Jump to content

Installing MDK on Dell Latitude CP


bb002
 Share

Recommended Posts

Well my problem is Installing mandrake.

 

I'm trying to dual boot with win98.

 

specs:

64MB ram (Gonna buy a 128MB stick soon. maybe 2 if they really cheap.)

233mhz processor. (what lightweight window manager is suggested?)

12GB hdd. (~6GB win98, ~5GB linux, 512MB swap)

PCMIA ethernet (Xircom RBEM56G-100)

one expansion bay for either floppy of CD-ROM (Toshiba).

 

Now the problem is with the cdrom. It's old and hates burnt cds. It sees them and properly displays the directory structure. however the contents of files are often wrong or cannot be read from the cd. It does this with a few manufactured cds as well.

 

The only way I know how to install linux is from the ISOs...

what would be the easiest way for me to install mandrake? I can think of two methods in my limited knowledge: use deamon tools to extract the contents of the isos into a directory or download the raw tree. then use a linix loader from dos. I have no idea which method to use or how to use loadlin.

 

anyone know where to point me to? or how to help?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bought a 128MB ram stick for my laptop. didn't work. appears that the CP can only have a maximum of 128MB through 2 64MB sticks. it is the CPi model with atleast bios revision A03 that can have 128MB sticks. I got lucky finding the 128MB doubt I'll find a 64MB.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bah...I'm such an idiot. :wall: Inserted the mandrake 10.0 cd1 into my desktop and discovered there was a install.htm in the root of that cd.

 

in there it listed

hd_grub.img putting this on a floppy allows hd installs.

network.img allows installs over ethernet.

pcmia.img allows installs through pcmia ethernet cards.

 

 

I tried hd_grub.img and was gonna do a no-GUI install, since I only have 64mb of ram in my laptop currently. Well that failed saying I needed more RAM to read from a windows FAT32 partition.

 

haven't tried the other two yet. I'm baffled that mandrake need more than 64mb ram just to read a fat32 partition. I'll try the pcmia.img later tonight.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

Noticed that the Mandriva Linux 2005LE iso's are out but have been unable to download them since my cable internet would cut out every 10 to 30 minutes for 10 minutes to a day.

 

[The Story]

 

Finally got the company to come check it out, let me tell you that was three weeks of hell. As it turns out is was some dude from down the block wanting free cable and his whacked out setup was preventing my modem from properly talking with the company servers. My cable tv was uneffected.

 

To the cable guy 4 hours to find that out. Even had his supervisor come help him after the second hour past.

 

Who ever it was wanting free cable didn't have to work for it. The cable box with the problem is about a foot off the ground with a twist tie holding it shut.

 

[/The Story]

 

Anyways I downloaded the new Mandriva Iso's.

My cd-rom drive on my laptop still won't get past the "trying to access cd-rom" part but now i can eject the cd and get a menu of choices. tried the HDD install since the old 10.0 packages were still there and it worked! well sorta installer was expecting 10.2 packages but didn't say i needed more ram to continue only griped about the low ram! so i reset my laptop and booted windows, deleted the old 10.0 packages and copied in the new 10.2 packages from my pc. Right now I'm currently 50% done installing in a 2 hour install job. yeah another hour. Now will it work?

 

be back soon. well...if i don't forget or have problems. :P

Link to comment
Share on other sites

oops appears i never did get back to you guys on the 10.0 network.img and pcmia.img. well they didn't work either. for some reason they would not see the card even though i was using the correct driver. well i believe i was the two drivers i tried both had xircom in their name.

 

Only thing is I think the mandriva install gonna take more than a hour to finish...Unless the count down timer is really a count up timer... I've gone from 57Min to 1:05 since i started typing this. Oops nevermind dropped back down to 58 min. musta been a big package for that 233Mhz proccessor. Man I hope the processor requirement plumented like the ram did. otherwise I'm running console only :(

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well the install is complete. actually it finished 20 minutes ago including the post-install config. I turned it off when it rebooted after completing the install. it's 10:30PM here and I'm going to bed. I'll test it tomorrow at work if i have some free time otherwise I not get a chance until around 6:00PM.

 

I have it defaulting to no gui at boot up. in case i can't run the gui. if the gui does work fine how do i make it default to loading the gui? nevermind cross the bridges as they come.

 

Though during the post-config. Mandriva would not see my sound card. Dell Latitude CP docs say my card is a ISA Crystal 4237B.

 

I'll see what luck i have with "alsaconf" and "sndconfig" before I ask for help.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Man...10.2 is great!

 

With such low memory I fugured the gui would run poorly if at all. It actually runs as well as win98SE. Opening up a new application takes a while but once opened it runs fine.

 

So now I'm asking how to start the gui by default and log in a single user.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

All you need to do, is click the Star, then System/Configuration/Hardware/HardDrake

 

In here you can select the video card and choose the Run Config option. Click the Options button, and set to load automatically.

 

Then you'll boot straight into the GUI.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...