Weblog entry #179 for ajt
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I decided to get my self a new notebook. Novatech do a V13 unit (Clevo W83T) unit for £340 and it comes naked, so no Windows tax to pay.
It doesn't have a CD/DVD drive so I have to boot it some other way to get the installer going. I tried to PXE boot it, and that works but the Lenny or Squeeze kernels doesn't have the drivers for the JMC25X ethernet card it has so that's not much use at the moment...
I tried an external USB/IDE hard disk. That has loads of space on it but GRUB fails with a Geom problem.
I can get it to boot okay with an ext2 formatted USB key with extlinux, however that kenel panics when it can't find a root filesystem...
I tried a FAT formatted USB key that I used on my dad's Viglen last year and that just gives a blank screen.
I must be doing something silly....
Comments on this Entry
I tred GRUB again on the external harddisk and by setting the installation directory correctly it worked! I then manually installed the latest kernel from SID to get the network working, and upgradeded to Squeeze. All is working and I'm now adding this comment from my new lappy!
It's not bad but the keyboard is a bit nosy, but what can you expect from a ulra-cheap netbook on steroids.
--
"It's Not Magic, It's Work"
Adam
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Too true, but as I don't have one, it makes that a bit hard...
Ironically once I'd got grub installed on the USB hard disk it went onto the unit very easily.
--
"It's Not Magic, It's Work"
Adam
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]