Installing Slackware on a ThinkPad 750P - Revision history

Hawox: Updated with new revelations and test results

2016-07-12T23:54:50Z

Updated with new revelations and test results

Wyrfel: Installing Slackware on a ThinkPad 750 moved to Installing Slackware on a ThinkPad 750P

2006-01-20T11:20:20Z

Installing Slackware on a ThinkPad 750 moved to Installing Slackware on a ThinkPad 750P

Whizkid: /* Partitioning your disk */

2005-09-07T16:58:58Z

‎Partitioning your disk

Whizkid: Clean up and final thoughts.

2005-09-07T16:57:50Z

Clean up and final thoughts.

Whizkid at 17:59, 30 August 2005

2005-08-30T17:59:10Z

Whizkid: /* Partitioning your disk */

2005-08-30T17:51:27Z

‎Partitioning your disk

Whizkid: /* Getting ready to run Setup */

2005-08-30T17:49:17Z

‎Getting ready to run Setup

Whizkid: Completed section.

2005-08-30T17:48:25Z

Completed section.

Whizkid: /* Preparation */

2005-08-30T17:43:52Z

‎Preparation

Whizkid: /* Obstacles */

2005-08-30T17:43:12Z

‎Obstacles

@@ Line 51: / Line 51: @@
 The parallel port should work perfectly fine. The serial port should work too, but it uses the feeble 16450 serial controller with a one-byte buffer, so high speeds don't work well.
 ==== Video ====
-The 750 family uses the WD90C24 video chip with 1MB RAM. This chip is not currently support in X.org or XFree86. Using standard VGA should work. I haven't done that yet, as I'm using only the command line.
+The 750 family uses the WD90C24 or WD90C30 video chip with 1MB RAM. This chip is supported by XFree86's SVGA driver 640×480@255 colours (tested with version 4.1.0). If you are using X11, the card is not support and one must use the VGA driver with 16 colours and maximum. Keep in mind that the SVGA driver for XF86 needs patching if your ThinkPad 750 features a dual-scan TN display.
 ==== Audio ====
-Not yet working.
+Sound is provided by a Crystal CS4248. It provides 24-bit system Sampling Rates up to 192 kHz. Although many CS423* chips are supported in kernel 2.4 and 2.6, no driver supports this peticular chip.
 ==== Pen ====
 The 750P has an untethered pen that allows you to write on the screen. It appears as /dev/ttyS03 on Slackware. I don't have it working at all yet.

@@ Line 41: / Line 41: @@
 ==== Partitioning your disk ====
 Make partitions on your disk using the old school fdisk, or the easier cfdisk.
 Remember that if your drive is larger than 8GB, you should have a /boot partition and that partition must be in the first 1024 cylinders or 8GB. There is no need to format the partitions as Setup will do that for you.
-A swap partition is also a good idea. 1.5 to 2 times as much RAM as you have is generally regarded as a good size.
+A swap partition is also a good idea. 1.5 to 2 times as much RAM as you have is generally regarded as a good size. (On my 750P, I made a 80MB /boot, 150MB swap and the rest of a 2.1GB drive is the root partition. I also have a FreeDOS partition for running '''PS2.EXE'''.)
 (On my 750P, I made a 80MB /boot, 150MB swap and the rest of a 2.1GB drive is the root partition. I also have a FreeDOS partition for running '''PS2.EXE'''.
 ==== Running Setup ====
   setup

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 __TOC__
 ----
 ===Overview===
-I plan to make my 750P an SMB file and print server.
+I made my 750P an SMB print server. I may add file sharing. With this document, I plan to tell you how to install Slackware 10.1 on your 750.
 === Obstacles ===
@@ Line 21: / Line 14: @@
 If you get NFS installation working, please edit this page.
-The 750 BIOS will recognize hard drives up to 8GB, so ensure your boot partition is entirely under that limit. I have a 12GB drive in my 750P, and Linux will use the entire drive once the kernel loads, as it does not use the BIOS to access the hard disk.
+The 750 BIOS will recognize hard drives up to 8GB, so ensure your boot partition is entirely under that limit. Linux will use all of a larger drive once the kernel loads, as it does not use the BIOS to access the hard disk.
 === The Steps ===
@@ Line 42: / Line 35: @@
 Login as root. If you have a 750 or 750P (and its grayscale screen), you can type '''TERM=vt100''' to get menus with higher contrast, but I think the color menus are nicer even on the grayscale screen. Insert your NIC if not done already. Type '''pcmcia'''. Put in the pcmcia floppy when asked. It should find and enable your NIC. If your card has blinky lights, some of them should be on at this point.
-Type '''network''' and insert the modified network diskette when asked. It will display a menu and prompt you. Switch to another console (Alt-F2), hit enter to log in, and type '''modprobe ftpfs'''. Switch back to the first console (Alt-F1) and type '''q''' to skip looking for your network card (since the pcmcia card already did it). Hit enter to unmount the diskette.
+Type '''network''' and insert the modified network diskette when asked. It will display a menu and prompt you. Switch to another console (Alt-F2), hit enter to log in, and type '''modprobe ftpfs'''. Ignore the warnings. Switch back to the first console (Alt-F1) and type '''q''' to skip looking for your network card (since the pcmcia diskette already did it). Hit enter to unmount the diskette.
 Now you are ready to partition your disk.
@@ Line 50: / Line 43: @@
 Remember that if your drive is larger than 8GB, you should have a /boot partition and that partition must be in the first 1024 cylinders or 8GB. There is no need to format the partitions as Setup will do that for you.
 A swap partition is also a good idea. 1.5 to 2 times as much RAM as you have is generally regarded as a good size.
+(On my 750P, I made a 80MB /boot, 150MB swap and the rest of a 2.1GB drive is the root partition. I also have a FreeDOS partition for running '''PS2.EXE'''.
 ==== Running Setup ====
   setup
-Use that to start installation. The normal installtion procedure should work pretty well from here. (But crossing your fingers won't hurt.)
+Use that to start installation. The normal installtion procedure should work pretty well from here. (But crossing your fingers won't hurt.) See the Slackware installation documentation.
 === Getting devices to work ===
-The parallel port should work perfectly fine. The serial port should work too, but it uses the feeble serial controller with a one-byte buffer, so high speeds don't work well.
+The parallel port should work perfectly fine. The serial port should work too, but it uses the feeble 16450 serial controller with a one-byte buffer, so high speeds don't work well.
 ==== Video ====
-The 750 family uses the WD90C24 video chip with 1MB RAM. This chip is not currently support in X.org or XFree86. Using standard VGA should work. I haven't done that yet.
+The 750 family uses the WD90C24 video chip with 1MB RAM. This chip is not currently support in X.org or XFree86. Using standard VGA should work. I haven't done that yet, as I'm using only the command line.
 ==== Audio ====
 Not yet working.
@@ Line 65: / Line 56: @@
 The 750P has an untethered pen that allows you to write on the screen. It appears as /dev/ttyS03 on Slackware. I don't have it working at all yet.
 === Final Thoughts ===
 [[Category:750]] [[Category:750Cs]] [[Category:750C]] [[Category:750P]]
   [[Category:Slackware]]

@@ Line 16: / Line 16: @@
 The 750 has no CD drive, and I don't have a PCMCIA CD drive, so I have to boot from floppy and install over a network. Slackware supports installing over NFS.
 The NIC I'm using is the LinkSys PCMPC100, which mostly works. It doesn't seem to like NFS, so I'm using the fizban FTP method. [http://www.slackware.com/~fizban/ftpinstall.php Fizban's page]. By the way, if your system locks up with no messages, please try using the FTP method. If you get "still trying" messages with NFS, try FTP. If you get "next frame inconsistency" messages, it's probably a hardware issue. (I had a very bad network cable that caused this error. Now I get a few, but just re-seating the network cable makes it go fine for a while.)
@@ Line 39: / Line 40: @@
 Insert install.1 when it asks for the root disk. Continue with the fizban '''modified''' install.2 when prompted.
-Login as root. If you have a 750 or 750P (and its grayscale screen), you can type "TERM=vt100" to get menus with higher contrast, but I think the color menus are nicer even on the grayscale screen. Insert your NIC if not done already. Type '''pcmcia'''. Put in the pcmcia floppy when asked. It should find and enable your NIC. If your card has blinky lights, some of them should be on at this point.
+Login as root. If you have a 750 or 750P (and its grayscale screen), you can type '''TERM=vt100''' to get menus with higher contrast, but I think the color menus are nicer even on the grayscale screen. Insert your NIC if not done already. Type '''pcmcia'''. Put in the pcmcia floppy when asked. It should find and enable your NIC. If your card has blinky lights, some of them should be on at this point.
 Type '''network''' and insert the modified network diskette when asked. It will display a menu and prompt you. Switch to another console (Alt-F2), hit enter to log in, and type '''modprobe ftpfs'''. Switch back to the first console (Alt-F1) and type '''q''' to skip looking for your network card (since the pcmcia card already did it). Hit enter to unmount the diskette.
@@ Line 55: / Line 56: @@
   setup
 Use that to start installation. The normal installtion procedure should work pretty well from here. (But crossing your fingers won't hurt.)
 === Final Thoughts ===
 [[Category:750]] [[Category:750Cs]] [[Category:750C]] [[Category:750P]]
   [[Category:Slackware]]

@@ Line 46: / Line 46: @@
 ==== Partitioning your disk ====
-Make partitions on your disk.
+Make partitions on your disk using the old school fdisk, or the easier cfdisk.
-Remember to ensure your /boot partition is in the first 1024 cylinders or 8GB. Use mke2fs to format them. Here's what I did after partitioning:
+Remember that if your drive is larger than 8GB, you should have a /boot partition and that partition must be in the first 1024 cylinders or 8GB. There is no need to format the partitions as Setup will do that for you.
- mke2fs /dev/hda3
+A swap partition is also a good idea. 1.5 to 2 times as much RAM as you have is generally regarded as a good size.
 ==== Enable FTP Installation ====
 Type '''network''' and insert the modified network diskette when asked. Let it skip identifying your card, as it is already working. Once it quits, type '''modprobe ftpfs'''.

← Older revision	Revision as of 11:20, 20 January 2006
(No difference)

@@ Line 30: / Line 30: @@
 On another machine, set up an NFS or FTP server with the contents of the Slackware CD's.
-==== Booting and connecting to the network ====
+==== Getting ready to run Setup ====
-Download the bare.i, install.1, install.2, and pcmcia Slackware floppies. Boot the 750 with the bare.i disk. The following line of parameters will suit our needs.
+Boot the 750 with the bare.i disk. The following line of parameters will suit our needs.
   ramdisk floppy=thinkpad idebus=33 noacpi noscsi nousb nopci
-'''floppy=thinkpad''' needed for old ThinkPads that have the drive sense signal polarity inverted. The 750 does.
+'''floppy=thinkpad''' is needed for old ThinkPads that have the drive sense signal polarity inverted. The 750 does.
 '''idebus=33''' tells the kernel that the ide bus runs at 33MHz. (Surprise!)
 '''noxxx''' means the kernel should not even look for that kind of device, because it's not present on the 750.
@@ Line 39: / Line 39: @@
 Insert install.1 when it asks for the root disk. Continue with the fizban '''modified''' install.2 when prompted.
-Login as root. If you have a 750 or 750P (and its grayscale screen), you can type "TERM=vt100" to get menus with higher contrast, but I think the color menus are nicer even on the grayscale screen. Insert your NIC if not done already. Type '''pcmcia'''. Put in the pcmcia floppy when asked. Configure your card:
+Login as root. If you have a 750 or 750P (and its grayscale screen), you can type "TERM=vt100" to get menus with higher contrast, but I think the color menus are nicer even on the grayscale screen. Insert your NIC if not done already. Type '''pcmcia'''. Put in the pcmcia floppy when asked. It should find and enable your NIC. If your card has blinky lights, some of them should be on at this point.
- ifconfig eth0 $IPADDR
-Add '''netmask $NETMASK''' if you use a non-standard one.
+Type '''network''' and insert the modified network diskette when asked. It will display a menu and prompt you. Switch to another console (Alt-F2), hit enter to log in, and type '''modprobe ftpfs'''. Switch back to the first console (Alt-F1) and type '''q''' to skip looking for your network card (since the pcmcia card already did it). Hit enter to unmount the diskette.
 ==== Partitioning your disk ====
 Make partitions on your disk.

@@ Line 24: / Line 24: @@
 === The Steps ===
 ==== Preparation ====
-Download these standard Slackware floppies: bare.i, install.1, install.2, pcmcia and network. If using fizban, download his modified install.2 as well.
+Download these standard Slackware floppies: bare.i, install.1, install.2, pcmcia and network. If using fizban, download his modified network and install.2 instead.
 Choose an IP address. Get your IP gateway and netmask.
 On another machine, set up an NFS or FTP server with the contents of the Slackware CD's.
 ==== Booting and connecting to the network ====
 Download the bare.i, install.1, install.2, and pcmcia Slackware floppies. Boot the 750 with the bare.i disk. The following line of parameters will suit our needs.