Linux on the Shinada Business Class P120 Laptop (NB3 SH P133T12)

There are different ways to boot a Linux-System with old laptops, dependent on the existing hardware. Often they cannot be started directly from CD-ROM because the BIOS does not support this. In this case you can try a bootmanager with "boot-from-CD" support,for example the Smart Boot Manager. FreeDOShas included this bootmanager into their bootfloppys. You can download the floppyimage from here.

It's easy to build a bootdisk from a running *NIX system:

# wget http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/distributions/1.0/fdboot.img
# dd if=~/fdos1440.img of=/dev/fd0

If you still own a MS-Windows-like operating system you probably need the RawWrite tool to build the bootdisk.

This installation method worked perfectly with my old Shinada Laptop.

Lutz Willek <l.willek_at_belug.de>

Other Resources

• Linux Laptop Survey - Shinada
• TuxMobil - hardware section
• Linux Mobile Guide - Installing, Maintaining and Tuning of Linux on Mobile Computers
• Debian Laptop Proposal