[kwlug-disc] FreeDOS

Tue Jun 30 14:08:13 EDT 2009

Final update:

I did get it working with the recovery cd's from Toshiba.  I had tried to
boot it
with a Sony usb CD/DVD burner from work and it wouldn't boot off the cd.  So
I brought it home and brought home my usb floppy with a floppy boot disk
and I used my personal Samsung usb CD/DVD drive with the recovery cd in
the drive.  I also hooked up an external display so I could see what was
going
on.  I also had further info on how to get to the boot device menu with info
from
the Toshiba recovery cd's.  Miraculously, it booted up from the cd and not
the floppy and happily went along it's way.. so in the end I recovered from
the factory cd's.  :)  All is well, except that the tablet part isn't really
workable,
as it has a large area on the touch screen that is no longer touch
sensitive.
lol  .. but that's how it goes with old hardware.  :)  I have a smallish
laptop
for my little one to play on.

Thank-you to everyone who assisted with this and provided lots of great
ideas.  :)

- Oksana

On Wed, Jun 10, 2009 at 3:52 PM, Oksana Goertzen <ogoertzen at gmail.com>wrote:

> Hi Colin et al,
>
> An update...
>
> I did try this - setup the drive in another PIII laptop and after it
> stopped copying the files and
> started the first reboot - I tried to move it back to the Toshiba.  No
> luck... it doesn't boot.
> No display either.. I had it connected to an external LCD to see what was
> going on.  Maybe
> I should have finished the install completely and then moved it over plus
> installed as many
> of the drivers I could find.
>
> This is still a work in progress.  I haven't tackled it recently (due to a
> work issues like a
> SAN problem that ate up all my free [and not so free] time lately) but I
> have been able
> to obtain the recovery cd's from Toshiba thanks to my rep at Softchoice.
> :D  They require
> you boot from cd (yes, the cd attached via PCMCIA - which I don't have)...
> but it's a
> start and it would give me everything that should be on the system... all
> the Toshiba
> utilities and such.  There are three disks and it looks like the first one
> is prep and the
> rest use ghost or something.
>
> It doesn't boot from a USB attached CD-DVD but it will boot from a usb
> FDD.  I may
> be able to get it to boot from the floppy and run the install from the CD.
> [Next effort].
>
> Yes, Linux might be a nice option for this machine, I agree, but I couldn't
> find much
> in the way of a tablet distro that might work on an old PIII and work with
> the really
> old hardware (read proprietary).. so I figured I should, from a pragmatic
> point of
> view - go with what the machine came configured and set up for.  Is anybody
> using
> Linux on a tablet?
>
> Thanks, Oksana
>
>
>
>
>
> On Fri, May 29, 2009 at 11:34 AM, Colin Mackay <zixiekat at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Sorry for replying to myself (Hi me!), but another thought occurs...
>>
>> If this is just for personal use, and you have some time to play about,
>> move the HDD to another computer and install Windows Tablet edition.  Then
>> transfer it back over and let it boot.  Worse case scenario; you end up
>> where you are now.  More than likely you might just have a semi-working XP
>> tablet.  At that point, assuming you have USB and a key, you can install the
>> correct drivers.
>>
>> Windows doesn't always like all the hardware changing, but I've had it
>> survive such transitions in the past.
>>
>>
>> On Fri, May 29, 2009 at 11:30 AM, Colin Mackay <zixiekat at gmail.com>wrote:
>>
>>> They still have it for XP.  It's called sysprep.  It will basically allow
>>> someone to install Windows in full, test it, then return it to a
>>> non-activated state for the end user.  I can't recall if it 'strips' out the
>>> drivers and lets XP rescan the hardware...  I used to used it when deploying
>>> images to machines.
>>>
>>>
>>> On Fri, May 29, 2009 at 10:33 AM, <john at netdirect.ca> wrote:
>>>
>>>> kwlug-disc-bounces at kwlug.org wrote on 05/29/2009 10:23:06 AM:
>>>> > I was fighting with a similar problem last night on different
>>>> hardware.
>>>> >
>>>> > I came across this on installing ubuntu from different media -
>>>> including
>>>> > hard drive:
>>>> >
>>>> > http://news.softpedia.com/news/Alternative-Installation-Methods-for-
>>>> > Hardy-86977.shtml
>>>> >
>>>> > Short version:  Install ubuntu(server?) on the hard drive leaving an
>>>> > extra partition big enough to copy your iso into then adjust grub to
>>>> > point at the disk-based iso installer.  Put the drive back in your
>>>> > tablet and boot to the Winstaller.
>>>> >
>>>> > Advantage:  grub is going to work without fiddling with sys.
>>>> >
>>>> > Similar to what you suggested, but without the FreeDOS step.
>>>>
>>>> Microsoft used to have an OEM install method for system builders that
>>>> involved creating a FAT file system and placing OEM drivers on the disk.
>>>> We never did this because our volume was so low.
>>>>
>>>> How about removing the disk, installing elsewhere and doing the first
>>>> boot
>>>> on the tablet? If removing the disk isn't an option, you could install
>>>> on
>>>> a disk on another PC and image the result to the tablet using a PXE
>>>> boot.
>>>>
>>>> John Van Ostrand
>>>> Net Direct Inc.
>>>>
>>>> CTO, co-CEO
>>>> 564 Weber St. N. Unit 12
>>>> map
>>>>
>>>> Waterloo, ON N2L 5C6
>>>>
>>>> john at netdirect.ca
>>>> Ph: 866-883-1172
>>>> ext.5102
>>>> Linux Solutions / IBM Hardware
>>>> Fx: 519-883-8533
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
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>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
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>>
>
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