Recuperating an old Laptop - Part 2
Posted on August 4, 2008 in Computing
5 comments
Installing Debian and resolving some issues on an i1300
In Part 1, I introduced you to my Thinkpad and some challenges I’ve had adopting Linux and FreeBSD. There I also discussed how its aging hardware prevented me from installing newer versions of Linux let alone, boot the installer from a CD.
But that problem faded into the background when I was pointed to an article about installing Linux without burning a CD. It opened up opportunities to test out all the Linux distributions I wanted to try, and satisfy myself that it wasn’t only the hardware that had problems but the drivers that came with those distributions.
There are many reasons I chose Debian but here are my top five:
- I was recommended by my friend, Firas of My Dominant Hemisphere to try Debian for its stability and support for old hardware.
- Installation over the Internet - CDs can be unreliable and their .iso files are not always updated until the new version arrives. In most cases Internet installation fetches the latest packages and security updates. Most major distributions facilitate installing over the Internet.
- I was unable to get the installer launch for SUSE, Fedora, Ubuntu and several other distributions. The Debian installer simply worked.
- The Debian Project pioneered in taking guesswork out of installing new software and upgrading. APT and its graphical front end Synaptic are considered Debian’s best features.
This is the very fist time I’ve used Debian. I had on purpose avoided it because of serious criticisms on Wikipedia a few years ago. Those criticisms have since been removed.
Installing Debian
Already supporting eleven microprocessor architectures, Debian still makes it easier to download exactly the files you need, depending on how you prefer to install. For example, if you want to install Debian over the Internet, go to this page, choose your processor architecture (for most Intel systems choose i386), and navigate into the netboot folder.
Debian comes with a graphical installer, in addition to the text-based installer. Of-course we all like to point and click, so continue navigating into the gtk folder. If your CD-RW works well, you can download the mini.iso file and create a boot CD from that. Or if you prefer to install without wasting plastic, (also check out this article), then continue navigating into debian-installer/[arch]/ and download the two files linux and initrd.gz.
Note: If your graphics card or some other hardware required for the graphical-installer fails to be detected, the installer will revert to text-based installation, which is not much different.
Once you’ve restarted your computer and have got the installer up and running, the rest of the installation steps are quite straight forward. If you’ve come this far and are still uncomfortable, then refer to the official installation manual and skip to chapter 6. Now I know that’s a lot to digest but it’s for your own good. Alright-alright: here’s a tutorial with lots of screenshots. The installation shown is a text-based installation and it is not very different from the graphical installer.
Debian installation takes two steps. In the first step, the base-system is installed - that includes the Kernel and the Userland which are used to carry out basic operating system tasks.
In the second step, you are asked to chose from a list of packages. The least you need to choose are Desktop environment and Standard system. If you are installing on a Laptop then select Laptop also, and it will install networking tools, power-management and other tools for portable computing.
The total time required from start to finish depends on the number of packages you choose and the speed of your Internet connection. I chose the three above mentioned packages and it took a total 3½ hours at an average download speed of 72Kbps.
Once the installation has successfully finished, restart your computer and log in. Congratulations !
UJDA330 CD-ROM issues and Debian
I wish the last line in the previous section was really the end but computers are not perfect - not everything works every time !
In Part 1, I discussed some problems with my CD-drive especially when booting from a CD. But after installing Debian, the CD-drive had stopped working.
Fortunately, I was able to figure out that this was a problem related to the kernel. Whenever Debian booted and after detecting the hard-drives, it would freeze for a few minutes at the following lines:
ide-cd: cmd 0x5a timed out
hdc: lost interrupt
ide-cd: cmd 0x5a timed out
hdc: lost interrupt
hdc: ATAPI 24X CD-ROM CD-R/RW drive, 2048kB Cache, DMA
Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20
hdc: lost interrupt
I don’t use my CD-drive a lot but those few minutes of inactivity really bothered me and it had to be fixed !
In comes my friend Firas to the rescue. Let me simply paste our conversation here to show you how we resolved this issue:
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5 minutes |
What he meant was that I had to boot the kernel with the ‘irqpoll’ option. You can add it when GRUB loads when you start your computer. Hit ‘e’ to edit the menu choices and on the next screen, edit the following line as shown by adding irqpoll in the end:
Hit ‘Enter’ to save changes and ‘b’ to boot. Changes made here will only be affected in the current session. It’s a great way to test and play with different available options without doing any serious damage.
To make a permanent change, you will have to log-in and edit the following file as root:
boot/grub/menu.lst
Scroll down and look for the following line:
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-0.0.00-0-000 root=/dev/hda1 ro
and add ‘irqpoll’ in the end.
If you have another menu item for the single user mode, do the same for that also if you like:
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-0.0.00-0-000 root=/dev/hda1 ro single irqpoll
Reboot your computer crossing your fingers hoping everything will work !
irqpoll concerns
I’ve come across discussions in mailing lists and forums where some individuals have raised concern that irqpoll consumes CPU resources sometimes up-to 15%. Some people have even called for a new command but I’m skeptical of that.
I haven’t had any issue with irqpoll so far. It works for me and I’ll keep it and I hope it works for you as well !
What you need to know about Debian
Before I end this post there are a few words I’d like to share especially for those you are new to Linux and for those who are thinking of trying out Debian for the first time.
Debian and Free-Software (Free as in free speech, not free beer)
Debian strictly adheres to the free software philosophies i.e. software that can be modified and re-distributed without any restrictions. It considers even packages that are allowed be modified and re-distributed but only for non-profit — as non-free. For example the SUN-Java plugin, the unrar utility for extracting RAR archives and the Microsoft Core Fonts for the Web are considered non-free due to restrictions or other issues by their respective developers.
On an interesting note, because the Mozilla Foundation does not allow use of its Trademarks on modified binaries, the Debian Project decided to rebrand Firefox and other software from Mozilla, so that it could re-distribute them with modifications.
The Synaptic Package Manager does not list the non-free repositories by default. To obtain non-free software, you need to edit the /etc/apt/sources.list file and add the following two lines:
deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ stable contrib
deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ stable non-free
contrib packages are freely-licensed but depend on non-free software. Propriety software such as Adobe Flash Player and Real Player are not found in any Debian repositories but their freely-licensed alternatives are available.
Is Debian right for you ?
Debian aims to be the most stable Linux distribution. Software packaged for Debian go through a rigorous cycle of testing for bugs and other issues.
But all this comes at a cost - Time. So you will hardly find the newest features and the newest versions of your favourite software in any official stable releases of Debian.
If you are someone with a new toy and want to stay on the bleeding edge, then Debian is not for you. But if you really insist, then you can help the Debian project by testing out the upcoming release.
To upgrade to testing, add the following line to /etc/apt/sources.list and upgrade via the Synaptic Package Manager:
deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ testing main
Be forewarned, testing can contain numerous bugs and unresolved issues. Some packages may break and you may be left with a dud. Also, testing does not get security updates in a timely manner - so don’t tell me that I didn’t tell you !
Screenshots
GNOME Desktop on Debian etch
XFCE Desktop on Debian etch
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There are 5 comments
Once again, a job well done Jaffer! I bet this one will end up on Debian News as well
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Shh ! Not too loud !
Thank you as you’ve played a big part as well !
Installing on internet very cool. Who knows if I run into a old garage sale pc for cheap. I want to try this out.
Curtis’s last blog post… Comment on blogs from Google Reader
Hey Curtis,
The top major distributions Suse, Fedora, Gentoo and Debian and many minor ones have allowed installation over the internet for many years. I wish Ubuntu followed suit !
I agree Jaffer, although there seem to be numerous netboot (installation over the internet) howtos around [http://is.gd/1gCa , http://is.gd/1gCd , http://is.gd/1gCh and http://tinyurl.com/6m2yvs for Ubuntu, things could’ve been a lot more simpler!
Firas MR’s last blog post… Evolutionary Computing