Tosh + Linux

Yup, it can be done and it runs very well. I am running a dual boot with Windows XP, defaulting to RedHat 7.2 Linux. You may be able to use this as a guide to
doing the same thing on your notebook... maybe not. This worked for me. I make no guaranties. If nothing else it should point you in the right direction and let
you know that it can be done, and it's fairly easy all things considered

Date of original posting of this page: 03/09/02.

At the bottom of this page I will list links to see copies of what I think are relevant files.

What's needed:

Blank CD-R (For XFree86 4.2)
2 blank Blank floppy disks
Partition Magic 7.0 (If you plan to dual boot with XP)

This notebook comes with XP Home edition. It also comes with a 3 CD set of drive restore images. My original load of Linux seemed simple enough. I put in the
RedHat CD, hit [F12] at boot and installed RedHat including drive partitions. When I went to restore the XP partition it repartitioned the drive back into one big
drive, killing my linux partition I just made. Consider that fair warning! The Toshiba help line was very nice and even tried to locate a freeware partition
manager to help me, but in the end there was nothing they could do.

When I bought this notebook, there was only one disk partitioning package that could resize an XP drive: Partition Magic 7.0. I was able to buy it as a download
version from Amazon.com for $54.99. Everywhere else it was $69.99. Please note that I said Partition Magic 7.0. I don't know about version 5 or 6, but the
version 4 I had could not manage XP's NTFS. I also looked at a couple other cheaper resizing packages like Ranish and Partition Commander. Ranish couldn't't
do it at all, and my Partition Commander 6.0 was so convoluted I could not figure out how to get it to work.

I installed Partition Magic 7.0 on XP, and resized my XP drive as close to half as I could. I left the other partition unallocated. I read on a couple pages that was a
good idea.

While you are still in Windows, do yourself a favor: Download XFree86 4.2 and burn it to a CD. This is extremely important. Regardless what you may be reading
about fbdev drivers (Frame Buffer) drivers working withe a Trident CyberBlade XP (which comes with this notebook), I worked for at least 4 hours trying to get
X running using XFree86 4.1x using a frame buffer driver. In addition, from what I read even if you get it running, it is slow. The XFree86 that comes with
RedHat 7.2 comes with what appears to be a driver for Trident CyberBlade XP, but it does not work. This was not a big deal for me since I have a cable modem.
DSL users should be OK as well. Dial up? I downloaded the whole kit and caboodle and this was 60mb. Read the documentation online to get only what you need.

Start the Linux install. Select a custom install! I partitioned my drive with DiskDruid and set it up as follows:

/dev/hda1 NFTS 8997mb
/dev/hda2 ext2 47mb /boot
/dev/hda3 ext2 9554mb /
/dev/hda4 478mb extended
/dev/hda5/ 478 extended swap

Notice that I changed the drives from the default and better ext3 style to ext2. This is because Partition Manager 7.0 does not handle ext3 filesystems at all. If I
were to make any changes to the partitions, like make a FAT or FAT32 space, later it could (would?) trash my ext3 filesystems. So I went with ext2. PM7.0
shouldn't trash those filesystems. If you are not going to dual boot with XP, then go ahead and use ext3. It really is better.

IMPORTANT: If you are planning a dual boot system, DO NOT under ANY circumstances install grub, lilo or ANYTHING in the MBR of this machine. YOU
MUST use the XP bootloader. DO install lilo (not grub) into the first sector of you linux drive. You will need this for the boot setup later.

IMPORTANT: Make sure to make a boot disk! Without lilo loaded in the MBR you will not be able to get back into linux.

IMPORTANT: Since the X system will not work on reboot (Trust me) be sure to set the login prompt to be test not graphic.

I don't know if this is required, but during the framebuffer fiasco, I appended my lilo.conf with vga=791. Maybe someone will tell me this is not needed with
XFree86 4.2. I left it.
Once installed, mount the CDROM with XFree86 4.2 and copy all the files to a temporary drive. You will not be able to install from the CD. Run "sh
Xinstall.sh". As soon as I installed XFree86 4.2 I was able to run the standard startx and X came up.
I did have to change the /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc to run "startkde" instead of twm, but other than that it works fine. I still have not changed the inittab from
runlevel 3 to runlevel 5 because I can't seem to get kpm wpm or gpm to work well. So right now, I boot in text mode, login and run startx. Right now for me,
coming up in runlevel 5 (graphical login) will end in disaster.

How about dual boot?

>From a linux prompt type:

lilo -s /tmp/linux.bin

Copy the linux.bin file to a floppy.
Reboot into Windows XP
Copy the linux.bin file to your C:\ root

Edit the XP "boot.ini" file. Load the control panel
Select the System applet
Select the Advanced tab
Click Settings under the Startup and Recovery
Click Edit under System Startup
Edit this to include the lines:

c:\linux.bin="RedHat Linux 7.2"

To make linux your default OS, then change the default line to read:

default=c:\linux.bin

Files:

linux.bin
xinitrc
XF86Config-4
boot.ini

If you have questions regarrding this installation (I am no guru, I did this by trial and error) feel free to write me and ask. I would also like to know if my efforts
helped. I can be reached at sfricke@oilstates.com

By the way, I was able to use VLC client to watch DVDs and X-CD-Roast burns CDs just fine!

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