I have a old laptop, whose keyboard is damaged so that several of the keys are unresponsive and cannot be used. Therefore I decided to use the machine as a home server, and planned on installing OpenSuse base system on it.
The machine has very little RAM (112 MB, 16 MB shared video RAM), and I have yet to figure out whether it could be upgraded. Due to that amount, I need to use the text-based install. And here comes my problems. The F3 key does not work, and the USB keyboard I attached is not working at the GRUB stage, so I have no access whatsoever to an F3 key.
Can anyone suggest a workaround so I can run the installer in text-based mode? I am using the net install image.
Thanks in advance!
PS. In the BIOS, I see USB legacy devices option as DISABLED. However, the only way to enter the BIOS is through the external USB keyboard (which works), and I am afraid to set that option to enabled so it would not deprive me of the DEL key needed for the BIOS setup. Am I being too cautious here?
I’m not sure but USB Legacy Devices is mostly used in conjunction with some USB drives not keyboards or mices. It’s used to detect an USB disk to boot from it but since You boot from normal disk it’s not needed.
Take a look here Linuxrc - openSUSE. These are arguments that can be passed to the installation kernel shell (linuxrc) that underlies the boot menu. The “testmode” argument will start the installation YaST in text mode, i.e., ncurses. I suggest scanning all the arguments, as some may be useful with what you are attempting, e.g., you can instruct linuxrc to set up a swap partition to offset the lack of available RAM to the installer (this would of course result in the installation being slower).
As far as the USB keyboard, yes, probably what you need is for USB Legacy to be enabled in the bios. I have a machine which requires this for the keyboard and mouse, both USB, to work; it’s not uncommon. AFAIK, it creates no other complications.
112MB should be enough for a text install. If you can get an external keyboard sorted out.
However laptops have small hard disks where throughput has lower priority than power consumption. So you will not get thrilling throughput on services like Samba. If you are not doing intensive file serving that may be ok for you.
Well, I am doing it all for the sake of learning. But yes, I’d like to use it to share files across my home network too. Maybe I will even attach an old printer to it, but not if that kills it. Also, this is the kind of laptop that has no battery, and only runs on AC power, it does not even support CPU throttling, I think, so power consumption is as much of an issue as with a desktop computer.
The thing is that I cannot press F3 at the initial boot prompt to instruct the installer to start in text mode. It defaults to 800x600 and soon afterwards it gives me a kernel panic as it gets out of memory and no process to kill… Or something like that.
The HDD is 20 GB, it has an old Transmetta Crusoe processor, which is at 1 GHz, and it used to run XP sort of fine. Well, not more than two apps at the same moment, but still impressive given the amount of RAM…
Do you think the installer would be able to continue if there were a swap partition? The kernel panic happens very early into the boot process, just a few seconds into it.
I think you should try to get a USB keyboard working. You may be able also to simulate F3 by inserting the appropriate boot option. If you look at the boot config file, by examining the boot CD elsewhere, you’ll probably find that F3 simply adds an option to the installer to start in text mode.
Also, if the kernel panic is not due to lack of memory, there may be something odd about that Transmeta processor that modern Linux kernels may not support anymore or may need some kernel options. I believe 11.1 only supports 586 and upwards, meaning at least Pentium III. It’s not clear that the Transmeta emulates at least a P3, I have no experience there. Are you able to boot any other Linux distro on it?
There’s always Debian, which is supported on a vast variety of CPUs.
Well, F3 is not the only key that does not work. Actually, half of the keyboard is dead. Someone spilled beer on it, don’t ask… It came to me that way, I’d feel bad to waste it completely. Nevertheless, I’d look into what you are suggesting, as long as it is worth the effort.
The Ubuntu Server installer works, but it is by default text based. I did not try anything else, will probably stay on Ubuntu for that one, but I miss YAST!
This is the first and only Transmeta machine I’ve seen, i-Buddy brand or something, few years old, but useless otherwise because of the keyboard issue and the small amount of RAM.
I now need to figure out how to disable the sound modules, as I will not be using any sound. Perhaps that will save some memory?
In my post above I used the boot argument “testmode”, which was a typo - it should be “textmode=1”. That will give you a text installation without needing the F3 key from the menu (all of the Function keys on the menu are just translating into the corresponding linuxrc argument). And again, there are other arguments you can use to control how memory is used in the installation; please see the file I linked above.
Thanks for the suggestion. I looked at the webpage you mentioned, and figured it was textmode… Problem is not all keys work, so I can’t type completely the word “textmode”
The Ubuntu Server CD however did install, and is working. With it, the external USB keyboard was working properly, and I detached it as soon as I could log in remotely. I will be keeping things that way for now, but I definitely miss Yast. Without it, I am at a loss with configuring a network printer. Much reading ahead…
Sounds like one of those mathematical puzzles you used to find: Some of the keys on the typewriter (what’s a typewriter, some readers ask) are broken. These are the remaining keys. What words can our young heroes type out to get help?
I have this Penguin paperback called The Moscow Puzzles, by Boris Kordemsky, translated by Martin Gardner. From the description of its history in the preface it sounds like some people in eastern Europe may have come across it while growing up. Wonderful problem-solving exercises. I hope some day to have idle time to spend on pure puzzles.
Anyway, to get back from the digression, I’m glad you found something that installs and lets you make use of the equipment.
