Linux on the Sharp PC-8650II
by Tom Perry
< tom@indirect.com>
Abstract
This document describes installation and setup issues related to the Linux
operating system and Sharp PC-8650II notebook computers. This document is
available on the World Wide Web at:
http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/kharker/linux-laptop/sharpPC-8650II.html
Specifications
I installed Linux on my Sharp PC-8650II laptop about ten months ago and
have been very happy with the results. My laptop has the following
configuration:
- 80486DX2-50 processor
- 8 Meg RAM
- 205 Meg Hard Drive
- single, 3.5 inch floppy
- PCMCIA slot
Installation Notes
I have configured the hard drive with a 16 Meg Swap partition and the
remaining 189 Meg as a single, ext2 partition. Linux is the only
operating system I use on my laptop. I use LILO to boot directly into
Linux on powerup and normally run with X Windows.
I'll make the following observations:
- The 205 Meg hard drive is a little cramped. I prefer a full Linux
installation, but had to skip some of the packages. However, I did
have space for all of the ones which I really cared about -- TeX,
Emacs, gcc, pgp, X, the standard X applications, and a number of
games.
- I currently have about 24 Meg of free space on the hard drive. This
is after using about 12 Meg of "work" files in my home directory.
- Installing Linux was tedious since I only had the floppy drive.
First I had to copy the Slackware distribution from CD-ROM to
floppies (on my main computer). Then I had to load them. It took a
full evening.
- The installation went smoothly. I had previously installed Linux on
two other systems so had a pretty good idea what needed to be done.
The only tricky part was getting /etc/XF86Config set up properly for
the active matrix display. I ended up using the XF86_SVGA device
driver with the "Generic Monitor" and "Generic SVGA" settings in
XF86Config.
- The performance of the system is quite good, although it is just
slightly sluggish on X windows (although it is certainly no worse
than Windows 3.11 which came installed on the laptop). A DX2-66
would probably be enough of a difference to erase this slight
criticism. More memory to reduce page swapping would also make
a difference.
- The active matrix display on my laptop is limited to 640x480 SVGA.
This is usable for almost everything, although it tends to be a little
bit small for many things. There are a few X windows applications
where this size limitation is a real problem -- xfig, and some of the
games like xtank, Xnethack, xjewel, and xgalaga all need a larger
window. Although the fvwm window manager allows windows to extend
off the screen, you still can't see the complete display and it's a
nuisance having to scroll across the screen.
- The 8 Meg of RAM is probably a practical minimum for memory, at least
if you're going to use X. I certainly wouldn't want to run with
4 Meg and X although I understand it is possible. Even with 8 Meg
the X windows system does a noticeable amount of swapping. If you
don't want to use X, 4 Meg would probably be adequate for most
things.
- I have not installed TCP/IP or the related networking applications,
although I do have seyon, kermit, and simple modem support. Adding
full networking support would put another dent in the available hard
disk space.
Although the above comments may appear to be slightly negative, I am
actually very happy with the system. I use my laptop every day, both for
work and play, and would never go back to DOS/Windows on my laptop. (I
am not entirely anti-Microsoft. I do keep a copy of DOS on my home
computer, primarily for games. And I do occasionally run Windows on my
home computer, primarily for certain Corel graphics applications.)
Please send all comments, suggestions, or updates about the information
presented here to Tom Perry at
tom@indirect.com.
Converted to HTML by:
Kenneth E. Harker
< kharker@cs.utexas.edu>
HTML document last updated 10 November 1995