BeOS on Libretto 100CT

[Alesak]

Hello,

I am trying to install BeOS (downloaded from bebits.com) on my tiny old
Toshiba Libretto 100CT. Since I don't have a floppy drive (nor floppy
itself), I used "memdisk" from "GRUB" for booting - not that I would
expect this to be a problem. The partition, on which is the 500MB image
installed is of "ext3" type.

All it does is showing some initial graphics screen, with an box,
flashing for some short time in the top left corner of the screen. Then
it turns blue, and the game is over.

What should I do? Is there any possibility at least to get information,
on what it freezes? Or has anyone here floppy image, known to boot on
libretto?

Thanks a lot,

[Andreas Kohlbach]

Post by Alesak
I am trying to install BeOS (downloaded from bebits.com) on my tiny old
Toshiba Libretto 100CT. Since I don't have a floppy drive (nor floppy
itself), I used "memdisk" from "GRUB" for booting - not that I would
expect this to be a problem. The partition, on which is the 500MB image
installed is of "ext3" type.

Never managed to boot BeOS from a Linux loader. Cool, have to try.

Post by Alesak
All it does is showing some initial graphics screen, with an box,
flashing for some short time in the top left corner of the screen. Then
it turns blue, and the game is over.
What should I do? Is there any possibility at least to get information,
on what it freezes? Or has anyone here floppy image, known to boot on
libretto?

I guess you can boot BeOS on any system with a floppy image. My BeOS came
with one and I could mail it if necessary.

I ran BeOS on an IBM Thinkpad 390E btw.

[David Cantrell]

Post by Alesak
I am trying to install BeOS (downloaded from bebits.com) on my tiny old
Toshiba Libretto 100CT. Since I don't have a floppy drive (nor floppy
itself) ...

If you're near me (I'm in London) I can lend you a Libretto PCMCIA
floppy drive. That said, I doubt it would work anyway, as the Libretto
uses that drive in DOS and Windows95 by having special magic in its BIOS
to drive it. Any other operating system needs to have special drivers
to support it. So while the BIOS might be able to pull the boot sector
etc off a floppy and run it, as soon as the Be code takes over I would
expect it to ignore the BIOS and try to talk directly to the floppy
controller - and fail. At least, that's what all other OSes have done
to me.

[Alesak]

Hello David,

Post by David Cantrell
If you're near me (I'm in London) I can lend you a Libretto PCMCIA
floppy drive. That said, I doubt it would work anyway, as the Libretto

thank you very much for such kind offer, but I would not call two
thousands kilometers as "short" distance and I think I will be able to
get the floppydrive somewhere a bit closer. It will be as you say -
simply, the "memdisk" is not enough and the Be makes some unfair access
to the drive on his own. We'll see, who will win. But an other, maby
more important question, is it worth trying? I don't want to use
Windows on the Libretto (because it's windows) and the Linux in X is
not very fast on it (probably, the biggest limit is the 64MB RAM). So I
hope, that some other POSIX system will do the job better.

Thank you again!

[§ñühw€£f]

Post by Alesak
Hello David,

Post by David Cantrell
If you're near me (I'm in London) I can lend you a Libretto PCMCIA
floppy drive. That said, I doubt it would work anyway, as the Libretto

thank you very much for such kind offer, but I would not call two
thousands kilometers as "short" distance and I think I will be able to
get the floppydrive somewhere a bit closer. It will be as you say -
simply, the "memdisk" is not enough and the Be makes some unfair access
to the drive on his own. We'll see, who will win. But an other, maby
more important question, is it worth trying? I don't want to use
Windows on the Libretto (because it's windows) and the Linux in X is
not very fast on it (probably, the biggest limit is the 64MB RAM). So I
hope, that some other POSIX system will do the job better.
Thank you again!

I use Vector Linux 4.3 on a Toshiba Satellite 490CDT with good results.
You can boot from a cd by holding down the 'c' key on your keyboard.
BIOS is accessed by holding down 'esc' while booting.

BeOS was buggy on the same hardware with the usual kernal panic
message.
:(

[David Cantrell]

Post by Alesak
But an other, maby
more important question, is it worth trying? I don't want to use
Windows on the Libretto (because it's windows) and the Linux in X is
not very fast on it (probably, the biggest limit is the 64MB RAM). So I
hope, that some other POSIX system will do the job better.

Of course it's worth trying :-)

FWIW, I use Linux on my Libretto (a 50ct, with only 32MB). X works
fine. You just need to avoid memory hogs like anything from the Mozilla
foundation. eg, for the browser I use an old version of Opera. I'm
using an old version of Debian (download and installation instructions
here: http://www.cantrell.org.uk/david/tech/libretto/), but Slackware
would do just as well.

I believe OS/2 is vaguely POSIXish, so perhaps that would work for you.
It's more likely to have device support for the floppy too, or to use
the BIOS.

[Andreas Kohlbach]

Post by David Cantrell
FWIW, I use Linux on my Libretto (a 50ct, with only 32MB). X works
fine. You just need to avoid memory hogs like anything from the Mozilla
foundation.

If not running too long it's fine and not eating up too much memory. ;-)

Post by David Cantrell
eg, for the browser I use an old version of Opera.

Me too, but you should run an up to date version. Opera also had a lot of
bugs lately.