Linux on a COMPAQ Contura 430C

CONFIGURATION :
Intel 486 DX4 100
RAM 8 MB
Hard disk 700 MB
Display 10'4 TFT

You can access BIOS by pressing F10 at boot. If you need to recreate the BIOS partition, download the file at COMPAQ web site and create a floppy boot.

Installation

- The SETUP is located on the hard disk (on /dev/hda3) so I don't delete /dev/hda3 and I create a "other = /dev/hda3" entry in your /etc/ilo.conf

- I create these partitions :
/dev/hda1 : /
/dev/hda2 : /home
[ /dev/hda3 : I don't touch it (COMPAQ BIOS) ]
/dev/hda4 : swap

- The memory is low (8 MB), so I must mount the swap partition before the installation.
So : boot disk (the Slackware 7.1 boot disk), root disk (the Slackware 4.0 root disk "text.gz" - because it fails with the 7.1 root disk, I don't know why), then :
mkswap /dev/hda4
swapon /dev/hda4
setup

- There is no CD, so I must use the Linux-Slackware 7.1 distribution, last Slack version in floppies : http://www.slackware.com/getslack/

- I make the rest of installation from an Iomega ZIP.

XFree 86

I use this XF86Config file (the graphic card is a WD/Paradise 90C24 by Western Digital, the same than in COMPAQ LTE Elite 4/75C laptop).

Problems

- The parallel port which creates some problems when I want to load the ppa.o driver for ZIP Iomega 100. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't work... :-(

When I need the Iomega ZIP, I use the "iomega.s" Slackware boot floppy, by entering at the boot : mount root=/dev/hda1. When the message is "ZIP unplugged !", I enter Ctrl-C many times, and it works or not... :-(

I guess there is an EPP problem with the parallel port, but I cannot fix it in the BIOS.

Disclaimer: the author takes no responsibility for the correctness or completeness of any information in this page, and will take no legal responsibility for any damage caused by using the information presented in this page.
October 2001, dueze@yahoo.com