At 08:21 AM 4/24/2003 -0500, Mark Barr wrote:
I was at my local Goodwill store yesterday, and saw that I can get a duo 230 and dock for < $40. Is anyone out there running linux on one? I gather that there are some ADB issues with the duos. Has anyone worked around them? I coveted a duo like nothing else back in '92 and would love to get one up and running linux. All I really need it to do is word process and email checking.
Linux would probably boot, after a fashion, but the lack of an FPU would cause some troubles with installation and package building. Also, there are indeed problems with ADB. Some work, some don't, no one knows quite why was how it was explained to me. However, in the dock, as long as it's not a Dock Plus, you should have an FPU that will tie in. This might make Linux work better while docked, but it would be flakyish when undocked. Might be worth a go.
That said, if all you need is word processing and e-mail, you'd probably be better off with MacOS 7.1, Appleworks 5, Claris Emailer or Eudora, and leaving it at that. A Duo is a fine machine, I still use a 280c as my main laptop.
$40 is probably not the best price you can find, though saving on shipping would be a nice boon. Make sure the dock's ejector mechanism works. Less than $40 is decent though, especially if it comes with a monitor.
I believe the only 68k Duo that came with a FPU built in was the 270c. I've been thinking about tracking one down specifically for the purpose of running Linux. The other big bummer a lack of Ethernet network devices. None of the current ones seem to be supported, though some are close (The Newer microdock reads its MAC Address and seems to do some kind of preliminary initialization, but doesn't actually work.). Nubus cards in the dock would probably work, though. A Duo-sized Linux box with functional undocked Ethernet that also ran my MacOS apps would be about the ultimate in portable Linux computing short of a LindowsOS MobilePC. Now, if only there was a 68k version of Mac-On-Linux :) If Basilisk II natively used the CPU it would be close, but alas it doesn't on Linux.
Scott Holder