[CS-FSLUG] WinBook XP Laptop---Finally Working

[Christopher Rose]

As some of you know, in the past I have asked for help with my laptop computer. It is an old 100Mhz Toshiba WinBook XP. It has a 500MB hard disk and the floppy drive does not work. For several months now I have been trying to find a version of linux that I could use on it. Suggestions were made for puppy linux and feather linux. It was also suggested that it might be a lost cause. If it had come down to it, I probably would have loaded Grey Cat 3 (which is no longer available for download apparently, so I may have to burn my copy to a CD for an archive). Any rate, I decided to sign up with the listserv for BasicLinux. Thankfully this two floppy distro includes a very basic gui so it is a little more user friendly than merely using a command line interface. I still need to figure out how to configure the laptop's built in modem (it is likely 2400bps but I may be lucky and have a faster modem, won't know until I can get it to connect). However, to make a long and boring story short, I was able to install Basic Linux 3.2 onto that old laptop and it works just fine. It boots up using lilo and really isn't too hard to configure, provided you know your hardware (I have to figure out that modem). Admittedly it is quite basic, but that should not be a deterent if you want a very small install version of linux. It has a basic word processor, an image viewer, a calculator (really nice for such a small distro), and some basic telnet utilities. Also, it can be upgraded using packages from slackware. If anyone is interested, check out: http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/baslinux/ and maybe try it yourself. Indeed, there is no obligation to install it as you can run it from the two floppies. However, in that mode, you can not add anything to it, but still, it is nice.

Pax,

Christopher Rose

P.S. Yes, that laptop is listed now on Linux Counter. It is called "Martin"

Linux Counter User: #350477
http://www.counter.li.org

Compiled on "Grinch"
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