[Sussex] Laptop challenge

[Gavin Stevens]

Hi Ronan,

On Mon, 30 Jan 2006 08:44:34 +0000
Ronan Chilvers <ronan at thelittledot.com> wrote:

> Hi Gavin
> 
> On Mon, 30 Jan 2006 01:10:47 +0000
> Gavin Stevens <starshine at gavmusic.uklinux.net> wrote:
> 
> > I was given a free laptop yesterday (Sat.), which was nice.
> 
> Always handy!
> 
> > He disappeared & then returned with a Toshiba Satellite Pro 430CDS,
> 
> The great thing is with older hardware is that it tends to be very
> well supported by linux distributions, unless its so old that support
> has been taken out for some esoteric bit.  Toshiba kit is generally
> really good with big name parts (3com NICs, etc).

It does seem to be well covered by established Linux support for all of
its bits. I'm also impressed with Toshiba's own efforts at supporting
users who choose GNU/Linux.
> 
> I reckon your one will run great with debian on it, although I would
> try to squeeze in a little more RAM. Trim it down so that you use one
> of the lightweight window managers, maybe use xdm instead of gdm/kdm,
> trim out all unnecessary daemons.  I suppose you could dispense with X
> altogether and just go for a command line interface.  Perfect as a
> jotter and you get rid of the X server overhead completely.

Today I ordered a 32MB EDORAM card from Orca, which will give the 430CDS
its maximum RAM capability of 48MB.

The main problem with this 10 year old laptop is that it won't boot from
CD-ROM. This leaves a few options:
 
1: I could copy a distro onto floppies (er.. I don't think so).

2: I could try a network install, except I'm still in the early stages
of networking. So not really ready just yet.

3: I could open the machine up & try swapping the IDE cables over, so
that the CD-ROM is on primary master. But I don't know if this possible
or whether it would work.

4: I visited a site where someone had taken an even older Toshiba laptop
& got round the CD boot problem by temporarily transplanting the laptop
hard drive into an ordinary PC & doing a HD install of DamnSmallLinux,
then reinstating the drive into the laptop.

This last option is the one I shall most likely choose for the following
reasons:

1: I shall have to open the laptop up to install the extra memory. 

2: DamnSmallLinux will still autodetect hardware on every boot after a
HD install - just like when running live, so it doesn't matter if the
drive is in another machine for the installation itself.

3: After a HD install, DSL can be "Debianised" by enabling GNU-utils,
apt-get & Synaptic (this is according to the "Getting started with DSL"
manual).

So, as soon as I have the extra memory delivered & installed, I shall
give it a try & let you know.

Gavin.