Re: Newbie on the verge of trashing thinkpad
>O.k., maybe I didn't give enough info on this. I have a thinkpad 755c.
>After installing I'm getting message "memory address conflict at (address)
>error 0011". Then "error 0011" repeats ad infinitum. I have 20 meg of ram
>and have set up a 40 meg swap partition. The remaining space (320 meg) is
>divided 40 meg for dos and 320 for linux. I have not gotten this type of
>message before, so memory config has worked in the past.
>
Coaxing debian onto a thinkpad can be a task that requires a great deal of patience. Please be forgiving if any of the stuff below is too basic-- I'm assuming you don't have much experience with debian, and if that isn't the case, then some of what follows may come off as boring or insulting.
I think I've seen a that error on a thinkpad. IIRC, I resolved it by compiling the kernel and making a zImage rather than a bzImage.
You have two problems:
1) In the debian installation process, a reboot is required before you can go on to package selection and finishing the installation. If you start your installation from, say, your dos partition, install the (bzImage) kernel and lilo, and then attempt to boot that kernel from the hard drive toward the end of your installation procedure, then you will be stuck. I seem to remember getting around this problem by finding a floppy image that would boot on a thinkpad (some guy in japan had built the image), and then using that floppy for the reboot, using the installation program the second time around only to activate swap and mount my partitions before cancelling (or hitting alt+f2 for a VC) and running deselect. It helps if you've already done a few debian installs...
2) Once you've figured out how to get a full installation onto your drive, you still won't be able to boot from the hard drive-- not until you recompile your kernel. Install kernel-source, kernel-package, and pcmcia-source. Edit /etc/kernel-pkg.conf , adding the line:
kimage := zImage
Dig that pascal syntax! Anyway. Read /usr/doc/kernel-package/README.gz (use zmore or zless). Follow the instructions for the impatient, and start your kernel build. While your kernel is compiling, go back and read the rest of the document. There's good stuff in there. Build your modules_image. Now install the kernel-image and modules debs that you've created (you need to do the modules to make sure that your PCMCIA support will still be there when you're done. This is a nasty gotcha if you're doing any sort of pcmcia-requiring installation/upgrade stuff-- like me. I do things over a PCMCIA network card).
Then you can move on to fun things like getting X to work properly, mucking about with your sound hardware, getting your APM settings right, etc. I've got almost every part of a tp600 working with debian, and if I knew the first thing about package management, I'd roll up my modifications/configurations and distribute a thinkpad-600.deb
This is all from memory. My memory is very leaky. I may have remembered one floppy-install trick, when it was actually a different one that worked. In any case, If you already have a floppy that will boot, then you're halfway there.
Debian is still a bit behind other distributions on laptops, but you can usually make things work if you're persistent.
Ed
Reply to: