Toshiba Satellite 2805-2202 troubles

[Slackmonster]

Hmm okay here goes...

I just bought this laptop last week and want to install Slak on it. I've resized the drive and everything but it won't friggin' boot from my slak CD. :mad: I've changed the boot order and everything. Does anyone have any ideas???

Thanks!

[TaeShadow]

I have a Satellite 2800 and I've gotten almost everything working perfectly except for the sound. So, if you need help, I can probably help. It will not boot the CD, so you'll have to make a boot floppy.

[ 16 April 2001: Message edited by: TaeShadow ]

[Slackmonster]

Okay, tell me what I need to do!!! :D

Originally posted by TaeShadow:
<STRONG>I have a Satellite 2800 and I've gotten almost everything working perfectly except for the sound. So, if you need help, I can probably help. It will not boot the CD, so you'll have to make a boot floppy.

[ 16 April 2001: Message edited by: TaeShadow ]</STRONG>

[TaeShadow]

Ok, I'm assuming you're using Slackware 7.1, because that's what I'm using. On your Slack CD, there are two files:

bootdsks.144/bare.i
rootdsks/color.gz

These are floppy disk images, and you need to write them to floppy disks. Obtain 2 blank floppies. If you have access to a Linux machine, use the following command to write each image to the disk:

dd if=bare.i of=/dev/fd0

Repeat with color.gz.
bare.i is the bootdisk, so you need to put that one into the drive when you boot. After a while, it will ask you for the root disk. At this point, you need to insert the disk with the color.gz image. From here, follow the instructions to install Slackware.

If anything is not clear, or if you do not have access to a Linux machine, respond and I'll help you further :)

[Slackmonster]

Hmm I should have added that I only have 1 floppy disk right now and don't have access to anymore. The first half of the drive has ME on it and I have the second half un-partitioned for Slak. Sorry, forgot to mention it before.

[Slackmonster]

wooo! I found another floppy disk! Okay will make disks now. Oh and I am using Slak 7.1

[Slackmonster]

Okay got everything installed but I'm having trouble with setting up X. I don't know what to put for the settings in xf86config. Any suggestions on a good source of info? Toshiba offers no support other than a few links and the linux-laptop link is dead right now.

thanks for helping me get this far!

[TaeShadow]

Ok, I've posted my XF86Config file so you can download it. It has everything set up correctly and I also put in the entry that will allow you to use the scroll buttons. You can get it here:
http://www.engr.uconn.edu/~mkorman/XF86Config

****EDIT****
Oh, wait, there's one change you will have to make. You are going to need to change the default color depth to 16. The driver that comes with X 4.0.3 does not support 24 bit color on this video card. That brings me to another point: this config file requires XFree86 4.0.2 or greater.

Do not use the xf86config program. It will take to much work to produce a usable file.

[ 17 April 2001: Message edited by: TaeShadow ]

[Slackmonster]

Ok, this will be a problem that will probably force me to continue after I get off work tomorrow morning. I'm trying to find a way to get the newer version over to my laptop but no success yet. I can't hook up to the network at work and I have no dial up connection or direct connect cable. :( Unless you know where I can get a crunched down version that will fit on two floppies....

Well, thanks for all your help regardless! I was stumped earlier!

[TaeShadow]

Hmmm... that could be a problem. Do you have a CD burner? When you say you can't hook up to the network at work, is it because of technical reasons or because you are not permitted to do so?

If you find that you absolutely cannot transfer to the laptop, there is a version of the driver for XFree86 3.3.6 available. It should fit on a floppy.

[Slackmonster]

I'm not permitted to do so... :( Okay here's an update on what I did today:

I found the driver you mentioned for the 3.3.6 version last night but it didn't work worth a damn either. :( So, today I downloaded the 3 source packages for 4.0.2 and burned them onto a CD. So, after that I did a:

installpkg X402src-1.tgz for all of them...is this right? What do I do next? When I ran the xf86config script it still shows the old one.

BTW, thanks much for all your help, I've at the least been able to learn a lot by your suggestions!!

[TaeShadow]

Actually, that is not how you install them. It's a little confusing. Files that end in .tgz are sometimes Slackpacks that can be installed with installpkg, but they are also sometimes normal archive files.

If you want to make use of the three files you downloaded, move them all into a directory, such as /usr/local/src. Type the following command for each one to expand them:

tar -zxvf filename.tgz

It should create a directory called xc. Change into that directory and type:

make World
make install

Make sure you are root when you do this. At this point, Xfree86 is installed and you can configure it as usual.

However, that is the slow way of doing it. It is much easier to simply download the binary distribution of XFree86. You can find this on the XFree86 FTP server. Once you download all of the files in the FTP directory, put them into a directory, and as root run the Xinstall.sh script. This will install everything. It is much faster than compiling the source, which normally takes a couple hours.

Also, as long as you have X 4.0.2, you are much better of using the file that I posted for you, instead of running the xf86config program. In case you don't know, this file is placed in /etc/X11/.

[Slackmonster]

Woah, I didn't realize it would take this freakin' long for a make World! Oh well, this is my only option for now though so I'll just let it run. :) I just hope the make install doesn't take as long.

[Slackmonster]

Am wiping drive and starting over. I have thoroughly botched up this install. :mad:

[TaeShadow]

Originally posted by singlemalt:
<STRONG>Am wiping drive and starting over. I have thoroughly botched up this install. :mad:</STRONG>

Heh heh :)