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<H1 ALIGN=CENTER>Installing Slackware Linux on the Ambra SN8660</H1>
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<A HREF="index.htm">HOME</A>&nbsp;&gt;&nbsp;<A HREF="comp.htm">Computers</A>&nbsp;&gt;&nbsp;<B>Ambra</B>
<H2>About the machine</H2>
<P>
<IMG SRC="ambra2.jpg" WIDTH=250 HEIGHT=210 ALT="Ambra SN8660" ALIGN=RIGHT>
The Ambra SN8660 is a notebook computer with a 25MHz 486 processor.
It was sold by
<ACRONYM TITLE="International Business Machines">IBM</ACRONYM>,
at a time when Ambra was an IBM brand name; the
<A HREF="http://www-306.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=DLEE-44LNV4">technical specifications</A>
are still available on the IBM web server.
It's smaller than a standard laptop, but not as small as, say, the
<A HREF="http://www.silverace.com/libretto/">Toshiba Libretto</A>
(which also <A HREF="http://ecg.mit.edu/george/libretto.html">runs Linux</A>).
In fact, it's similar in size to the
<ACRONYM TITLE="Hewlett-Packard">HP</ACRONYM>
OmniBook 800.
The
<ACRONYM TITLE="Liquid Crystal Display">LCD</ACRONYM> screen is monochrome,
<ACRONYM TITLE="Video Graphics Adaptor">VGA</ACRONYM>
resolution.
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<P>
There's considerable variation in pointing devices for machines of this
class; the OmniBook has a tiny pop-out mouse on a pivoting lever,
while the Libretto has a thumb-operated mouse on the lid, beside
the screen.
The Ambra has a small trackball in the bottom right-hand corner, with
two buttons on the outside of the case.
It appears to the
<ACRONYM TITLE="Operating System">OS</ACRONYM>
as a
<ACRONYM TITLE="Personal System/2">PS/2</ACRONYM>-style
mouse.
</P>
<P>
The disk in the Ambra is only 170Mb.
</P>
<H2>Installing Linux</H2>
<P>
In general, one can install Linux from floppy disk, CD-ROM, or via
a network.
In this case, I have no CD-ROM drive for the machine, so that rules
out one of the easier methods.
A network install, of course, requires a network interface such as
ethernet.
The Ambra has no built-in ethernet, but I do have an Etherlink
<ACRONYM TITLE="Personal Computer Memory Card Industry Association">PCMCIA</ACRONYM>
card (and cable).
However, the small-memory Slackware installation disk does not
include PCMCIA drivers.
Installing the drivers just takes up too much memory, causing the
installation to fail.
So, I made myself a set of Slackware 7.0 installation floppy disks.
</P>
<H2>Getting Slack onto the Ambra</H2>
<P>
Only one way to do it: floppy disks.
</P>
<H2>The Result</H2>
<P>
I have a handy, small Linux machine that can act as a Telnet host
or serial terminal.
It runs at a whopping 12.47
<A HREF="http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/BogoMips">BogoMIPS</A>, which is about right
for a 25MHz 486.
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Copyright &copy; 2007
by <A HREF="eee.htm">John Honniball</A>.
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