Compaq LTE 5300

[Breakdown - J]

I have a Compaq 5300 LTE laptop. I would very much like to put Slackware 8.1 on there. This requires I use boot disks (the CD-ROM drive is not bootable). The CD-ROM and Floppy drive share the same bay, and are warm-swappable (supposedly) but whenever I try to put the laptop in suspend mode during the bootdisk process, it doesn't work. I can't access the CD-ROM=no install. I'm disheartened, and would appreciate any ideas people have! I do have an old Win98 disk around, but that would just make me sick :(

TIA for all your help,

j

[mdwatts]

According to http://www.geocities.com/ltedood/Index.html which I got from www.linux-laptops.net ,sleep mode should work with swapping the floppy for the cdrom.

[Breakdown - J]

Yeah, I've been all over that site, and others like it . . . don't worry, I'm an avid googler ;-)

When I use the slack bootdisks, when I'm actually done selecting and formatting my swap and my other partitions, I've tried to put it to sleep to switch in the CD-ROM (so the install can have a source), but no dice. I've tried hibernation, sleep, everything. . . I've been all over the compaq site to see if I'm doing something wrong (ahem, HP site, hehe). If I had the money, I'd buy a network card for this thing and do an NFS install or something. . . but I'm a poor entry level admin with very little prospects :(. That's why I have an oldie laptop, and not something nifty. I really do appreciate your quick reply tho!

I'm still open to ideas,

j

[mdwatts]

Do you have enough HD space to create a separate partition to copy the contents of the installation cd and then do a HD install using the bootdisks?

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by Breakdown - J
Yeah, I've been all over that site, and others like it . . . don't worry, I'm an avid googler ;-)



We should get along just fine then. :)

Google for Linux, right?

[Bowtie]

Breakdown, I've got an LTE 5000 that I've been meaning to put linux on. I'm leaning towards Suse, but Slack is also a consideration. If I get a chance tonight I'll try to load it up and let you know what it takes since our laptops are almost identical (other than yours being faster.:D )

Johnny

[Breakdown - J]

mdwatts, I've got a 1.3 gig HD in there, and I'm thinking that's not enough space to do a decent install AND have an image of the install CD . . . but I'm always open to the suggestion if I can't get other stuff to work. Great news, a friend thinks he's got an old 10Mb PC card that I MAY be able to borrow, i could do a network install then :). I've never done that, though I'd like to think I'm pretty handy when it comes to linux. Any How-To's around?

mdwatts: Yes, google for linux is always preferable, though, google for everyone is GREAT! ;-)

Bowtie: That would be AWESOME, keep me posted! I'll give you my e-mail address and you can e-mail me off list for details!

you guys are wonderful! Thanks!

j

[mdwatts]

I would think you only have 2 choices. Install from the HD or do a network install.

Have a look at the FTP Installation NHF (http://linuxnewbie.org/nhf/Installation/FTP_Installation.html) although it's for Redhat, it should give you a basic idea.

I would imagine Slackware would have documentation on their site or ftp servers on how to install their distro via ftp.

Either Slackware or you know what. :)

I've never tried a network install myself.

[Breakdown - J]

I've got the PCMCIA network card

got the install started, but it's failing when it tries to contact my NFS server (where my slackware CD resides)

I've got the CDROM mounted, rpc.portmap, rpc.nfsd . . . all loading, and I've got this in my exports file

/mnt/cdrom *(ro,insecure,no_root_squash)

now I'm behind a very well designed (*cough*) ;-) firewall, so I'm not worried about the bad guys touching this . . .

my problem exists now because anywhere i try to mount from it, it says 'mount: RPC: Unable to recieve; errno = connection refused' (not permission denied). On the server, an error comes up that says something like this

'unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 00000004
*pde = 00000000

there's more, but it gets long and complicated.

I am okay dealing with most linux tasks, but I am most definitely an NFS newbie!

Any ideas?

j

[mdwatts]

I only use NFS at work for 3 of my personal pc's that I run Linux on.

Unfortunately I cannot remember the correct syntax for the exports file I use. I only use NFS for mounting directories.

Looking at the exports manpage, I do see anonuid=150,anongid=100 which you still perhaps could try even though your error is related to connection refused instead of being a permission problem.

I am going to the office shortly to fix a problem with one of our IBM servers. Six calls last night and now on the last day of my weeks holiday, I have to go to the office. :mad:

I'll see if I have time to check my setup at work although I wasn't really planning to go up to my office. All of our servers and the mainframe are down in the basement computer room.

In the meantime, have a look through the exports manpage again to see if there are other options you can try.

Even a Google for Linux search for i.e. 'NFS installation' or 'NFS exports installation' may find some examples you can try.

[mdwatts]

See if these Google for Linux search results for 'NFS "unable to handle kernel NULL pointer"' (http://www.google.com/linux?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=NFS+%22unable+to+handle+kernel+NULL+pointer%22) finds anything to help.

[Breakdown - J]

I've decided that I'll probably end up throwing CPUs out the window if I don't go and get some sleep. It's been a long night, and I'm tired.

In the afternoon I'll have another go, I'll check out the man pages again, and do a bit o' googling

oh, and holidays ???? what's that ;-)

j

[Breakdown - J]

slack 8.1
2.4.18 kernel
much confusion

I've been all over these man pages
nfsd
nfs
mountd
portmap
exportfs

as far as I can tell, i've done it right. I've tried mounting in different directories, copied the files around a couple of times in the hopes I may be able to get it to work in a different place . . .

this is what I get from rpc info

root@electric:~# rpcinfo -p 172.19.123.110
program vers proto port
100000 2 tcp 111 portmapper
100000 2 udp 111 portmapper
100011 1 udp 688 rquotad
100011 2 udp 688 rquotad
100011 1 tcp 691 rquotad
100011 2 tcp 691 rquotad
100003 2 udp 2049 nfs
100003 3 udp 2049 nfs
100021 1 udp 32770 nlockmgr
100021 3 udp 32770 nlockmgr
100021 4 udp 32770 nlockmgr
100005 1 udp 32771 mountd
100005 1 tcp 32768 mountd
100005 2 udp 32771 mountd
100005 2 tcp 32768 mountd
100005 3 udp 32771 mountd
100005 3 tcp 32768 mountd
100024 1 udp 32772 status
100024 1 tcp 32769 status

Now I know that my server is recieving the request for a connection, it's just erroring when it recieves it. I still got the same connection refused error . . .

exportfs tells me this:

/lastone <world>

I am kinda at a loss here, I've done everything I can find, plus looked up the errors in a hundred places in google for linux, no dice, though it has been helpful.

someone please help a bruthah out!

j