Chronicles of purchasing a used Everex Expressnote 586 and getting the idea of installing Linux as its new OS.
Having no manual
I first scoured the net.
Everex home
base at http://www.everex.com
lists
an Expressnote 1400 and several useful drivers reside here.
Other than these drivers I have found no other information on this model.
I have discovered several things though.
It seems that
these notepads were manufactured by FICA http://www.fica.com.
Fica, it appears,
manufactured quite a range of laptops which were repackaged and sold under
other names.
These models, though a little later than the Expressnote 586 are apparently rebadged FICA notepads:
LEO DESIGNote
3500 Series
Exerex ExpressNote
Series
NEC PC9800 Series
TI Extensa 500
Series
http://www.ct.monash.edu.au/~pstanski/designote/index.html
has more notes on this.
I had searched Altavista, Dejanews, the Everex web site, even the local Everex service contact could not tell me anything about the machine. My hope was to install Linux on this laptop. The Linux web site did not list the computer either.
The machine was
actually running Windows 95 quite comfortably though it did crash a few
times. I put this toward the PHdisk partition problem. The system uses
PhoenixMISER (tm) to store an image of the work that is being done on the
machine.
When the power
management kicks in a snapshot is taken and saved to a partition on the
hard drive. (can also be RAM, or RAM is used if the partition is faulty
or to small) The partition has to be larger than the amount of RAM in the
machine. A problem usually occurs when RAM is upgraded. The partition becomes
useless and the image is held in RAM!!!
Becoming somewhat disillusioned with the virtual non-existence of information about the Expressnote 586 there was only one thing left to do:
C:\>FORMAT C:
Arrrrhhhh.....that felt better.
I then created
the PHdisk partition using the phdisk utility I downloaded from everex
site.
I have no idea
how this partition will work if at all with Linux.
Machine confirmed I had 540 meg free
Now...I was gonna try and install linux. (Note: I have never installed linux before)
The machine has
no CD-ROM so the slackware
distribution
as recommended by my good man Pete.
Slackware 3.9
is what I downloaded:
It is essential
to download the files in binary mode not ASCII!!
Also don't use
a browser but an FTP program...cuteFTP etc
Files I downloaded
(using another Windows machine:)
bootdisk/ bareapm.i
file to use as a bootdisk
rootdsk/ color.gz
to use as the rootdisk (setup prog)
To create the 2 disks I used the RAWRITE.EXE file as follows:
C:\>RAWRITE bareipm.i
a:
C:\>RAWRITE
color.gz a:
I then also downloaded the A set of disk files and the N set (for network support)
Boot the machine using bareapc.i boot disk OK
Inserted color.gz rootdisk when prompted. OK
At the prompt
I typed in cfdisk
and then created
a partition of 48 meg (double my system RAM and I am guessing here)
For type I chose
82 (Linux swap) This was hda1
I then created
another partition of the remaining space for linux (I wasn't going to bother
with seperate partitions for /home etc.
Format type
was 83 (Linux) This was hda2
cfdisk also showed I has an unknown 25.6 meg partition. This is the everex PHdisk partition. This was hda4
I then rebooted
the system reboot (need to insert the linux boot disk (bareapm.i)
first.)
Then inserted
the root disk and typed setup at the prompt.
The setup program
allows you to "mount" the partitions. Firts mount the swap partition and
then the target partition.
I formatted
the partitions again allowing the program to slow check for bad blocks.
For my hd2a partition I formatted at 1 inode per 2048 bytes. (Guessing
again)
Unfortunately the program found errors......
This time I ran fast format with the default 4096 bytes. (Shutting my eyes away from danger)
Then I started
feeding it the A disk series. (caution...a bad disk means start again!!!)
I actually used
the same disk and moved it back and forth.
A brilliant thing
happened. After installing all of the A series disks and a couple of the
n series
disks I had
a break for dinner. I got back in and the Everex had completly shutdown!
I did have
a few power
management settings enabled in the BIOS but I had no idea that it it would
shut down completly! I thought that the last hour and some of adding floppy
disks was all wasted and that I wold have to start from scratch. I power
up the machine and, low and behold, the PhoenixMISER (tm) mangager pops
up and loads all of the previous session into RAM and I continue with the
install!
Though the following disk n3 i think may have errored?
Caution disk
n11 is over sized and can't be used as a floppy installation.
You have to
copy the install.end file of it onto the previous disk!!!!
(You don't get
to know this until after you have installed the previous disk! Doh)
After the last
disk the configuration process begins; all quite self explanatory.
I chose to skip
the LILO installation until later (liloconfig command)
Reboot the system
Missing operating
system.
Chucked in the
new lilo boot disk I had created in the config stage.
It takes forever
to boot. (as the install prog said this option would)
But it does boot
and Linux is running on the laptop.
No X windows,
no modem, no network yet.....that will be for tomorrow.
To config lilo to boot Linux from the harddrive i did this:
liloconfig
Chose advanced
config
begin (no
extra commands)
root
boot to the
first OS no wait.
/dev/hda2
(My
big linux root partition which I had made bootable when I created it)
Didn't work....lilo just hangs and no lilo.conf file created.
To get lilo to
work I had to run QuickInst
This is in /usr/doc/lilo
and it worked. I am booting from the larger hda2 and not MBR
Next night
I noticed today when I issued the command top that the swap partition I had created wasn't being used.The fix for this was to edit the fstab file that is in etc
I added the line
/dev/hda1 swap swap defaults
to the beginning
of the file and this fixed it.
Also figured that I needed to mount
the floppy drive. I tried mount floppy but this failed.
Works like this:
Log in as root
mkdir /floppy
then
vi /etc/fstab
add the line: /dev/fd0
/floppy vfat user,noauto,rw 0 0
I still needed
to get more resources into the linux setup i.e. Perl, netscape, ome sound
utilities and perhaps Xwindows for kicks.
The network
setup (I had borrowed a network PCMCIA card) on second thoughts looked
to difficult for the minute (I had some Perl work and a few other things
I wanted to test in the box) so I figured I would connect a modem to the
serial port and download the files and all the help I needed onto the machine
via www.
To
get the modem working I ran the pppsetup program this time telling
it that my modem was on com1
I struggled
with both Minicom and pppsetup but managed to get minicom to dial
in
to my ISP....this
actually took a while to get happening ...er um...only bout ten hours!
no kidding.
With my server:
resolv.conf looks like this:
search labyrinth.net.au
nameserver
203.9.148.2
/etc/ppp/options looks like this:
# General configuration options for PPPD:
lock
defaultroute
noipdefault
modem
/dev/ttyS0
57600
crtscts
debug
noauth
passive
asyncmap 0
rc.inet1 basically looks like this:
#! /bin/sh
#
# rc.inet1
This shell script boots up the base INET system.
#
# Version:
@(#)/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 1.01 05/27/93
#
HOSTNAME=`cat /etc/HOSTNAME`
# Attach the loopback device.
/sbin/ifconfig lo 127.0.0.1
/sbin/route add 127.0.0.1
To dial in (this might be different for other servers)
First type in minicom -s to set it up or configure
And then later just minicom
After Modem string is set, hit enter
Then type atdt9666 6666 (isp dial up phone number)
Log in manually
then type:
ppp neg (should assign an IP address)
Ctrl-A Q to quit minicom without resetting
Minicom should close and then at the prompt:
pppd
If it works you
will see an IP address appear and then you can telnet/ftp/lynx etc!!!
With the modem connected I downloaded
many of the remaining files
that do not fit on the floppy disk
set including the x windows ones.
These are not all required
I saved these in similar directories
as the ftp server. The easiest way to
install packages once they are on
the harddrive is to type pkgtool within
the directory the packages are in
and then install the ones you want.
You can uninstall packages just as
simply using the pkgtool
(warning: I've never done this
before; havent finished as I write!)
After unpackaging the whole bundle
x1
bundle I typed in xf86config
then quickly exited to check video
hardware with SuperProbe
Superprobe reported:
First video: Super-VGA
Chipset: Chips and Tech F65545 (Port
Probed)
Memory: 1024 Kbytes
RAMDAC: Generic 8-bit pseudo-color
DAC
(with 6-bit wide lookup tables (or in 6 bit mode))
I then typed in xf86config again.
On my first attempt I selected: (please note I am making non-educated guesses) (Added later: The settings for VGA below I believe are incorrect see further below...try starting with VGA 640 x 480 x 64k)
PS/2 mouse
emulate 3 buttons: yes
dev/mouse
XKB yes
Standard keyboard (probably wrong)
For monitor I played safe and went
for option 2 Super VGA 800X600 @ 56 Hz
2 for vertical to be consistent (dohp)
For server type, I, wishfully thinking,
chose option 3 XF86_SVGA
default symbolic link
oops....slipped up and typed in 1024
instead of option 3
1024 memory
default
default
default
yes
modes ok 5
Yep yep
Then startx
Can't load library 'libXmu.so.6'
Tip off I read and remembered was to add the path to the /etc/ld.so.conf file
I added the line /usr/X11R6/lib/libXmu.so.6
After rebooting the system I tried typing in
startx
and it worked! (don't
ask me how well; haven't installed any apps yet the desktop resolution
does look quite pleasing)
The least I can do
is:
Other stuff I did on next session:
make command was not working so I installed
several modules from the D1 disk set
The make programs particularly but
also the egcs C compiler and libc etc
XFree86 reconfiguration 1st attempt:
Video resolution did not allow Navigator to fit on the screen.
My friends who sold me the laptop managed to find the manual!!!! and it is a good manual!
Suggests the machine is capable of up to 40 meg (which is better than the 24 meg I was told it was maxed out to)I also hadn't noticed the line in/line out on the front. I know the sound won't be brilliant but it might come in handy for listening to the races on.
I digress....manual says the LCD default is VGA 640 x 480 x 64k and higher settings are meant to be accessed through Windows virtual desktop.
I had to reconfigure coz I had went for option 2 Super VGA 800X600 @ 56 Hz
Note...I haven't got any further with
configuring X as yet....
_-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Summer 2000
Pulled out the laptop again.
Using pkgtool I uninstalled all X packages.
I then re-installed only what appeared
necessary to run XF86 and
the SVGA.tgz package.
I then ran XF86Setup choosing the 65545 video card.
X seems to work OK other than Netscape
filling up too much of the screen.
I drag the thing down and then maximise
it and it seems to fit OK.
I havent installed any other programs
yet.
Tonight I am installing a Xircom
56K PCMCIA modem.
You can read the log
I kept as I plundered through this.