Well, I managed to get Puppy Linux 4.2 to boot from CD with this old
laptop, and even got the internet connectivity issue resolved. Puppy 4.2
found the USB10T interface with no problem, and within a few minutes I was
able to check my email and use the web. That was the good news.
The bad news is that apparently 96M isn't enough to do a full install of
Puppy. Tried it twice and the system locks up before the installation is
complete. Set up the hard drive as ext3 format with boot flag set, but no
go.
I did find 128M of RAM for the laptop for $40, but not ready to invest
any money into this thing. Was only planning on setting it up as a backup to
my main PC in case of failure.
I have tried Linux a couple of times in the past. I had Ubuntu on my
main PC, set up as a dual boot system. There are a lot of things to like
about Linux, however I'm not ready to give myself over to it completely. I'm
hooked on the DXLab suite of software, and don't want to switch to another
system at this time.
Going to play around with it some more, but as you say, I may have to
spend more money to get it to work than it's worth hi!
Tnx es 73
Dave
KB3MOW
-----Original Message-----
From: digitalradio@yahoogroups.com [mailto:digitalra...@yahoogroups.com]on
Behalf Of doug_helbling
Sent: Saturday, May 16, 2009 9:49 AM
To: digitalradio@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [digitalradio] Re: Question for the Linux gurus
Great discussion on Linux here ... glad to see someone willing to give it
a try. I just switched over to Linux for digital modes, and while I miss
some of the features of Simon's very fine HRD/DM780 program, the performance
boost I get from Linux is outstanding and FLDigi is very well behaved on my
system.
I went down a similar laptop "repurposing" path with an old Sony Vaio,
another 366 MHz Pentium 2 machine. After my experience, I can offer a
couple of other suggestions re: Linux and laptops:
a.. For LAN connectivity, if you must go wireless (more CPU overhead),
you might also consider getting a PCMCIA wireless card. Not plugging any
particular vendor, but I put a D-Link AirPlus in the Viaio it seems to work
pretty well, better than a roughly equivalent USB-based wireless LAN
interface, no doubt in part because the USB was 1.0, not 2.0.
b.. Do a web search for more memory. Chances are you will find it out
there, and for cheap. For this same Viao, I found some memory at
edgetechcorp.com for about $15 that took my unit from 64M to whatever the
max available for this unit (~184).
c.. Give Ubuntu some consideration. There is a new 9.04 version out
now, with three flavors: server, desktop, and Notebook, the latter
supposedly streamlined for use in portable machines. Not sure if this is a
good fit. I have Ubuntu 7.10 running on my Viao and I am pretty happy with
it. It was running Win98SE when I got it (a discard from a friend) and it
was Very Slow ... it took hours to do "anything". Granted it is still only
a Pentium 2. If you end up running FLDigi, you will probably need to run
slow waterfall mode, perhaps skip the RS ID feature, and maybe even avoid
use of the PSK browser. But Ubuntu is easy to configure and upgrade, so
you can play around with settings to find performance boundaries. There are
occassionally some hassles with supported libraries for some digital radio
stuff (e.g. hamlib versions needed for fldigi vs. what comes with a
specifical release of Ubuntu), but they can be sorted out.
Given that I spend as much time as I do keeping old, obsolete hardware
running, I can't believe I am saying this, but here is one other tiny piece
of advice: unless you are playing with the P2 for the sheer novelty /
retro-technology appeal (there is nothing wrong with that!), please
seriously consider buying something just a bit further up the food chain.
If your intent is to make serious use of a laptop for digitial radio, this
will pay off in a huge way. At least here locally (Portland, OR area), one
can readily find used Pentium 3 and even Pentium 4 laptops, with 1 GB of RAM
or more, for $150 or even $100. Brand new dual-CPU P4's can be had for $350
to $400. Nearly all have P3+ boxes have USB2 ... many have built-in
802.11a/b/g wireless. They will all surely have in excess of 20 GB hard
drives, many with even 80 or 100 GB drives, as compared to the 2, 3, or 4 GB
drive that is probably in your P2 box. The USB Drive booting solution for a
Linux OS for such a box is even more viable if you have a faster box with
built-in USB 2.0 (instead of 1.0). AND ... if you have enough hard drive,
you can go for a truly flexible solution, a dual- or multi-boot
Linux/Windoze box.
My point is that by the time you accessorize your P2 into being truly
servicable, you may well have spent more money than you would have by
getting a newer machine, as you will have repurchased a lot of stuff that
comes along for the ride in an ever so slightly newer laptop.
If you are really into bit-twiddling and want to explore the nuts and
bolts of Linux, one solution approach that makes simply amazing use of even
the most ancient of hardware is DSL, Damn Small Linux. Also a freeby, you
can get DSL to load up onto a thumb drive or a Very Small hard drive, a low
low memory box (I had it running on a bug with 2 MB of ram!), or just about
anything. It is Lean and Mean, which means there would be extra effort to
load all the various pieces needed to build your special-purpose-application
solution, but if you like the journey, check it out. There is a very cool
Prencie-Hall book, "The Official Damn Small Linux" Book", that comes
complete with a CD containing DSL plus a lot of related goodies.
Good luck!
- Doug / KE7SEI
--- In digitalradio@yahoogroups.com, Bob Tenty <bobte...@...> wrote:
>
> If you look for Ubuntu & USB10T with google.com this will pops up
>
> http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/hardy/man4/aue.4.html
>
>
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> >
> >
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