[ltp] Re: ISO Suggestions for 750P

[Chris Schumann]

> From: Daniel Pittman <daniel@rimspace.net>
> "Chris Schumann" <cschumann@twp-llc.com> writes:
> 
> > I've got a ThinkPad 750P here that holds a special place in my geek
> > heart.  It's my first PC ever, and I want to put Linux on it.
> >
> > It's got a 33MHz 486, 12GB disk (BIOS sees 8GB), 36MB RAM, a WD90C24
> > video chip with 1MB VRAM, and a CS4248 audio chip, and an untethered
> > pen.
> >
> > I've tried Gentoo (the pain!), Debian and Slackware. I have a floppy
> > drive and network card, so a lot of distributions start installing
> > just fine.
> >
> > I'd like to get ALL the devices working. I know it won't be 
> fast, and
> > I know the svga driver hasn't been ported to the current X
> > distributions.
> >
> > I know some of you have been using Linux on ThinkPads for a 
> LONG time,
> > so, what are my best options? (besides recycling)
> 
> Honestly, it makes very little real difference which distribution you
> use -- most of the resource use will be in the graphical software you
> intend to run.
> 
> Oh, and the VESA driver should work fine for non-accelerated output to
> that display, since it only maps the screen in and does everything by
> hand.
> 
> 
> Two suggestions: you might consider using this as an X terminal, which
> is only responsible for local display.  The real software 
> could run on a
> more capable machine and provide a much nicer experience.
> 
> 
> Second, consider ditching X.  It may only be three to five MB of
> libraries and X server code, but on that hardware that 
> represents ten or
> fifteen percent of your available memory.
> 
> The console works, and you can probably have a nicer and more pleasant
> experience working directly on that.  I believe you can even have a
> graphical web browser these days, with GTK/DirectFB or by using w3m or
> similar and their console graphics helpers.
> 
> 
> Finally, you might find that a 2.4 kernel helps with reducing kernel
> resource use, although I don't expect it.  A 2.2 kernel 
> probably would,
> but finding a distribution that supports it would be hard these days.
> 
> Regards,
>         Daniel

There are some distributions that are very difficult to install without
access to a CD drive directly attached to the machine, and some that just
won't install without 64MB RAM, but otherwise, I agree it shouldn't matter
too much... other than most of my Linux experience has been with Red Hat and
Fedora.

The VESA driver may work, but on this machine, VESA is not built into the
BIOS. IIRC, for Windows 3.1 and Win95, I had to use a VESA driver, so I
expect the display to be very tricky, and maybe require some hacking on my
part.

I'm not looking for a good overall experience when using the machine - I
want to learn more about getting hardware to work with Linux.

The console does indeed work just fine, but getting the pen to work on the
console doesn't really seem worthwhile to me. :)

As for the kernel, I wouldn't mind compiling a custom jobby to reduce
resource use. There are no SCSI, USB or even PCI buses on the thing.

But maybe I'll go looking for a distribution candidate and come back for
help.

Chris