Debian on a 486sx thru PCMCIA NIC
Hi,
I would like to install Linux on a old Toshiba T1900 laptop (486sx/20MHz,
8MB of RAM). It does not have a CD drive, so I was hoping I could
get it off the network (either from a local PC or the Internet) thru a
3Com Etherlink III PCMCIA card (3c589).
What version should I use and HOW?
I tried Debian woody/compact and it hangs right after
reading the root floppy fisk. I am speculating that kernel version
does not get along with a 486sx processor which has no math coprocessor.
With Debian-2.2/compact the installer starts fine but I can't get
the drivers disk to work--it says the file system type cannot be
detected, on both the target machine and my other Linux PC.
So I tried downloading drivers.tgz, unpacking the {3c589_cs.o, ds.o,
pcmcia_core.o} files from pcmcia.tgz
and copying them to a /boot directory on a clean floppy.
After the installer starts I open a new console window and I can
successfully "insmod /floppy/boot/pcmcia_core.o" (or load it from within
the installer), but when I try to "insmod ds.o" I
get "Device or resource busy". Of course 3c589_cs.o won't load either.
Any idea what this message could mean or how I could get the proper
driver disk to work (driver-1.bin)? I suppose the right driver loading
procedure should take care of all the module dependences, right?
Any hint would be greatly appreciated! ;-)
Thanks,
Gerlando
Reply to: