Good version for thin client

[ackray]

I am trying to get a thin client going that has 128 megs of ram and a GX1 086 compatible processor.


What is a recommended build or puplet for this machine?

Thanks!

PS Just found this site a few days ago and am reading like crazy too!

[Ray MK]

Hi

A good place to start would be - Safepup, Minipup, breezy.

Have a look at puppy derivitives - you'll find an excellent selection there.

Hope that helps

best regards - Ray MK - puppy n00bie

[ackray]

I've tried puppy and minipup but so far both are getting boot errors.

[nipper]

I've tried puppy and minipup but so far both are getting boot errors.

There is a really good chance that people will be more helpful if you give a bit more information.

Is that some kind of Dell machine? (this might be helpful or not) It's even possible someone has the same machine and already know what you need to do for it.

Will you post the actual error message that you received, that might point someone in the correct direction so they can suggest further troubleshooting or a fix, there are lots of ways, and reasons, for booting to fail?

[ackray]

Sorry. I'm afraid I'm also cross posting at http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=28006 as I didn't know the best place to post.

The machine is a WebDT 530 thin client running a GX1 processor. I installed a 128 meg stick of ram in it. They are neat little units, flat panel, 16 bit sound, Mini PCI and usb slots.

Currently it will boot off a 32 meg compact flash card. The boot runs up to an IE window for a web site/web app.

I can interrupt the boot up process and i get a DOS 6.22 prompt!

I've tried 3.01 and Mini pup and both display:

IN T 6: CRZ 00000000 err 00000000 EIP c0443ad0 CS 00000060 flags 00010012
stack: 00000014 c0458e10 c043b973 c0116f8b c03abf4b c0433fc8 c0433fe8 c043bd0b

Thanks for the help!

Edit Note:
Puppy CE goes into booting and gets this error:

Unknown Interrupt or fault at EIP 00010012 00000060 c04341ac

[raffy]

Ehh, Windows CE is not the same as Puppy CE! Thin clients set to use only Windows CE has little hope of running another OS. I base this observation on the fact that the thin clients based on GX2/LX800 that I have tested have a BIOS choice on which OS to boot. If you can't access the BIOS, then it must have been locked to use Windows CE.

[ackray]

^^ Thanks Raffy. However this one gets a dos 6.22 prompt when I F8 and stop the boot up before the Autoexec.bat is run.

Is there a way to test this? Other than hitting my head against the wall all the time?

Thanks again!

[ackray]

After working on this over the weekend Here is what I found out.

First, Linux will probably not work in these. I could only get it to reliably boot with a small FAT16 partition.

The unit is devised to load a drive image from one of the USB keys. Thus if you plug in a USB keyboard or mouse it will not boot.

The IR keyboard drivers are in the BIOS.

Windows98 will run on this machine. . . ( OH, pure joy there. ) but the FAT16 limitations are a problem. If anyone else wants to give that a try my advice would be to simply edit the enclosed Autoexec file to point the bootup to a CF card in an external slot. Have 98 loaded on the CF card an it should run. That would probably work.

This is really quite a shame as the WebDT 530 had great hardware potential as a low power Linux machine. 16 bit sound, Internal wireless, LCD small form factor and so on. However I don't have so much time to waste on this anymore.

The good news is that I am VERY impressed with Puppy and plan to stick around!

I have lots of old hardware that could find new life with this OS.

[raffy]

You will love PuppyWin98 for that.

[earlytv]

I have several pups working on a WYSE S90 thin client.
It has a AMD GX micro like yours but I dont know how close everything else is? I had to make the USB sticks a super floppy to get them to boot in. Once booted I made a install to the flash drive internal to S90

If you search S90 or wyse on the fourm you should find what I posted?

[dblagbro]

I've obtained this same thin client.... let me guess, you got it for 25.00 on ebay? anyway, when i break the boot seq the number lock key is stuck on and I can't type the letters that coorespond to the wireless keyboard's number keys (y=1, u=2, i=3, j=4, k=5, etc etc), how'd you get it so you can type only alpha char's?

tks,
-d

[earlytv]

I have never used wireless, I use normal key and mouse with a USB adpater. I could never get the sound working so I dont use Puppy on these anymore, I use the XPE they come with.

[raffy]

Is the sound chip CS5535 (expected in the Geode GX1)?

[dblagbro]

thank you earlytv. this works better - i should have thought of that.

anywho, yours came with XPE? mine have a version of Win98 that is locked down so it only loads IE4.... this wouldn't be so bad if the IP wasn't statically assigned as a unusable IP on my network.

I have the following files:
05/06/2002 10:22 AM 11 AUTOEXEC.BAT
05/31/1994 06:22 AM 54,645 COMMAND.COM
01/19/1980 12:04 AM 31 CONFIG.SYS
05/31/1994 06:22 AM 29,136 HIMEM.SYS
05/08/2002 03:56 PM 40,774 IO.SYS
05/08/2002 03:45 PM 48,581 LOGO.DTR
05/31/1994 06:22 AM 38,138 MSDOS.SYS
06/05/2002 05:20 PM 15,947,316 nk.dtr

the nk.dtr file is what loads the static asigned IE only image and I can't get anywhere with reloading it with any other OS.

Any chance I can get a copy/binary of your setup? If not, any hints where to turn next. I'm an network engineer so I can figure some things out and know how to find info online... i even know my way around linux pretty well but I'm lost with this thing.

[technosaurus]

these appear to maybe be segfaults that are not in system.map and thus probably dynamic (from loading optional modules) - try deleting zdrv_XXX.sfs (which contains mostly modules) and see if that works. I have not tried this so no guarantees that puppy will boot properly without it (you may be missing required modules for your system) Then its just a matter of cutting down z hopefully - there are tutorials for that around if this works for you.

[earlytv]

Is the sound chip CS5535 (expected in the Geode GX1)?

I think its a GX2 and I know my sound is CS5536, but puppy finds it as a CS5535.
Puppy has no sound on the wyse S90 but the built in XPE has great sound.
I play internet radio, blues, bigband, or early rock while I surf the net.
The wyse 5150SE has same chip set and some kind of LINUX, it has great sound also. Linux in a 64meg flash.

[earlytv]

thank you earlytv. this works better - i should have thought of that.

anywho, yours came with XPE? mine have a version of Win98 that is locked down so it only loads IE4.... this wouldn't be so bad if the IP wasn't statically assigned as a unusable IP on my network.

I have the following files:
05/06/2002 10:22 AM 11 AUTOEXEC.BAT
05/31/1994 06:22 AM 54,645 COMMAND.COM
01/19/1980 12:04 AM 31 CONFIG.SYS
05/31/1994 06:22 AM 29,136 HIMEM.SYS
05/08/2002 03:56 PM 40,774 IO.SYS
05/08/2002 03:45 PM 48,581 LOGO.DTR
05/31/1994 06:22 AM 38,138 MSDOS.SYS
06/05/2002 05:20 PM 15,947,316 nk.dtr

the nk.dtr file is what loads the static asigned IE only image and I can't get anywhere with reloading it with any other OS.

Any chance I can get a copy/binary of your setup? If not, any hints where to turn next. I'm an network engineer so I can figure some things out and know how to find info online... i even know my way around linux pretty well but I'm lost with this thing.

Never heard of a S90 having WIN98? The site for WYSE forum is wysemonkeys. There you can find a program to make a boot floppy to upgrade your bios. Also you can find how to get into bios to boot a floppy to include password if it has not been changed. To use XPE your S90 needs at least 256meg flash and its a nonstandard IDE flash unless you have newest S90. I think you also need 256meg ram in S90 for XPE.
Only the newest S90 allows you to upgrade the ram.
You are correct on many wyse systems puppy cant read the FLASH IDE?
Wyse has done something to it. Some start with a small non standard partition then a large program partition then a small section with no format.
If you can get your bios upgraded then I have a usb stick that can load or put back many wyse flash no matter what they put in the flash. Its just a raw read, write usb stick, but dont copyright come into this?
You need to go to wysemonkeys and read, ask, read, ask to get all info you can.
http://www.freewysemonkeys.com/

Picture of my S90 circuit board on this site so you can compare, do you have same board?
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 6&start=15

I have many wyse 3150SE with CE. these have smaller FLASH and RAM size but maybe your win 98 would work in them? So maybe I would like your flash image? Do you know how much ram and flash you have?