Maplin Linux Notebook

[larry]

A relative bought one of these trendy things for his son:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=225532

Switched it on and, when attempting to acquire IP address, it promptly fails to do so.

Not knowing anything about Linux pcs, I advised him to phone their customer support 'hotline'. They have a recorded message saying they'll be back on the 2nd of Jan - bearing in mind it's the 5th today!!!

Anyone any ideas about what to tweak with this operating system to get it to work along with the other XP machines in the house?

 

[DimPrawn]

Sounds like a pile of pants:

Q) Can I install windows xp or any other operating system? - Steve

A) The minibook comes with a version of Linux pre installed on a chip inside the minibook. It is not possible to remove, upgrade or re-install on this chip. Here is a URL for the source code for the Linux Release: http://194.150.201.35/cnmlifestyle/sourcecode.htm


What a fantastic product!

 

[bogeyman]

Sounds like a pile of pants:

Q) Can I install windows xp or any other operating system? - Steve

A) The minibook comes with a version of Linux pre installed on a chip inside the minibook. It is not possible to remove, upgrade or re-install on this chip. Here is a URL for the source code for the Linux Release: http://194.150.201.35/cnmlifestyle/sourcecode.htm


What a fantastic product!

Fat lot of good the source is going to do you if it's compiled and burned on the chip.

 

[NickFitz]

Fat lot of good the source is going to do you if it's compiled and burned on the chip.

However, it's a requirement of the licence that you make the source available.

 

[bogeyman]

A relative bought one of these trendy things for his son:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=225532

Switched it on and, when attempting to acquire IP address, it promptly fails to do so.

Not knowing anything about Linux pcs, I advised him to phone their customer support 'hotline'. They have a recorded message saying they'll be back on the 2nd of Jan - bearing in mind it's the 5th today!!!

Anyone any ideas about what to tweak with this operating system to get it to work along with the other XP machines in the house?

Where is it trying to acquire the dynamic IP address from? Your broadband router I assume. It would need to be set up with the SSID and possibly 'wireless key' to access your router.

 

[NickFitz]

Where is it trying to acquire the dynamic IP address from? Your broadband router I assume. It would need to be set up with the SSID and possibly 'wireless key' to access your router.

Also, the router may well be configured to only allow access from certain devices - mine certainly is. If this is the case, log in to the router configuration from one of the existing machines (probably at http://192.168.0.1/ but check the router docs to be sure) and add the new machine's wifi MAC address (probably on a label on its base) as a permitted device.

A friend of mine has a BT-supplied router where it's slightly harder to add a new permitted device. The only way I found was to temporarily turn off the "permitted MAC addresses only" setting, then connect with the new device; when I then went to re-enable the secure setting, it offered the option of adding the new device to the "permitted" list.

Edit: FYI, a MAC address (nothing to do with Apple Macs) looks something like 00:17:fd:41:85:0e - you possibly know this, but no harm pointing it out

 

[wxman]

As a guess to you need to enable your router for BOOTP and not DHCP?

A stab in the dark mind...

 

[ta35]

Network settings in program menu

Network settings in program menu

Sounds like a pile of pants:

Q) Can I install windows xp or any other operating system? - Steve

A) The minibook comes with a version of Linux pre installed on a chip inside the minibook. It is not possible to remove, upgrade or re-install on this chip. Here is a URL for the source code for the Linux Release: http://194.150.201.35/cnmlifestyle/sourcecode.htm


What a fantastic product!

Linux is not on a chip, how could that be? The answer to that Steve's question above was, that you can install some other Linux version but not XP. Installing XP would have no sense, cause that laptop is having only 128 Mb RAM memory, XP needs more. There is a 2Gb SSD harddisk, and the operating system is obviously in it. Wonder why anyone wanted to install XP in a minilaptop anyway, because then you would need an antivirus program too and that would slow down any low powered computer.

The original problem might be solved by looking the network settings in the program menu and setting the right values. If DHCP is used, Linux should automatically recognise at least a wired connection. But if fixed IP:s are used, then of course that laptop should have one too. I guess some Linux or Linux minilaptop forum might be helpfull.

 

[dinker]

Ahh Maplin. I was recently in the market for a largish PC case that would have enough room to mount some Ebuyer front panel HD caddies. No dimensions shown on the website or the paper catalogue so I sent an email to tech support. The reply came back 14 days later - "dimensions not known", needless to say I bought the case elsewhere.