Re: [linrad] Ref More help required

["John Harrison, NI1B" <jmh6@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Hi Ron,

   Not sure this helps. But here goes: I bought this old Acer laptop at NH
surplus property for $50. Has sound, 1gb drive, pentium 120. So I have
been collecting floppy versions of linux. I found one that runs network
stuff OK.

   From what I have determined so far getting a recent kernel in a recent
distribution is what works. 

   One day linux will probably also support X windows (slower but much
more universal) and the svga problems will go away. 

   I too am hoping to get linrad running on a laptop. Right now I am
downloading Knoppix ( the most recent version has kernel 2.4.22 ) and am
hoping to see the audio work. But the being new the knoppix mirrors are
VERY slow!

   Once I have one version working it usually isn't too hard to figure out
what they did and copy it to whatever version I really want to use.

   You may find (like I have) that older hardware is much more likely to
be turnkey than the latest cost reduced, windows only kludge some OEM came
up with to save a few dollars.

   So if you can buy something older that there were a lot of that is
cheap, you will probably have better luck.

   Good luck.
   john, ni1b


On Tue, 7 Oct 2003, W6WO wrote:

> Briefly my tale of woe is this.
> 
> I have a Dell  Inspiron Laptop 8000 with Mandrake 9.1 installed and 
> working fine.
> 
> The linrad install went well but the program does not produce a display.
> 
> After investigation I have concluded that svgalib is not compatible 
> with the video chip and folks who are involved with svgalib 
> development offer no hope that this problem will be solved.
> 
> Unless I hear from this group to the contrary it seems that if I want 
> linrad (and I very much do) that I will have to buy a whole new 
> computer, sound card(s) monitor and all. I would prefer a laptop but 
> could go desktop and the machine would be dedicated to running linrad.
> 
> My question is what are the preferred combination of products or 
> specifications that would ensure that I don't run into the same kind 
> of incompatibility again.
> 
> For the moment let's assume an ideal and that the cost is not an 
> issue (at least I can start from there HI )
> 
> Obviously if anyone has solved this problem I would appreciate 
> hearing from them soon.
> -- 
> 73
> Ron
> W6WO
> 



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