Tiny Core Linux
General TC => General TC Talk => Topic started by: thane on February 16, 2013, 02:52:53 AM
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I recently acquired a Dell Inspiron 600m laptop. I want to install TCL to the hard drive and get the wireless connection to work (I have a wireless router).
Has anybody had experience with this hardware? Fools errand or worth the trouble? This is a completely throw-away piece of equipment so no loss if it turns out to be a paperweight. Thanks in advance for insights.
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http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2154
Pentium M 725 1.60GHz Processor, 2MB L2-Cache
ATI Mobility RADEON 9000 AGP 4X video graphics at 32MB
14.1-in SXGA Monitor
60GB Ultra ATA Hard Drive, 4200RPM
512MB, 266MHz RAM
Yikes, the quality of throw-away laptops has improved drastically if they're that specced.
Should work more than fine, but needs a pcmcia wifi card.
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You'd need to check what wifi hardware it has first - since there's many flavours of internal dell wifi hardware, it might be a good idea to boot from cd and use pci-utils/usb-utils to check
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Right, I should've said "may need" not "needs".
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Playing with the Inspiron now. Did a frugal install of TCL + wifi tools to the hard disk and was able to connect to my wireless router.
Tried rebooting a few times and occasionally get an error where the wifi device isn't found.
Like I guess everybody I don't like the touchpad for mouse control, but it's usable.
So far a lot less trouble than I thought it would be (natural pessimist).
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Hi thane
I have Tinycore running very nicely on a Dell Inspiron 8000 and a Dell Precision M70. I've disabled the touch pad
on both in favor of a Logitech M110 mouse. The M70 has wireless built in but I don't use it since I don't own any
other wireless gear.
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Thanks Rich. Bought a wireless mouse that seems to work, but having a problem with Fluff file manager not recognizing the left button click (pops up menu). Probably an issue for another thread though.
Still having intermittent problem with wifi (eth1) not being detected when I boot. Based on a posting here I added the nodhcp bootcode to see if that helps.
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but having a problem with Fluff file manager not recognizing the left button click (pops up menu)
Weird. ???
Does this happen in any other FLTK apps, like the standard Tiny Core apps?
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It might be a mouse issue -- the touchpad works normally. With the mouse though if I start Fluff from wbar, a left or right click-and-hold anywhere on the screen (besides on Fluff) pops up the Fluff File Manager menu. If I l click and hold on the Fluff panel itself I get the Fluff Directory Menu, then it goes to the Fluff File Manager when I release the button. Other windows seem OK, but I'm running a very minimal setup (basic TCL/wireless installed from CorePlus, Namorka, and Fluff).
Since Fluff works fine on my desktop box I'm hesitant to call it a Fluff issue. I haven't really looked into whether I might need a different driver or something for this mouse.
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You can check with xev, click on the xev window to see what events get sent.
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Well well, in an effort to get xev I downloaded xorg 7.4 and booted with that instead of xvesa, and now the mouse works fine with Fluff (and as far as I can tell, everything else). Will play around with this a little more and hopefully be able to mark it solved. Thanks for everyone's help!
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Should've mentioned Xorg-7.6-bin has it and can be used with Xvesa. :)
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<bump>
After letting it sit around for several months, I've started using this laptop as my backup computer while my place is being remodeled (wired computer has been disconnected and put away).
About half the time when I boot the wifi doesn't detect any networks. When it does though I'm able to connect and everything works fine. Wondering if it might be a timing issue. I've seen reference to a sleep=x bootcode and thinking maybe I need to add this to my bootcodes.
Any other ideas?
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Any other ideas?
1) Yeah altho I am a wireless novice. eth1 suggests you have kept eth0 which I assume is your wired?
I jump from desktop wired to wireless manually, but you can use a blacklist bootcode to disable your wired module instead of bootcode nodhcp
eg "blacklist modulename" as per http://distro.ibiblio.org/tinycorelinux/faq.html#bootcodes
I assume you know how to find that modulename?
2) If you suspect USB needs to settle roberts has updated USB stuff (yes I can name drop as I am shameless :P)
http://tinycorelinux.net/faq.html#pendrives
also see
http://wiki.tinycorelinux.net/wiki:waitusb
http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php/topic,14234.msg80126.html#msg80126
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I have just seen a recent reply from Rich that might interest you?
http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php?topic=15447.msg89557#msg89557
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Thanks. I'll check all this out.
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I think you're on the right track aus9. For the boots where the wifi scan launches there are dmesg messages related to ipw2200 extension and no dmesg messages referencing eth0. The opposite is true when the scan doesn't launch. I am booting with the nodhcp bootcode.
And no, I don't know how to determine what the wired module is.
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'lsmod' should show it, while it's loaded.
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Errgh, false alarm. On the last boot there were ext0 messages AND ipw2200 messages, and the wireless scanned and connected successfully. Still looks like the ipw2200 messages don't appear when the scan doesn't happen. I'll keep investigating.
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I am your local village idiot and anal too.
for one reboot, don't use that bootcode and don't load any wireless.
as tinypoodle says run
lsmod > /home/tc/mylsmod.txt
reboot with your bootcode and wireless stuff and post that txt file so we can read it, then we know what your eth module is, and I prefer you blacklist it and not use nodhcp if possible.
Of course I could be wrong, but I am trying to minimise interference, you decide if its too much hassle etc
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See attached:
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tg3
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Only difference I could spot is that (only) in second case you have lib80211_crypt_ccmp loaded.
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thane
I regard tinypoodle as the wireless guru here, but if you happy to try it to see if there in an improvement change your bootcode to
blacklist tg3
with out nodhcp and see what happens?
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I think dmesg should show the firmware being loaded
check for ipw2200-fw
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Is that blacklist tg3 or blacklist=tg3? I tried the latter already and the wireless didn't scan.
I'll check on the ipw2200-fw message.
If it's not some sort of conflict, still wondering if it might be a timing issue or maybe related to the order the extensions are loaded in. Since wireless works sometimes it looks like all the pieces are there. They just don't always get loaded/started like they should. Once it connects I haven't had a drop either which makes me think the hardware's OK.
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my bad
blacklist=tg3
I don't have your hardware but tried
tce-load -i wireless-3.0.21-tinycore
/etc/sysconfig/tcedir/optional/wireless-3.0.21-tinycore.tcz: OK
sudo /sbin/modprobe ipw2200 libipw cfg80211 lib80211
modprobe: can't load module ipw2200 (kernel.tclocal/drivers/net/wireless/ipw2x00/ipw2200.ko.gz): unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter
tc@box:~$ sudo /sbin/modprobe libipw cfg80211 lib80211
tc@box:~$ lsmod
Module Size Used by Tainted: P
libipw 24576 0
cfg80211 94208 1 libipw
lib80211 12288 1 libipw
now try loading ipw2200....yes!
tc@box:~$ lsmod
Module Size Used by Tainted: P
ipw2200 106496 0
libipw 24576 1 ipw2200
cfg80211 94208 2 ipw2200,libipw
lib80211 12288 2 ipw2200,libipw
now to reboot and try a shorter list
EDIT bootlocal now shorter after test
/sbin/modprobe libipw ipw2200
############
that only leaves the firmware you need to add to onboot.lst
firmware-ipw2200.tcz
but I won't attempt to load it being a scaredy cat aka the local village idiot
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tg3 is the Broadcom Ethernet driver (an updated driver extension is available). As long as an Ethernet cable is not connected i think blacklisting the module should have little effect.
There is a firmware extension available for the ipw2200, load it and advice please so we can update the wiki. Afaik the ipw2200 requires both driver and firmware to function
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Added blacklist=tg3 to bootcodes and (per appbrowser info) put ipw2100 and ipw2200 extensions ahead of other firmware extensions in onboot.lst. So far wifi starts and scans successfully. Will test more thoroughly over the weekend. Thanks for the help.
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thane
sorry to be anal, but I am not sure these exist
ipw2100 and ipw2200 extensions
maybe you meant wireless-3.0.21-tinycore.tcz which has the module
/usr/local/lib/modules/3.0.21-tinycore/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ipw2x00/ipw2200.ko.gz
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Hi aus9
He was referring to firmware-ipw2100.tcz and firmware-ipw2200.tcz.
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Since I put in the blacklist=tg3 bootcode and moved the firmware-ipw2100 and firmware-ipw2200 extensions ahead of the other firmware extensions in onboot.lst the wifi appears to scan and connect reliably. Will continue to monitor.
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I believe you can remove the "blacklist=tg3" boot code