the loopback interface entry in the routing tables. I would like to just turn it off, as it is not needed to install gentoo most likely. Or if someone can figure out why the packets are being sent to the loopback interface and how to change this, that would be even better.

EDIT: The only difference I see is that the loopback interface on my desktop is labeled as a gateway, while on the laptop it is not. How can I change this? The man page for route hasn't halped.

----------

## PowerFactor

Try

```
route del loopback
```

I always thought you had to have a routing entry for loopback but i just checked and neither of my gentoo systems have it so I guess it's not really needed.

----------

## aaronminute

If I do that it says "can't resolve loopback", and the command 'route del 127.0.0.0' or 'route del 127.0.0.1' just replies "SIOCDELRT: No such process." Why cant these things just work!   :Confused: 

A route delete default works just fine however, while route del 90.0.0.0 does not. What would be the name for an entry with an ip destination instead of a name?

----------

## aaronminute

 *aaronminute wrote:*   

> If I do that it says "can't resolve loopback", and the command 'route del 127.0.0.0' or 'route del 127.0.0.1' just replies "SIOCDELRT: No such process." Why cant these things just work!  
> 
> A route delete default works just fine however, while route del 90.0.0.0 does not. What would be the name for an entry with an ip destination instead of a name?

 

Nevermind, I found the answer googling, but removing the entry didnt help. I'm going to think about it for a while.

----------

## garion911

Try killing the loopback..

I think its something like:

```

ifconfig lo down

```

I would check man ifconfig though.

----------

## chevymoon

I'm having the same problem exactly. Any solutions stumbled upon would be much appreciated. I've tried quite a few different solutions, none seem to do the trick.

----------

## aaronminute

Yea, I've done an "ifconfig lo down" defore. It didn't show any error, but the interface was still present even without the a switch, which is supposed to mean it was still active. I can find anything that would cause this. I can bring eth0 down fine, and it dissapears, but lo seems to be permanent somehow.

----------

## chevymoon

I can bring lo down. I then tried to wget a tarball, whereupon I get the same error as before (hostname lookup failure), only this time there is a dramatic pause before the error pops up.

----------

## aaronminute

Well, all I seem to be able to conclude is that the problem with the network is specific to the card I have. With that assumption, I am going to try SLIP instead to transfer the files. If anyone has any source of decent information on how to setup SLIP please tell.

----------

## aaronminute

Problem solved! All the other boot disks were assigning the wrong irq!! Argh! well, its fixed now, and rsyncing at the moment.   :Wink: 

----------

