Question Help with Linux on Portege M200

[bloodedbythought]

I have an old Toshiba Portege M200 laptop-tablet PC and want to either install Linux or re-install WinXP Tablet OS. I followed this guide, which is excellent:

AntiX 17.4.1 i386 on Sweet 16 Toshiba Portege M200 – To Type, Shoot Straight, and Speak the Truth…

munk.org

Problem is, when the HDD is installed (with old, non working OS) I cannot get it to load the PLOP Boot Manager to force USB 1.1 so I can load AntiX. It dumps to the Windows Safe Mode, etc. screen.

However, when I take out the HDD I get a "No IDE" error and can press Ctrl-S to load the SD card with PLOP, then enable USB and see AntiX.

Anyone have any ideas?

Notes:
1. Toshiba Portege M200 cannot boot to USB (hence this workaround).
2. I do not have an external CD-DVD drive that I can use, nor will I get one.
3. F2 brings up the boot select screen, and all options (see below). Problem is, when HDD is in selecting the SD card (which works with CTRL-S when HDD is not installed) will not work.

 

[bloodedbythought]

Ok, update -

1. holding ESC key allowed me to enter BIOS and switch priority. I can now get into AnitX via USB, but now I am hanging up on install..

2. Maybe faulty memory stick as it hangs when trying to install, so I remove a stick and things are going well.

Will report results.

 

[BFG-9000]

Are you sure you downloaded the 32-bit version of AntiX?

I'm sure you've discovered that virtually all Linux distros now require PAE which the 400-MHz FSB Pentium-M lacks, so you have to specifically look for a no-PAE 32-bit distro based on an older kernel. The 32-bit version of AntiX does claim to be no-PAE.

 

[bloodedbythought]

Are you sure you downloaded the 32-bit version of AntiX?

I'm sure you've discovered that virtually all Linux distros now require PAE which the 400-MHz FSB Pentium-M lacks, so you have to specifically look for a no-PAE 32-bit distro based on an older kernel. The 32-bit version of AntiX does claim to be no-PAE.

I did not, sadly. But I went with Debian 11.7 and it seems to be working. It's gravy slow 😉

 

[BFG-9000]

Slow kind of comes with the territory when considering a 2.5" IDE drive at ~30MB/sec--that's only as fast as a live boot off USB 2.0 would be!

Hey, at least it's not a 1.8" IDE disk...

 

[bloodedbythought]

Ok, further update.
A real odyssey:

1. Installed Debian 11.7, but I did not like it and it did not recognize stylus
2. Lubuntu with "forcepae" worked well with stylus/hardware, but so slooow.
3. MX Linux with "forcepae" also worked, but I did not like it.
4. Trying Sparky and Q4OS before probably circling back to AntiX.

More soon,
Terry