Gallium: the retired laptop.

After close to a year of running Gallium with Slackware 9.1 I got adventurous and decided it was time for a test. I wanted to try the new Slackware 11 on some machine, so I decided Gallium was the one to volunteer. Should it not be a success, we can always return to Slackware 9.1 and there just was no serious data content on Gallium.

So that was it. The harddisk was wiped and Slackware 11 was installed on it. My first attempts were to use a smart partitioning with separate swap, root and home filesystems, but that didn't go very smoothly with the 4 GB disk. So I opted for the failsafe method: just swap and root filesystems.
Installation was easy. The hardest part is having inserted the first disk before the machine starts to boot. Just select the packages, set up the swap etc. Just the usual Slackware things. After some hours, the system worked and I must say: this is the best Slackware I ever used! It's faster than 9.1 even on this retired machine! I will definitely NOT return back to 9.1. Just install it and startx to get convinced!

Property Value Unit
Brand Dell CPi A366XT  
Processor Mobile Intel Pentium II  
Frequency 366 Megahertz
Linux Slackware 11  
RAM 128 Megabytes
Drives /dev/hda = 4.6 GB HDD
/dev/hdc = CD ROM
/dev/fd0 = FDD (on a seperate cable)
 
Ethernet Xircom BE 100 Mbps
IP address 192.168.56.31  
Running since February 2007  

Below, you will find the contents of the most important files for Gallium. These files are important for all computers and the settings are extremely hardware dependent. Read the files and use the things you want to try out on your machine. These settings are meaningful to you, ONLY if you have another Dell Lattitude CPi A366 XT. In all other cases: consider these lines of text as guidelines or reasons for experimentation.

/etc/fstab

/dev/hda1        swap             swap        defaults         0   0
/dev/hda2        /                reiserfs    defaults         1   1
/dev/cdrom       /mnt/cdrom       auto        noauto,owner,ro  0   0
/dev/fd0         /mnt/floppy      auto        noauto,owner     0   0
devpts           /dev/pts         devpts      gid=5,mode=620   0   0
proc             /proc            proc        defaults         0   0
   

/etc/hosts

#
# hosts		This file describes a number of hostname-to-address
#		mappings for the TCP/IP subsystem.  It is mostly
#		used at boot time, when no name servers are running.
#		On small systems, this file can be used instead of a
#		"named" name server.  Just add the names, addresses
#		and any aliases to this file...
#
# By the way, Arnt Gulbrandsen <agulbra@nvg.unit.no> says that 127.0.0.1
# should NEVER be named with the name of the machine.  It causes problems
# for some (stupid) programs, irc and reputedly talk. :^)
#

# For loopbacking.
127.0.0.1		localhost

192.168.56.99		proton.fruttenboel 	proton

192.168.56.1		hydrogen.fruttenboel	hydrogen
192.168.56.3		lithium.fruttenboel	lithium
192.168.56.4		beryllium.fruttenboel	Be
192.168.56.8		oxygen.fruttenboel	oxygen
192.168.56.10		neon.fruttenboel	neon 
192.168.56.108		scandium.fruttenboel	scandium
192.168.56.31		gallium.fruttenboel 	gallium
192.168.56.99		proton.fruttenboel 	proton

# End of hosts.
   

/etc/hosts.allow

#
# hosts.allow	This file describes the names of the hosts which are
#		allowed to use the local INET services, as decided by
#		the '/usr/sbin/tcpd' server.
#
# Version:	@(#)/etc/hosts.allow	1.00	05/28/93
#
# Author:	Fred N. van Kempen, <waltje@uwalt.nl.mugnet.org>
#
#

# End of hosts.allow.
   

/etc/hosts.deny

#
# hosts.deny	This file describes the names of the hosts which are
#		*not* allowed to use the local INET services, as decided
#		by the '/usr/sbin/tcpd' server.
#
# Version:	@(#)/etc/hosts.deny	1.00	05/28/93
#
# Author:	Fred N. van Kempen, <waltje@uwalt.nl.mugnet.org>
#
#

# End of hosts.deny.
   

/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf

# /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf
#
# This file contains the configuration settings for network interfaces.
# If USE_DHCP[interface] is set to "yes", this overrides any other settings.
# If you don't have an interface, leave the settings null ("").

# You can configure network interfaces other than eth0,eth1... by setting
# IFNAME[interface] to the interface's name. If IFNAME[interface] is unset
# or empty, it is assumed you're configuring eth<interface>.

# Several other parameters are available, the end of this file contains a
# comprehensive set of examples.

# =============================================================================

# Config information for eth0:
IPADDR[0]="192.168.56.31"
NETMASK[0]="255.255.255.0"
USE_DHCP[0]=""
DHCP_HOSTNAME[0]=""

# Config information for eth1:
IPADDR[1]=""
NETMASK[1]=""
USE_DHCP[1]=""
DHCP_HOSTNAME[1]=""

# Config information for eth2:
IPADDR[2]=""
NETMASK[2]=""
USE_DHCP[2]=""
DHCP_HOSTNAME[2]=""

# Config information for eth3:
IPADDR[3]=""
NETMASK[3]=""
USE_DHCP[3]=""
DHCP_HOSTNAME[3]=""

# Default gateway IP address:
GATEWAY="192.168.56.99"

# Change this to "yes" for debugging output to stdout.  Unfortunately,
# /sbin/hotplug seems to disable stdout so you'll only see debugging output
# when rc.inet1 is called directly.
DEBUG_ETH_UP="no"

## Example config information for wlan0.  Uncomment the lines you need and fill
## in your info.  (You may not need all of these for your wireless network)
#IFNAME[4]="wlan0"
#IPADDR[4]=""
#NETMASK[4]=""
#USE_DHCP[4]="yes"
#DHCP_HOSTNAME[4]="icculus-wireless"
#DHCP_KEEPRESOLV[4]="yes"
#DHCP_KEEPNTP[4]="yes"
#DHCP_KEEPGW[4]="yes"
#DHCP_IPADDR[4]=""
#WLAN_ESSID[4]=BARRIER05
#WLAN_MODE[4]=Managed
##WLAN_RATE[4]="54M auto"
##WLAN_CHANNEL[4]="auto"
##WLAN_KEY[4]="D5AD1F04ACF048EC2D0B1C80C7"
#WLAN_WPA[4]="wpa_supplicant"
#WLAN_WPADRIVER[4]="ndiswrapper"

## Some examples of additional network parameters that you can use.
## Config information for wlan0:
#IFNAME[4]="wlan0"              # Use a different interface name nstead of
                                # the default 'eth4'
#HWADDR[4]="00:01:23:45:67:89"  # Overrule the card's hardware MAC address
#MTU[4]=""                      # The default MTU is 1500, but you might need
                                # 1360 when you use NAT'ed IPSec traffic.
#DHCP_KEEPRESOLV[4]="yes"       # If you dont want /etc/resolv.conf overwritten
#DHCP_KEEPNTP[4]="yes"          # If you don't want ntp.conf overwritten
#DHCP_KEEPGW[4]="yes"           # If you don't want the DHCP server to change
                                # your default gateway
#DHCP_IPADDR[4]=""              # Request a specific IP address from the DHCP
                                # server
#WLAN_ESSID[4]=DARKSTAR         # Here, you can override _any_ parameter
                                # defined in rc.wireless.conf, by prepending
                                # 'WLAN_' to the parameter's name. Useful for
                                # those with multiple wireless interfaces.
#WLAN_IWPRIV[4]="AuthMode=WPAPSK EncrypType=TKIP WPAPSK=thekey TxRate=0"
                                # Some drivers require a private ioctl to be
                                # set through the iwpriv command. If more than
                                # one is required, you can place them in the
                                # IWPRIV parameter (space-separated, see the
                                # example).
   

/etc/lilo.conf

# LILO configuration file
# generated by 'liloconfig'
#
# Start LILO global section
boot = /dev/hda
message = /boot/boot_message.txt
prompt
timeout = 50
# Override dangerous defaults that rewrite the partition table:
change-rules
  reset
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x256
vga = 773
# Normal VGA console
# vga = normal
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x64k
# vga=791
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x32k
# vga=790
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x256
# vga=773
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x64k
# vga=788
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x32k
# vga=787
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x256
# vga=771
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x64k
# vga=785
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x32k
# vga=784
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x256
# vga=769
# End LILO global section
# Linux bootable partition config begins
image = /boot/vmlinuz
  root = /dev/hda2
  label = Linux
  read-only
# Linux bootable partition config ends
   

/etc/resolv.conf

search fruttenboel
nameserver 192.168.56.99
   

/etc/rc.d/rc.local

#!/bin/sh
#
# /etc/rc.d/rc.local:  Local system initialization script.
#
# Put any local startup commands in here.  Also, if you have
# anything that needs to be run at shutdown time you can
# make an /etc/rc.d/rc.local_shutdown script and put those
# commands in there.

   

Synopsis

OK, now I told just about anything that is specific and that can be hairy when your machine will not boot upto an inlog prompt. If your system uses a comparable Linux, these settings might help.
System settings are so machine specific that I cannot help you, unless you happen to live around the corner. If that is the case, this magic number '5012' should ring a bell. If the number is just a number to you, please find someone near your place to help you out.

Page created on February 14, 2007 and

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