Ressources

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Websites about Linux on the Aero
General information about GNU/Linux

Websites about GNU/Linux on the Aero

There are a lot of other people who succeeded to install GNU/Linux on the Compaq Contura Aero Laptop and provide information about it.

A list of pages I know of:

Ali Albayrak / Harald.T.Alvestrand: "FAQ for Linux on the Compaq Aero" http://www.alvestrand.no/linux/aero-faq.html
Most technical problems are described and solved here.

Nils Faerber: Compaq Contura 4/25c
http://www.home.unix-ag.org/nils/compaq425c.html
Interesting: He has compiled an own X-server to run with the aeros display. Because it is only supposed to work with the aero it seems to be smaller than the common ones. I didn't try it out.

Bruce Richardson: 4mb Laptop HOWTO
http://website.lineone.net/~brichardson/
linux/4mb_laptops/4mb_Laptops-1.html
This HOWTO is widespread now and can be found on most linux documentation mirrors. Beneath the aero he also writes about the Toshiba T1910. Main topic - like most of the other linux-aero-webpages - is the problematic installation without cd-rom-drive. Bruce Richardson solves this by starting with a small floppy linux-distribution, creating a linux-filesystem with it on the aeros harddisk. Then he copies the files of the floppy-linux to the harddisk, so he can start that mini-linux from hdd and won't need the floppy any longer. Afterwards he plugs a network-card into the now free pcmcia-port and installs a bigger linux-distribution over network.

James Paige: Linux on a Compaq Contura Aero 4/25
http://hamsterrepublic.com/james/linux/contura-aero.php
A quite recent (August 2002) description of installing debian 3.0 and 2.2 on the aero.

Robert Geer: Installing Linux on a Compaq Contura Aero 4/33C Laptop
http://www.xmission.com/~bgeer/laptop_aero.html
Installation with a self-created pcmcia-supporting bootdisk and then over network with the Network File System (NFS). Very tricky because you need to u nplug the floppy and insert the pcmcia-network-card - but normally this isn't recognized without reboot. This page shows how an installation can get terribly time consuming.

Matthew A. Smith: RedHat Linux 6.0 on a Compaq Contura Aero
http://www.cnbc.cmu.edu/~masmith/aero/
Installation with a Panasonic DXL-783A 8X External PCMCIA (SCSI) CD-ROM and over NFS.

R. Lonstein: Linux Laptops- Compaq Aero
http://www.lonsteins.com/unix/linux/linux_laptops_cpqaero.html
Installation from a parallel port Iomega Zip drive, finished over NFS.

Brandenburg Linux User Group - Linux auf einem Compaq Contura Aero
http://www.bralug.de/wiki/index.php?
title=Linux_auf_einem_Compaq_Contura_Aero
Webpage (in german) about ZipSlack, Debian Woody and Slackware 9.1 on the Aero. Installation by taking out the harddisk and plugging it to a second (faster) computer.

More general sources of information about running GNU/Linux on laptops are:

• http://tuxmobil.org and
• http://www.linux-laptop.net.

Both of them collect links to Laptop related sites. Tuxmobil is also a great ressource for common issues on portable computers like APM or PCMCIA.

The newsgroup comp.os.linux.portable can also be a help. Search the google image here:
http://groups.google.com/groups?group=comp.os.linux.portable

General information about GNU/Linux

If you are new to GNU/Linux, you will need information about its general concepts. "Trial and Error" is useful to understand MS Windows applications. But it will be extremely frustrating and time consuming to use the "Trial and Error" method to discover the possibilities of a UNIX terminal.

I would recommend to get a book, which can be used as reference. Try to get a book about concepts rather than applications. For instance it should explain the filesystem, which is completely different to what most people know from Windows (user permissions, symlinks).

Personally I can recommend this one:

Matt Welsh, Matthias Kalle Dalheimer, Terry Dawson, Lar Kaufman:

Running Linux

O'Reilly.

A good starting point for general information on the web is also the "linux documentation project.

GNU/Linux beginners may want to take a look at the "From DOS/Windows to Linux HOWTO".

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