I got Slackware 13.37 installed on my FitPC1.0, and found it a bit of a sweat to configure. In the latest issue of Linux Format Mag I noticed a reference to SalixOS, so I downloaded the LXDE version and got it going without a hitch after realising that I needed to boot huge.s instead of hugesmp.s. Overall, it is very nice and surprisingly responsive on this hardware. Midori worked fine and Firefox worked as soon as I unpacked the tar file.
Nice job! Thanks.
Lazy Slacker
Re: Lazy Slacker
Are you sure? What cpu do you have?awds wrote:...after realising that I needed to boot huge.s instead of hugesmp.s.
Re: Lazy Slacker
Geode LX 800. I'm not sure, most of the time I don't know what I'm doing; I use seance engineering and just do what works; with me it's all moonbeams and crystals. hugesmp.s installed, but X11 wouldn't run properly, giving an incorrect resolution. Modern X11 won't run on this hardware because of a problem with the Geode hardware serial-pin configuration. Slackware 13.37 runs with the VESA xorg.conf enabled, the file provided by Volkerding in the /etc/X11/ directory. With Salix hugesmp.s and xorg.conf installed, the log file showed an MTRR error and X11 was unable to select the correct resolution, giving a garbled screen. It was the MTRR error that prompted me to try huge.s, which worked.gapan wrote:Are you sure? What cpu do you have?
I'm not interested in delving into this any further as I have a working system. SMP won't be too useful on this hardware anyway since there is only 256 Mbytes of RAM, 40 Gbytes of HDD, and 500 MHz of CPU. Salix LXDE is running faster than the original delivered installation of Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron. Amazingly, the latest version of FireFox renders YouTube video that is just usable despite occasional stuttering.
Re: Lazy Slacker
You're right. That CPU is one of the very few cases that the non-smp kernel is actually needed. It's not the smp that is the problem, it's that the smp kernel is build for i686 and that CPU is only an i586. So, you have to stick with the non-smp kernel which is i486 (so it runs on an i586 with no problems). But you don't need smp anyway, that is only used by CPUs with multiple cores or PCs with multiple CPUs and yours isn't either.
Re: Lazy Slacker
Thanks for the details that explain why I couldn't get other distros to work on this hardware. With luck, I've learned something useful, as long as it comes to mind next time I need it, which it should now that I've typed this. Again, thanks for taking the time to explain.gapan wrote:....That CPU is one of the very few cases that the non-smp kernel is actually needed....
Re: Lazy Slacker
I might be wrong (there are different Geode versions out there), but I think a Geode is even i486 compatible only.gapan wrote:it's that the smp kernel is build for i686 and that CPU is only an i586.
