Re: linux laptop help

[RAVIKANT K RAO <ravikant@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 28 Oct 1999, Sriram wrote:

> has anyone configured a linux on laptop?

<_VERY_ surprised>

!!!!.... wow... OF COURSE !!! 
As a matter of fact , during one of my many jobless querying Altavista , I
did some Laptop+Linux+Web Server or some such thing and discovered that
there are quite a few web servers/mail server etc etc running Linux and
its variants and FBSD , NetBSD etc on laptop's ... As a matter of fact ,
my Compaq Armada 1700 Laptop Currently Dual boots between RedHat 6.1 (
Courtesy Dr Sriram , thanks ;-) and Win 98 . Should soon be triple booting
w/ an option to Debian 2.1 as well ;)

 
> i have an ibm thinkpad. it has a 3com 10/100 mbps card and a billionton 56 modem. both pcmcia devices. i am having problems configuring it. i am not sure if i am doing it right. but i followed the instructions that i have seen in how to's.

IBM thinkpads are possibly the _BEST_ supported laptop's under linux ,
info as gathered from threads on LI ; I'm 101% sure Atul Chitnis (LI) 
would agree with this , ....

As a matter of fact , my brother is also running RedHat 6.0 on his
ThinkPad 650 C ... 

My friend in Delhi is using 3com cards too ... networked some 11 boxes of
his , all running various O/S-es ... ( the guy that's running
www.kapil.com -> That machine itself is running Linux , I believe ) ...
Apparently 3com cards are well supported , I'm planning to get one myself.

> any clues ?

It would help lots more if you define what your "problems" are...

try $ man cardmgr and $ man cardctl


> i am willing to bring it to someone's place who can show me how to do it as well as does it there. would this be a good idea?

<rant>

ha! MISTAKE !!! If prabhu/arun remember , I posted a very similar mail to
their respective mail addresses when I was a newbie telling them I would
even move my gigantic desktop all teh way to their homes w/ bribes if they
would install linux for me , and prabhu replied , telling me to do it
myself , read metalab.unc.edu/LDP and THEN post queries to the list ...
and that I wouldnt learn anything if I got others to do stuff for me (
which Is true , I've had RH 5.2 on my system for eons , from about 1 week
the day it released , but heck , I didnt know what to do with , neither
did I Care ... ) ... I _WAS_ annoyed then , because prabhu did'nt "help"
me , but I _now_ realise what a world of good it did to me ... So do the
whole thing yourself. FYI I installed RH 6.0 on my laptop when I had
exposure to RH on my desktop for precisely 3 weeks... I suppose you've had
more exposure hey?

</rant>
 
   That apart , Its very very sad to see that you've not done your
homework at all ... :-(

<desparation>

Please Please in gods name go look at http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP ... there
is a section there for "Linux on Laptop's" ...which will re-direct you to
http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/kharker/linux-laptop/   <- This is what you
want.

</desparation>

  It's a _BEAUTIFULLY_ made section , documenting very many variants of
Laptops ,...dealing w/ possibly any and every known characteristic of
laptops... So read that site thoroughly, read HOWTO's specific to laptops
(given on that site) and try to self-diagnose etc...and then post to the
list.
  One piece of info that worked for me which I guess i'll tell you ... in
all my installations of linux on my laptop , ranging from RH 6.0 , Debian
2.1 , RH 6.1 in that order ... I discovered that RH 6.1 gives you the best
X server version of them all ... 3.3.3 or something , which gives me
better support for my monitor which is a 15" active matrix LCD Display ,
TFT or some random junk that I never cared for...
  _I_ choose my monitor to be "LCD Panel 1024x768" which gives me the
_best_ resolution , etc etc ... I have no clue what yours is / what you
should choose , but you should experiment. 
  IMO , you should download the latest X server - stable is 3.3.6 or
something , and unstable is 3.9.16 or something , which is what I'm
wgetting right now , as I type this... 

----
--23:03:16--
ftp://ftp.cdrom.com:21/.1/XFree86/snapshots/3.9.16/source/X3916src-1.tgz
  (try: 2) => `X3916src-1.tgz'
==> CWD not required.
==> PORT ... done.    ==> REST 7877080 ... done.    
==> RETR X3916src-1.tgz ... done.
Length: 18,368,744 [10,491,664 to go] (unauthoritative)

7850K -> .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... [ 44%]
----

After a woeful 40 hours + online spread over 4 days , I've got only 44%
:-( ... maybe aero.iitm.ernet.in would want to download some similar thing
or someone else on an ISDN line or something and put it up in some common
machine publicly accessible and the machine be local so that transfer
would be faster...(?) That's _my_ suggestion and I hope something comes of
it... All I can say right now is that , once I get the whole file , I am
willing to put it on my machine in /public or some place so that you can
dial into 821 1877 and i'll give you anonymous ftp so you wget this file
from t-nagar , much faster  [ and no . before you get any ideas , I am
_NOT_ gonna pull out this HDD so you can plug it in and transfer in 20
seconds... ;P ] ...of course after someone helps me configure PPP dial-up
into my m/c ;-) 

  The funda is , the video card here , Trident T 9750 2 MB AGP is
supposed to MUCH better supported on 3.3.5 and this is currently 3.3.2 or
so ... with noticeably better support than 2.0.36 ... that's why I'm
wgetting it ...[ That was for some other person on this list that had a
Trident Card and said they had a bad looking X ... solution -> download
the latest stable ver of X server ... ] 

  Anyway, you should also check out the archives of the debian-laptop
mailng list , http://lists.debian.org/ and maybe sign up for it too , and
post a query there , AFTER checking out archives ... the stuff there _is_
debian specific ... but hey, debian is linux too ;-)
  
  Finally , here's wishing you good luck w/ your laptop-linux ... ( I had
heard stories about how Linux has lousier USB Support or something , but
truthfully speaking , I couldnt care...it works just fine on mine :- )

  To quote Ingrid S Asha ,Member of Technical Support RedHat Inc.,

 " Tips/Pointers are free ; Support isn't "  

  So if you're thinking of hauling your laptop to some dude's place to get
stuff done , remember that bribes are in order ;-)

  Have a nice day :-)

- Ravi.

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