[OB] ubuntu gutsy on OB80, anyone?

[Paul Fox]

steve wrote:
 > Hi to Paul Fox and Ron Beckley
 > 
 > ...I would also like to try Ubuntu on my OB800CT p166 60mb. I am currently
 > trying to port DSL - anybody had success here?

hi steve --

DSL booted fine, as i recall.

the trick for me (since i don't have a scsi cdrom drive anymore)
was to put the disk into another PC, using a 2.5-to-ide adapter. 
then i booted DSL, and followed the "install to hard drive"
instructions from the DSL website, and it all just worked when
moving it back to the OB.

as for my problem below -- i did eventually get ubuntu to boot,
but then got distracted by DSL, so i never finished the install. 
i intend to go back to it though, because ubuntu offers a lot of
advantages (for me) over DSL.  (but DSL is probably a more
appropriate choice for this machine, all other things being
equal.  btw, for others -- DSL stands for "Damn Small Linux". 
easy to google for.)

the issue with ubuntu is that with recent 2.6 kernels, ide
controllers are sometimes given an ide driver, and sometimes
given an emulation layer that makes them look a lot like scsi to
the system.  my desktop machine was treating its controller in the
latter way, and not putting the ide drivers into the ramdisk,
since they weren't needed.  but the controller in the ob800 can't
work that way, and failed to find its root disk after booting. 
but if you poke around while the ramdisk is running (the system
leaves you there when it can't find a root device) you can load
the rest of the ide drivers, and continue booting.  then you have
to force creation of a new ramdisk.  or else maybe i forced
creation of a new ramdisk, which included the ide modules, while
the disk was still plugged into the desktop pc.  i'm sorry i
don't remember right now.  i have to go through it again one of
these days, if only to finish the install, and get my partially
disassembled ob800 off the workbench, before i lose the screws. :-)

paul

 > 
 > Steve
 > 
 > -----Original Message-----
 > From: omnibook-bounces at lists.elektro.com
 > [mailto:omnibook-bounces at lists.elektro.com] On Behalf Of Paul Fox
 > Sent: 09 March 2008 02:24
 > To: omnibook at lists.elektro.com
 > Subject: [OB] ubuntu gutsy on OB80, anyone?
 > 
 > hi -- anyone running ubuntu gutsy (or maybe, any recent ubuntu), on
 > an OB800?
 > 
 > i'd been running debian sarge for quite some time, and a few
 > months ago my disk died.  i seem to have lost (!) my scsi cd
 > drive, so i couldn't do a direct install from CD, but i happen to
 > have a 2.5" to "regular" IDE adapter.  so i put the new 2.5" hard
 > drive in a desktop computer, and did an install of gutsy there.
 > 
 > although it boots fine in the desktop, it won't in the OB.  the
 > issue is with the naming of the root device in grub menu.lst file --
 > everything is pretending to be scsi these days under linux, (e.g.
 > my ide-only desktop calls its first disk /dev/sda) and ubuntu
 > builds the menu.lst file to use disk UUID values rather than
 > names, so i'm a couple of levels deep in naming obfuscation.
 > 
 > if someone with a running ubuntu could send me a copy of their
 > working menu.lst, i'd be very obliged...
 > 
 > paul
 > =---------------------
 >  paul fox, pgf at foxharp.boston.ma.us (arlington, ma, where it's 45.0 degrees)

=---------------------
 paul fox, pgf at foxharp.boston.ma.us (arlington, ma, where it's 40.6 degrees)