Debian GNU/linux on Toshiba laptops
I am not very familiar with Debian on laptops, but I have planned to buy a Toshiba 2180. Do anyone know what problems I will face ? Is this laptop a good choice ? Where can I find a configuration ? (or can I make one myself ?) And at last what packages is recommended ? Sincerely, Torgeir Hoffmann, Norway __ FREE Personalized Email at Mail.com Sign up at http://www.mail.com/?sr=signup
Debian startup and network scripts
Can someone point me to a good tutorial or howto about Debian's methods of booting and starting networking?I reinstalled Potato on my laptop. During the install I couldn't dhcp, so I had to borrow and set a static IP. I want to be certain that the machine is now doing dhcp, plus it would be good just to know about these subjects anyway. If anyone has a test for dhcp that I can carry out please send that, too. Thanks. -- Charles H. Baker, Manager Student MicroComputer Labs http://www.utc.edu/StudentMicroLabs/ [EMAIL PROTECTED] 423.755.4517 Mailed w/ Linux & Netscape.
Re: Debian GNU/linux on Toshiba laptops
I would like to recommend the website LILAC (LInux on LAptop Computers) (http://home.snafu.de/wehe/index.html) for general help. Arthur H. Edwards 712 Valencia Dr. NE Abq. NM 87108 (505) 256-0834 On Mon, 29 May 2000, Torgeir Hoffmann wrote: > I am not very familiar with Debian on laptops, but I have planned to buy a > Toshiba 2180. Do anyone know what problems I will face ? Is this laptop a > good choice ? Where can I find a configuration ? (or can I make one myself > ?) And at last what packages is recommended ? > > Sincerely, > > Torgeir Hoffmann, Norway > > __ > FREE Personalized Email at Mail.com > Sign up at http://www.mail.com/?sr=signup > > > -- > To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >
Re: Debian GNU/linux on Toshiba laptops
On Mon, May 29, 2000 at 05:58:02AM -0400, Torgeir Hoffmann wrote: > I am not very familiar with Debian on laptops, but I have planned to buy a > Toshiba 2180. Do anyone know what problems I will face ? Is this laptop a > good choice ? Where can I find a configuration ? (or can I make one myself > ?) And at last what packages is recommended ? Debian 2.1 wasn't a good choice for my Toshiba Satellite 21??. The Kernel on the bootable CD-ROM does not like my Toshiba NB, it hangs. Maybe 2.2 isn't affected, i didn't try. Christian -- nerd /n./ 2. [jargon] Term of praise applied to someone who knows what's really important and interesting and doesn't care to be distracted by trivial chatter and silly status games.
Re: Debian startup and network scripts
On Mon, 29 May 2000, Charles Baker wrote: > > Can someone point me to a good tutorial or howto about Debian's methods > of booting and starting networking? > if you go to http://www.debian.org/doc/ddp this place is a good start for debian documentation. At the bottom I noticed documentation for Network administrators. >I reinstalled Potato on my > laptop. During the install I couldn't dhcp, so I had to borrow and set > a static IP. I want to be certain that the machine is now doing dhcp, > plus it would be good just to know about these subjects anyway. If > anyone has a test for dhcp that I can carry out please send that, too. > well the only test I know of is to plug it in and see if it works! Just make sure its not using the same IP number each time, see if you can ping something and that would be a successfult test in my book. If the same IP address is being assigned make sure it isn't actually the static address you were using. Also you will have to set up the DNS server's by hand as I'm not sure how to get dhcpcd to set the DNS servers automagically, or is this a case of RTFM? ;) HOWEVER..sometimes I find that my laptop doesn't talk to the dhcpc server until after a reset. This could be solved probably by restarting some network services (and yes I've tried /etc/init.d/(pcmcia\networking\dhcpcd\xinet) and all have failed) however I have found only the reset works properly. When I upgraded to potato I noticed my dhcpcd didn't work either until I used a static IP to remove the client and then reinstall it. I think this is related to the old dhcpc deamon breaking on the 2.2.x kernel. Alex -- ** ((__)) Alexander "Jim diGriz" "Hubenko" Clouter \\ ((oo)) \\--\\// e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] || || |||||| ~~~~~~ equip : 300Mhz Celeron Laptop running Cow during an Debian Woody Linux Earthquake
Re: Debian GNU/linux on Toshiba laptops
On Mon, May 29, 2000 at 05:54:55PM +0200, Christian Kuester wrote: > Debian 2.1 wasn't a good choice for my Toshiba Satellite 21??. > The Kernel on the bootable CD-ROM does not like my Toshiba NB, > it hangs. Maybe 2.2 isn't affected, i didn't try. Did you try the Tectra kernel (if you have both binary CDs then the second CD boots with the Tectra kernel)? -- Mark Brown mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Trying to avoid grumpiness) http://www.tardis.ed.ac.uk/~broonie/ EUFShttp://www.eusa.ed.ac.uk/societies/filmsoc/ pgpsiEW9HLXyr.pgp Description: PGP signature
Problems with SAMS Debian 2.1 and Dell Inspiron 7500
Hi Just picked up a copy of the SAMS Installing GNU/Linux book with the copy of Debian 2.1 on CDRom. I've created partitions with Partition Magic, the root partition the second primary partition after Win98, and then an extended partition conaining further Windows data drives and Linux partitions incl swap part. The problem comes when installing off CD, I get as far as mounting partitions and the copy of the kernel starts with the rescue disk image, which seems to go okay, but it then stops while trying to copy the driver disk image with the message Floppy Error! The attempt to extract the Driver Floppy failed. Then the only option is which takes me back to the install menu. I've tried creating the images to floppies and doing it that way but it fails almost immediately after booting when it requests the rescue disk and cannot mount the floppy (this I suspect is due to the machine having an LS120 drive instead of a floppy) The lap-top itself is PIII 650, 128mb ram, 18gb or so hard drive, dvd rom (cd compatible), LS120 I'm computer literate (windows and IBM mainframes) but a GNU/Linux virgin. Any help would be appreciated
RE: Debian startup and network scripts
Well, I guess my problem is that I haven't been working w/ my laptop andDebian enough. I was looking every where for the network startup scripts and finally remembered that they are in /etc/pcmcia. I was looking in all the "desktop" locations. I wonder how many times I'll have to do this before I remember? [EMAIL PROTECTED] Manager Student Microlabs University of Tennessee Chattanooga
Re: HD spindown and fs cache writeback
Heather <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > * set noatime on filesystems where you don't care about it anyway > * make sure you're not syslogging things you don't care about > * use "noflushd" > * use "mobile-update" > * if there's some process named "sync" murder it and see where > its options are found so you can tweak them > * Use "hdparm" to advise your disk controller directly that it's > okay to sleep at more desirable intervals. I did all this a while back and also shut down every other process I don't strictly need, but no luck. The drive does spin down occasionally, but it always spins up again within 30 seconds. I'm running kernel 2.2.14. A sample from the syslog: May 28 23:39:25 jetpack noflushd[297]: Spinning down /dev/hda. May 28 23:39:45 jetpack noflushd[297]: Spinning up /dev/hda after 0 minutes of spindown. The fact that it appears is the syslog at all is rather suspicious. I wouldn't be surprised if that's the problem, that the changed syslog buffer gets flushed and the disk spins up to accommodate. All my logs are buffered, but I don't know how to get noflushd to stop syslogging. That would also explain another curiosity: if something is happening independently and often enough that the drive never stays spun down for more than 30 seconds, how is it ever idle long enough to be spun down in the first place? It seems likely that it's not independent then, unless something is happening periodically with a period just longer than the timeout, but that seems rather unlikely. Elrond <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > for sure WindowMaker tries to access its configuration files every > three seconds or so. Wouldn't those files be in the cache then (assuming it's large enough not to drop them)?
Re: Debian GNU/linux on Toshiba laptops
> "Christian" == Christian Kuester <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: Christian> On Mon, May 29, 2000 at 05:58:02AM -0400, Torgeir Christian> Hoffmann wrote: >> I am not very familiar with Debian on laptops, but I have >> planned to buy a Toshiba 2180. Do anyone know what problems I >> will face ? Is this laptop a good choice ? Where can I find a >> configuration ? (or can I make one myself ?) And at last what >> packages is recommended ? Christian> Debian 2.1 wasn't a good choice for my Toshiba Christian> Satellite 21??. The Kernel on the bootable CD-ROM does Christian> not like my Toshiba NB, it hangs. Maybe 2.2 isn't Christian> affected, i didn't try. I have a Toshiba 2650XDVD. It runs Debian 2.2 (potato). I originally installed Debian 2.1 (slink) and upgraded from there. The only fatal problem I had with Debian 2.1 was with the PCMCIA stuff. It hung. With Debian 2.2, a 2.2.14 (now 2.2.15) kernel and the latest PCMCIA stuff I've had no real problems. However, be careful of stopping PCMCIA services during the upgrade. This can hang the machine. The only other problems I've had are: * WinModem. This is a Lucent one, with a binary only driver available from http://linmodems.org/. It is compiled against a Red Hat 2.2.12 kernel. I can force load it but it oopses upon disconnect. Not happy! PCMCIA modem suggested... * APM. The Linux APM stuff is getting no messages (such as suspend) from the BIOS. I've tried using the Toshiba Linux Utilities (http://www.buzzard.org.uk/toshiba/) to set things up, but I've had no success, since they don't seem to be able to talk to my machine... I haven't tried using DVDs in the DVD drive yet... :-) peace & happiness, martin -- Martin Schwenke, Regional Support Services, Linuxcare, Inc. +61 2 6262 8990 [EMAIL PROTECTED], http://linuxcare.com.au/ Linuxcare. Support for the revolution.
Re: HD spindown and fs cache writeback
On Mon, May 29, 2000 at 11:51:52PM +0100, Seth Golub wrote: > I did all this a while back and also shut down every other process I > don't strictly need, but no luck. The drive does spin down > occasionally, but it always spins up again within 30 seconds. I'm > running kernel 2.2.14. > > A sample from the syslog: > > May 28 23:39:25 jetpack noflushd[297]: Spinning down /dev/hda. > May 28 23:39:45 jetpack noflushd[297]: Spinning up /dev/hda after 0 minutes > of spindown. > > The fact that it appears is the syslog at all is rather suspicious. > I wouldn't be surprised if that's the problem, that the changed syslog > buffer gets flushed and the disk spins up to accommodate. All my logs > are buffered, but I don't know how to get noflushd to stop syslogging. Are you using the minus "-" sign on your filenames in syslog.conf? Try "man syslog.conf" for more info, but basically without the "-" syslogd syncs the disks after every log message. -- Lee Bradshaw [EMAIL PROTECTED] (preferred) Alantro Communications [EMAIL PROTECTED]
RE: Problems with SAMS Debian 2.1 and Dell Inspiron 7500
hi if you're installing off CD, then continue through the installation after the floppy failure (if possible), it will then be a case of looking for a LS120 Linux driver and installing it once you have the system up and running ... A -Original Message- From: Paul [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, May 30, 2000 3:38 AM To: Debian User Lists Subject: Problems with SAMS Debian 2.1 and Dell Inspiron 7500 Hi Just picked up a copy of the SAMS Installing GNU/Linux book with the copy of Debian 2.1 on CDRom. I've created partitions with Partition Magic, the root partition the second primary partition after Win98, and then an extended partition conaining further Windows data drives and Linux partitions incl swap part. The problem comes when installing off CD, I get as far as mounting partitions and the copy of the kernel starts with the rescue disk image, which seems to go okay, but it then stops while trying to copy the driver disk image with the message Floppy Error! The attempt to extract the Driver Floppy failed. Then the only option is which takes me back to the install menu. I've tried creating the images to floppies and doing it that way but it fails almost immediately after booting when it requests the rescue disk and cannot mount the floppy (this I suspect is due to the machine having an LS120 drive instead of a floppy) The lap-top itself is PIII 650, 128mb ram, 18gb or so hard drive, dvd rom (cd compatible), LS120 I'm computer literate (windows and IBM mainframes) but a GNU/Linux virgin. Any help would be appreciated -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
