Dark screen
Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 08:07:20 -0400 From: Cooper, Greg [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Dark screen It always seems that as soon as I decide to make a change to my Lib something goes wrong. I started a large copy job last night to back my files up on a server but forget to plug in the AC adapter to my 110. Of course I rarely let the battery go down all the way so my power management was completely turned off. This morning, the battery was completely drained and even on AC the display is too dark to view. Via the port replicator I have an external display but as soon as I attempt to go internal it goes dark again. I can see a faint copy of the desktop in the darkness so I know it's not a completely dead LCD. Any simple solutions or is this something to do with the dreaded back light I vaguely recall reading about? Thanks Greg ** http://libretto.basiclink.com - Libretto mailing list http://libretto.basiclink.com/archive - Archives http://www.picante.com/~gtaylor/portable/faq.html - FAQ ---UNSUBSCRIBE--- mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?subject=cmd:unsubscribe UNSUBSCRIBE DIGEST-- Use above but add DIGEST to the subject line... **
Re: Preferred version of Linux on 110?
Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 13:44:20 +0100 (GMT/BST) From: Digby Tarvin [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Preferred version of Linux on 110? RedHat (5.2) was the first package I installed on my Libretto, and I must say that I was less than impressed. The installation method was very clumsy, and when ever I called their helpdesk for advice, there was always some reason why they wouldn't support the machine I was using. The policy seems to be 'if it didn't work, we don't support it'. I think if you manage to get the box open by youself, you are already ahead of most people on their help desk... For the record, I eventually managed to get it installed on my libretto by installing it on a desktop machine first, and then using a parallel port based IP connection and did a network install. I could not use my PCMCIA LAN or SCSI card, as access to any PCMCIA peripheral required modules to be read of a second floppy - and as the floppy drive itself is PCMCIA on the libretto I now have SUSE, although I have also heard good things about Mandrake. I havn't needed to try the SUSE support yet. As far as I know, they are all based on the same core stuff - the choice of distribution is mostly a choice of support, packaging and installation facilities (and probably price).. Date: Wed, 30 May 2001 20:47:34 -0700 (PDT) From: David Chien [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Preferred version of Linux on 110? Doesn't matter one bit as they'll all run and install on your Libretto. However, RedHat is always a 'solid' choice given that there's always some port available for anything new out. My own preference is for SUSE, but only because they had a 'nice' install back in version 5.x for booting from a DOS partition directory install. For the most part however, most modern versions of Linux have gotten so good, they pretty much just install and go (at least for me). which means that when you encounter any trouble, expect to learn lots of Linux, on the other hand.. d =) -- Digby R. S. Tarvin [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.cthulhu.dircon.co.uk ** http://libretto.basiclink.com - Libretto mailing list http://libretto.basiclink.com/archive - Archives http://www.picante.com/~gtaylor/portable/faq.html - FAQ ---UNSUBSCRIBE--- mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?subject=cmd:unsubscribe UNSUBSCRIBE DIGEST-- Use above but add DIGEST to the subject line... **
Re: Preferred version of Linux on 110?
Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 12:59:03 From: neil barnes [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Preferred version of Linux on 110? I can't speak for the 110 'cos I'm poor and can only afford 50s...but I've been very happy with mandrake 6.1 and 7.1 - both of which will load from a hard disk image (provided you've done all the partitioning first). M7.2 has been fine on the desktop but doesn't like to install with 32M of memory or less, M8 is too fresh to be certain but it seems ok on the desktop. I've also used the Caldera Open Linux 2.4 though not on a Lib, and that was excellent apart from a video driver problem that was handled very well via their email support. Neil _ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. ** http://libretto.basiclink.com - Libretto mailing list http://libretto.basiclink.com/archive - Archives http://www.picante.com/~gtaylor/portable/faq.html - FAQ ---UNSUBSCRIBE--- mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?subject=cmd:unsubscribe UNSUBSCRIBE DIGEST-- Use above but add DIGEST to the subject line... **
Re: Preferred version of Linux on 110?
Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 15:19:13 +0200 From: Christian Gennerat [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Preferred version of Linux on 110? neil barnes a écrit : I can't speak for the 110 'cos I'm poor and can only afford 50s...but I've been very happy with mandrake 6.1 and 7.1 - both of which will load from a hard disk image (provided you've done all the partitioning first). M7.2 has been fine on the desktop but doesn't like to install with 32M of memory or less, M8 is too fresh to be certain but it seems ok on the desktop. With the 110 and its 64M memory, no problem. MAndrake is better than RedHat, because it can be installed directly from the CD to the Libretto, with the PCMCIA floppy image. I used a Frecomm Traveller PCMCIA CD for the 7.2, and a SCSI CD with Adaptec 1460B for the 8.0. I bought an Ibm DJSA-220Hd for mu libretto (20GB) and partition it with fdisk because I wanted to have this partition /dev/hda10 1017 1027 88326 a0 Hibernation Thinkpad IBM at this exact location. After the recommanded installation, edit lilo.conf and Xf86config, and it runs fine. ** http://libretto.basiclink.com - Libretto mailing list http://libretto.basiclink.com/archive - Archives http://www.picante.com/~gtaylor/portable/faq.html - FAQ ---UNSUBSCRIBE--- mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?subject=cmd:unsubscribe UNSUBSCRIBE DIGEST-- Use above but add DIGEST to the subject line... **
Re: Preferred version of Linux on 110?
Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 09:45:16 -0400 From: E. Smith [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Preferred version of Linux on 110? Neil, I'm dying to get Linux on my L50. Can you point me to instructions on setting up the disk image and partitioning so I can get it onto my Lib? One thing I don't have is a 2.5-3.5 adapter to put the drive in a big box. If that's necessary, I'll have to get one before I continue (but I'd still like the instructions). TIA for any help, -e. - Original Message - From: neil barnes [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Libretto [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2001 9:05 AM Subject: Re: Preferred version of Linux on 110? Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 12:59:03 From: neil barnes [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Preferred version of Linux on 110? I can't speak for the 110 'cos I'm poor and can only afford 50s...but I've been very happy with mandrake 6.1 and 7.1 - both of which will load from a hard disk image (provided you've done all the partitioning first). M7.2 has been fine on the desktop but doesn't like to install with 32M of memory or less, M8 is too fresh to be certain but it seems ok on the desktop. I've also used the Caldera Open Linux 2.4 though not on a Lib, and that was excellent apart from a video driver problem that was handled very well via their email support. Neil _ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. ** http://libretto.basiclink.com - Libretto mailing list http://libretto.basiclink.com/archive - Archives http://www.picante.com/~gtaylor/portable/faq.html - FAQ ---UNSUBSCRIBE--- mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?subject=cmd:unsubscribe UNSUBSCRIBE DIGEST-- Use above but add DIGEST to the subject line... ** ** http://libretto.basiclink.com - Libretto mailing list http://libretto.basiclink.com/archive - Archives http://www.picante.com/~gtaylor/portable/faq.html - FAQ ---UNSUBSCRIBE--- mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?subject=cmd:unsubscribe UNSUBSCRIBE DIGEST-- Use above but add DIGEST to the subject line... **
Re: Preferred version of Linux on 110?
Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 15:19:18 From: neil barnes [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Preferred version of Linux on 110? Ed (?) A couple (for large values of 'couple') of questions first: (1) how big is your disk (2) do you want to dual boot windows/linux (3) do you have a cdrom (4) do you want the floppy to work afterwards (5) are you willing to risk your existing data, or will you be re-installing windows later? (6) where are you based - it may be simpler to meet :) For the record, my system has 6G, 4G for windows and 2G for linux, and runs mandrake 7.1. I don't have a cdrom so I had to get an image onto the hard drive first, and for that I used an adaptor and loaded my first linux from a desktop. But I've also downloaded iso images and unpacked them direct to memory and loaded that way... I haven't loaded the floppy disk drive module - I believe Christian Gennerat in France (who knows a damn sight more about linux than I ever will!) has the procedure for that - because I don't use it more than once or twice a year, and I can always get it from windows. Cheers, Neil From: E. Smith [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: Libretto [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Libretto [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Preferred version of Linux on 110? Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 06:55:14 -0700 Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 09:45:16 -0400 From: E. Smith [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Preferred version of Linux on 110? Neil, I'm dying to get Linux on my L50. Can you point me to instructions on setting up the disk image and partitioning so I can get it onto my Lib? One thing I don't have is a 2.5-3.5 adapter to put the drive in a big box. If that's necessary, I'll have to get one before I continue (but I'd still like the instructions). TIA for any help, -e. _ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. ** http://libretto.basiclink.com - Libretto mailing list http://libretto.basiclink.com/archive - Archives http://www.picante.com/~gtaylor/portable/faq.html - FAQ ---UNSUBSCRIBE--- mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?subject=cmd:unsubscribe UNSUBSCRIBE DIGEST-- Use above but add DIGEST to the subject line... **
Libretto 30 *now* blind to fitted Hard Disk(s)
Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 23:31:21 +0800 (HKT) From: Anthony Green [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Libretto 30 *now* blind to fitted Hard Disk(s) 31-05-01 @ 23:32 I've a now useless Libretto 30 : I wrote FAXed the following to : Toshiba Japan from my home in Hong Kong. I've edited it a bit before send in it to you for any thoughts / possible fixes : Reference Libretto CT30 - serial number 11621803 The Libretto has a fault - it will NOT detect that any Hard Disk is inserted. This happened immediately after Win98 crashed with blue screen of death. The computer checks the RAM, and then does nothing at all for several minutes before looking for the Floppy Drive. I have done several tests before taking it to Chevalier, your Hong Kong distributor - and they confirm that they can not get it to find any Hard Disk inserted into the computer, and the BIOS screen can not be changed to show a Hard Disk is there. Chevalier can not try to repair it since they have never handled this model and have no spare parts. [It was a grey market import] I suppose that *only* your repair shop in Japan could fix it, or is there anything I (an electronics engineer) can do to repair it here? My Libretto is a treasured friend - I don't want to have to buy a competitor's portable, so PLEASE RESPOND PROMPTLY. I **NOW add the following :- Since it seems remarkably stupid to have made this computer **HAVE** to detect the presence of a Hard Disk - whoever heard of a portable computer being sold WITHOUT a Hard Disk being installed - *AND* have the BIOS option of booting from Floppy *OR* HD, the circuit designer ought to get castigated for this ridiculous situation! NOW : Is there any way of FORCING the BIOS / Computer to recognise that a HD **IS** fitted - even if this means soldering a wire from one point to another? As an Electronics Engineer, that is something I am perfectly capable, and equipped to do - if I am provided with the correct information and circuit diagram and a picture of the physical layout of this computer showing what link(s) I would need to make / break. Just because of the stupidity of the original designer, an otherwise excellent portable - which I have used extensively for storing digital camera pictures on my travels - is NOW totally UNUSABLE. I'm taking a trip in three weeks time, and really **NEED** an urgent fix for this computer. UNQUOTE Tonight I received this rather unhelpful response out'a Toshiba Japan : (again, edited lightly for brevity). Thank you for using our product and also sending us a letter regarding repair of Libretto 30CT. I am afraid that you PC is Japanese domestic model ( officially sold in Japanese market only) and not covered by International repair warranty.Therefore it can be repaired in Japanese authorized repair center only. In addition, we do not sell any repair part to the customers. As reasons above, please send PC to following repair center. Atten; Mr. Hagiwara Toshiba PC repair center Add; 5-20-7, Masago, Mihama-ku, Chiba, 261-0011, Japan Phone; 81-43-278-8122 Before send PC to Japan, Please understand several limitation as below. 1. All repair costs must be borne to you. Remit amount to our account before start repairing or pay it by cash on delivery after repaired is preferable. Accept Japanese Yen Only. Cost is such as repair part and labor fee, customs fee, and shipping cost back and force between Japan and Hong Kong. 2. Tell us which address we should return PC after repaired. It limits Japanese address only, since strict export control and it's notion of that your PC is not just a product but your property, it makes very hard for us a company to ship your PC to your place, Hong Kong directly. +++ end of message from Japan. Well, I have to ask, has anyone had this problem of the HD *NOT* being found - it is impossible to set the BIOS to show the HD is fitted - the hi-lite just jumps over the HD specification. likewise, a previously captured CMOS backup file with a restore mode can NOT force the setting of the HD. and if so, did they find a cure for this problem. It seems absolutely ridiculous to jump thro' hoops to get it fixed in Japan. Regards : Anthony Green. ...I used to have a handle on life, but it fell off. ** http://libretto.basiclink.com - Libretto mailing list http://libretto.basiclink.com/archive - Archives http://www.picante.com/~gtaylor/portable/faq.html - FAQ ---UNSUBSCRIBE--- mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?subject=cmd:unsubscribe UNSUBSCRIBE DIGEST-- Use above but add DIGEST to the subject line... **
Re: Libretto 30 *now* blind to fitted Hard Disk(s)
Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 17:13:42 +0100 (GMT/BST) From: Digby Tarvin [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Libretto 30 *now* blind to fitted Hard Disk(s) Are you absolutely sure that your Windows BSOD was not a result of a hard disk or other hardware failure? I would do the following: Boot a version of Unix from floppy, and use the autodetect diagnostics (which don't use the BIOS) to see if the disk hardware is working. If it is, either there is something wrong with your BIOS, or something written to your disks which convinces the BIOS to ignore it. In either case, try and borrow another hard disk so see if you have a failed disk, in which case your remedy is obvious - buy a new one. They are very cheap. If Unix can see the disk, but the BIOS can't, even with a different disk installed, then you could either try re-installing the BIOS, or toss windows altogether and stick with Linux - though you would have to floppy boot. You could still run Windows under VmWare if you need it. Finally, if it is some other hardware fault, your motherboard is probably shot and your only hope is Toshiba Japan - but the cost will probably be prohibitive so it would probably be better to look for a replacement on e-bay or some other second hand source. Regards, DigbyT Anthony Green: From daemon Thu May 31 16:50:05 2001 X-Envelope-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 08:35:16 -0700 From: Anthony Green [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Libretto [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: Libretto [EMAIL PROTECTED] Errors-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Libretto 30 *now* blind to fitted Hard Disk(s) Message-Id: [EMAIL PROTECTED] X-Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Pro Version 3.0 (16) X-Priority: 1 (Highest) Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 23:31:21 +0800 (HKT) From: Anthony Green [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Libretto 30 *now* blind to fitted Hard Disk(s) 31-05-01 @ 23:32 I've a now useless Libretto 30 : I wrote FAXed the following to : Toshiba Japan from my home in Hong Kong. I've edited it a bit before send in it to you for any thoughts / possible fixes : Reference Libretto CT30 - serial number 11621803 The Libretto has a fault - it will NOT detect that any Hard Disk is inserted. This happened immediately after Win98 crashed with blue screen of death. The computer checks the RAM, and then does nothing at all for several minutes before looking for the Floppy Drive. I have done several tests before taking it to Chevalier, your Hong Kong distributor - and they confirm that they can not get it to find any Hard Disk inserted into the computer, and the BIOS screen can not be changed to show a Hard Disk is there. Chevalier can not try to repair it since they have never handled this model and have no spare parts. [It was a grey market import] I suppose that *only* your repair shop in Japan could fix it, or is there anything I (an electronics engineer) can do to repair it here? My Libretto is a treasured friend - I don't want to have to buy a competitor's portable, so PLEASE RESPOND PROMPTLY. I **NOW add the following :- Since it seems remarkably stupid to have made this computer **HAVE** to detect the presence of a Hard Disk - whoever heard of a portable computer being sold WITHOUT a Hard Disk being installed - *AND* have the BIOS option of booting from Floppy *OR* HD, the circuit designer ought to get castigated for this ridiculous situation! NOW : Is there any way of FORCING the BIOS / Computer to recognise that a HD **IS** fitted - even if this means soldering a wire from one point to another? As an Electronics Engineer, that is something I am perfectly capable, and equipped to do - if I am provided with the correct information and circuit diagram and a picture of the physical layout of this computer showing what link(s) I would need to make / break. Just because of the stupidity of the original designer, an otherwise excellent portable - which I have used extensively for storing digital camera pictures on my travels - is NOW totally UNUSABLE. I'm taking a trip in three weeks time, and really **NEED** an urgent fix for this computer. UNQUOTE Tonight I received this rather unhelpful response out'a Toshiba Japan : (again, edited lightly for brevity). Thank you for using our product and also sending us a letter regarding repair of Libretto 30CT. I am afraid that you PC is Japanese domestic model ( officially sold in Japanese market only) and not covered by International repair warranty.Therefore it can be repaired in Japanese authorized repair center only. In addition, we do not sell any repair part to the customers. As reasons above, please send PC to following repair center. Atten; Mr. Hagiwara Toshiba PC repair center Add; 5-20-7, Masago, Mihama-ku, Chiba, 261-0011, Japan Phone; 81-43-278-8122 Before send PC to Japan, Please understand several limitation as below. 1. All repair costs must be
Re: Preferred version of Linux on 110?
Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 12:58:46 -0400 From: E. Smith [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Preferred version of Linux on 110? Neil, Eiren (male). Sorry, should have signed -eiren. (1) 6GB (2) Yes, dual boot Lin and Win95. (3) Yes, an Archos PCMCIA-powered CD-ROM drive. (4) Yes, I want the floppy to work afterwards, but I'd give it up if I had to. (5) Oh, I'd ensure the existing data was expendable if there was much chance of losing it. In fact, I'm wrilling to wipe it clean and start from zero--whatever is necessary. (6) Clearwater, Florida. Where are you? But I've also downloaded iso images and unpacked them direct to memory and loaded that way... How? -e(iren). - Original Message - From: neil barnes [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Libretto [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2001 11:25 AM Subject: Re: Preferred version of Linux on 110? Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 15:19:18 From: neil barnes [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Preferred version of Linux on 110? Ed (?) A couple (for large values of 'couple') of questions first: (1) how big is your disk (2) do you want to dual boot windows/linux (3) do you have a cdrom (4) do you want the floppy to work afterwards (5) are you willing to risk your existing data, or will you be re-installing windows later? (6) where are you based - it may be simpler to meet :) For the record, my system has 6G, 4G for windows and 2G for linux, and runs mandrake 7.1. I don't have a cdrom so I had to get an image onto the hard drive first, and for that I used an adaptor and loaded my first linux from a desktop. But I've also downloaded iso images and unpacked them direct to memory and loaded that way... I haven't loaded the floppy disk drive module - I believe Christian Gennerat in France (who knows a damn sight more about linux than I ever will!) has the procedure for that - because I don't use it more than once or twice a year, and I can always get it from windows. Cheers, Neil From: E. Smith [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: Libretto [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Libretto [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Preferred version of Linux on 110? Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 06:55:14 -0700 Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 09:45:16 -0400 From: E. Smith [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Preferred version of Linux on 110? Neil, I'm dying to get Linux on my L50. Can you point me to instructions on setting up the disk image and partitioning so I can get it onto my Lib? One thing I don't have is a 2.5-3.5 adapter to put the drive in a big box. If that's necessary, I'll have to get one before I continue (but I'd still like the instructions). TIA for any help, -e. _ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. ** http://libretto.basiclink.com - Libretto mailing list http://libretto.basiclink.com/archive - Archives http://www.picante.com/~gtaylor/portable/faq.html - FAQ ---UNSUBSCRIBE--- mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?subject=cmd:unsubscribe UNSUBSCRIBE DIGEST-- Use above but add DIGEST to the subject line... ** ** http://libretto.basiclink.com - Libretto mailing list http://libretto.basiclink.com/archive - Archives http://www.picante.com/~gtaylor/portable/faq.html - FAQ ---UNSUBSCRIBE--- mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?subject=cmd:unsubscribe UNSUBSCRIBE DIGEST-- Use above but add DIGEST to the subject line... **
