Re: Research before installation

Ed Hurst wrote:

> Greetings, all. I write for a technology webzine and will be reviewing
> eComStation soon. While I will be trying the 2.0 beta first, I should be
> receiving a copy of 1.2 as backup.
> 
> For now, the only spare machine I have is a Dell Latitude D505. This runs
> the Intel mobo chipset (82852/82855), Celeron 1.5Ghz, 512MB RAM, Intel
> 855G video, Dell Wirelss 1350/Broadcom 4403 wifi (available PCI card with
> Atheros 5212 chips, too), Conexant D480 modem, Intel Pro 10/100 VE
> ethernet, Sigmatel C-Major Audio, TI 4510 PCI bus, Alps touchpad, and a
> 13.1" LCD which runs 1024x768, with a Fujitsu MHT2030AT (considered
SCSI
> by Linux and BSD), Samsung CDRW/DVD.
> 
> Are there any show stoppers here? Would it be better to hunt for a more
> amenable heap of hardware?

Possible show stopper (out of the box, especially for the 1.2 version) might
be the hard drive.  The solution is simple - get updated DANI drivers
before you start.  RC 4 loads on a desktop (Lenovo J 3000) and runs well,
even the SMP seems OK but I never tried the full install with ACPI enabled
as I had problems with assorted machines doing that.  Adding SMP after the
install was successful.  I can't get the Conexant soft modem to work - even
with Linux it requires proprietary software and I don't think that OS/2 is
supported.

You should be OK with the video.  I have a Toshiba laptop with the 17"
wide
screen and I had to use the Panorama drivers to get the 1400x900 LCD screen
properly supported but even SNAP video should be OK with 1.2 on you machine
as the 4:3 geometry and 1024x768 run fine with the same Intel chipset.  The
Intel Pro 100 should be no problem but the wireless (under V2 RC4) will
require some playing with the Genmac/wLan translation layer.

No clue on the sound - I tend to ignore that anyway.  The biggest potential
issue (install time) will be the revision level of the disk drivers but the
install allows you to select a custom driver so it will be at most a
nuisance. 

-- 

Greetings, all. I write for a technology webzine and will be reviewing 
eComStation soon. While I will be trying the 2.0 beta first, I should be 
receiving a copy of 1.2 as backup.

For now, the only spare machine I have is a Dell Latitude D505. This runs 
the Intel mobo chipset (82852/82855), Celeron 1.5Ghz, 512MB RAM, Intel 
855G video, Dell Wirelss 1350/Broadcom 4403 wifi (available PCI card with 
Atheros 5212 chips, too), Conexant D480 modem, Intel Pro 10/100 VE 
ethernet, Sigmatel C-Major Audio, TI 4510 PCI bus, Alps touchpad, and a 
13.1" LCD which runs 1024x768, with a Fujitsu MHT2030AT (considered SCSI 
by Linux and BSD), Samsung CDRW/DVD.

Are there any show stoppers here? Would it be better to hunt for a more 
amenable heap of hardware?

Dell notebook => disable ACPI in preboot menu of installation CD.

btw,

don't forget mention eComStation myths -- http://ecomstation.ru/myths

Is that permanent? Disabling ACPI sort of defeats the purpose for having a 
laptop. There is no APM on this hardware. I think I'll look for some other 
machine to borrow for this. Maybe I can save for a decent used Thinkpad 
sometime down the road.