[sf-lug] i586 ThinkPad CD-ROM problems

[Asheesh Laroia]

On Mon, 12 Nov 2007, jim stockford wrote:

>
>   seems to me one big issue is how to point someone,
> who's relatively new, to information that will help them
> identify the information that's germane.

I find that if I just google every strange-looking letter+number 
combination, I'll find one that gives a lot of hits.  If those hits seem 
to identify my thingamajig (be it a computer, motherboard, or a stuffed 
animal), then it's probably a good match.

If you don't know for sure, just flood the people helping you with as much 
information as humanly possible (preferably from outside markings) and 
we'll just complain and wade through it but be able to help better than if 
you didn't.

>   the following commands might include some useful
> system data (commands show root user prompt):
> # dmesg | grep CPU
> # dmesg | grep sizeof
> # echo $HOSTTYPE
> # less /proc/cpuinfo
> # more /proc/stat

First of all, these don't need to be run as root.

Secondly, they're only marginally heplful.  On this ThinkPad Pentium M 
running Ubuntu $HOSTTPYE is 486.

In general, don't grep dmesg; just send the whole thing over.  What's 
meaningful on one system may not be on another.

In particular, dmesg|grep sizeof is empty for me, and I can't imagine when 
that would give any useful information at all.

-- Asheesh.

--
"You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive."
 		-- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, "A Study in Scarlet"