CF-29 with different OSes (what will and won't install) with pictures.

I thought I'd start a thread on what OSes will and or won't install on a CF-29. So here goes ...

We all know Windows XP will install on them because they come out with it. I have had Vista on my old one but it turned it into a slug it was so slow, I have Windows 7 and 10 on my current CF-29s. I do not know, nor do I really care but others may want to know so please feel free to let us know, if Windows 8 & 8.1 install and run on a CF-29.

As far as installing non-Microsoft OSes as I try each one I will add pictures of the ones that are successful.

What will install:
FreeDOS (I personally use FreeDOS 1.2 with old DOS type software to tune cars)


Debian (and derivatives) will install.

Ubuntu Anyone remember UNR (Ubuntu Netbook Remix)? here's a picture of Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) UNR. Yeah I know its old and unsupported! The point was to see how it looked on a CF-29. I will get a better screenshot. Only problem so far is the touch screen isn't supported. I'm wondering if the packages for the GUI interface will work on a modern Debian install and if that will help with the touchscreen. UNR was based on Gnome 2.26 so it will have to be adjusted for MATE 1.20



OSes that won't install:
Android X86 (will not install in its current form)
Chromium OS - Cloudready by Neverware (also will not install in its current form)
Moblin Netbook OS (Another old OS that is no longer supported. Problem: init keeps spawning to quickly and crashes the installation media, it may work with a CD but won't with a USB).
FreeBSD (will not load to install from USB)
OpenBSD (will not load to install from USB)
NetBSD (will load installer from USB but bugs in partitioning stop installation after partitions have been decided).
DragonflyBSD currently supported versions only available in 64 bit

 

Reserved for more

 

Reserved for more

 

My favorite loads and works great:
https://mxlinux.org/
Another also works quite well:
http://navigatrix.net/
Both distributions have great support!
Don't forget to ad the Florence Keyboard for touchscreen

Sent from my CF-M34

 

I have to admit I thought MX had disappeared from the Linux ecosystem, good to see it is alive and strong.

I haven't heard of Navigatrix before so I will look into that.

 

MX is good stuff. I find it usable for a Linux distro.

 

There are 29's and 29's.

Mark 1, 2 and 3 need non-pae versions of your favorite Linux/Debian. These will then work on all? the earlier models like CF-27, CF-M34, and a host of others.

These units can be booted from USB with the install of PlopLinux.
https://www.plop.at/en/bootmanagers.html
Some of the ancient units require forcing of USB 1.1. (A check box in PlopLinux.)

AntiX (non-pae) works very well on about anything. A bit of a learning curve here.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sent from CF-31MK3 MX18.2

Thanks.....btw I still have a few CF-29 MK1-5 if someone wants to play.

 

I’m interested in the detailed how-to on the Windows 10 install.

I’ve got a Mk5 running on Linux, but would like to get 10 up and running if possible. My backup plan is new techtough hard drive with XP or 7. Intended use is as a replacement for the Mk3 I use now for engine tuning and very limited GoPro video downloading, editing and posting.

Thanks for posting!

 

The antiX website is here:
https://antixlinux.com/
They have great how to videos for antiX...
Dolphin Oracle has many videos for Mx as well...
worth the time and effort

 

For Australia (there is probably one for each major nation) this link will take you to a USB Media installation creation tool. Go to the link, follow the instructions for the version of Windows 10 you want and create the USB tool. After that just put your USB into the rear USB port and boot your machine. You may need to change your boot order so it will boot to the USB 1st. In my experience Windows 10 runs really well on an SSD but you need an SSD adaptor for it to work.

 

Sounds a little too easy...

I’m assuming that is followed by a lot of loading Panasonic specific drivers (XP versions? Win 7 or 8 versions?) etc to get it to play nicely with the Toughbook?

 

Not alot, some but not alot. Windows 10 isn't a bad OS, and this is coming from someone who predominantly uses Linux, it has most things already in it so "most things work right out of the box" so to speak. From memory the only driver I had to actually load myself was for the touch screen. If you want the Toughbook specific things like the Battery Recalibration utility then you will need to load it yourself from files you have either already got or you download after installation. It doesn't hurt to have all these things ready, I do that for all PCs I have, because you may need them for other versions of Windows.

 

The SSD (TechTough) adapter mentioned above can be found here:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/LOT-10x-2-...768040?hash=item3617d067e8:g:r3MAAOSw-0xYgn-8


Sent from my CF-M34

 

As far as the CF-29, goes most of what is said here is geared towards the MK4 and MK5. The only difference between MK4 and 5 in my feeble understanding is the MK5 had TPM. I still like the MK1....runs cool and slow and again it's non-pae.

My personal favorites are MK4 and 5 non-touch with a touchscreen upgrade. The non-touch have 256 onboard ram so will take 2 GiB ram. Touchscreen units have 512 onboard and are limited to 1.5 total.

TechTough adapter equipped.

 

Or you can pull the ssd from the MK5 above and run it in a MK1 CNKGSKM.

Q4OS with Trinity Desktop.

Slow mouse needs:



Sent from MK1 CF-29 .

 

In my experience PAE shouldn't really matter, I wonder what is different with early CF-29ss that it makes a difference. PAE was available as far back as Pentium II CPUs. I generally use it in everything after Pentium IV and plain 686 on anything earlier. It doesn't add all that much size to an install. None of the major distros, except Debian and Slackware, offer non-PAE kernels anymore so users can use the forcepae option on the kernel as shown here

 

Take note, folks. This combined with an SSD is the best upgrade possible for the venerable CF-29. Armed with a 3G USB stick and a SIM card, I dragged one of these things around in some really harsh conditions and it never failed in letting me connect and get the job done.

I was about to do the internal USB mod and had parts received to go through with it so I could squeeze in the 3G stick but all of a sudden a CF-30 landed in my lap. I went nuts with miniPCIe WWAN modules after that.

 

It really does breath new life into them. As Windows got heavier I noticed my old one getting slower with each newer versions of Windows. Windows 10 on the old IDE wasn't as bad as Vista but it wasn't great, clone it onto an SSD and it was like a new machine. You can run the OS off a USB micro SD card as well.

Have you posted this in a thread somewhere I can look at?

 

Took a while but I found this.

http://toughbooktalk.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=3053#p25912

 

If the 29 is equipped with a gold cable and sled hardware there is info in the historic CF-29 GPS thread. Wiring schematics by teo.

Otherwise this was a good bit of kit.

Meanwhile there is one sled iteration with a gps connection but the voltage is low. I ran a CF-30 GPS off of it and got a warning that voltage was low and better source should be found....then the gps worked...or maybe it was a Gobi card.

I haven't heard from Rick in a long time so maybe this still works.

Sent from CF-29 MK5 18.2 386/non-pae.

 

First - please let me know if this needs to be a new topic - or keep it here.

Yesterday had troubles with creating a bootable usb evidently. Tried another one today and Rufus took a lot longer to “make” the usb. Used windows 10 32 bit English ISO from April 2018 update.

It attempted to install using the usb. The blue window shows up on a black background. A little while later the little circle of dots start spinning below it. Then I got the “blue screen” “your PC ran into a problem and needs to restart ...”
Says the issue is “IRQL NOT LESS OR EQUAL”

Is there something I should be disabling in the BIOS before trying the install?

Should I format the hard drive first? It currently has Ubuntu on it.

Or do I have to “sacrifice” a hard drive with a working XP install — is it looking for a remnant of windows before installing?

Or ?!

Thanks!

Chris

 

Partition and format the drive.
Windows gets confused with Linux partitions

 

Very true ... BUT since someone has done it I thought I’d have a look for myself. I just seem to be mucking it up lol.

Plans for a CF-31 — just not in the picture right now!

Windows 10 seems to be better for older equipment than 7or 8 IF you believe what is posted online.

There is some software I’d like to try to run that requires Windows 7 or newer. Truth be known it probably won’t run well on the old pentium M, but then I’ll know for sure!

 

Thanks Shawn. I’ll probably just format the whole thing and begin again - plus it’s a teeny tiny 40 GB drive.

 

Ok - formatted to FAT32 as a single partition.

No change when booting.

Only one of my CF-29’s has a 1024 stick of RAM in the slot - so tried swapping that in. Oops - no go - Mk3 takes a different stick than the Mk5.

Wonder if only having 1024 MB of RAM (512 + 512) could be the issue. BIOS shows 1024MB — I “think” 1GB is the minimum...?

** also just gave it a shot on another Mk5 (same model # CF-29NQQGFBM) as the other (and using same formatted HDD) with same result.

 

these pages may help

https://neosmart.net/wiki/irql-not-less-or-equal/


https://www.thewindowsclub.com/driver_irql_not_less_or_equal-iastora-sys

 

I may have posted in a thread around here or on TBT but can't find it. I remember buying the internal kit from Custom Toughbooks but their website seems to be on the fritz. It was a small aluminum tray, a ribbon cable or two and a PCB with the female USB socket. I'm not sure the pic from Sheepman is the same kit.

 

Tried to take what I could from those and other sites - unfortunately all the real fixes assume it is happening while running Windows vice installing

Trying again - here is what I’ve set up in the BIOS

In MAin:
Touchpad - enable
Touchscreen - disable
Microphone jack - auto
Display - internal LCD
Display expansion - disable
Cd/dvd speed -high
Environment - auto

In Advanced:
Serial port a - disable
Serial port b - disable
Mp serial port - disable
Wireless modem power SYNC with PC - on & off
Parallel port - disable
Modem - disable
LAN - disable
Wireless LAN - disable
Legacy USB support - enable

Also, execute-disable bit capability is enable

Still NO-GO — same error - IRQL NOT LESS OR EQUAL

Was hoping disabling all the LAN and MODEM devices in the BIOS would be the answer.

Embedded Security Chip (TPM) has NOT been enabled on this machine - should it be? Any draw backs to doing so?



Thanks!

 

Bad memory stick maybe?
Failing HDD maybe?
Bad usb stick?

Try to install Win7 then upgrade to Win10.

On real problem installs, I have created a 2nd partition on the HDD that boots to DOS. I copy the Win install files to the partition. Then I boot to DOS and run Win install from that.
This cures random errors that come from slow transfer rates of the install media.

 

Re-read this post and can not find where you posted the model number of the Toughbook you are trying out this install of windows onto, posting details such as this are usefull to everyone...From what I remember with the CF-29 ...and windows which I do not use presently, you will need to max out the RAM first and foremost ....thinking that 1 GB of memory is not sufficient...I believe that what Shawn mentions above i.e.
bad memory stick, failing HDD, bad usb drive are all possible issues, and easily corrected before a fresh install of windows.
Here's an interesting link worth reading and watching:
https://www.bobjohnson.com/blog/windows-7-upgrade/
"make sure you read the small print: This upgrade is available for any Core Duo Toughbook or better. Any incompatible units will be returned at the sender's expense"
or save your money and buy a scratch and dent CF-31 toughbook for $349 clams from a reputable dealer...
https://www.bobjohnson.com/scratch-dent-toughbook-cf-31-mk1-intel-core-i5-m540-2-53ghz/
Lastyly, this method worked for a CF-18 and should work for you also (just follow the guide exactly) as I've done this in the past:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/howto-install-windows-7-on-a-cf-18-mk1.418424/

 

Don’t know that OS....I exclusively use Mx 18: https://mxlinux.org/
The 2nd op guy’s original question was specific to windows


Sent from my CF-M34

 

Ok, thanks for all the suggestion and help.

Ended up going pretty far down a rabbit hole - but fairly happy where I’ve come out.

The model I started off with was a Mk5: CF-29NQQGFBM. It had Ubuntu on it - a very painful learning experience from a couple years ago. It has sat on the shelf since; it is unusable for for my primary use because of some windows only programs I use in the garage (bought it with a wiped hard drive and scraped Windows sticker).

It only has 512 MB of RAM in the slot for a total of 1GB - which may be part of my Windows 10 non-install issues. Tried several settings in the BIOS - maybe the non-activated TPM is part of the issue. Not sure if there are draw backs to activating it? Did a lot of googling during this attempt - got distracted with another idea - or three! I do have two 1GB sticks of RAM and an SSD hard drive with Windows 7 on the way for one of the Mk5’s.

But the main distraction was learning about running Windows inside a virtual machine inside Linux. Now I’ve got my “backup” Mk3 (CF-29HTM50BM - 1.5GB RAM) running RoboLinux (version 8) and running Windows XP in a virtual machine. Why? I can run my windows programs (successfully connected to the Holley ECU via USB and downloaded the tune). I can also use it online with little concern for malware (not wanting start that debate!).

Rambled a bit — so to tie this back to the original post — CF29 (CF-29HTM50BM) running RoboLinux and Windows XP in a virtual machine.

 

Do you want to write a short tutorial on this set-up? Robo-Linux / Xp and etc.

I have a half full quart plastic bag with a bunch of old ram in it. Need some?...or maybe CF-29 parts in general? I still have three touch panels, saw them yesterday.

I have ignored TPM since I started here. Never been an issue for me.

 

I sure will. Just tonight I found an old 40GB IDE hard drive from an HP laptop I killed in the garage several years ago - fell 3 feet to its death on the concrete floor. Killed a total of three laptops (my old HP and 2 cheapies from Craigslist) in the garage before finding a couple CF-29 Mk3’s on craigslist

With this hard drive I can do a new install and not lose a toughbook hard drive with a working copy of XP!

Tomorrow I’ll get a dvd burned with the RoboLinux install - can’t use the usb stick to boot the Mk3...

I could use another 1GB stick of RAM for the CF-29 Mk3 so I don’t have to keep swapping the one I have between two machines!

Also found my old account onTBT when I bought the Mk5’s a little over 2 years ago. Both you and Shawn were very helpful there too! Thanks!

 

Stop right now and investigate PlopLinux. It will install a tiny bootloader on your hard drive and then you can boot from USB on MK1, 2, 3.
MichaelAU is very kind here, you really should have your own thread when you get time.

 

Just got to reading the new posts. I agree with the possible hardware issue stopping Windows from installing.

One thing I wouldn't do, if I have read this correctly, is install Windows in a virtual environment and expect a CF-29 to run it well. Windows needs all the RAM it can get and you really need about 1/2 your available RAM for your host OS. This leaves you with 1GB RAM at the most for Windows to run with. XP was the last Windows that would run decently with less than 1 GB RAM as a primary install, running it as a virtual machine adds complications and in my experience it needs 1GB RAM to run even mediocre.

Windows, and for that fact all OSes I have tried, really do well with the full amount of RAM the machine will take and an SSD. For the minimal price outlay a stick of RAM, an SATA adaptor, and an SSD cost you will find you can install most things listed in my OP with minimal effort.