computoman

Quick floppy trick. To fix an old floppy that will not turn inside, can possibly rectified by gently running the rib on the edge of a desk or the like.

Caveat: Use at your own risk. Though I use several versions of linux, I like to use Slackware on really old systems.  Generally those systems do not have cdrom and in some cases no usb. Slackare is so versatile that you can boot from just a floppy to install slackware via gpxe from the internet,  I did an install that way with 14.1 on a p1. Now to try this with slackware 14.2.  So far so good. You can do this on other versions of linux. To me one of the most amazing things is to install linux from the internet instead of using local media. Generally if you wanted to do an install of linux, from the net, you would need a dhcp server and an tftp server with special settings. Gpxe gets around all those limitations. Quite often I will start a internet based install from a local web server. Now that the internet is slightly more dependable we can do an install from the host linux distribution sites. Today I will show you how to do it with Slackware 14.2.  More I...

No  longer spend time burning #linux cd's. Do not need to do that anymore. You can even do the same thing with bsd. By the time you spend downloading the cd image and burn the cd, and then do the install, I can do an ipxeboot from floppy and have the job done. Though to save time sometimes I will do a minimal install and then later add whatever is needed. Done this even with a Pentium 1 to install Slackware 14.1. Pentium 2's or better get Debian. Bought a Sony double speed usb floppy drive from a local office retailer for 5 dollars. Been a good investment.There is a rare instance when I can not install linux on a system, Floppies are not dead.... You can even use the virtual floppy images to load linux into a virtual machine. Search ipxe in this blog for more details.. Floppies can also load terminal programs or modem programs as we used to know them. Terminal programs will easily work on older equipment where the old fashioned rs232 ports (or an adapter f...

Actually I was researching ftpmail. Huh? Yes, before the WWW, email was the way you sent and received files. In some places you can still do that such  as:  http://www.nws.noaa.gov/tg/ftpmail _using.php Anyway, in pulling directories, I found the ibiblio page with all the old distros. So you want to see what some of the earliest versions of linux were like? Go to: http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/historic-linux/distributions/ Early Debian came on three floppies!?! First you used the boot disk. Start of a Debian install. One thing to note is that back then IDE (aka pata drives) were not widely supported yet. You had to use scsi drives.

Shame that computer makers have pretty much eliminated the parallel port. You can use the usb parallel cables or if you can find them pci cards are available on a declining basis. The usb parallel cables are not completely compatible with the traditional parallel port.  This a shame because so many options are available for the parallel port. Everything from the old Covox fake sound card interface, digital interfacing including I2C, and even doing CNC machining.  So many options taken away from users. Using the parallel port is as easy as making a cable. The centronics parallel interface has the available thirty-six pins. Coming off the computer the computer has only twenty-five pins. If you really look at the parallel port only eighteen pins are only what is used. With two ten pin terminal bars, you can access the eighteen usefull pins from the parallel port. You can control stepper motors, led lights, and a host of other pieces of equipment. One of the reasons like to...

Though floppy drives are not really used anymore, they can be adapted for other purposes. Most web cameras only look in one direction. With the help of a floppy drive and a sort of lazy Susan, you can control the direction of view for the webcam. The electronic wiring is fairly  simple. You can connect in several ways.  Variation: if the jumper from pin 11 to 12 is set and you have the power source connected, the led of the disk drive should be on. If you do not want to use the picture: A. Connect Pin 11 and 12 with a Jumper on the drive. B. Connect Pin 18 of the drive with Pin 2 of the parallel port. C. Connect Pin 20 of the drive with Pin 3 of the parallel port. D. Connect the rightest pin of the power from the drive to the red wire of the floppy power cable. E. Connect the pin left of the rightest pin of the power with black wire on the floppy power connector and to the ground to pin 18 of the parallel port. Actually I did not touch the ground wir...

Thought this was awesome. Gave me ideas for doing other things. Arduino version. and how it was done: Source code::  https://github.com/SammyIAm/Moppy/ Using the parallel port: More details: http://georgewhiteside.net/projects/diskette-organ/ http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/16715/Controlling-Floppy-Drive-Stepper-Motor-via-Paralle

A while back we talked about computer systems having five parts. One of those parts is the software. Software can be divided into two categories. Operating systems control and interface the hardware. Application software allow users to solve problems. The application software can not run without the operating system. Our focus will be on the operating system and how it starts up, Most traditional systems have what is known as a bios (basic input output system) that does the most basic interaction with the hardware .Newer systems use EFI which is a whole other animal.  it’s primary purpose is to have to software to easily interact with the motherboard and to load in an operating system that has more power to interact with the hardware.  You turn on the machine and the bios cycles thought the available hardware to load in an operating system. So it looks for what is known as a boot loader or a part of the media than can chain the operating system to load in. He...