Re: Need help with error messages at startup of RedHat Linux (with GNOME)

Robert Maas, see http://tinyurl.com/uh3t wrote:
I opened up every access port I could find on this Dell Latitude
XPi P133ST, even discovered how to pull out the hard disk (an IBM
OEM model), but I don't see anything that looks like a battery.
Where is it located? How can I get to it?
From: Daniel Ganek <degs...@xxxxxxxxxxx>
It's a laptop. The battery could be under the keyboard.

Well I took "could" to mean "should" or "probably would", and I
tried unscrewing the three tiny (but very long) phillips screws on
the bottom. The result: The faceplate over the keyboard, which
contains the trackball+buttons and the internal speaker, tilted up,
which freed the keyboard itself to tilt up. I didn't see anything
that looked like a battery anywhere in there, but under the
keyboard I saw a four-wire ribbon cable, orange plastic insulation
except at the loose end where there was a four-pin metal plug just
floating free, not plugged in anywhere. I didn't see any obvious
place it would plug in. Does anybody know where it goes? I don't
know whether it was hanging loose all the time I had the laptop, or
whether it came unplugged as I was flipping the keyboard up and
down after I removed the phillips screws. Even if I do eventually
find the battery, I don't want to plug in the laptop again until
that ribbon cable is somewhere other than floating loose making
random contact with any metal object it finds, such as the metallic
bottom of the keyboard.

As an alterative to replacing the battery, I'm thinking maybe I
should just remove the hard disk and stick it into another free
laptop I can find somewhere. That way I'd be able to keep all my
files (including Java and J2EE) even if I switch laptops. Does
anybody know of an organization in the San Jose (California) area
that matches up throw-away-but-mostly-working laptops with
low-income people who would like one for free or just a few
dollars? Do most laptops have the same size slot and connector
design, so that a hard drive from one kind of laptop would just
plug into another kind of laptop? Or do I need to specify some
particular connector type and slot shape when I ask for a
free/lowcost laptop? Does RedHat Linux automatically configure
itself to a different machine if the hard disk is put into some
completely different laptop with power down then power is turned
on? (I know that it explores the available RAM etc. during booting.
Is that enough to completely recognize what kind of machine it
happens to be in, and configure RedHat Linux to work on that
machine?) (I figure it's the ROM BIOS, which is in the computer
itself, not on the hard disk, which starts the bootstrap process,
right? But at some point it must recognize that Linux is on the
hard disk, and the hardware and disk-based system must somehow get
working together, right?)

You need to go to Google and hit the Dell buttons on your keyboard and
chase down the comprehensive information that they give
you on such matters as assembly/disassembly, batteries and cards.

I upgraded my Dell Dimension 2400's memory and perhaps
foolishly upgraded the graphics. I added memory to my Dell
Inspiron 4000 and found all the information I needed and more
than I wanted on the Dell site despite the fact that otherwise
they hardly support these old models. Both of these toys
are running GNU/Linux and one is dual boot. Mandriva on the
big box and Knoppix on the laptop.

Whether or not the RH can recognise enough of the newer
machine will depend on how close the new machine is hardware-wise
to the old machine. Things like graphic chip sets and other
chips that interface the cpu to the rest of the system are the
most likely problems.

You might want to try the Alameda Computer Recycling Center
and they might be willing to set you up with a laptop in exchange for
work. If you are close to a Goodwill store that sells used equipment
at all you might want to visit them daily to check on what they might
have before it is sent away to be refurbished. I saw a man pick
up an old but working IBM Thinkpad for $50 a few weeks ago as I popped
in to check on such on my way to the SF-LUG meeting on the 1st Sunday
of February. In San Francisco if you can get here on Mission at South
Van Ness a block south of Market we have a Goodwill store with a weekly
delivery of new machines on Tuesday night or Wedesday morning which
usually includes several old but refurbished Dell laptops at about $225.

There are Linux Users Groups all over the Bay Area, some more
technical other more social. SF-LUG falls between the two extremes
and the other members have helped me a great deal. Asking for help
and thanking people for it is always helpful.

later
bliss -- C O C O A Powered... (at california dot com)

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