[Cumbria] Red Hat shoots itself in foot?

[Ken Hough]

Schwuk wrote:

> 
>Ken Hough said:
>  
>
>>I had intended to do a minimum Linux install on an old K5 box and
>>report  back. Unfortunately, the MOBO has
>>developed an intermittent fault (looks like a dry joint or cracked
>>track) so no can do at present.
>>    
>>
>
>Those sorts of faults can be annoying - I've got a perfectly good pentium
>machine that would quite happily sit and hum away in a corner, but refuses
>to boot becuase 1) a connection is broken on the keyboard connector and 2)
>the BIOS doesn't allow you to boot without a keyboard. I must get round to
>having another go at getting it running one of these days...
>  
>
That's a real chicken and egg problem. If the fault is at or near to the 
keyboard connector,
you should be OK. If it's elsewhere, then I'd give up. I write as one 
who has been using a
soldering iron for the last 45 years or so. It's not so much about 
repairing the fault, more
about finding it.

I'm cross about my duff K5 box, because the MOBO has PCIand ISA slots, 
plus a VL bus
slot. Not seen another board like it. Pity! I've got boards for all 
three types of slot.

Slill got two working 486 (DX 40 and DX2 80) boxes which have ISA and VL 
bus slots,
but no PCI. In both cases graphics and HD controllers are on the VL bus 
which is 32 bit
and clocked at 40 MHz, so these boxes are quite quick. Only problem is 
that initially
setting up I/Os and IRQs can be a pain.

Ken