This document describes how to get Debian 2.2r2 up an running on the Dell Inspiron 8000.My config:I made heavy use of the prior work of Borries Demeler <demeler@biochem.uthscsa.edu> who got Slackware working on the i8000, and was kind enough to let us know how he did it:
http://biochem.uthscsa.edu/~demeler/i8000/Dave Plonka <plonka@doit.wisc.edu>, Feb 3 2001
Inspiron 8000 (850 MHZ) 256 MB RAM 32 GB disk 32 MB ATI Rage 128 Mobility 8xDVD/24xCDROM 1400x1050 15" display. Xircom CBE2-100 10/100baseT PCMCIA Linux: Debian 2.2r2 (kernel 2.2.18pre21)
-1) If you do nothing else from this, obtain tomsrtbt-1.7.185.
Note that the newer BETA tomsrtbt-1.7.205 *does not* work on the i8000.
On the Inspiron 8000, if you boot the tomsrtbt-1.7.185 floppy, log
in as root and run "pcmcia start" your good to go for supported
PCMCIA ethernet cards.
For those not familiar with it, tomsrtbt stands for:
"Tom's floppy which has a root filesystem and is also bootable."
^^^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
It is "The most Linux on one floppy disk" for:
- rescue recovery panic & emergencies
- tools to keep in your shirt pockets
- whenever you can't use a hard drive
http://www.toms.net/rb/
Anyway, if it's not convenient for you to install from CD-ROMs as
described below, theoretically you could use tomsrtbt download and
pwrite the CD-ROM content straight to Linux filesystems into a
temporary throw-away partition on your i8000's disk.
E.g:
tomsrtbt# snarf http://path/to/pcmcia-cs-3.1.24.tar.gz /tmp/pcmcia-cs-3.1.24.tar.gz
0) If you want to save your Windows partition, use Partition Magic.
'nuff said.
1) Install Debian 2.2 from CD-ROM.
Unfortunately, this is the only method I recommend since it will
allow you to get your Debian system up and running with the compiler
kernel sources and such, even though your ethernet doesn't work
yet.
The PCMCIA ethernet won't work unless you first update the pcmcia
stuff per the step-by-step instructions below. In fact, if you try
to boot the Linux 2.2.18pre21 kernel with the default rc scripts
supplied with Debian 2.2, it will crash.
2) Obtain the Debian binary-i386 CD-ROMs from the net:
See: http://cdimage.debian.org
Basically there are two ways to obtain the CD-ROM images:
A) Download the extrememly large ".iso" CD-ROM images from a Debian
cd-image mirror site. I used this mirror:
http://debian.uchicago.edu/debian-cd/potato/official/2.2_rev2/i386/
Since I was lucky enough to get better than 4 megabits/sec
downloading from my closest Debian cd-image mirror site, I used
this method for one CD and the following method for the 2
others.
*OR*
B) Using the "make-pseudo-image" utility to download all the
requisite debian packages from a "normal" Debian mirror site.
That utility creates a single large "pseudo-image" file which you
subsequently convert into the real ".iso" image by using the
"rsync" utility and pointit it at the a Debian cd-image mirror
site. I managed to do this on a Windows 2000 machine. The
CYGWIN bash.exe scripts used by "make-pseudo-image" crashed when
I tried them on the Windows 98 machine, YMMV.
Once you have the Debian 2.2r2 binary-i386 CD-ROM ".iso" image
files, burn them to CD using another machine that has a CD writer.
3) When going through the initial setup, don't even bother trying to
get PCMCIA or networking up and running.
When the Debian installer leaves you at the "Reboot the system"
step, get a root shell instead and do this:
root# cd /target/etc/init.d
root# mv pcmcia pcmcia.save
In a brute force way, this will prevent your pcmcia stuff from
intializing upon reboot.
4) Reboot the system and continue with the installation from CD-ROM.
5) Obtain the kernel sources and Debian kernel package build scripts:
Use dselect to install "kernel-source-2.2.18pre21" and
"kernel-package" packages from the CD-ROMs. If you haven't done
so already, dselect will also require you to install the "bzip2"
and "libbz2" packages. Do as it wishes.
Also, install "libncurses4-dev" so that we can use "menuconfig"
when configuring the kernel below.
6) On another machine obtain the current pcmcia package from
"ftp://pcmcia.sourceforge.net/pub/pcmcia-cs/".
I obtained "pcmcia-cs-3.1.24.tar.gz".
7) Obtain the kernel patces.
Obtain teh sound kernel driver maestro 3 patch for kernel 2.2.18
from "http://www.zabbo.net/maestro3". Specifically I found it
here:
http://www.zabbo.net/maestro3/maestro3-0.51-2.2.18.diff
Otain the IEEE1394 kernel patch for 2.2.18 from sourceforge.net.
Luckily, this file is small enough to fit on a floppy, so transfer
it to your Inspiron 8000 by that method:
othermachine# tar cf /dev/fd0 pcmcia-cs-3.1.24.tar.gz
othermachine# tar rf /dev/fd0 maestro3-0.51-2.2.18.diff
i8000# cd /tmp
i8000# tar xf /dev/fd0
8) Extract, patch, and build, and install the kernel the *Debian* way:
Consult "file:/usr/doc/kernel-package/README.gz" if you don't trust
my suggested commands here.
Phase ONE: Getting and configuring the kernel
i8000# cd /usr/src
i8000# bunzip2 -c kernel-source-2.2.18pre21.tar.bz2 |tar xf -
i8000# cd kernel-source-2.2.18pre21
Phase ONE-POINT-FIVE: Patch the kernel (OPTIONAL)
i8000# patch -p1 < /tmp/maestro3-0.51-2.2.18.diff
i8000# patch -p1 < /tmp/ieee1394-2.2.18-20001223
This next step requires "libncurses4-dev" to have been installed!
i8000# make menuconfig
Be sure to configure Maestro 3 sound! Consult my ".config" file if
you wish.
Phase TWO: Create a portable kernel image .deb file
i8000# make-kpkg clean
i8000# make-kpkg --revision=i8000.1.0 kernel_image
Phase THREE: Install the kernel image
i8000# dpkg -i ../kernel-image-2.2.18pre21_i8000.1.0_i386.deb
9) Extract, build, and install pcmcia-cs.
First, use dselect to remove the current "pcmcia-cs" package and put
it on hold to remind yourself that you manually installed a
non-Debian pcmcia-cs package.
root# cd /usr/src
root# gunzip -c pcmcia-cs-3.1.?.tar.gz |tar xf -
root# cd pcmcia-cs-3.1.?
root# ./Configure --kernel=/usr/src/kernel-source-2.2.18pre21
PnP BIOS? y
from Linux source tree? y
root# make all
root# make install
Among other things, that should cause a new "pcmcia" rc script to be
installed as "/etc/init.d/pcmcia" so it is not necessary to restore
the one you saved earlier.
10) The moment of Truth! Reboot:
root# shutdown -r now
11) X11 configuration:
Here the XF86Config that Borries Demeler <demeler@biochem.uthscsa.edu> generated.
XFree86/4.0.2/binaries/Linux-ix86-libc5
Xxserv.tgz
Xmod.tgz
Use the XF86Config from here:
http://holbrooks.org/linux/delli8k/XF86Config
root# cd /usr/X11R6
root# mv bin/X bin/X.orig
root# gunzip -c /tmp/Xxserv.tgz |tar xf -
root# gunzip -c /tmp/Xmod.tgz |tar xf -
root# gunzip -c /tmp/Xlib.tgz |tar xf -
root# cd /etc/X11
Edit the "Xerver" file to have "/usr/bin/X11/X" as the first line!
root# cd /etc/init.d
root# mv gpm gpm.save
root# cd /dev
root# mv mouse mouse.save
root# ln -s psaux mouse
12) The moment of Truth! Start the X server:
root# startx