*Important Linux Tip* -- RedHat 6.1 on Vibrant 133MHz -- the transmonde laptop information page

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Subject: *Important Linux Tip* -- RedHat 6.1 on Vibrant 133MHz

Author:
Scott Bilik

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Date Posted: 07:05:33 06/26/00 Mon

Hello everyone,

I just wanted to offer this tip to anyone who is thinking of trying to revive an old 133MHz Vibrant with Linux. It can be done fairly easily. I used RedHat 6.1 last month and spent a *ton* of time trying to figure out what was locking up my machine. Here was the key that made it happen:

Tell linux not to use APM (advanced power management)

After Linux gets installed, when you are at the LILO prompt, type "linux apm=off". It is not sufficient to just disable power management in the BIOS. Tell the linux kernel you just "don't want to go there". :) Failure to do so will likely cause the bootstrap to hang near drive enumeration.

Once you are booted and logged in as root read the man pages for how you modify lilo to use that (apm=off) as a default boot option.

Obviously this tip need not apply to more recent Transmondes, whose APM hardware/firmware works correctly (at least that's my understanding). Hope this helps anyone who wants to tinker around with linux on an "obsolete" machine. (tongue planted firmly in cheek!)

--
Scott
PS If you can upgrade to 64MB, it would certainly help. Otherwise your choices are:
a) Learn to like paging
b) Trim down the environment (fewer unnecessary daemons, lighter window manager, etc)

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