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New install - few issues on ancient Toshiba 440CDX laptop

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a8ksh4:
I'm blown away that I have a responsive graphical linux system with modern kernel running on this old laptop. It has an original Pentium CPU and 80MB of RAM.  I swapped a 32GB CF card in for the HDD, so I think that helps disk stuff to be faster. It does not have a working floppy drive or cdrom, so I needed to pre-load the os on the HDD using another system.

I previously had Debian 4 installed on this laptop, but didn't spend too much time on it and never got usb or network working.  I've been trying different distros the last week to see what would run on it and TC is the first that is modern and installs/boots!  It's currently a fresh out of the box install of Tiny Core 15.  This is what I'm currently trying to figure out:

USB is unstable - I kind of think this is an issue with compatibility with the two USB Ethernet adapters I've tried.  I can plug in a USB hub with mouse and keyboard.  If I add an Ethernet adapter, it'll detect as eth0 for a short while, even get and ip and be able to ping stuff, and then all of the usb devices will disconnect.  I don't think I've seen the issue with just mouse and keyboard.  Dmesg output in attached image. I started wondering if I was running out of memory with any NW stuff enabled, but enabling 1GB swap didn't help.

PCMCIA 802.11 cards not working... I need Ethernet to install the packages for lspci to see what's going on.  he devices under /proc/bus/pci/00/ don't change with/without the cards.  I have two cards.  Maybe they're too new for this laptop...
* Linksys WPC11 ver. 4 802.11b
* Linksys WPC54G ver. 3.1 802.11g

Wrong display resolution - I think the laptop display is 800x600.  I see the desktop, and can interact with open windows, but the bottom and right side are cut off.
* I've tried changing the resolution via the ControlPanel -> Xvesa menu, but it doesn't have any effect.
* Also setting vga=771 in the /mnt/sda1/boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf APPEND line does not help.

If I could get wifi working that would help a lot.  I'll have to plug the hdd into another machine to load packages until I get the network sorted out.  Any advice folks can offer here is appreciated, and I'll update as I work through stuff and get more info.

Rich:
Hi a8ksh4
Welcome to the forum.


--- Quote from: a8ksh4 on August 17, 2024, 01:58:46 AM --- ... USB is unstable - I kind of think this is an issue with compatibility with the two USB Ethernet adapters I've tried.  I can plug in a USB hub with mouse and keyboard.  If I add an Ethernet adapter, ...
--- End quote ---
It sounds like the USB port might be slightly overloaded. See if using
a powered hub works any better.

gadget42:
check out this older forum thread:
https://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php/topic,25098.0.html

and note different comments on ram amounts(here is one):
https://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php/topic,25098.msg160150.html#msg160150

also searched the forum for "toshiba 440" and found one previous thread:
https://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php/topic,7410.0.html

keep us posted on your progress

Rich:
Hi a8ksh4

--- Quote from: Rich on August 17, 2024, 08:57:15 AM ---Hi a8ksh4
 ... It sounds like the USB port might be slightly overloaded. ...
--- End quote ---
By the way, this can easily determined if the laptops keyboard
is functional. Unplug the hub and plug the Ethernet adapter
directly into the USB port.

CentralWare:

--- Quote from: Rich on August 17, 2024, 08:57:15 AM ---It sounds like the USB port might be slightly overloaded. See if using a powered hub works any better.

--- End quote ---
Agreed. The power supply on these things was a common short-coming as the machine itself drew ~2.55A from a 3A power supply (the screen's backlight would dim when the CD would spin-up!) and these power bricks were constantly being replaced.

Click here for typical specs

If memory serves, USB was just an infant during the years this laptop was released and power management was all but non-existent. A powered, and preferably isolated USB hub would be the recommended direction as the VERY best devices of that time were implied to maintain the 1/2 Amp shared power cap and this many years later, if you consider dirt and oxidation, that cap is VERY easy to reach.  (Clean the USB contacts thoroughly! Imagine someone's teeth not being brushed for 20-30 years... gold electroplated copper isn't AS bad visually, but tends to leave a debris that could easily cause USB, PS2, VGA and other ports to "come and go" with connectivity. If you have experience with game cards for the Nintendo Entertainment System and how "all of a sudden games wouldn't work without cleaning contacts, blowing air into the cartridges, etc." this is the beginning stages of the same oxidation.)

Secondly, you'll want to look into the PCMCIA extension assuming it's still being compiled.  Install pci utilities and usb utilities while you're at it to assist in looking closer under the hood.

Lastly, this machine is going to be from the ISA era and I'll be honest, I cannot remember how much of the ISA bus protocol is still being compiled into the kernel, how much in modules and how much is no longer being dealt with in the 21st century.  @Paul_123, @Rich or @Curaga can you shed a little light there?

Oh, and just for giggles, your video "card" isn't listed by name in the above spec sheet, but just for kicks, install the firmware-video extension and see if that helps you obtain resolution.  According to the spec sheet, you should max out at 1280@256 colors, but your cleanest res looks to be 800x600@16M assuming the kernel sees your actual card details which I'm hoping firmware-video helps with.

The TFT screen has a back-light using cold cathode tubes (think fluorescent light bulbs...  less than 1/4" thick) which can be very fragile; use caution when closing the lid! :)
IF memory serves, the mouse is serial based, but usually locks in with PS/2 3-Button settings. HDD and CD were both ATA-Mini (IDE) and if you have the docking station, which once upon a time blew up laptops due to shorted ports, plug the power supply into the dock WITHOUT the laptop connected first.  If it smokes, you lose a power supply.  If the laptop is connected, you lose both.

Beyond that, good luck and keep us apprised!

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