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TP600e 2645-550 which distro?
Posted: Mon Feb 26, 2007 6:19 pm
by b1ackb1rd
Greetings All,
I've just spent 2 days trying to get Ubuntu running on my TP600e (415Mb RAM, 20Gb) and I simply cannot get the thing to run without hanging and losing all the settings. I can activate my wireless PCMCIA card but not connect to the internet
I'm trying to put 6.10 as a fresh load onto a reformatted HDD, and configure a wireless Belkin PCMCIA card ... I give up!
Am I simply running the wrong distro for my old TP600e?
I just want to surf the net in front of the tv without giving my hard earned to Bilious Gates - any recommendations?
Posted: Mon Feb 26, 2007 7:24 pm
by Leikeze Ajnin
You could try
http://www.mueller.ch.vu/misc/tp600e_en.html, which used Ubuntu 6.06, and has some extra installation instructions (Link found from
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=2119444). Hopefully something in there might help with the hanging issues.
Posted: Mon Feb 26, 2007 7:25 pm
by The Spirit of X21
I've read a few comments from people (on other forums) who have succeeded using SimplyMEPIS in getting wireless to work when other distributions have been unable to work properly out of the box. I really like OpenSuSE but I don't think your system would handle it well.
If you would like to get Ubuntu or some other distro to work with your wireless card, perhaps you could submit to us more specific information about it. This would help us to tell you what you need (ndiswrapper, etc) in order to get your lappie and the wifi card to communicate.
Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2007 4:03 am
by b1ackb1rd
Thanks for the replies.
I really don't have a clue with Ubuntu, I spotted one fault in the boot sequence which mentioned a known ACPI BIOS fault but I'm not in 'the business' like some of you guys so it's all greek to me!
When I gave up last night I had just performed a full HDD format using DOS, and then I tried to load Ubuntu - it wouldn't even get to the desktop where you have a choice to install or use the live cd.
I've read somewhere that other distros have better hardware recognition than Ubuntu, I think I'll give them a whirl, and if that fails I'll have to bite the bullet and pay Mr Gates
Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2007 1:37 pm
by whizkid
Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2007 8:52 pm
by jfsmith
It will probably elicit some sneers from "real" Linux advocates, but I am a total Linux newbie and I had no intention of learning to speak Unix in my dotage. So I looked for the easiest and (ugh!) most Windows-like distro available for my old 233 MHz 600 (2645-41U) and that was Xandros 4.0. It installed like a dream -- and with one exception -- recognized all the hardware and runs flawlessly. I am also using a Belkin Wireless G card. It is necessary to disable ACPI to get the Belkin card recognized -- don't know why. The one exception: sound. That is a known problem with the TP600 and it's a low priority for me. It can be made to work and maybe one of these days I'll get around to playing with it.
Just for good measure, I installed it on an old 500 MHz Athlon desktop and it scored 100% on that one, recognizing all the hardware and peripherals with no foolin' around required.
Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2007 4:28 am
by b1ackb1rd
Brilliant, that's what I'm after - an easy entry into this foreign language
I managed to get 6.06 loaded last night, configured the wireless card BUT it still shows as 'eth0' rather than 'ra0' in the properties page. I'm sending and receiving data apperently - but I still can't make that final connection to get the internet running.
Oh, and please ... how the f***** do I disable ACPI ???
Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2007 11:53 am
by jfsmith
I don't know anything about Ubuntu, but to disable ACPI in Xandros, I had to add two statements in the boot command line: "acpi=off" and "pci=noacpi". I do have to turn the power off on the 600 manually after shutdown now, of course.
Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2007 1:23 pm
by The Spirit of X21
To change a kernel option in menu.lst (in Ubuntu):
1. Open Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal)
2. Type: sudo nano /boot/grub/menu.lst
3. Enter password
4. Scroll down toward the bottom of the text file. You should see a set of lines like this:
title Ubuntu 6.06 (Note: not the one that says failsafe)
kernel xxxxxxxx
initrd xxxxxxxxx
At the end of the kernel line (after the xxxxx, whatever it is on your system), type acpi=off and apm=on. If you don't want either ACPI or APM turned on, just choose off for both.
5. Press Ctrl-X
6. Press Y to save
Hope this helps.