Project Spud: Building Linux on an Old Laptop

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Project Overview

I wanted an inexpensive, small, portable computer to use at home for basic Internet access and as a remote workstation. Since our main home computer is downstairs, this would allow my wife and I to access the internet or connect to the main computer from the kitchen or living room. Both of us had laptops through our employers, but I wanted something that would always be on and available. This became more important when my wife went on maternity leave, and would be spending significant time at home. It also gave me a project to work on to take my mind off the new responsibilties of parenthood, etc. ; ]

Planning It

Requirements

Designing It

I decided to use an old Toshiba laptop running Windows 95 that we had bought for my wife back in 1996 (I think). It was a system I had lent to a couple of friends over the years when they had absolutely no other computer. My thought was to replace the original 800 MB hard drive with a 10 GB laptop drive that I had lying around, and load Linux on the system.

I poked around on the Internet and found a lot of useful info.

Useful Links

Components

Here's the system I eventually settled on:
The choice of the laptop, hard drive and wireless card were easy, since I had them on hand. I ordered a brand new battery from Meritline.com. The original Toshiba battery was completely dead, and even a momentary loss of power would kill the system. I considered picking up a used one on eBay, which would have been cheaper, but come with no warranty.

I dithered on the choice of operating systems a bit. Windows was out of the question, but the available choices for Linux distributions is large.
I was most familiar with RedHat, so I started there. Since Fedora Core 1 was the newest release, I went with that. But the default choice of the Gnome Desktop was aweful, given the hardware it was running on. I went back to the drawing board and found the DeLi project. I actually installed it, but had trouble with getting it to recognize the PCMCIA card. After a while, I gave up and went back to Fedora, since that had recognized the hardware just fine. But I knew I'd need some alternative X-windows and applications the get the performance to an acceptable level.

I selected the xfce4 X-window package, based on my research that it was small, simple, and functional. Seems good so far...

I tried the dillo web browser, which is incredibly fast and lightweight. Unfortunately, it was a bit too bleeding edge for me, and many features are missing or don't work.
Better luck next time, dillo. I installed the Opera web browser, which was my first experience with it. This is now the fattest application I run on the box, but it is very full featured and not too bad on performance.

The Sylpheed email client is great. It looks a lot like MS Outlook, but it is really lightweight and works fine.

I installed the VNCviewer client so I can access other systems in my house over my home network.

Doing It

This section will describe details about the installation and configuration of the system.

Hardware

Memory

Back when I bought the laptop, I had the foresight to upgrade the factory installed 16 MB of RAM with the platform maximum capacity of 40 MB. Who ever thought you'd need more than that? This was 1996, I think.

Hard Drive

This was fun. In order to replace the stock 800 MB hard drive with my much newer 10 GB drive, I had to modify the drive carrier. The original mounting holes did not line up right. Fun with a drill press!
The connector also didn't line up exactly, and I had to make and install a spacer. More details and maybe a picture later.

Battery

Since the battery was dead, I bought a new one. I was a bit worried that the problem was the internal charger, but the new battery seems to work fine. I broke my own rule and spent about $60 bucks ($52 + shipping), which was not bad for a new battery. I could have gotten a used one or one with lower capacity for less, but I decided not to risk it. This one came with a one year warranty

PCMCIA Cards

Back when this was a Windows 95 laptop, I had successfully used both a 3Com PCMCIA 56k modem and an Orinoco wireless card. I didn't really need the modem, now, but I left it phyically installed. At least I won't lose it that way. ; ]
The Orinco 802.11b Silver card is widely supported by Linux, so it was a good choice.

Operating System

RedHad Fedora Core 1.

Check back soon for more details.

X-windows

I used xfce4.

Check back soon for more details.

Applications

Opera web browser
Sylpheed email client
VNCviewer
Java
CC compiler

Check back soon for more details.