[conspire] (forw) Re: Linux install help? (For an old CoffeeNet regular?)

[Rick Moen]

----- Forwarded message from Elizabeth Platt <eaplatt at yahoo.com> -----

Date: Wed, 26 Dec 2007 20:25:49 -0800 (PST)
From: Elizabeth Platt <eaplatt at yahoo.com>
To: Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com>
Subject: Re: Linux install help?  (For an old CoffeeNet regular?)


Hi Rick: 

Sorry for not being able to respond before last Saturday--having my
laptop get diseased sure does cut me off from everyone...also, I work
retail (swing shift) and the last Saturday before Christmas just would
not have worked as a day off!  But the boss says I can get a Saturday
off, after the New Year, once my vacation/leave refreshes for 2008.  

So--let me know when/where any future installfests will be going on,
since I'd need a bit of lead time to set up a Saturday off work!  


--- Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com> wrote:

> 1.  If you can let me know the model of Toshiba (and amount of RAM, if
> you know), I'll be glad to guesstimate what its prospects are.  Since
> you mention 3D capabilities, odds are that its prospects are really
> good.  
>

Ummmm...It's a Toshiba "Satellite" 1750, and I scribbled down the
numbers "190MB" and "10GB," but if that's not what you need, let me
know.   The "3D" pinball game isn't terribly state-of-the-art; I first
found it on various office desktops when I was doing temp office work,
more than 5+ years ago.  (Yes, I played it on the clock, when the
opportunity arose!)  Don't know who put it together, but it was
obviously a pinball fan....

Anyways, my scarce time at the library terminals is just about over, so
let me know about future installfests and/or if you need any more data
on my machine.  I'll try to check me email at the library (etc.) as
often as possible.  

Thanks! 

Elizabeth Platt
-- eaplatt


----- End forwarded message -----
----- Forwarded message from Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com> -----

Date: Wed, 26 Dec 2007 23:58:42 -0800
From: Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com>
To: Elizabeth Platt <eaplatt at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Linux install help?  (For an old CoffeeNet regular?)

Quoting Elizabeth Platt (eaplatt at yahoo.com):

> Sorry for not being able to respond before last Saturday--having my
> laptop get diseased sure does cut me off from everyone...also, I work
> retail (swing shift) and the last Saturday before Christmas just would
> not have worked as a day off!  But the boss says I can get a Saturday
> off, after the New Year, once my vacation/leave refreshes for 2008.  
> 
> So--let me know when/where any future installfests will be going on,
> since I'd need a bit of lead time to set up a Saturday off work!  

Not a problem.  Looks like:

:r! cal January 2008

    January 2008    
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
       1  2  3  4  5
 6  7  8  9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27 28 29 30 31      

...the two CABAL Saturdays in January will be Jan. 12 and Jan. 26.  As
always, it'll be 4 pm to midnight.  

> Ummmm...It's a Toshiba "Satellite" 1750, and I scribbled down the
> numbers "190MB" and "10GB," but if that's not what you need, let me
> know.

OK, it's an approximately 2001-2002 laptop, which is both good and bad
at the same time.  The good news is that none of the components will be
the least bit difficult to support in any Linux distribution at all.
The bad news is related to the good news:  It's easy to support because 
everything's a bit old, slow, and a bit cramped.

You're probably almost bang-on the money with that "190MB", as the
1750's base amount of RAM was 64MB expandable to 192MB.  So, it sounds
like your little beastie is maxed out on RAM.  That's on balance good
news, because RAM is the limiting factor on old laptops.

Now, I distinctly recall when 64MB RAM was OK for a graphical
workstation, and 128MB was ample.  In 2007, anything below about 256MB
RAM requires special treatment, because it's frankly below the floor of
expectations.  So, where 2007 Linux distributions are concerned, you're 
not likely to be happy running either the KDE or GNOME desktop
environments, and, with some of the more bloated distributions, you'll
either not be able to run the installer program at all, or will need to
boot an "alternate" CD or do some other RAM-saving special steps.

So, for example, you could install Xubuntu (Ubuntu variant with the Xfce 
desktop environment) from the "alternate install CD", because that CD
runs just fine with 64MB RAM.  Technically, you could squeak by with the
main "Desktop CD" graphical installer, too, as its minimal RAM is 192MB,
but it might be a really slow installation.

The model 1750 has a 700MHz Celeron CPU, which is again OK but no
barnburner.  It has as you say a 10GB hard drive.  It has a DVD-ROM
drive (excellent!), and a 13.3" diagonal measure LCD panel.  Video is
ATI's Rage Mobility-C chip with 4MB of SGRAM video memory, which is
enough to comfortably do 1024x768 at 24-bit colour depth (true colour).
Please note:  There is no 3D video ability in that video chip.

Sound chip is Cirrus Logic Crystal CS4281 PCI Audio, which will need the
Linux ALSA "cs4281" driver.  (Don't worry about that:  As I was saying,
all of this unit's constitutent chips got good Linux support years ago.)

Internal modem:  It's a Lucent LT winmodem.  (Dunno if you care if that
works in Linux; winmodems are often a pain for reasons we can discuss if
that becomes an issue.)  Essentially, you'd need to retrofit a
binary-only proprietary driver that will (typically) not be included
within your Linux distribution.  Details here:
http://www.physcip.uni-stuttgart.de/heby/ltmodem/

For ethernet or wireless, you'd need to buy a "PC-Card" aka PCMCIA-type 
card, of some sort, as those are not built in.  Nor is there an IR
(infrared) port, nor Firewire.  There is USB.

If the above seems way too detailed, don't worry about it.  Just be
aware that the machine is a bit low-spec on hardware by 2007 standards,
but will be a fine Linux machine with only a little bit of care.

If you wish to compare the aesthetics of different "desktop
environments' and window managers for Linux, browse this site:
http://xwinman.org/

Anyhow, we'll look forward to seeing you in January!  Don't forget that
you're welcome to telephone for a pickup from CalTrain, and we'll be
glad to make sure you get home to SF, no matter how long you stay.
(I've driven quite a few people home to SF around CABAL closing time, 
and I don't mind.)  

----- End forwarded message -----