Ionreflex wrote: > Situation : I've just booted up an old laptop which has debian on it, and > debian it will stay : the fdd is defect, the cdd is defect and not only some > of the keyboard keys are defect, the ps/2 port is not functional... I assume you are connecting to it over the network? Does it have a USB port for an emergency attachment of a keyboard? > Linux lol 2.4.27-3-586tsc #1 Tue Dec 5 22:06:26 UTC 2006 i586 GNU/Linux That is a kernel suitable for Pentium class cpus. It would be useful to know the information from /proc/cpuinfo. cat /proc/cpuinfo That will tell you the hardware vendor and the specific type of the cpu. Depending upon your cpu type a more specific kernel may be more optimized for your system. > When I try to update it, apt blubber about unmet dependencies and ultimately > it ask me to choose one of those packages : What are you updating it from? cat /etc/debian_version It seems like you might be skipping major releases. Skipping major releases isn't supported because you miss the transitions that happen at major release points. If that is the case then you should update to the next major version, and then the next, and so on to get to the current stable release and don't jump to the current release directly. Otherwise you may have to deal with additional problems in unique ways. > linux-image-2.6.26-2-xen-686 2.6.26-21lenny4 > linux-image-2.6.26-2-vserver-686-bigmem 2.6.26-21lenny4 > linux-image-2.6.26-2-vserver-686 2.6.26-21lenny4 > linux-image-2.6.26-2-openvz-686 2.6.26-21lenny4 > linux-image-2.6.26-2-amd64 2.6.26-21lenny4 > linux-image-2.6.26-2-686-bigmem 2.6.26-21lenny4 > linux-image-2.6.26-2-686 2.6.26-21lenny4 > linux-image-2.6.26-2-486 2.6.26-21lenny4 > > I would like your insights : the laptop is reported as i586, so which one to > choose ? linux-image-2.6.26-2-686 2.6.26-21lenny4 ? linux-image-2.6.26-2-486 > 2.6.26-21lenny4 ? (I would be more inclined to 486, but I didn't find any > concluant informations on the Net...) The /proc/cpuinfo really gives you the right information that is needed to make this decision. But... The 486 is the lowest common denominator and sweeps in older cpus such as the AMD K6. So that one would almost certainly be safe on any x86 system in use today. As I recall it requires a 586 Pentium instruction set or later. Depending upon things you may want to include it as a failsafe even if you think a more optimized kernel is the best match. Otherwise probably the plain 686 is your best match so you likely want linux-image-2.6.26-2-686. Additionally you will want to install the linux-image-2.6-686 meta package so that future updates are automatically selected. Bob
Attachment:
signature.asc
Description: Digital signature