560Z on CF and Linux

[Chris Thorne]

A friend asked me to assist in reviving a classic TP 560Z. He wanted to see if he could build a completely solid-state unit for field note taking using an IDE-CF adapter. The goal was to stay under $100 (and we are still well under that mark).

After some adventures, we got that working, and pretty well, using Barry Kauler's "Puppy Linux", which is a pretty impressive distro for small footprint installations like this one.

And the CF drive is amazing. No HD sound. No vibration (which you don't notice until it's not there). Much cooler. Longer battery life. Seems subjectively faster than the old 6GB Travelstar that came out.

At this point he is happy with the machine, but is looking for a few things.

(a) This has a 300Mhz PII in the mini-cartridge format. I believe that IBM shipped 560Zs in -300 and -366 variants, but never shipped the fastest -400 mini-cartridge CPU. Other vendors did, notably HP. Does anyone have a line on where one might be found? There are a few on ebay for astronomical prices which hardly make sense at this point. Note that the machine is pleasantly quick running Puppy with the -300 processor in it, but a little more oomph could not hurt for larger applications.

(b) Batteries for this form factor no longer seem to be available as new builds, unsurprisingly. There are some NOS 560-series batteries still out there in IBM boxes, but my guess would be that most of them have shelf-rotted to where they will take little or no charge. Would people's recommendation be to rebuild the existing several batteries we have here using new Li-ion cells? Tedious, but perhaps the best chance of getting ample capacity at this late date.

Chris

[RWDPLZ]

When I was looking for a 400Mhz PII for my old 770ED, I did some research and figured out which computers came with that CPU. Then I went on eBay and found a completely gutted one without a screen or anything, and got it for $30

[whizkid]

I bought some NOS UltraSlimBay batteries for my 600X on eBay a while back. They were a few years old, still new in the wrapper and worked perfectly for a good long time.

If the price is right, I'd take a chance on NOS IBM-branded batteries.

Kahlon sells new third-party batteries for just about any machine, as would your local battery store, but with better prices.

[Davemci]

I bought one of those NOS batteries off ebay for my 560Z and was very disappointed. It wouldn't even take a charge. The Battery light just blinked yellow.

On another note. Are you able to boot into Linux? I could never get Linux to work on either my 560X or 560Z without a boot floppy. This problem is well documented (somewhere?).

[whizkid]

risking going off topic...

I put Linux on a 560E. I used a boot floppy to install, but booted from the hard drive just fine once the install was done.

[Chris Thorne]

On another note. Are you able to boot into Linux? I could never get Linux to work on either my 560X or 560Z without a boot floppy. This problem is well documented (somewhere?).

Flawlessly.

I set the 560Z to boot from PCMCIA. Put the CF card in a PCMCIA frame adapter in another laptop. Copied the critical Puppy files to the card. Invoked syslinux on it to make it bootable. Moved that CF/PCMCIA pair to the 560Z.

The 560Z then booted Puppy (2.17) with only minor tweaking. Had to change a few boot flags to get it to load the entire kernel and desktop, but it can and does do that.

I then put a different CF in the IDE adapter, and replaced the hard drive in the 560Z (requiring disassembly: the CF-IDE adapter does not have very elegant geometry and it does not fit straight in to the receptacle). Installed Puppy with its universal installer from CF1/PCMCIA to CF2/IDE. The Puppy installer set up GRUB on the CF2/IDE.

Shut down. Removed the CF1/PCMCIA. Configured to boot from IDE. Booted to Puppy, no hassles. Very impressive work.

Thanks for all of the feedback. Still trying to figure out the CPU and battery issues. Will advise when I have learned more or taken action.


--

[Davemci]

Here's a link to the 560Z problem. So, maybe it's just a slackware problem, but that is what I use.

I think the best bet is to get a refilled battery for $59.00 from here.

I investigated getting a 400MHZ mini-Cartridge CPU and put it on hold until I can snag a bargain. I don't think they make a 366MHZ Mini-cartridge. The Z came with either a 233MHZ or 300MHZ if I remember correctly. The 560X was 200MHZ or 233MHZ but the CPU was soldered on the motherboard.

[whizkid]

Just another data point: Brand new 3000mAH battery for 560Z from Kahlon: $65.00. Guaranteed compatible, 1 year warranty.

http://www.kahlon.com/itemdetailpg.asp?itemid=355095

[Chris Thorne]

Here's a link to the 560Z problem. So, maybe it's just a slackware problem, but that is what I use.

I concur that the problem is likely to be distro specific. Puppy Linux in its latest iteration has been amazingly compatible.

I don't think they make a 366MHZ Mini-cartridge.

HP have a part number for the -366. I figured that if I were going to crack the case and tinker inside such a small machine (always risks of damage) I wanted to do it once only and max out the CPU at that time.

--

[gychang]

A friend asked me to assist in reviving a classic TP 560Z. He wanted to see if he could build a completely solid-state unit for field note taking using an IDE-CF adapter. The goal was to stay under $100 (and we are still well under that mark).

After some adventures, we got that working, and pretty well, using Barry Kauler's "Puppy Linux", which is a pretty impressive distro for small footprint installations like this one.

And the CF drive is amazing. No HD sound. No vibration (which you don't notice until it's not there). Much cooler. Longer battery life. Seems subjectively faster than the old 6GB Travelstar that came out.

At this point he is happy with the machine, but is looking for a few things.

(a) This has a 300Mhz PII in the mini-cartridge format. I believe that IBM shipped 560Zs in -300 and -366 variants, but never shipped the fastest -400 mini-cartridge CPU. Other vendors did, notably HP. Does anyone have a line on where one might be found? There are a few on ebay for astronomical prices which hardly make sense at this point. Note that the machine is pleasantly quick running Puppy with the -300 processor in it, but a little more oomph could not hurt for larger applications.

(b) Batteries for this form factor no longer seem to be available as new builds, unsurprisingly. There are some NOS 560-series batteries still out there in IBM boxes, but my guess would be that most of them have shelf-rotted to where they will take little or no charge. Would people's recommendation be to rebuild the existing several batteries we have here using new Li-ion cells? Tedious, but perhaps the best chance of getting ample capacity at this late date.

Chris

I know this is old thread, I also have 560Z and considering putting in the CF card and ridding of HDD. Do u know which IDE-CF adapter or CF card it was by any chance? I also plan on using it with either Puppy or Slitaz distro.

gychang

[vicm]

I run PCfluxbox Linux on mine with a Realtek Wifi card (windows driver). I found PCfluxbox is more of a standard Linux than Puppy and has a lot more applications for it. Puppy's slightly faster. The 560Z and X can take a 128 MB EDO memory if you can find one cheap. The extra RAm makes a difference. I loaded the Linux on a desktop machine with a disk adaptor. You can resolve the Video and device differences when you move the drive to the 560Z.

[gychang]

I run PCfluxbox Linux on mine with a Realtek Wifi card (windows driver). I found PCfluxbox is more of a standard Linux than Puppy and has a lot more applications for it. Puppy's slightly faster. The 560Z and X can take a 128 MB EDO memory if you can find one cheap. The extra RAm makes a difference. I loaded the Linux on a desktop machine with a disk adaptor. You can resolve the Video and device differences when you move the drive to the 560Z.

I have the 128MB EDO memory coming, and when I install the Puppy on the desktop, it fails to boot (although it boots fine on the desktop).

Is there a command when I switch the HDD to 560Z to adjust video and device differences? Sorry this is slightly off topic.

gychang

[vicm]

I haven't had to try that with Puppy. I've had Puppy on this machine but I loaded from a USB memory stick. I have an external floppy for the 560 family and Puppy can create a floppy to boot from a USB stick.

[gychang]

I haven't had to try that with Puppy. I've had Puppy on this machine but I loaded from a USB memory stick. I have an external floppy for the 560 family and Puppy can create a floppy to boot from a USB stick.

I finally installed using the external floppy and USB stick, my extra RAM was the wrong type, so I am stuck with 96MR of RAM.

I did the full install, will the frugal install be little faster? I will put up this question on the Puppy forum.

gychang