4mb−Laptops
4mb−Laptops Table of Contents 4mb Laptop HOWTO.........................................................................................................................................1 Bruce Richardson ......................................................................................1 1.Introduction...........................................................................................................................................1 2.The Laptops...........................
4mb−Laptops Table of Contents Select........................................................................................................................................11 Install ......................................................................................................................................12 Configure .................................................................................................................................12 Exit ............................................
mb Laptop HOWTO Bruce Richardson 25 March 2000 How to put a "grown−up" Linux on a small−spec (4mb RAM, <=200mb hard disk) laptop. 1.Introduction • 1.1 Why this document was written. • 1.2 What use is a small laptop? • 1.3 Why not just upgrade the laptop? • 1.4 What about 4mb desktop machines? • 1.5 What this document doesn't do. • 1.6 Where to find this document. • 1.7 Copyright 2.The Laptops • 2.1 Basic Specifications • 2.2 The Problem • 2.3 The Solution 3.Choices Made • 3.
4mb−Laptops 4.The Pre−installation Procedure • 4.1 muLinux Preparation • 4.2 Prepare the installation root files. • 4.3 Create the partitions. 5.The Installation • 5.1 Boot the machine • 5.2 Floppy/Parport CD−ROM Install • 5.3 Network/PCMCIA Install • 5.4 Set−up • 5.5 Pre−reboot Configuration • 5.6 Post−reboot Configuration. 6.Conclusion 7.Appendix A: • 7.1 A − Base Linux System • 7.2 AP − Non−X Applications • 7.3 D − Development Tools • 7.4 E − Emacs • 7.5 F − FAQs and HOWTOs • 7.
4mb−Laptops 1.1 Why this document was written. I got my hands on two elderly laptops, both with just 4mb RAM and small (<=200mb) hard drives. I wanted to install Linux on them. The documentation for this kind of laptop all recommends installing either a mini−Linux or an old (and therefor compact) version of one of the professional distributions. I wanted to install an up−to−date professional distribution. 1.2 What use is a small laptop? Plenty.
4mb−Laptops details. Toshiba and T1910 are trademarks of Toshiba Corporation. Compaq and Contura Aero are trademarks of Compaq Computer Corporation. 2.The Laptops This section describes the laptops that I have used this procedure on, the problems faced when installing Linux on them and the solutions to those problems (in outline). 2.1 Basic Specifications Compaq Contura Aero • 25MHz 486SX CPU • 4mb RAM • 170mb Hard Disk • 1 PCMCIA Type II slot • External PCMCIA 3.
4mb−Laptops 2.2 The Problem The small hard disks and the lack of an internal floppy on the Aero make the installation more tricky than normal but the real problem is the RAM. None of the current distributions has an installation disk that will boot in 4mb, not even if the whole hard disk is a swap partition. The standard installation uses a boot disk to uncompress a root−partition image (either from a second floppy or from CD−ROM) into a ram−disk. The root−image is around 4mb in size.
4mb−Laptops muLinux http://sunsite.auc.dk/mulinux/ muLinux will boot in 4mb but only in a limited single−user mode. In this mode fdisk and mkswap are available but mkfs.ext2 and the libraries needed to run it are on the /usr partition which is not available in maintenance mode. To use muLinux to do the whole pre−installation procedure the files needed to create ext2 file−systems must be extracted from the usr disk image and copied onto a floppy.
4mb−Laptops Parallel−port Install Where the parallel port has an IDE device, parallel cable or pocket ethernet adaptor A pocket lan adaptor installation onto these machines will be very slow. attached. This would be a good choice for the Aero, leaving the PCMCIA slot free to run the floppy drive. PCMCIA Install As above, this could be a CD−ROM or network install. This would be the best method for the T1910 − on the Aero it's a bit more awkward.
4mb−Laptops In addition, the Aero uses hda3 for a 2mb DOS partition containing configuration utilities. See the Aero FAQs for details. 3.5 Which components to install? The full glibc libraries alone would nearly fill the hard disks so there's no question of building a development machine. It looks as if a minimal X installation can be squeezed in but I'm sure it would crawl and I don't want it anyway.
4mb−Laptops /dev directory. That's 432 nodes for a 1722 disk or 368 for a 1440. If you specify /dev/fd0H1722 or /dev/fd0H1440 then you don't have to give any other parameters so for a 1722 disk do mke2fs −N 432 /dev/fd0H1722 If you have mounted the root image as /tmproot and the destination floppy as /floppy then cd to /tmproot.
4mb−Laptops With muLinux, wait until the boot−process complains about the small memory space and offers the option of dropping into a shell − take that option and work in the limited single−user mode it gives you. 2. Use fdisk to create the partitions. 3. Reboot on leaving fdisk (with muLinux you may simply have to turn off and on again at this point). 4. Use mkswap on the swap partition and then activate it (this will make muLinux much happier). 5.
4mb−Laptops PCMCIA install on the Aero The Slackware installation process runs the PCMCIA drivers from the supplementary floppy. Because the Aero has a PCMCIA floppy drive, this means you can't remove the floppy drive to insert the PCMCIA CD−ROM/ethernet card. The solution is simple: the Slackware PCMCIA setup routine creates /pcmcia and mounts the supplementary disk there, so 1. Create the /pcmcia directory yourself 2. Mount the supplementary disk to /mnt.
4mb−Laptops I wouldn't recommend adding to this − if anything, prune it back to A, AP and N. That gives you a core Linux setup to which you can add according to your needs. Install Choose the Expert installation method. This allows you to select/reject for installation individual packages from the categories you chose in the Selection step. Appendix A goes through the precise choices I made . This part takes about 3 hours for a PCMCIA network install.
4mb−Laptops this part of the script so that it will only run if you pass a parameter at the boot−prompt. For example: if [ "NEWMODULES" == "1" ] ; then depmod −afi /etc/rc.d/rc.inet2 This script starts network services like nfs. You probably don't need these and certainly not at start−up. Rename this script to something like RC.inet2 − that will stop it from being run at boot and you can run it manually when you need it. /etc/rc.d/rc.
4mb−Laptops 7.Appendix A: This appendix lists which packages (if any) from each category might be included in the installation and gives my reasons for including or omitting them. I made no attempt to install X so those categories are ignored. Although this appendix refers specifically to the Slackware distribution it can be used as a guide with any of the major distributions. 7.
4mb−Laptops No use here. Omitted. loadlin Not needed with the setup described here − unless your old laptop has some peculiarity that requires a DOS driver to initialise some of its devices. Omitted. lpr You could argue that you can do your printing from whichever desktop is nearest but I always find it useful to be have printing capabilities on a laptop. Included. minicom Not a compulsory include but I want the laptop to do dial−up connection. Very handy. Included. pciutils Not needed on these old laptops.
4mb−Laptops 7.2 AP − Non−X Applications None of these packages are, strictly speaking, essential − although ash is really required for sensible operation in 4mb. Leaving them all out could save the vital space for you to squeeze in your favourite app. I selected a minimal set of tools that I don't like to do without. Packages considered for inclusion: apsfilter Not much point having printing if you can only print text files. Included. ash This is the shell for low−memory machines, only taking up 60k.
4mb−Laptops Slackware offers a lightweight compilation of mc but I'm happier at the command prompt. Omitted. quota Not necessary on what is not a multi−user machine but you may,like me, find it handy to stop you from forgetfully wasting the little space you have. Included. rpm Don't bother. If you do have an rpm that you would like to squeeze in, use rpm2tgz on a desktop machine to turn it into a tgz package − then you can use the standard Slackware installation tools. Omitted.
4mb−Laptops Packages installed: None 7.4 E − Emacs I don't use Emacs and so saved myself some space. On the other hand, if you are an Emacs fan then you probably use it for e−mail, news and coding so you'll claim some of that space back by omitting other packages. If you do want Emacs it might be an idea to leave this out while doing the core installation. Once the laptop is up you can try fitting in what you want/need at your leisure. Packages installed: None. 7.
4mb−Laptops 7.8 Tetex Another set that will barely squeeze in. I can't say how it would run in the space available. Packages installed: None 7.9 Y − BSD Games Collection I'm addicted to several of these. If I really need that last 5mb they can go. Packages installed: bsdgames Combined size: 5.4 mb 7.10 End result In total the installed packages plus kernel took up about 75mb of disk space of which 19.5mb was in the root partition and 55.5 in /usr. On the Aero that left 39mb in /usr, 74mb on the T1910.
4mb−Laptops http://domen.uninett.no/~hta/linux/aero−faq.html Contura Aero FAQ http://www.reed.edu/~pwilk/aero/aero.faq Comprehensive FAQ on all aspects of the Contura Aero compiled by the moderators of the Aero mailing list. Good Linux section . 7.
