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Installing Linux On A Wal-Mart OS-less machine

Posted by Hemos on from the how-to dept.

Azar writes "An article at Newsforge details the experience of installing Linux on Wal-Mart's OS-less PC. It states: 'A few months ago, super-sized discount store Wal-Mart made the headlines in the Linux world by becoming the first major U.S. retailer to offer PCs without Windows preloaded...While this was widely hailed in the Open Source community as a victory over the "Microsoft tax," which usually afflicts buyers of Linux PCs, one major question remained unanswered: How well do these machines support Linux?' Here is your answer." Newsforge is owned by OSDN, which also owns Slashdot, is all part of the sinister Andover keiretsu.

12 of 390 comments (clear)

  1. Summary for the lazy by NewbieSpaz · · Score: 4, Informative

    As long as you have experience putting linux on a PC, this should be no problem, as long as you don't need a modem; it's a winmodem.

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    Random, useless fact: I type in startx entirely with my left hand.
  2. Modem works? by Quixote · · Score: 5, Informative

    Some of the followups to that article mention that a working version of the modem driver can be obtained from http://www.heby.de/ltmodem.

    Given this, it would be nice if someone could put together a complete linux distro (complete with the OpenOffice suite, etc.) ready-to-run on this box. Heck, maybe we could even convince Wal-Mart to give it away with every box!

    1. Re:Modem works? by InodoroPereyra · · Score: 2, Informative

      Some of the followups to that article mention that a working version of the modem driver can be obtained from http://www.heby.de/ltmodem

      Yes, but there is a later post by the author of the article, insisting that it is not supported: "Well, I opened the ltmodem source kit and started doing some investigating. It appears that this chipset is unsupported by the ltmodem driver. The scanPCI program does not find a supported card and lspci shows an ID that indicates it is this chipset:
      http://www.idir.net/~gromitkc/agere/ager e_SV92P.ht ml
      I pulled the card and inspected the chips. It uses the SV92P chip.
      It is unsupported.      "

      This is a real issue, and it seems to be still open, so I ask: has anyone
      really GOTTEN THIS MODEM TO WORK with the lt driver ?. If not, walmart will be pissing people off unnecessarily. There are plenty of cheap but supported winmodems.

      Given this, it would be nice if someone could put together a complete linux distro (complete with the OpenOffice suite, etc.) ready-to-run on this box. Heck, maybe we could even convince Wal-Mart to give it away with every box!

      As many people pointed out in the linuxtoday followup, Wal-Mart wants you to do-it-yourself because:
      1. They want to make a clear point: it is for geeks
      2. They do not want to have to invest in support

      But that raises another question: why do the distro sellers not sell preinstalled machines ?. They could ship the machine with the CDs, and
      offer you support for some extra bucks. It's a win-win, they sell the soft + the hard + optional support. I cannot understand WHY they do not do it (except for lycoris, but they sell you dual boot plus I don't trust them).
      I would love to go to mandrake.com or suse.com ot redhat.com or whatever, click, configure my deskop, and buy. Of course, I would expect competitive price and no M$ Tax.
  3. Re:build your own by Quarters · · Score: 4, Informative
    Inside the unit, there is a 40 GB Samsung drive, 128 MB of memory (8 MB of which is shared as video), and 52x LG CDROM Drive. The motherboard is a Microstar MicroATX motherboard model MS-6378. It has 2 DIMM slots (1 used), 3 PCI slots (one of which is occupied by a modem card), and 1 unused CNR slot. Sound and ethernet are handled on the motherboard, which also sports an Award BIOS dated 2/25/2002.


    Ah, the power of reading the article...
  4. Write to them by atomice · · Score: 1, Informative

    Write to Wal-mart customer services and point out how silly it is to include a WinModem with an OS-less PC. Ask if they will be supplying proper modems with their PCs in future.

  5. Re:I find the modem pretty low... by Uruk · · Score: 4, Informative

    I think it's horrible they sell a naked PC that has hardware that requires Windows to be used.

    Check the other comments - the modem in this machine can be used by Linux and other operating systems.

    Also, as for it being a naked PC, it's not like they're not warning you - find the link in the article to Walmart's site and you'll see that they trumpet it underneath every ad - "THIS PC DOES NOT INCLUDE A COPY OF WINDOWS" in bold. At the top, it recommends users read their PC guide or something before buying, and states that the computers do not include a required operating system.

    I think things like this are a VICTORY for consumers. Sure, this product isn't the right thing for some people, but for others, it is the perfect thing. Sure, there are people out there who could mistakenly buy this but I'm glad the option is available for people like me who want a cheap addition to the home LAN.

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    -- Truth goes out the door when rumor comes innuendo. -- Groucho Marx
  6. Not exactly OT - Consider the Date. by SubtleNuance · · Score: 4, Informative

    I would suggest you all consider NOT shopping at Walmart -- for anything at all -- read this please

    It is very sad that this story is also posted on May Day, which is (as another /. headline states) Labour Day everywhere else in the world but Canada, USA and SouthAfrica. Did you know May Day became Labour Day because of the American Labour Movement? Read a little history here

  7. Re:sound cards by rmgrotkierii · · Score: 1, Informative

    Actually Wal-Mart does have stores in Europe, seeing they bought out the Spar franchise. You know, EuroSpar, InterSpar, etc? They are now owned by WalMart and when I was in Germany, the Spars where all over the place.

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    Reality is for those who can't face Science Fiction.
  8. About the modem by AchilleTalon · · Score: 3, Informative
    I haven't try with the actual Walmart PC, however, I own a Lucent modem and I made it working fine without recompiling the kernel.

    The source code compiles fine and a script complete the installation. There is even pre-packaged drivers for many distros including: RedHat and Debian. So, yes it is not straight forward, but is not as painful as recompiling the kernel.

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    Achille Talon
    Hop!
  9. Show me a driver for a type 048c Lucent modem by RC+Pavlicek · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'm the author of the piece at NewsForge.

    Let's get this straight: the modem does not work.

    The people who say they have a working Lucent modem do not have this Lucent modem. This Lucent modem (type 048c) is not supported by any driver I can find. One of the people who insisted that the modem works had a type 0440, which is supported by the Lucent driver.

    If someone has a patch that makes the 048c modem work, I'll be glad to try it. But the ltmodem driver does not have it, according to the documentation.

  10. Think Bill Gates is bad?? read up on Mr. Walton by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Of the 10 richest people in the world, five are Waltons--the ruling family of the Wal-Mart empire.
    S.(Sam) Robson Walton is ranked by London's "Rich List 2001"
    as the wealthiest human on the planet, having sacked up more than $65 billion (£45.3 billion) in personal wealth and topping Bill Gates as No. 1.
    Alternet.org article here

  11. Re:read this book by grub · · Score: 3, Informative


    I'd rather live in a world dominated by Bill Gates than one dominated by Sam Walton.

    Woo, that would be creepy as Old Sam died in 1992.
    I'd be horrified to see his lumbering corpse giving orders over his zombie global domination network.. "Brains.. BRAINS!"

    --
    Trolling is a art,