list of pcmcia bootable laptops?

kolmogolov@gmail.com · *nix forums beginner Joined: 10 Dec 2005 Posts: 14

Hi,

need pointers to lists of laptops (modern or vintage)
which boots off the pcmcia slop, say from a flash card.
I am interested in creating one if such a list does not exists
(with the help of all of our readers).

I'm asking why all of the modern portable computers
I've seen are not built with this facility, including the
Fujitsu Lifebook P5020, the Toshiba Libretto U100, etc.
I'm asking why the manufacturers are not interested in
making their notebooks bootable from the PCMCIA or
CF-slot when they keep building at least one in anyway.

I'm not trying to explain for now why I'm interested in
such feature but would like to here from you about the
pros and cons.

I canned Win98/DOS(1st partition) and Debian/Gnu-Linux
(3rd partition) with the newest kernel 2.6.17 into one
512 MB CF flash card containing most of the tools I would
need to repaid a system (very often doing lilo) and to listen
to the internet live streaming (mplayer). The Win98/DOS
is there mainly for doing "fdisk /mr", "format /s", and "sys"
or running DOS utilities provided by the vendors like PS2.EXE
of some of the IBM Thinkpads. "format /s" is something that
Linux is not capable of to write a boot-record of
a DOS/Windows partition. Am I missing something?

And I decided to can it and not to update this bootable
CF card any more, so that some 20 years later (does a CF
card last so long?), I'd still have enough useful tools for
an "vintage" system. The fact is, I have a broken Linux 2.2.x
with X on a 80MB HDD that I used to WORK ON but I cannot
repair it because I'm not able to find such an old distribution
..... any idea?

I hereby started the list with only two entries:

1. IBM Thinkpad 380XD.
2. HP OmniBook 600C.

1. The 380XD is one of my favorate. With such a
thickness of ca. 6 cm, it is capable of displaying
an excellent quality of sound and loudly enough.
It boots off

a. the built-FDD (tested tomsrtbt),
b. the bult-in CDROM-drive (somewhat "picky"),
c. the PCMCIA. (tested a 512MB CF flash).

One thing that has been bothering me is that
this machine does not boot when no HDD is
inserted albeit my CF card is inserted in the
PCMCIA slot or a bootable floppy is inserted
in the FDD! Anyone has a solution?

2. The OmniBook 600C (75MHz 486DX4 8 MB)
does not have a HDD at all but boots off the
right-hand side proprietary "PCMCIA-like"
Type-3 slot. I've tested the above CF-card ok.
A main storage of 8 MB is a pain but I logged
in the laptop from console at least.

Thanks in advance for any response!
I'll maintain the list and post it regularily
if we would get enough contribution.

Google