PCMCIA HDD

Forum: Laptops
Topic: PCMCIA HDD
started by: mrtimpi

Posted by mrtimpi on Dec. 10 2006,02:04

I got this old laptop (486) that runs on a pcmcia hdd(/dev/hde) @ 1gb that I would like to install DSM to.
The 486 does not have a cd or floppy.
So i put the hdd in another laptop p3@1ghz

both fdsik and cfdsik wont let me handle the hdd,(disk cannot be read) and the p3 cant boot from the pcmcia disks, so how am i to install to the disk? either hdd install or frugal will be fine

Ive test installed some old debian 30r2 i think.. to the disk but got kernel panic att startup:P so i tought DSM might do the trick.

note: all installation is done from the p3 laptop and the hdd is moved between 486 and p3 for installation and testing

Posted by mrtimpi on Dec. 10 2006,15:10

Some additional information.

I got the HDD install to install to the drive /dev/hde1
and writing a ext2fs to the disk

bootloader results when booting on 486:
GRUB: no valid partition table
LILO: Starts booting, and gets kernel panic.

I think this is because I cannot complete the HDD install because my p3 laptop cannot boot from the pcmcia hdd, after making first install attemt from cd, and after selecting lilo as bootloader, it says it has to restart to finalize the installation, I am unable to do that step.

Is there a easy way to eg. copy the CD to /dev/hde1 and manually install bootloader so that it thinks everything is correct when I try booting from the 486

Posted by roberts on Dec. 10 2006,16:19

Your laptop really can boot from pcmcia. That is very rare.

Does this old laptop have a working/bootable floppy drive?
If so make the DSL bootfloppies and use the boot option

frompcmcia

If you can boot into DSL via the floppy then you can try to install a boot loader, or mark an active partition, etc.

Posted by mrtimpi on Dec. 10 2006,20:26

I got no possibility to attach a floppy or cdrom drive to the 486, Ive got a usb2.0 pcmcia card and usb floppy and usb dvdrom drive, but the 486 doesnt even make the lights flash on the devices.. the only thing I got access to is 2 PCMCIA slots and the separate PCMCIA slot where the hdd is connected. I've got one wireless 3com 11Mbit pcmcia and a usb 2.0 pcmcia..

The 486 is infact a old forklift truck computer for warehousemanagment.. Its in a cool blue metal case with a plexiglass screencover, meaning.. the computer kan crash into a brick wall @ 50kmh=~30mph and still work

Posted by Ran_Talbott on Dec. 21 2006,15:46

I've got some IBM Thinkpad 730Ts that boot from PCMCIA. They require some special (sparsely-documented) prep to work. I think what the DOS prep program is doing is writing some PCMCIA driver code to the normally-unused sectors following the MBR. This may or may not work with lilo (I haven't tried it yet). You should check into whether your system requires something like that.

To write the boot from your desktop, see the "-r" option of lilo. You need to tweak the lilo.conf file to tell lilo how to translate between the drive's designation while it's attached to the desktop and its designation while on the "target" system.

As I recall, it wasn't obvious from the docs that the lilo.conf file needs to be in the /etc directory under the root directory you specify with the "-r" option, not on the "host" PC. Based on past mistakes, I suggest giving the file a name other than "lilo.conf": it increases the odds that any mistakes you make will get caught before they do any harm.

Ran

Posted by seuchato on Dec. 24 2006,10:55

Quote (mrtimpi @ Dec. 10 2006,15:26)

Hi
I seem to have a similar problem but then not quite the same:

Got some industrial grade mbedded boards (PCM4823 from advantech). Quite rugged :-). I managed to get DSL 3.01 and 3.1 run on both by hd installing DSL on a standard desktop PC to the HD. I did not have any problem do that. However the pcmcia drives do not seem to work. I canot see any card I insert. cardctl does not list any. I happen to have a win95 install which I took to see whether it is the pcmcia module (a PC104 module) that migh not have been recognised or else. Win 95 gets the whole setup recognised and configures the cards I have tested so far right away. I guess, what we miss, is some kernel parameter or something similar.

Maybe you can use a similar approach to verify as above (win9x) and maybe this will also provide some clues:
< http://damnsmalllinux.org/cgi-bin....420&st= >

greets