Date: Mon, 23 May 2005 19:03:34 -0400
From: Christopher Kalos <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Back, with Linux!
So, after over 2 years off-list, I've come back. My Powerbook needs to
go in for repairs, and so I've resurrected my old 110CT, and turned it
into a Linux system which... isn't half bad.
In case anyone has any questions, I can go into some detail regarding
my journey, and will go over a rough overview right now.
1) Installation of Fedora Core 2
The principles will remain the same for most systems, but here's what I
went through, starting with a desktop IDE adapter.
* Partition your hard drive with room for the hibernation data. On my
12GB drive, that involved leaving about 70MB leading up to the 8GB BIOS
boundary free. Make three additional partitions, one above (about 4GB,
FAT filesystem) and two below. One should be about 128MB, formatted as
FAT, and the other should be a little under 8GB, marked as a FAT
partition. I found it wisest to actually use a Linux installer for
this. Once the partitions are created and the grub bootloader is
installed, cancel and start up the main OS on your host system. On the
128 MB partition, add the Fedora Core 2 boot image files, and edit
/boot/grub/menu.lst on the 8GB partition to point to the installers on
the 128MB partition. This is all to avoid some nasty pitfalls in a
moment.
First partition: 7+GB data, FAT
Second partition: 128MB data, FAT
~70 MB blank space, up to 8GB boundary
Third partition: Everything else, FAT.
On the third partition, place the Fedora Core 2 iso's. You do NOT have
to open these up or anything.
GRUB should point to the installer files which you'll have to put on
the second (128 MB) partition. This is your shortcut around the floppy
drive problem, which I needed to do mostly because I left the floppy
drive at home the day I figured out most of the tricks. The system can
load up that data, since it's below the BIOS ceiling, and get the
installer going. Put the drive back in the Libretto, and start it up.
When given the prompt to start the installer by typing "linux," type
"linux askmethod" and follow the instructions. When asked for the
target for the install files, tell it to use the hard drive, and point
it to what *should* be /dev/hda5, the third partition. Make sure to
give it the right subdirectory as needed.
Use Disk Druid to format the existing partitions as follows:
First partition: ext3, mount as /.
Second partition: swap (This will overwrite your installer boot image!
Be brave, if you've made it this far, you should be fine!)
Leave everything else alone, or else you'll have to start all over
again!
Install whatever you think is good, it's still a long walk from here.
You'll eventually get all your packages installed, and reboot. Fedora
will be a pain, and use a graphical postinstall which doesn't show up
right on the 480-pixel-high screen. Alt-N will go to the next screen
each time, and Alt-Y will agree to follow the license terms, since
you'll never SEE the damned thing. Curse, swear, and carry on,
agreeing to defaults if you value your sanity.
Now you have a libretto with a lame-as-hell X setup. Victory!
* X, and how to get around it.
I went for less memory usage, you may want more speed.
For the default Neomagic chipset driver, go to this URL, it's got a
Fedora-compatible replacement for /etc/X11/xorg.conf:
http://wiki.bsdforen.de/index.php/Toshiba_Libretto_100CT
For low RAM, you're practically on your own, as I'm rapidly forgetting
what I did here. What you want is the kdrive X Server, using the
Framebuffer driver, aka xfbdev, found here:
http://www.tuxfan.homeip.net:8080/rule/XFree86/kdrive/8.0/
This won't work yet! Add these lines to /etc/modprobe.conf:
options neofb libretto
alias fb0 neofb
Drop to runlevel 3 (you should be at a console for this, as X will
drive you crazy when it's not set up right,) by typing "telinit 3" as
root.
Now, cd /usr/X11R6/bin, and delete X. This is just a symlink to Xorg,
and you may not like the next set of requirements. Copy the new xfbdev
to this directory as Xvfb-kdrive, and symlink that to X. This will
fail on runlevel 5, so keep on editing.
Go to /etc/X11/gdm, and edit gdm.conf, changing the following two lines:
FirstVT=7
#VTAllocation=true
to this:
#FirstVT=7
VTAllocation=false
The TinyX/kdrive X server doesn't support this, and crashes when you
try to use it.
Now edit /etc/X11/xdm/XResources, commenting out just one line to look
like this:
#XConsole*font: fixed
This one's due to font limitations with the kdrive server. From here
on in, you should be in the clear, though it's possible I'm forgetting
something. telinit 5 to get to X, and it should give you a nicely
formatted login.
As a side bonus, this method forced the Linux Framebuffer module to
load on X startup, giving you 100x30 text consoles, which isn't bad at
all.
* Not out of the woods yet, or what fits in 64MB?
Never one to accept defeat, I set up apt on this system, a very
lightweight package manager, with the help of this site:
http://dag.wieers.com/home-made/apt/
Pointing to every repository that they mention, including FreshRPMs,
DAG, and NewRPMs, I have access to a ton of packages.
"apt-get update" prepped me to run a system upgrade, bringing the
kernel up to speed, and so on, by running "apt-get upgrade" at my
leisure. Do this last, and let it run overnight. It will prompt you
before installing everything, so wait for the prompt before going to
bed. :)
Now that you're updated, here's what I use to keep the system tiny:
Package name - Description
1) fluxbox - Fluxbox window manager
2) dillo - Dillo web browser, often used in Linux handheld projects
3) multi-aterm - Tab-enabled Linux terminal
Other stuff, not available via repositories:
1) SIAG Office - Tiny, not very full featured office suite, requires a
lot of custom library compilation. Worth it to me, but NOT a
newbie-friendly install.
2) Dropbear SSH - lightweight OpenSSH replacement. Useful, but not
necessary to fit under the 64MB limit.
* Trimming the fat
chkconfig is your pal here. Fedora's a crap distro for low RAM, but
it's a cinch to install, and has a lot of momentum behind it. Disable
anything you don't need for a plain laptop. This includes nfs,
portmap, RPC services, MD services, Bluetooth, APMD (you're using ACPI,
and they're more or less mutually exclusive,) ypbind, yum, winbind,
vncserver, kudzu, microcode_ctl, isdn, gpm, nfslock, and smartd. Turn
those off for runlevels 3 and 5, and you should get a minor speed
boost.
Now, you should have a system that barely fits under the 64MB limit,
running a modern kernel, with decent PCMCIA support. Neat-o.
* Wireless, or UGH!
I use a Linksys WPC54Gv1 WiFi card, which, to put it simply, doesn't
[EMAIL PROTECTED]@^& work. So, I hit up google for help, and built ndiswrapper and
wpa_supplicant accordingly. Using the recommended Dell drivers instead
of the Linksys ones, I got the whole thing going *without* a kernel
recompile. WPA Supplicant did the job of hooking me up to a G network,
and suffice it to say, this was a BEAR that I can't even go into yet
without having chills. It's the best NDISWrapper-based card for
Fedora, though, so if you're unable to get a Prism-based 802.11g card,
get a Broadcom BCM94306-based Cardbus card, and follow the instructions
on the ndiswrapper and wpa_supplicant pages. SSID broadcast will need
to be on for your access points, just so you know.
More to come when I'm not frothing with rage.
* Tiny gotchas
1) Kernel compilation. Just don't. It'll take forever.
2) Other compilations. Same deal at times. Keep your RAM usage low,
it'll help.
3) Enhanced Port Replicator. Don't disconnect power, Linux will shit
itself if the USB controller and any dock-attached PCMCIA cards
disappear. Did I ever learn this one the hard way...
4) A Better browser: Firefox is a piggy, even in this config, which is
why I picked Dillo. Skipstone, an even lighter Mozilla-based browser
(with tabs!) doesn't work right from the package on their site, and I'm
too squeamish to attempt a mozilla compile. Cowardly? Maybe. I'm
considering it anyway, as I WANT TABS, and Dillo, while usable, is
almost too tiny. You can tell that it's optimized for a Linux PDA.
In the end, I have a passable office suite, consoles, and I'm still
looking for a decent email client, but all will come in due time. It's
certainly no Mac, and it's a long road to get here, but it's
servicable, and that says a lot when it comes to a system that even the
Linux diehards tend to run away from screaming. Given the tiny RAM
footprint, I'm happier here than I was with Win2K.
-CK
