Re: tlug: Linux on a PC98

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <turnbull@example.com>]

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tlug note from "Stephen J. Turnbull" <turnbull@example.com>
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>>>>> "Joe" == joem  <root@example.com> writes:

    Joe> Daniel Griffith wrote:

    >> I stuffed a RedHat boot floppy (I'm running Redhat Linux on a
    >> Macintosh, using a PC hardware emulator), into a new 98, but it
    >> made no attempt to boot - just gave a non boot disk error.  I'm
    >> not helped by the fact that I haven't a clue what is different
    >> about these NEC's.

This isn't going to work.  One of the big differences about NECs (and
all Japanese PCs made up until the Compaq Attack, as far as I can
tell) is fd format.  Eg

    Joe> I have a PC98 which I was thinking of switching to Linux as
    Joe> well.  One thing about the older machines is that the 3.5"
    Joe> floppy is 1.2Mb instead of 1.44Mb.

Yup, and it's the same hardware standard that the Mac uses to put
about 2MB on.  Not a bad deal for integrated mfrs who make fds as well 
as computers; an automatic 70% increase in fd sales.  They studied
under Kodak and Polaroid and larned right well.

Try compiling rawrite *on* the NEC PC and using that to make 1.2MB
versions of the boot floppies.

This is still not guaranteed to work because the MBR may very well be
different for NEC PCs, but it's a better try.

Note that there's a good chance that hardware level drivers will have
to be found and added to the system for almost all NEC peripherals.
Eg, the mouse pinouts are non-standard.  If you're lucky this will
only be physical....

    Joe> Also, if I remember correctly, I saw a laser-5 produced Linux
    Joe> for PC98 kit in their store.

I've seen an ad for this.

As an aside:  my wife inherited a former coworker's brother's NEC
notebook.  What an obnoxious device.  There was no way to do anything
useful with it because it didn't have PCMCIA, NEC mice are about 40%
more expensive, no extra space for memory (above 8MB!), and on and
on.  NEC peripherals were just ridiculously over-priced.  Seems to me
with the extra money you pay for this allegedly "superior hardware"
you could just upgrade to more expensive standard vanilla machines.

Be prepared for nasty surprises related to peripherals.  On the other
hand, if what you want is a cheap 2d hand machine to use as a nursery
monitor, it's probably great :-)

-- 
                            Stephen J. Turnbull
Institute of Policy and Planning Sciences                    Yaseppochi-Gumi
University of Tsukuba                      http://turnbull.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp/
Tel: +81 (298) 53-5091;  Fax: 55-3849              turnbull@example.com
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