[conspire] HP OmniBook XE2: live CD challenge

[Daniel Gimpelevich]

On Fri, 23 Jun 2006 19:57:43 -0700, Rick Moen wrote:

> ----- Forwarded message from Alexander Grundner <alexsfbay at yahoo.com> -----
> 
> Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2006 18:41:17 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Alexander Grundner <alexsfbay at yahoo.com>
> To: installers at linuxmafia.com
> Subject: Notebook Details
> 
> Hi!
> 
> I'll be participating in tomorrow's installfest and
> I'm bring my laptop that I can't seem to be able to
> install any distro or run a Live CD on. I've tried
> Knoppix, Ubuntu, DSL, and nothing :( 
> 
> Laptop Details:
> HP OminBook XE2
> 333 Mhz Pentium II
> 128 MB of RAM
> 6GB hard drive
> 
> * I'd prefer getting the Live CD to work before I wipe
> the hard drive for clean install.
> 
> See ya tomorrow!
> 
> -Alex
> 
> 
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> ----- End forwarded message -----
> ----- Forwarded message from Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com> -----
> 
> Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2006 18:56:56 -0700
> To: Alexander Grundner <alexsfbay at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: Notebook Details
> From: Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com>
> 
> Quoting Alexander Grundner (alexsfbay at yahoo.com):
> 
>> Hi!
> 
> Back at'cha.  ;->
> 
>> I'll be participating in tomorrow's installfest and
>> I'm bring my laptop that I can't seem to be able to
>> install any distro or run a Live CD on. I've tried
>> Knoppix, Ubuntu, DSL, and nothing :( 
>> 
>> Laptop Details:
>> HP OminBook XE2
>> 333 Mhz Pentium II
>> 128 MB of RAM
>> 6GB hard drive
>> 
>> * I'd prefer getting the Live CD to work before I wipe
>> the hard drive for clean install.
>> 
>> See ya tomorrow!
> 
> OK.  There are some tips on your unit, here:
> http://www.linuxia.de/omnibook-xe2.en.html
> 
> I found that via the HP category on Linux on Laptops:
> http://www.linux-on-laptops.com/hp.html
> 
> The author doesn't make it _seem_ all that challenging, but we'll have
> to see what we find, tomorrow.  I have just about all available flavours
> of Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Xubuntu 6.06 LTS "Dapper Drake" including the live CD
> "desktop" images, plus I'll be downloading and burning DSL 3.0 and maybe
> the current releases of Kanotix and MEPIS (all installable live CDs).
> 
> Is your problem (perhaps) just one of getting X11 (graphics) going?  If
> so, it's probably solvable.
> 
> 
> ----- End forwarded message -----

I thought I'd see what info I could find on the XE2. It looks like we must
first determine whether this unit is an XE2-DB, an XE2-DC, an XE2-DD, an
XE2-DE, or an XE2-DI. You will need your original Windows install discs to
do the Linuxing properly, and I mean the ones that originally came with
the machine, not any others. Can you take a look at the bottom of the unit
and report the HP model number near the bar code that consists of an F,
four digits, and one or two letters?