Installation fails on Pentium MMX laptop

[Rich]

Hi rodders
This is the information I found on the Kapok 8200:
https://macdat.net/laptops/kapok/8200.php
https://macdat.net/files/pdf/clevo/user_manuals/kapok_8200.pdf
and it doesn't seem to match your description.
The 8200 has a 486, 20MB RAM max, and no CD.

... I burned a CD with TC10 and hooray, it manages to boot but only to a TC@BB prompt. ...

Good, that's a start.
Which TC10 ISO did you use? Core, CorePlus, or TinyCore?
Which menu entry did you select?

Since you have a command line, we can try to get more information
from the system. First we want Linux to recognize your floppy so you
can copy information instead of manually typing it.

See if it already detected the floppy:

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grep '/dev/fd' /etc/fstabIf grep doesn't give a response, then do this:

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sudo modprobe floppy
sudo rebuildfstab
grep '/dev/fd' /etc/fstabGrep should print something like this:

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/dev/fd0 /mnt/fd0 auto noauto,users,exec,umask=000 0 0 # Added by TC
If that doesn't show up, try mounting the disk like this:

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sudo mkdir /mnt/fd0
sudo mount -t auto /dev/fd0 /mnt/fd0
if it did show up, you can mount like this:

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mount /mnt/fd0
Then run:

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busybox lsmod | head -n 1 > lsmod.txt; busybox lsmod | tail -n +2 | sort >> lsmod.txt
dmesg > dmesg.txt
free -m > free.txt
for F in `ls /etc/sysconfig/`; do printf "$F = $(cat /etc/sysconfig/$F)\n" >> sysconfig.txt ;done 2>/dev/nullCopy lsmod.txt, dmesg.txt, free.txt, and sysconfig.txt to your floppy and attach
the files to your next post.

Don't forget to umount your floppy before removing it:

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umount /mnt/fd0

[rodders]

Hi Rich

This is the information I found on the Kapok 8200:

Doh! I have to stop relying on my memory, its a 6200AT!

Which TC10 ISO did you use? Core, CorePlus, or TinyCore?
Which menu entry did you select?

I used CorePlus and tried a few, including the base with no extensions

See if it already detected the floppy:

It didn't detect it, I'll try mounting it and get those files.

Do you think there is any mileage in the sbpcd option? The drive is a Teac CD-220E and I understand the SBP driver may support it.

[Rich]

Hi rodders
6200 makes more sense:
https://www.macdat.net/laptops/kapok/6000.php
https://www.macdat.net/files/pdf/clevo/service_manuals/6200.pdf
https://www.macdat.net/files/pdf/clevo/service_manuals/6200a.pdf

... Do you think there is any mileage in the sbpcd option? The drive is a Teac CD-220E and I understand the SBP driver may support it.

That driver is for CDs connected to SoundBlaster cards.
Is your CD connected to a SoundBlaster card?

Personally, I hoping the dmesg.txt file will provide some useful
information on your hardware and required drivers.

[rodders]

Hi Rich

... Do you think there is any mileage in the sbpcd option? The drive is a Teac CD-220E and I understand the SBP driver may support it.

That driver is for CDs connected to SoundBlaster cards.
Is your CD connected to a SoundBlaster card?

Hmm, I was grasping at straws to try to understand why the CD wasn't being recognised and found this: http://slackware.uk/slackware/slackware-3.6/docs/linux-2.0.35/cdrom/sbpcd which mentions Teac CD drives and that 'no-sound' cards are supported. I've since learned that my CD-220E is an IDE drive anyway, so its irrelevant.

Personally, I hoping the dmesg.txt file will provide some useful
information on your hardware and required drivers.

I've attached the files you asked for. Getting them was complicated by the fact I have a UK keyboard and with it set for US keymaps no keys will produce | or \ !
I've looked through the dmesg file and can't see anything glaringly obvious but I suspect there is something going on in the IDE section but it will need more experieiced eyes than mine.

[Rich]

Hi rodders
I'd like you to change this part of the boot command:

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loglevel=8 cdeto this:

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loglevel=8 noacpi libata.dma=0 cde
If it still boots, run these commands and post the resulting files:

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dmesg > dmesg.txt
ls -l /mnt > mnt.txt
I think your laptop has a Zoom Telephonics Inc. sound card.

... I have a UK keyboard and with it set for US keymaps no keys will produce | or \ ! ...

Thanks for pointing that out. If I need any commands with those keys
in the future, I will attach a script to run them for you.

[rodders]

Hi rodders
I'd like you to change this part of the boot command:

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loglevel=8 cdeto this:

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loglevel=8 noacpi libata.dma=0 cde
If it still boots, run these commands and post the resulting files:

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dmesg > dmesg.txt
ls -l /mnt > mnt.txt
I think your laptop has a Zoom Telephonics Inc. sound card.

... I have a UK keyboard and with it set for US keymaps no keys will produce | or \ ! ...

Thanks for pointing that out. If I need any commands with those keys
in the future, I will attach a script to run them for you.

Files attached. I'm afraid they are not going to help much, the diffs seem to be just timing and size differences.

[Rich]

Hi rodders
I'm afraid it doesn't look good. I've done some searching
and I've only found 2 or 3 references with regard to installing
Linux on a Kapok 6200 or similar. The results were not promising.

... I'm afraid they are not going to help much, the diffs seem to be just timing and size differences.

You are correct. The new dmesg showed no change.

The fact that it detects neither the HDD or CD is a bad sign.
It's possible no kernel drivers exist for some of the hardware.

[rodders]

Well its beginning to look like a lost cause.
Thanks for all your help Rich.
I am intrigued though how Plop manages to access the HDD and CD. Frustrating!

[patrikg]

Sorry for getting into your conversation, but what I see in the dmesg log it says that the there are dma collision and I also see that the pata driver fallsback to PIO mode.

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pata_acpi 0000:00:01.1: BMDMA: BAR4 is zero, falling back to PIOI will suggest you to take a look at the BIOS setting, to see if you could change this behaviur.
I have seen some BIOS that you could reset the PNP settings, for like old days when you have to set jumpers for IO Base,IRQ, and DMA Address.
And for old computers that not having a working battery, some times you have to get into bios settings, just enter the bios settings and then save & exit, that will save a correct values in the nvram. Because the nvram has corrupt values.
Also do you have any pci cards more than the build in?

[Rich]

Hi rodders

... I am intrigued though how Plop manages to access the HDD and CD. Frustrating!

Plop was designed to deal with booting older troublesome devices.

Linux does support a lot of hardware, but if your device didn't have
many people try to run Linux on it, support for your device might
not exist.

As patrikg suggested, you could look through the BIOS.

First of all, get a pad and pen to make notes of any changes in case
you need to undo any of them.

Look for entries dealing with CD, HDD, and sound card.

BIOSs used to let you select things like uDMA, DMA33, and PIO.
Select one of the simpler slower PIO modes.

If you see any specialized settings, like something that ties the CD
to a sound card, disable it.

Any settings designed to optimize performance, disable it.

One other setting I seem to remember. It referred to which
operating system  you were using. If it's present, see if that
makes a difference.

And finally, take notes in case you need to undo any changes.

[CNK]

If you boot a system information tool like AIDA16, such as from The Ultimate Boot CD, it might tell you the model of chipset for the PCI bus and the IDE controller. Then you could look them up to see if Linux actually has a driver, or whether there might be a driver in earlier versions of Linux which has since been removed.