Fast computer from the beginning of the century?

[konduktans]

To begin with: I'm writing this worklog in English, as there is very little information about this subject on the intarnetZ, and I want to make my contribution. This article is mainly about installing DSL on a Compact Flash card, and performance of the CF card versus a regular hard drive.

 

I ordered sku.10310 from DealExtreme yesterday, and expect it to arrive about two weeks from now. That pending, I'd like to say a few words about Damn Small Linux. It's a Linux distribution that takes 50 MB of disk space. It's great. Nuff said.

 

I, myself, donated 1 USD on this page. So should you. (press "make a donation").

 

As to the computer I'm going to mod, it's one of the best computers as of the year 2000. It's the Dell Latitude L400. 700 MHz of RAW power, matched with 128 MBs of RAM, and a ATI RAGE Mobility card with the staggering 4 MBs of memory. Thats even SICK for todays standards. Not. It's got a compact and nice body though, and it's boasting a great keyboard, and a 12" 1024x768, whick will be great for my usage.

 

The idea is to get this computer to be a snappy computer for programming java. Since I'm using a CF card with only 4 GBs of memory, and the fact that the computer is specced like a pre-1990s LADA, DSL is the one and only OS for this computer. Being so that DSL runs directly from the RAM, the slower(?) CF-card is no obstacle for me on my way to kicking some oracle ass.

 

I've previously installed BlueTooth in the computer in a stupid way, and will probably fix this in the worklog. I'm studying electronics, so I can ask my professors about some miracle solution to how I can have BT and USB on the same port(som kind of switch using transistors or some shit).

 

As the internal harddrive as of now is fucked, I couldn't install DSL. Running it from a CD though, worked nice and snappy. So my expectations are high!

 

Well, that pretty much concludes this first post. Later, I will go into the installation of DSL, and reviewing the performance of the CF-card. I might even install wireless network inside the machine. Until then, stay crispy

[konduktans]

Here is the comment thread.

[konduktans]

And things are moving forward. I just bought the CF card I'm going to use :-)

[konduktans]

And we are finnish! (Hoho, Norwegian joke)

 

I started with a 2.5 inch IDE hdd from the computer. It was 10 GB, so I didn't really mind cutting it up.

 

 

Then I cut that shait into pieces

 

 

I put the CF-card and the adapter in a anti-static bag to prevent shortcuts.

 

 

Then I mounted the CF card inside the HDD-shell inside the HDD-tray. The HDD-shell is for mounting purposes only.

 

 

And voila!

 

 

 

DSL is a pain to install. I used this guide to make it work! All others failed.

 

Here is the guide, for ease of access:

 

 

 

FRUGAL HARD DRIVE INSTALLATION FROM LIVE CD

1. Boot up DSL from the live CD.

2. Back up all files on your hard drive to an external memory device. You MUST save all of your data, because installing an OS to the hard drive involves wiping out its entire contents. DO NOT GO ANY FURTHER UNTIL YOU HAVE COMPLETED THIS STEP.

3. When the hard drive erase program is finished, reboot.

4. Boot up DSL again from the live CD. Go to XShells -> Root Access -> Dark

5. Enter the command "cfdisk". You are now in the cfdisk application.

6. Delete any and all existing partitions.

7. Create a new partition (hda1) for holding the original DSL image file. Make it a primary partition with a size of 55 MB. Place it at the beginning of the drive, and make it bootable.

8. Select hda1 and make it type 83 (Linux). Select "Write" to write it to the hard drive.

9. Select the Free Space and create a new partition for the swap drive. Make it a primary partition with a size equal to double the RAM. Place it at the end of the free space.

10. Select hda2 and make it type 82 (Linux swap). Select "Write" to write it to the hard drive.

11. Select the Free Space and create a new partition for the main drive. Make it a primary drive and use the default size (rest of the hard drive space).

12. Select hda3 and make it type 83 (Linux). Select "Write" to write it to the hard drive.

13. Select Quit to exit cfdisk and format the partitions. Enter the following commands:

sudo mke2fs /dev/hda1

sudo mke2fs /dev/hda3

sudo mkswap /dev/hda2

14. Reboot the computer. When the big DSL splash screen appears, do nothing or press Enter if you are booting from the live CD.

15. When you are in DSL, go to DSL menu -> Apps -> Tools -> Frugal Install -> Frugal GRUB Install

16. Use hda1 as the target partition to hold the image. Install from the live CD. Select y to format.

17. When the hard drive installation is finished, reboot the computer, and remove the DSL CD when you are instructed to do so. When you are asked to select one of multiple DSL options, choose the first (default) option. At the DSL X setup, select cancel for the default configuration.

18. To save your configuration settings to the image file on the hard drive, go to DSL menu -> System -> Backup/Restore and backup to device "hda3". If you mess up the configuration, restore from device "hda3". Please save your configuration settings every time you successfully make the change you want, such as setting up the printer.

19. Reboot DSL with the live CD. When you reach the splash screen, press F2 and enter "dsl home=hda3". This saves the home directory to /mnt/hda3.

 

 

Endret 14. april 2011 av conflict