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Jim
*nix forums Guru
Joined: 20 Feb 2005
Posts: 609
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 Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2005 5:25 am Post subject:
Dell Latitude L400
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I picked up this pizza-sized subnote a couple of days ago, just because
I love my subnotes. I've one tiny problem with it.
It has no OS.
Has anyone any experience in installing Linux to a notebook with no
removable storage whatsoever? Failing that, any experienced
recommendation for a distro which I can lob on the HD via another
machine? FWIW, I've had a go with another drive with an existing
Knoppix/Debian installation, which puked when it came to starting X.
I'm thinking Zipslack to get me started, but not having used that for a
few years, I'm not sure what the usb support would be like so I'd be
able to juice it up a bit with say, SuSE or whatever.
Specs:
700MHz PIIIm
256MB RAM
10GB HD
Texas Instruments TI1410 CardBus controller
Crystal CS4281 + CS4297A (AC97 CODEC) sound controller
ATI Mobility M AGP 4MB graphics
Lucent 1646 V90 modem (not too bothered about this)
3Com 3C920 10/100-BASETX PCI bus master Ethernet
Synaptics touchpad
1x chipset USB port
1x chipset IRDA port
Any advice would be greatly appreciated! :)
--
Cheers, http://www.dotware.co.uk
Jim http://www.dotware-entertainment.co.uk
Maybe the Internet has the answers I need. It certainly answered my
questions about wang enhancement. |
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Alan Gauton
*nix forums beginner
Joined: 21 Jul 2005
Posts: 11
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| Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2005 6:51 am Post subject:
Re: Dell Latitude L400
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In article <t5fOe.35$Vt4.17@newsfe1-gui.ntli.net>, james@the-computer-
shop.co.uk says...
| Quote: | I picked up this pizza-sized subnote a couple of days ago, just because
I love my subnotes. I've one tiny problem with it.
It has no OS.
Has anyone any experience in installing Linux to a notebook with no
removable storage whatsoever? Failing that, any experienced
recommendation for a distro which I can lob on the HD via another
machine? FWIW, I've had a go with another drive with an existing
Knoppix/Debian installation, which puked when it came to starting X.
I'm thinking Zipslack to get me started, but not having used that for a
few years, I'm not sure what the usb support would be like so I'd be
able to juice it up a bit with say, SuSE or whatever.
Specs:
700MHz PIIIm
256MB RAM
10GB HD
Texas Instruments TI1410 CardBus controller
Crystal CS4281 + CS4297A (AC97 CODEC) sound controller
ATI Mobility M AGP 4MB graphics
Lucent 1646 V90 modem (not too bothered about this)
3Com 3C920 10/100-BASETX PCI bus master Ethernet
Synaptics touchpad
1x chipset USB port
1x chipset IRDA port
|
Certainly SUSE 9.3 didn't work on mine, and 9.1 Personal gave problems
with the screen - complained about monitor not returning x and y values.
Strangely the Live version seemed to work ok.
I've got Ubuntu on mine at the moment, and it seems relatively happy at
the moment. I'm just trying to get an el-cheapo wireless card to work in
ad-hoc mode at the moment.
FWIW, are you sure about the IRDA port? I can't see one on my L400...
--
AG
Remove removes from address to remove anti-spam measures.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Alan Gauton E-Mail agauton @ postmaster.co.uk
Never for me the lowered banner, never the last endeavour!
(Damon Hill - 16th June 1999) |
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Jim
*nix forums Guru
Joined: 20 Feb 2005
Posts: 609
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| Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2005 7:20 pm Post subject:
Re: Dell Latitude L400
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Alan Gauton wrote:
| Quote: | In article <t5fOe.35$Vt4.17@newsfe1-gui.ntli.net>, james@the-computer-
shop.co.uk says...
I picked up this pizza-sized subnote a couple of days ago, just because
I love my subnotes. I've one tiny problem with it.
It has no OS.
Has anyone any experience in installing Linux to a notebook with no
removable storage whatsoever? Failing that, any experienced
recommendation for a distro which I can lob on the HD via another
machine? FWIW, I've had a go with another drive with an existing
Knoppix/Debian installation, which puked when it came to starting X.
I'm thinking Zipslack to get me started, but not having used that for a
few years, I'm not sure what the usb support would be like so I'd be
able to juice it up a bit with say, SuSE or whatever.
Specs:
700MHz PIIIm
256MB RAM
10GB HD
Texas Instruments TI1410 CardBus controller
Crystal CS4281 + CS4297A (AC97 CODEC) sound controller
ATI Mobility M AGP 4MB graphics
Lucent 1646 V90 modem (not too bothered about this)
3Com 3C920 10/100-BASETX PCI bus master Ethernet
Synaptics touchpad
1x chipset USB port
1x chipset IRDA port
Certainly SUSE 9.3 didn't work on mine, and 9.1 Personal gave problems
with the screen - complained about monitor not returning x and y values.
Strangely the Live version seemed to work ok.
|
noted... no suse
| Quote: | I've got Ubuntu on mine at the moment, and it seems relatively happy at
the moment. I'm just trying to get an el-cheapo wireless card to work in
ad-hoc mode at the moment.
|
Yeap, I was thinking if anything would work, it'd be a Debian.
| Quote: |
FWIW, are you sure about the IRDA port? I can't see one on my L400...
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must be on the docking station... just had a look round on this 'un, no
IR port :\
--
Cheers, http://www.dotware.co.uk
Jim http://www.dotware-entertainment.co.uk
Maybe the Internet has the answers I need. It certainly answered my
questions about wang enhancement. |
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James Knott
*nix forums Guru
Joined: 07 Mar 2005
Posts: 1233
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| Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2005 11:21 pm Post subject:
Re: Dell Latitude L400
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Jim wrote:
| Quote: | I've got Ubuntu on mine at the moment, and it seems relatively happy at
the moment. I'm just trying to get an el-cheapo wireless card to work in
ad-hoc mode at the moment.
Yeap, I was thinking if anything would work, it'd be a Debian.
|
You just have to give it a bit of latitude. ;-)
Actually, a friend of mine just gave up on Debian and switched to SuSE on a
Toshiba notebook, because he couldn't get the NIC to work, even after
installing drivers from the manufacturer's web site.
On the other hand, SuSE just worked fine on install. |
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Alan Gauton
*nix forums beginner
Joined: 21 Jul 2005
Posts: 11
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| Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2005 6:36 am Post subject:
Re: Dell Latitude L400
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In article <dZSdnQgIOO2l55feRVn-tw@rogers.com>, james.knott@rogers.com
says...
| Quote: | Jim wrote:
I've got Ubuntu on mine at the moment, and it seems relatively happy at
the moment. I'm just trying to get an el-cheapo wireless card to work in
ad-hoc mode at the moment.
Yeap, I was thinking if anything would work, it'd be a Debian.
You just have to give it a bit of latitude. ;-)
Actually, a friend of mine just gave up on Debian and switched to SuSE on a
Toshiba notebook, because he couldn't get the NIC to work, even after
installing drivers from the manufacturer's web site.
On the other hand, SuSE just worked fine on install.
|
Yeah, I know a lot of the purists don't like SuSE but I do, it's just a
shame it didn't work on my laptop. I use a copy of 9.1 as a development
machine at work, and it's been running fine for months.
--
AG
Remove removes from address to remove anti-spam measures.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Alan Gauton E-Mail agauton @ postmaster.co.uk
Never for me the lowered banner, never the last endeavour!
(Damon Hill - 16th June 1999) |
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Thomas Jespersen
*nix forums beginner
Joined: 23 Aug 2005
Posts: 16
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| Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2005 8:49 am Post subject:
Re: Dell Latitude L400
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On Mon, 22 Aug 2005 07:25:13 +0000, Jim wrote:
| Quote: | Has anyone any experience in installing Linux to a notebook with no
removable storage whatsoever? Failing that, any experienced
|
Yes,
1. If you can set BIOS to boot from an USB device get a USB cdrom drive
2. Get an adapter for a 2.5" Laptop harddrive and mount it the drive in a
desktop system, install linux, and put the harddrive back in the notebook.
I have tried method #2 on my aging Thinkpad and it worked well, #1 is
easier but a bit more expensive for a USB CDROM. |
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Thomas Jespersen
*nix forums beginner
Joined: 23 Aug 2005
Posts: 16
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| Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2005 9:11 am Post subject:
Re: Dell Latitude L400
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On Mon, 22 Aug 2005 07:25:13 +0000, Jim wrote:
| Quote: | recommendation for a distro which I can lob on the HD via another
machine? FWIW, I've had a go with another drive with an existing
|
Sorry, didn't read that part properly.
Actually I can't remember which distro I installed but as I am a redhat
guy I am sure it has been an older Redhat distro (certainly not fedora
core, too heavy for my old notebook  )
Slackware might be a possiblity too:
http://www.slackware.com/faq/do_faq.php?faq=installation#11
You need to install DOS on a (small) partition though, use FreeDOS for
that:
http://www.freedos.org/ |
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Jim
*nix forums Guru
Joined: 20 Feb 2005
Posts: 609
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| Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2005 8:10 pm Post subject:
Re: Dell Latitude L400
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Thomas Jespersen wrote:
| Quote: | On Mon, 22 Aug 2005 07:25:13 +0000, Jim wrote:
recommendation for a distro which I can lob on the HD via another
machine? FWIW, I've had a go with another drive with an existing
Sorry, didn't read that part properly.
Actually I can't remember which distro I installed but as I am a redhat
guy I am sure it has been an older Redhat distro (certainly not fedora
core, too heavy for my old notebook )
Slackware might be a possiblity too:
http://www.slackware.com/faq/do_faq.php?faq=installation#11
You need to install DOS on a (small) partition though, use FreeDOS for
that:
http://www.freedos.org/
|
Good news! I managed to get Debian on it!
Bad news: single-user Knoppix, which basically means it goes through the
whole hardware detection thing every boot, and the APM doesn't work.
Good news: I've got a full featured GUI and all the devices work! :)
--
Cheers, http://www.dotware.co.uk
Jim http://www.dotware-entertainment.co.uk
Maybe the Internet has the answers I need. It certainly answered my
questions about wang enhancement. |
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