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MrBordello
November 22nd, 2007, 05:07 PM
Hi everyone!
I got a _huge_ problem with a old laptop I own. It's an Compaq Armada 3500 with 133Mhz and 16MB Ram, it's display broke off once so I 'hacked' it: I took the display off completely and mounted it on the backside of the laptop and re-connected it. It works, looks like a fat tablet-pc-something and is ridiculously useless.
Did I say already that the keyboard is broken too? Well, it is - so I ripped it out - I'll post some pictures soon.
The display supports 800x600 at 256 colors and is *surprise, surprise* not touch-sensitive.
Firefox takes about 10 minutes to come up.
I once installed lighttpd on it to have an local testing-enviroment for my web-apps - too slow.

I've put so much work into it - I just can't throw it away ... What can I use this for:confused: please!

scrooge_74
November 22nd, 2007, 05:15 PM
Convert it into some sort of server with no GUI

maybe a print server?

kerry_s
November 22nd, 2007, 05:24 PM
some are just not meant to live. :)
try-> http://damnsmalllinux.org/
it's built for specs like those.

FurryNemesis
November 22nd, 2007, 05:26 PM
Sling Smoothwall on the HD and use it as a hardware firewall?

http://smoothwall.org/

No keyboard is a bit of an obstacle. Can't wait to see those pictures.

MrBordello
November 22nd, 2007, 06:12 PM
http://hummppa.de/tobi/lap-one.JPG
http://hummppa.de/tobi/lap-two.JPG
http://hummppa.de/tobi/lap-three.JPG
Sorry for the bad quality ... k550i camera

scrooge_74
November 22nd, 2007, 06:19 PM
If you keep toying with one day you will be using only ones and ceros to get it to work or you will start to see the world in green code letters all over the place.

Have fun. :lolflag:

MrBordello
November 22nd, 2007, 06:22 PM
Oh! I was wrong! it has 32 MB ram!!! w00t!
A keyboard can be connected via PS/2. Alternatively I can connect via SSH. Currently it runs Debian in a minimal version. Actually I can't even remember how I installed this ... must have been done while it was in a better shape.

Vadi
November 22nd, 2007, 06:24 PM
Jesus christ. Put Damn Small Linux on it, donate it to some charity, and buy a new laptop...

gn2
November 22nd, 2007, 06:28 PM
You could make it into a digital picture frame:
http://virtig01.net/personal/works/PictureFrame-HowTo.php
http://tinyurl.com/lz8tx

MrBordello
November 22nd, 2007, 06:30 PM
I don't think any charity wants a laptop that can't even browse the internet - you can't even write on this!
I am writing this on my new laptop ...
I wish I never cleaned my room, finding this ... I'll _never_ do that again!

MrBordello
November 22nd, 2007, 06:34 PM
Digital Picture Frame? Good idea! But how bad will this look at 256 colors?

xeth_delta
November 22nd, 2007, 06:51 PM
Here are some ideas:

You could make it work as a calendar / organizer.

If you happen to have an extra pc-card / USB network card and a switch lying around, I guess you could configure it as a dhcp server, or a firewall or router. Not very practical, I know, but it might be fun to do.

Xeth

gn2
November 22nd, 2007, 07:02 PM
Digital Picture Frame? Good idea! But how bad will this look at 256 colors?

Create some interesting animated gifs, set it to loop them, change your name to Damien Hirst and sell it as a piece of high art to some unsuspecting fool for $hundreds of thousands?

JBAlaska
November 22nd, 2007, 07:47 PM
^^ LOL.

That display would make a dandy diagnostic panel for the side of a PC tower.

mellowd
November 22nd, 2007, 07:54 PM
install lynx and use it to browse the net :)

timpino
November 22nd, 2007, 09:12 PM
install something basic and use it as a music player in your living room

bluedragon436
November 23rd, 2007, 12:18 AM
I'm still going with count it as a lost soul and get rid of it, especially if you already have a new laptop. I had a laptop like this for a long while till I purchased my first new laptop, then I lost the frankenlaptop for a little whlie, but once I found it again I thought about how it was utterly useless...and threw it away... But that is just my opinion.

Paul820
November 23rd, 2007, 12:37 AM
Door stop, with an animated welcome message on it.

K.Mandla
November 23rd, 2007, 01:03 AM
I must be weird, because I see those pictures and I think, "Hey wow! That would be great for ..."

In any case, don't get rid of it. It's still useful, even in its skeletal state.

http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2007/09/14/things-to-do-with-an-old-computer/
http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2007/03/16/ten-things-you-can-do-keep-an-old-computer-useful/

LaRoza
November 23rd, 2007, 01:16 AM
I must be weird, because I see those pictures and I think, "Hey wow! That would be great for ..."

In any case, don't get rid of it. It's still useful, even in its skeletal state.

http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2007/09/14/things-to-do-with-an-old-computer/
http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2007/03/16/ten-things-you-can-do-keep-an-old-computer-useful/

Assuming that is your blog, and not a blogger that happens to have the same name as you, good job!

K.Mandla
November 23rd, 2007, 01:18 AM
Yep, 'tis mine. ;) Thanks!

sstusick
November 23rd, 2007, 01:23 AM
:lolflag::lolflag::lolflag: Funny Thread

MrBordello
November 23rd, 2007, 09:38 AM
Very inspiring ideas here - thank you all!
UPDATE:
I connected the touchpad (was on the backside) via a cable, so this can be used as an input device! I'll be posting pictures later ;)
Music-player sounds great! It should be capable of playing MP3's (or OGG)! :guitar:

blueturtl
November 23rd, 2007, 11:00 AM
I wrote a guide on how to revive a Windows 95 PC (http://www.cs.uku.fi/~modinos/recycle.html) in my weak moments. If you're not too put off by the fact it's for Windows do give it a shot. I have laptop similar to yours, but it has a 233 MHz chip. It's quite usable when properly tweaked and when using the right apps.

K.Mandla
November 23rd, 2007, 11:01 AM
Very inspiring ideas here - thank you all!
UPDATE:
I connected the touchpad (was on the backside) via a cable, so this can be used as an input device! I'll be posting pictures later ;)
Music-player sounds great! It should be capable of playing MP3's (or OGG)! :guitar:
Yeah, and if it's like a thick tablet PC, you could mount it on the wall like a picture, run the LCD like a visualizer panel and play music on it. Run a speaker cable from the audio out jack, network it and control it through another machine and it's like a cool picture-jukebox-music player-thing.

:-k Hmm. I should do that too. ...

MrBordello
November 23rd, 2007, 05:54 PM
http://hummppa.de/tobi/ALIM1118.JPG
http://hummppa.de/tobi/ALIM1119.JPG

Fullscreen visualizer for terminal or minimal X-server? Anyone? Would be cool if it could display RSS-Feeds and weather-data too! :)

MrBordello
November 23rd, 2007, 09:39 PM
more pics:

http://hummppa.de/tobi/ALIM1120.JPG
parts, parts, parts
http://hummppa.de/tobi/ALIM1121.JPG
on/off in detail ...
http://hummppa.de/tobi/ALIM1122.JPG
running without case (uh, tv-out!)

I've googled for a application that:

runs fullscreen
displays RSS Feeds
plays music/streams
displays information about the current playing song
displays weatherdata
only needs 133Mhz to operate


Now guess what? That application doesn't exist!
Luckily I can do some python, so I'm gonna write one for myself (surely releasing it under GPL afterwards)

So thank you all very much for your great ideas - I'll be posting here again, when my super app is available for download! :guitar:
After all it was a good idea keeping that oldie.

@K.Mandla: Kudos for your blog! One of those few better ones ;)

bobbocanfly
November 23rd, 2007, 09:49 PM
Before you get writing a massive App, im pretty sure Conky could do the RSS stuff and any run of the mill GUI MPD frontend should have visualizations. Pretty jealous if you set it up as a music server, that would be amazingly cool to have.

Siph0n
November 23rd, 2007, 09:51 PM
Wow I like that idea! :) Good luck!!! Can't wait to see the outcome!

Frak
November 23rd, 2007, 09:54 PM
Do something interesting with it, such as hiding the base in the wall (the seperating has already been done for you ;)) and frame the screen to make a nice picture frame. Should look fine in 256 colors.

dnns123
November 24th, 2007, 04:59 AM
those are sad looking pictures...(from a gamers' point of view):lolflag::lolflag::lolflag:

santiagoward2000
November 24th, 2007, 05:06 AM
I LOVE THOSE PICS! :lolflag:

MrBordello
November 24th, 2007, 10:49 AM
Before you get writing a massive App, im pretty sure Conky could do the RSS stuff and any run of the mill GUI MPD frontend should have visualizations. Pretty jealous if you set it up as a music server, that would be amazingly cool to have.

I'll definitely give conky a try - looks cool, thanks!

@Frak: Nice idea, but making holes in walls? nah.

It shouldn't be too complicated to hack such an app ... hopefully I'll find some time tomorrow for this, or conky does it for me.
Now I need to go and buy a PS/2 keyboard for pressing F1 on that machine because its lost its BIOS settings and wont be booting up without a press on the F1-key *doh*

K.Mandla
November 24th, 2007, 01:57 PM
Say, how sure are you that it's a 133Mhz? All the Compaq Armada 3500s I find on the Internets are 266-366Mhz.

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/10013_div/10013_div.HTML

If that's the case, then it's a screamer. ;) It'll give my K6-2 450 a run for its money. And heck, that should run Arch Linux, so it's a keeper. :D

Does it really not have an AC adapter? Just a power cord? Coooool ... :shock:

MrBordello
November 24th, 2007, 03:00 PM
Oops! I actually had an Armada 3500 it runs Xubuntu and my girlfriend owns it now. The one I have here is an Armada 4131t - Sorry!
Yes, I was able to run it without AC adapter it has some kind of docking station containing CD-ROM- and floppy drive, but I can't use it anymore because the side were it got connected is the one where the display is now at ...

Another cool task for machines like that is a dedicated bittorrent client with torrentflux (http://www.torrentflux.com). Actually my machine is even to slow for that too ...

w00t! Found this page: http://brucetimberlake.com/linux/armada.html. Seems like this thing supports 16Bit colors! So the photoframe idea is back in action!

bodycoach2
November 25th, 2007, 05:33 AM
Some people like to use those laptop screens to rebuild and mod one of the early iMac:
http://www.creativemods.com/guides/guide_view.php?url=imac_to_pc_conversion

The guy in that article used windows. I can only suppose he simply didn't know about Linux.

I have a few iMac's sitting around that I'm looking forward to modding. I'd probably build something decent in it, load Edubuntu on it, and give it to a kid.

K.Mandla
November 25th, 2007, 10:11 AM
The one I have here is an Armada 4131t - Sorry!
That's cool. I was just a little excited for you there, if you thought you had a 133Mhz and it was actually twice or maybe three times that. ... :)


Some people like to use those laptop screens to rebuild and mod one of the early iMac:
http://www.creativemods.com/guides/guide_view.php?url=imac_to_pc_conversion
Hey, now that's pretty cool too. ... :-k

popch
November 25th, 2007, 11:09 AM
I just got my hands on a Compaq Armada 152O.

Fluxbuntu failed to install the kernel. Now I am installing xubuntu. I did not realize that it would take all weekend just to install.

Update: after some twenty hours xubuntu is still installing. It appears to be @94% of the third or fourth progress bar. In the meantime it has renewed at least twice its dhcp lease. Still at it.

MrBordello
November 26th, 2007, 06:40 PM
I just got my hands on a Compaq Armada 152O.

Fluxbuntu failed to install the kernel. Now I am installing xubuntu. I did not realize that it would take all weekend just to install.

Update: after some twenty hours xubuntu is still installing. It appears to be @94% of the third or fourth progress bar. In the meantime it has renewed at least twice its dhcp lease. Still at it.

Can't find any specs for the 1520. Is it faster than my 4131? Else you won't have much fun with Xubuntu ...

I'm installing Debian Sarge right now ... Etch uses Xorg, but it seems like the graphicscard is only supported with xfree ... Actually Xorg freezes if I try anything besides the vesa driver.

Good Luck!

popch
November 26th, 2007, 08:13 PM
Can't find any specs for the 1520. Is it faster than my 4131? Else you won't have much fun with Xubuntu ...

Good Luck!

It has 80'896 kB of RAM und runs at about 131 MHz.

You are right, xubuntu is not so much fun. Took about 22 hours to install. However, it did not finish booting after the installation but ended up in the busybox. Since I do nor really know how to use Linux, I am quite unable to debug the blessed thing.

However, it runs Damn Small Linux with little effort. Because of the very poor quality of the LCD and the strange themes of DSL, the screen is very hard to use.

Well, yes. The amazing thing about the Russian Dancing Bear is not how gracefully it dances but that it dances at all.

K.Mandla
November 28th, 2007, 02:22 PM
It has 80'896 kB of RAM und runs at about 131 MHz.
So is it a Pentium Pro? If so, you should be able to run Arch on that, and the speed difference will alarming.


However, it runs Damn Small Linux with little effort. Because of the very poor quality of the LCD and the strange themes of DSL, the screen is very hard to use.
There's a minimal flag that lets you boot without all the crazy themes and stuff; I usually use that because DSL's Fluxbox themes are (in my lowly opinion) rife with lameness.


Well, yes. The amazing thing about the Russian Dancing Bear is not how gracefully it dances but that it dances at all.
Well said. :)

quinnten83
November 28th, 2007, 04:12 PM
Do something interesting with it, such as hiding the base in the wall (the seperating has already been done for you ;)) and frame the screen to make a nice picture frame. Should look fine in 256 colors.
If a lightweight linux will run on it (such as puppy) and you can attach a webcam to it, you can also make it switch between your super application and perhaps a visual aid for the front door?
Helps in avoiding unwanted guests.

MrBordello
November 28th, 2007, 09:45 PM
http://hummppa.de/tobi/RSS.JPG
Yes, you're right! A photo of an elephant, giving birth to a giraffe on a cheese plate (oh, I'm European - never mind the cheese plate) and the feed of Engadget in front.
Still some work to do, but it's a start.
For the image slideshow I use feh (http://linuxbrit.co.uk/feh/). I upload the images to the machine via SSH and F-Spot (for the correct resolution) from my main machine.
I attached the Python script for displaying the feeds. It rotates forever between the feeds I define. You'll need python-osd and python-feedparser for this.
Also attached is a Xorg-config file that works via vesa-driver, but utilizes the cirrus-chip anyways.