9/26/2003
I modified a Morphix[1] image to automatically start linrad.
This CD has automatic hardware detection, using the kernel OSS drivers.
Linrad is running on tty1, aumix (sound mixer) is running on tty2.
To switch to the mixer press Alt-F2, to switch back press Alt-F1.
Linrad does not have any stored settings so each time you boot off the CD
you need to go through the setup screens.
http://www.wcug.wwu.edu/~josh/Morphix-linrad-01.07.iso
The image is only 33MB, and you can burn it via Windows.
Please let me know how it works for you?
If you have any questions or suggections please pass those along.
73, KD7HGL
Later, JOSH
[1] http://morphix.sourceforge.net/modules/news/
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9/27/2003
Hi Josh,
Great idea :)
I downloaded your iso. Burned it. It starts up fine. It starts up
linrad OK, but when I type on the keyboard nothing happens.
Perhaps the iso could have a two stage start up? First stage linux up
and running. Then start linrad. That way the hardware can be checked out
and any pre-startup stuff done. I am not sure that that would help in my
case, but it might.
john, ni1b
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9/27/2003
What type of KB are you using? I only use a PS2 KB, so a AT or USB
keyboard may not work the same.
Does pressing F2 on the setup screen show you the detials of the setup?
(I'm trying to figure out when it stops working)
I am only running linrad on of the consoles, if you try to change to
another console does that work? Alt-F2 or Alt-F3 (Press and hold Alt,
then press F2)
You can also start the CD in single user mode, and not have linrad start.
On the initial boot screen (where it says press F2 for more options) try:
morphix single
This should give you a bash prompt.
You can try out the keyboard now, if it works you should try linrad from
here. You need to run three commands to start linrad.
/etc/init.d/linrad
aumix
linrad
The first copies some files, and sets the mixer to default to line-in.
The second lets you change the mixer settings.
The third starts linrad.
If single user mode does not work then we need to look more at your
hardware. The morphix or knoppix[2] site may have some ideas. Since my
image is just a slight change to MorphixBase-0.4-1.iso you may want to try
that image as well:
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/morphix/MorphixBase-0.4-1.iso?download
Please send me your hardware configuration, that may also give us some
ideas to look at.
Thanks for trying it out. Hopefully we will get it working shortly.
Later, JOSH (KD7HGL)
[2] http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-old-en.html
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9/28/2003
Hi Josh,
Thanks for your speedy reply :))
This is a Pentium 1ghz. Standard AT keyboard with ps-2 connector. The
powerup dialog complains about lack of SMD? instructions in the cpu, so my
guess is that it is a hard crash once linrad gets going.
I cannot switch screens and even ctl-alt-del does nothing.
Thus my thought about a two stage boot (so the user could tell when it
was dying).
I will try to download what you suggest Monday and give it another shot.
I didn't notice the setup screen (I think I was away from the pc at the
time), but I'll try what you suggest next time I am at the shop.
warm regards,
john, ni1b
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9/28/2003
Hi Josh,
Thanks.
I can now get just the OS up and will take your instructions and
probably get things up and running this PM :))
Thanks for your ongoing help.
regards,
john, ni1b
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10/2/2003
I just check the logs and I know this image was downloaded a few times,
but I never heard back from anyone (except john ni1b) about it working.
Did it work when you tried it?
Should I keep making new images when there is a new release of linrad?
Was 33M to large, would more people try the CD if I could make it smaller?
Just trying to find out what the interest is in something like this.
Thanks.
73, KD7HGL
Later, JOSH
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10/2/2003
Sorry about the delay Josh!
I downloaded the image and burned a CD. It starts just fine on my Compaq
Laptop (Presario 700)??. But not on my desktop Fujitsu/Siemens it`s seems to
be some problem with the integrated videocard.
I think the idea is great and the size is not a problem, at least if you
sits on xDSL or better. However a lot of people still is trapped with 56k
modems so if possible a smaller package would probably increase interest.
73 de SM7MMJ
Kent Hansson
Consultant Radionetworks
NxT Scandinavia AB
Anckargripsgatan 3
SE-211 19 Malmö
Phone +46 709 261 852
Fax +46 733 824 189
-----Ursprungligt meddelande-----
Från: owner-linrad@antennspecialisten.com
[mailto:owner-linrad@antennspecialisten.com] För Josh Logan
Skickat: den 2 oktober 2003 19:03
Till: linrad@antennspecialisten.com
Ämne: Re: [linrad] Live-CD for linrad
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10/2/2003
Hello Josh,
Today the CD arrived by mail. I have a slow modem here, downloading
33 M is not practical;)
My friends at Antennspecialisten who made the CD say that it works
on something like 50% of the computers they tried it on.
My "Internet computer" on which I never tried Linux before seems
to work. The motherboard has integrated sound and video, I
can see spectra on screen but I can not got audio input and output
simultaneously. Would probably be ok with one more soundcard.
The PIII computer does not boot from a CD any more. I do not know
what has happened to it, but other bootable CD's give the same
result: "Boot from ATAPI CD-ROM:", then nothing at all.....
I tried a portable, a Packard Bell, svgalib does not work.
I get a good selection of video modes to try, but none of them works.
> Did it work when you tried it?
So the answer is not really....
> Should I keep making new images when there is a new release of linrad?
Would it not be possible to make a CD that boots like the present one
but that tries to mount the floppy, looks if there is a linrad binary
file on the floppy, then executes linrad from the floppy if the file is
available there. This way upgrading Linrad versions would be very easy:)
Another thing, saving parameter settings is very convenient. It seems
to me parameters are not saved now, all settings disappear if the ram-disk
is switched off. It would be very good to have the system switch for
the floppy as the default directory (if there is a floppy). Then all
parameter files will stay on the floppy. Linrad currently looks for
calibration files, help and error messages and other files in the
default directory. Presumably Windows will not like it's hard disks to
be written on "from the outside" so it might be a good idea to
place most of the files on the floppy. The CD could look for
the files: linrad, help.lir and errors.lir on the floppy, copy them
all to the floppy from the CD if they are all missing.
Then everything could be executed from the floppy. The only
other files needed are the EME database files that could stay
permanently on the CD.
As you see I love to use floppies, but maybe many computers come
without floppy drives these days. If that is the case, some other
solution would be needed. For example one could look for a directory
named C:\linrad on the hard disk. If it is present the user could get
the option to decide if he wants to work from there or not.
If the user works from there, parameter and calibration files may be
changed on the hard disk which should be perfectly safe but might
cause Windows to complain and do a hard disk test before starting.
In normal linrad operation one would just copy everything from
C:\linrad to the ramdisk and execute from there without any permanent
changes to anything.
I will take the CD to some of the stores around here and see if they
allow me to try to make their portable computers run from it. I would
love to have Linrad on a portable:)
73
Leif / SM5BSZ
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10/7/2003
Looks like a lot of people tried the old version of the CD. Following
some of Leif's suggestions I have made some changes that I hope make it
work on more machines, and let you save your parameters.
This version is CD/floppy combo.
The CD image is down to 10M and does not have linrad or SVGA files. The
floppy holds linrad and the SVGA files. This way you can also save your
parameter files. Also to upgrade to a new version of linrad or SVGA files
you just change the floppy image.
When you boot up it will pause and ask you to put the floppy into the
drive. This will also let you see if the computer booted correctly before
starting any SVGA programs. Also see note 1 below.
All of the files are located under:
http://www.wcug.wwu.edu/~josh/linrad/
Here are the new files:
http://www.wcug.wwu.edu/~josh/linrad/Morphix-linrad-0.1.iso (10.4M)
http://www.wcug.wwu.edu/~josh/linrad/linrad-01.07_svga-1.9.17.image (431k)
http://www.wcug.wwu.edu/~josh/linrad/linrad-01.07_svga-1.9.17.image.gz
(1.4M)
I have both a .gz floppy image and full size image. Maybe this should
just be a zip of the files, but I like being able to make the disk under
linux. I have the .gz version because it is a lot smaller, but you need
winzip or similar on windows to uncompress it.
I also have a copy of rawwritewin to make the floppy
http://www.wcug.wwu.edu/~josh/linrad/rawwritewin-0.7.zip
Under linux to make the floppy the commands are:
superformat /dev/fd0 (may not be needed)
gunzip linrad-01.07_svga-1.9.17.image.gz (if you get the .gz image)
dd if=/linrad-01.07_svga-1.9.17.image of=/dev/fd0 bs=21k
Please let me know how this version works. Or if you need more
information on setting up the flopp.
The sound modules are the same as the last image, but SVGA has been
upgraded so it should support more graphics cards.
I'm trying to have both the linrad and svga version in the file name so
we can make a SVGA 1.4.3 version, if that works better on some machines.
73, KD7HGL
Later, JOSH
NOTE 1:
You could also switch to Alt-F3 and use a USB device instead of a floppy.
Here are the commands:
insmod usb-storage
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/test
cd /mnt/test
./linrad
Not very well tested, but it does work...
NOTE 2: You can use this floppy with the original CD
Make the floppy, then boot off the old CD.
Run the following commands:
Alt-F3
mount /mnt/floppy
cd /mnt/floppy
./linrad
Make sure you use ./linrad or you will run with the old SVGA and not save
your files to the floppy. Please let me know how this works. If it looks
up while booting please try running "morphix noscsi" on the initial boot
screen to turn off SCSI detection.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10/8/2003
Hello Josh,
some simplistic questions:
1. How do I control booting from the CD ?
2. If windows XP home is installed, can I still use the LINRAD CD ?
3. Do I need LINUX installed ? I have the RED HAT V8 package.
I have not made the leap to LINUX yet, but I see a lot of merit to LINRAD
I appreciate your work with the bootable CD, real progress.
Stan, WA1ECF
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10/8/2003
On Wed, 8 Oct 2003, Stan wrote:
> Hello Josh,
>
> some simplistic questions:
But good questions!
>
> 1. How do I control booting from the CD ?
Under the BIOS (Usually F2) you can setup the boot order. Change the CD
to be before the HD. Do not put the floppy before the CD or HD, the
floppy is not bootable. This is different for every bios, so I can't tell
you how to make the changes.
>
> 2. If windows XP home is installed, can I still use the LINRAD CD ?
YES! This does not touch the windows install, so you can just use the
floppy and CD to have a fully working linrad setup. Reboot, remove the
CD, and you will boot back into windows.
>
> 3. Do I need LINUX installed ? I have the RED HAT V8 package.
No this CD has all of the files you need to run linrad.
>
> I have not made the leap to LINUX yet, but I see a lot of merit to LINRAD
>
> I appreciate your work with the bootable CD, real progress.
Thanks.
>
> Stan, WA1ECF
>
73, KD7HGL
Later, JOSH
>