Toshiba Laptop - Portege 3015
Some of you may be interested to find that I was able to get Debian up and
running on a Toshiba Portege' 3015CT laptop (finally). And in deference
to my post to debian-user last week regarding this issue, I promised to
let everyone know what I found...
First, I found a VERY nice document on the subject by Stephen Foskett
<sfoskett@slf.gweep.net> at the Linux Laptop Volunteer Database...
http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/kharker/linux-laptop/
I'd highly recommend anyone installing on a laptop check out this huge
resource.
First off, Stephen should get MEGA-KUDOS and thank-you's from all of us
running the Toshiba Portege's! Great job, Stephen!
His instructions are at:
http://slf.gweep.net/~sfoskett/linux/p3010.html
I used his technique of starting out in Windows/DOS and booting through
loadlin.exe, which worked very well. Only error I found in his
documentation was that while the method he describes always boots
correctly when coming in from DOS, if you try to boot using the standard
kernel image for slink on this laptop from LILO, the system goes into a
continuous reboot cycle after loading the kernel image. Old bug, I know,
but it still bites hard.
I downloaded the "tecra" images and renamed them to replace the "standard"
images, in Steve's suggested installation directory, and I also downloaded
the ltecra kernel image into the install directory. Then I booted from
loadlin.exe from DOS, and installed Debian more or less the standard way
after that point. PCMCIA works, everything else (that should be) is
working, and I'm very happy to have Debian on my laptop system instead of
that -- other -- Linux variant I was forced to use in a pinch this
weekend.
My PCMCIA CD-ROM isn't very happy yet, but I know that's fixed
in the 2.2 kernels... so now the decision becomes, do I do it on slink?
We'll see...
Stephen's method works fine if you're going to always load up DOS/Windows
first and then boot to Linux. He mentions in his text that he uses a
script in his autoexec.bat to decide which OS to start up. I wanted to
use LILO to select the OS (and actually I go back and forth from using
LILO to BootMagic, the commercial package, depending on my mood... they
both work now...) at boot-time, and the tecra images do the trick using
the usual installation diskette menus to set it up.
Stephen, again... THANK YOU!
Other stuff I tried: I attempted to boot and load from floppy using the
tecra rescue disk image, and it WOULD NOT BOOT. It had the same symptoms
as if I'd used a bzImage kernel, and the same symptoms as the first time
I attempted to get LILO installed after following Stephens instructions in
the document without adding the tecra images. Very strange.
I also tried the "tecra-safe" rescue disk, but since it's really to fix
problems with SYSLINUX and not the kernel image, had no different effect.
Neither "tecra" diskette would boot, and yes... I remade them three times
each and once in a different machine's floppy drive, just to make sure the
disks were okay.
If it weren't for Stephen's documentation, I'd have never thought to get
things installed in this way. I owe you a beverage of your choice if we
ever meet someday!
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| Nate Duehr - nate@natetech.com | Support Amateur Radio & Linux! |
| Private Pilot, Telephony Engineer | Ham Callsign: N0NTZ |
| UNIX Hack, Perl Hack, Tech-Freak | Grid Square: DM79 |
| | "May the Source be with you." |
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