pleasant Linux for a 503+?

Boon wrote:
> Folks,
>
> Any good experiences out there with a Linux distro on a 503+?
>
> I have a 503+ that's never been used, and I'm thinking about giving Linux a
> try, if it's not going to be too painful. I tried Linux years ago, and
> give up in frustration. Maybe Linux is now more pleasant.
>
> Thanks for your thoughts.
>
> - Dave

I have a VA-503+ on which I have run a bunch of Linux distributions,
beginning with Slackware: RedHat, Gentoo, Debian, Ubuntu, etc. After a
succession of recent disasters involving Linux 2.6-based Debian
distributions (namely, Debian etch and Ubuntu current) -- both of which
repeatedly self-destructed -- due, I suspect, to a bug in the
Debian/Ubuntu NE2000 ISA NIC driver module ('ne') -- I decided to switch
back to Linux 2.4-based Slackware 11.0.

Home, sweet home!

I doubt I will be running any more Linux 2.6-based distros on this
board any time soon.

BillH

On Mon, 03 Sep 2007 20:43:19 -0700, no-spam wrote:

> I have a VA-503+ on which I have run a bunch of Linux distributions,
> beginning with Slackware: RedHat, Gentoo, Debian, Ubuntu, etc. After a
> succession of recent disasters involving Linux 2.6-based Debian
> distributions (namely, Debian etch and Ubuntu current) -- both of which
> repeatedly self-destructed -- due, I suspect, to a bug in the
> Debian/Ubuntu NE2000 ISA NIC driver module ('ne') -- I decided to switch
> back to Linux 2.4-based Slackware 11.0.

That's weird. I've run an isa ne2000 nic in my 503+ for years with many
different distributions and have never had any trouble with it.

Guys,

I got my new 503+ up and running. My problem was that the BIOS JE439
wouldn't POST with my CPU, a K6-2+ 450. I borrowed a K6-2 (no plus) from
one of my other 503+ computers, flashed the BIOS on the new 503+ to
JE4333, then put the CPUs back where they were. The new 503+ works now
with the K6-2+. I wonder how (or if) anyone got a K6-2+ to work on a 503+
JE439 BIOS without first using a K6-2 (no plus) CPU like I did.

I've been running the Linux live distros from CDs that you guys
suggested. I'm greatly impressed that I can get to the web and to files
on my other computers right away.

Here's a question. Suppose I run Knoppix live to find that yes, it
supports my sound card. Can I then assume that a hard drive installation
of Xubuntu will support my sound card? The reasoning is that Knoppix and
Xubuntu are both descendants of Ubuntu. If Knoppix has the driver, then
Ubuntu has it, and that means Xubuntu has it, too. Is this good logic?
Or do you still find out about drivers by brutal trial and error?

Thanks for your comments.

- Dave

Carbon wrote:
> On Mon, 03 Sep 2007 20:43:19 -0700, no-spam wrote:
>
>> I have a VA-503+ on which I have run a bunch of Linux distributions,
>> beginning with Slackware: RedHat, Gentoo, Debian, Ubuntu, etc. After a
>> succession of recent disasters involving Linux 2.6-based Debian
>> distributions (namely, Debian etch and Ubuntu current) -- both of which
>> repeatedly self-destructed -- due, I suspect, to a bug in the
>> Debian/Ubuntu NE2000 ISA NIC driver module ('ne') -- I decided to switch
>> back to Linux 2.4-based Slackware 11.0.
>
> That's weird. I've run an isa ne2000 nic in my 503+ for years with many
> different distributions and have never had any trouble with it.

Thanks for the good news about the NE2000 ISA NIC. I forgot which
thread I was in. This (as I said in another thread) is the VA-503+ that
I wrecked by carelessly jamming a SDRAM chip into its slot, so there is
plenty of weird stuff going on. Fact is, it's amazing to me that the
board works at all -- but it does!

BillH

p.s. I am in the market for a replacement board. (I wasted $40 on a
DOA on eBay but the guy who sold it to me apparently "went South".) Any
sellers?

On Fri, 07 Sep 2007 14:05:58 +0000, Boon wrote:

> Here's a question. Suppose I run Knoppix live to find that yes, it
> supports my sound card. Can I then assume that a hard drive
> installation of Xubuntu will support my sound card? The reasoning is
> that Knoppix and Xubuntu are both descendants of Ubuntu. If Knoppix has
> the driver, then Ubuntu has it, and that means Xubuntu has it, too. Is
> this good logic? Or do you still find out about drivers by brutal trial
> and error?

It's good logic.

However, you don't need to test with Knoppix. The Xubuntu desktop CD
(http://www.xubuntu.org/get) is also a live CD. If you boot into it and it
picks up all your hardware, just click on the install to hard drive icon
on the desktop and follow the prompts. It's that easy.

Folks,

I've been working your suggestions for a pleasant Linux on a VA 503+.

The live CDs are great for determining which cards work, and which don't.

I found a solution to one problem that may be helpful to others.
I want to put four cards into the 503+'s 3 PCI slots + 3 ISA slots:
1) sound
2) Promise controller
3) USB 2
4) ethernet

I have PCI cards for all four, but the only ISA cards I have are sound
cards - Sound Blaster models CT1350B and CT2940. These ISA Sound
Blasters work with Windows, but they don't seem to work with Ubuntu &
family. This was very discouraging because I wanted all four of these
capabilities.

I found a very well written work-around at
http://www.aotk50.dsl.pipex.com/inst...nstall-ubuntu-
sb16.htm
I followed the directions and got sound from the ISA card. Great!

I then added the PCI USB card, and the sound died. An IRQ conflict,
maybe? Yes! In Ubuntu I clicked on Application/Accessories/Terminal and
entered:
cat /proc/interrupts
to find that the USB card uses IRQ 5, which the sound card wants.

In the PNP/PCI section of the JE4333 Bios I changed "Resources Controlled
By" from Auto to Manual, then I changed both IRQ 5 and DMA 1 from
"PCI/ISA" to "Legacy ISA". Now it all works!


Here's my observations so far on the Linux distros I've tried:

Knoppix is an awesome live demo!

Open Suse's Samba didn't work, so I gave it up. I don't want to mess
with the Samba config file. I think Open Suse has become like Fedora,
unpaid beta testing.

Damn Small Linux - I can't do much with this. Maybe it's too damn small.
I'll have to come back to it.

Xubuntu 7.04 wouldn't install because its hard drive partitioner is
broken. I'll wait for a fix.

Ubuntu 7.04 is great! Web access and Samba work from the get-go, and it
even installs with no fuss to a hard drive hooked to a Promise
Controller. I'm very happy with it. I'm thinking this is the keeper.
But it's a little slow, so I still want to check out Xubuntu.

Thanks again for your suggestions.

>

On Sun, 16 Sep 2007 19:12:21 +0000, Boon wrote:

> Folks,
>
> I've been working your suggestions for a pleasant Linux on a VA 503+.
>
> The live CDs are great for determining which cards work, and which
> don't.
>
> I found a solution to one problem that may be helpful to others. I want
> to put four cards into the 503+'s 3 PCI slots + 3 ISA slots: 1) sound 2)
> Promise controller
> 3) USB 2
> 4) ethernet
>
> I have PCI cards for all four, but the only ISA cards I have are sound
> cards - Sound Blaster models CT1350B and CT2940. These ISA Sound
> Blasters work with Windows, but they don't seem to work with Ubuntu &
> family. This was very discouraging because I wanted all four of these
> capabilities.
>
> I found a very well written work-around at
> http://www.aotk50.dsl.pipex.com/inst...nstall-ubuntu-
> sb16.htm
> I followed the directions and got sound from the ISA card. Great!
>
> I then added the PCI USB card, and the sound died. An IRQ conflict,
> maybe? Yes! In Ubuntu I clicked on Application/Accessories/Terminal
> and entered:
> cat /proc/interrupts
> to find that the USB card uses IRQ 5, which the sound card wants.
>
> In the PNP/PCI section of the JE4333 Bios I changed "Resources
> Controlled By" from Auto to Manual, then I changed both IRQ 5 and DMA 1
> from "PCI/ISA" to "Legacy ISA". Now it all works!
>
>
> Here's my observations so far on the Linux distros I've tried:
>
> Knoppix is an awesome live demo!
>
> Open Suse's Samba didn't work, so I gave it up. I don't want to mess
> with the Samba config file. I think Open Suse has become like Fedora,
> unpaid beta testing.
>
> Damn Small Linux - I can't do much with this. Maybe it's too damn
> small. I'll have to come back to it.
>
> Xubuntu 7.04 wouldn't install because its hard drive partitioner is
> broken. I'll wait for a fix.
>
> Ubuntu 7.04 is great! Web access and Samba work from the get-go, and it
> even installs with no fuss to a hard drive hooked to a Promise
> Controller. I'm very happy with it. I'm thinking this is the keeper.
> But it's a little slow, so I still want to check out Xubuntu.
>
> Thanks again for your suggestions.

Very resourceful getting the PCI and ISA cards sorted out. I had the same
issues getting four network cards working on my 503+ firewall.

Now that you have Ubuntu installed you can easily install the XFCE desktop
and switch back and forth between it and Gnome at login. Open a terminal
window, type sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop, log out, select XFCE
and log back in. You can install the KDE desktop the same way, sudo
apt-get install kubuntu-desktop

You'll probably also want to have a look at ubuntuguide.org. It has simple
instructions for adding extra repositories, installing the various
multimedia codecs for MP3, etc.

Carbon,

Thank you very much. I didn't know that I could install Kubunto and
Xubunto from Ubunto. I now have all three. I should be out there cutting
the grass, but this is more fun than a barrel of monkeys!

Thanks again!

- Dave