Redeem Thy 'Bro'

Saving a wayward soul isn't always an easy task. Then again, at times, it can be a walk in the park; or across somebody's front lawn.

That's the situation I stumbled-into, this past Sunday afternoon. A yard sale, with the most pathetic waif of a computer you've ever set your eyes upon; sitting in the hot sun, in the front yard of a young couple hoping to recoup a minor fraction of the retail dollars they had invested in the consumer goods heaped upon the lawn in front of their apartment building.

As I mentioned, it was last Sunday afternoon, and the kids and I were walking over to the home of a friend; to do a bit of socializing, swimming...and to allow Sherry to use our friends as her own, personal lab rats. No. No mazes or injections were in stor for our friends; although, I have to admit, that could have been somewhat entertaining in its own right. No. Sherry is doing research on memory formation within certain subgroups in the population and, said research requires her to do the 'interview/survey-thing' with any victim wandering into her first-strike zone. Don't ask me any more about her work; because I just can't seem to remember much more about it than I've already told you. (Must have been all those shots she gave me before running me through 16-or-so hedgerow mazes...while being chased by two-week starved Dobermans.)

At any rate, we were at that point in our walk, having just crossed the light rail tracks, where we make a left-turn to head North--this being the home stretch to the home of our friend. The apartment building is to our right, as we follow the sidewalk. It is unusual to see anybody outside these particular apartments, and we were engaged in some banter as we walked; when I turned slightly to the right--looking more up the street than at anything else--and my glance fell across a miniature computer case...with a USB keyboard siting on top of it.

My feet started moving me to my right as I wandered over that boundry between the safety of the sidewalk and the grass; which denotes the home turf of the ubiquitous weekend yard sale salesperson. They have you right where they want you, and your only defense is to genuinely be--not act--disinterested. I was interested only in how much they wanted for the keyboard, not really having the keyboard, as they always seem to be more than over-priced everytime I happen to see one at a pawn shop, second-hand store, or yard sale. Everybody seems to have lost the concept of pricing things to move.

As the kids kept on walking, I inquired as to how much they wanted for the chassis and keyboard; since that's all they had sitting out on the blanket. In typical yard sale salesperson fashion, the young lady told me about the complete system--the monitor, printer and mouse; which were in the house and elsewhere--and how it 'works pretty good, but it's just too slow and crashes constantly', so they 'have to get rid of it'. I'm still not really interested in having the keyboard, but am curious to see what she's winding-up to pitch me, price-wise. It certainly sounds like they aren't in love with the paper weight.

She did the looking for her husband thing, and kept talking with me about the other stuff that she had. I gently stopped her, and explained that "we" were walking, and my family had just turned the corner without me; and since, I was on foot, I really couldn't carry anything more than the ever so small chassis and keyboard. "What do you want for just those two items?" I furthered.

She looked very uncertain, while glancing at what I assumed to be her apartment--probably hoping for salvation in the form of her returning husband--and shrugged her shoulders in that "I don't know" way that heralds the unfair tactic of asking me to name the price for her--something I refuse to do. If she doesn't know how much she wants for it, how am I supposed to? Hey...I'll go for free anyday, and plenty of people turn that one down, after putting me into that kind of corner, so they can pony-up some kind of decisiveness...or not. It's all the same to me.

I finally broke the non-verbal barrage, and told her that I was going to have to get going, because my children were walking alone; which really means that I'm just more comfortable being with them, no matter who happens to be with them at the time--and I have a high degree of trust in Sherry's judgement, BTW. She gave a final shrug of her shoulders, as she looked at the chassis and keyboard, and asked, "Is ten dollars too much?"

For the keyboard, it is, but she's giving me the chassis too, and that might actually work well-enough to be worth my bothering with; so I told her that ten would be fine, and handed her the money. We have an offer, acceptance, and consideration tendered; and she has ten bucks more than she had when I was crossing the railroad tracks.

Her husband happened along at that moment, and made some small chit-chat, as I remembered that Sherry had her cell with her, and the sense to use it if there was a problem; so I felt a bit more at ease in shooting a bit of the proverbial breeze with him--a nice guy, if I may say so. He wanted to volunteer the monitor, printer and mouse to me for the price that I had paid; leaving me to repeat the constraints of being "on the hoof" and not having had the foresight to bring a wheel barrow or shopping cart with me that afternon.

We laughed a bit about it, and he probed a bit further to find out how much expertise I have with computers--something I tend to downplay quite a bit on first meetings. The usual questions about how do you do this, and what would you do about that, and "What's Linux?" I could have been there for hours, but his wife reminded him that my children were off, walking by themselves. He apologized and we headed toward the sidewalk together--me to chase-down the kids, and he to return some things to his garage.

With chassis and keyboard under my right arm, I was off to be fashionably late; since, I was certain, the kids had already made it to our destination.

Fun was had, research-stuff was done, and we eventually found our way back to our humble abode. The machine was set-aside until this afternoon (today being 2006.08.17, in case you're wondering); when I dragged-out the li'l critter to see how much of a basket case it really is, and it isn't much of a computer once you take a bit of a gander at it--like, for example, I didn't notice that it has no PS/2 ports until just now. And all of my USB Trackballs and mice are currently assigned owners.

Here are a few photos to help you see what I'm talking about:

This is what I discovered, sitting in the sun, at a local yard sale:

$10.00 (US) on a Sunday Afternoon.

Taking a look at it, face on...

The ladies among you would think this is 'cute'.

...and turning it around to look at the back panel.

It's probably better than an 'X-Box'...

...which makes it almost worth the $10.00 I paid for it.

As you can see, the model is stated to be a "FlexATXSTC BRO Essential 633c"; which is a pretty good indicator that we're dealing with a 633MHz, Celeron processor inside the box. (I shall call it 'Bro', and it shall be mine, and it shall be my 'Bro'!) However, running the serial number through the Gateway web site yielded just a bit more information which I'm including below.

Specifications

Specifications
BIOS	AMI BIOS
Form Factor	Micro-ATX
RAM Capacity	Two 168-pin dual inline memory module (DIMM) sockets Support for up to 512-megabytes (MB) of 100-megahertz (MHz) or 133-MHz, non-ECC, unbuffered synchronous dynamic RAM (SDRAM) 16-MB to 256-MB using 16, 32, or 128-megabit (Mb) technology Note: The type of Megabit technology refers to the density of each DRAM chip located on the DIMM. For instance, each DRAM chip on a 128-Mb based DIMM is 16 megabytes (MB) in size. This motherboard will not accept DIMMS based on higher than 128 Mb technology. Support for Serial Presence Detect (SPD) and non-SPD DIMMs
Processor Host Bus Speed	Intel® Pentium® III processor in a 370-pin Plastic Pin Grid Array (PPGA) socket with 66/100-MHz host bus speed Intel Celeron™ processor in a 370-pin PPGA socket with 66/100-MHz host bus speed
Chipset	Intel 82810E chipset consisting of: Intel 82810E GMCH (Graphics/Memory Controller Hub) Digital Visual Interface (DVI) header for optional card to support Flat Panel, Digital CRT or TV out Interface to ICH2 via the Accelerated Hub Architecture (AHA) interface for I/O support Integrated Video with AGP interface Integrated 2D and 3D graphics engines Integrated Hardware motion compensation engine Complies with AGP specification revision 2.0 Intel 82810E ICH (I/O Controller Hub) Universal Serial Bus UHCI Implementation with four ports Supports Wake from sleep states S1, S3, and S4. Supports legacy Keyboard/Mouse software Intel 82810E FWH (Firmware Hub)
Integrated Audio	Conexant/Cyrstal integrated digital stereo audio
Integrated Modem	Conexant 56Kbps V.90 Voice/Data/Fax modem
On-board IDE	SMSC LPC47M102 low pin count (LPC) interface super I/O controller UATA 33/66
PCI Slots	Two half-height 32-bit busmaster PCI v2.2 slots Supports 3.3-V to 5-V bus interface
Remote Control	Meets ACPI specifications Power switch connector on-board Soft power off
Environmental	Operating: 0° to +55° C (32° to +133° F) Non-Operating: -40° to +70° C (-40° to +158° F) Note: An ambient temperature that exceeds the board's maximum operating temperature by 5 to 10°C might cause components to exceed their maximum case temperature.
Reliability	The Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) is 293,919 hours, at 55°C (133°F).

There are, also, a number of downloads available from Gateway, for this particular chassis; as well as some reasonably comprehensive information which serves nicely to fill the gap left by the absence of the MSI motherboard (MS-6312 Ver. 1) manual.

One of the factors of the object USB keyboard that I have always liked, is the fact that most of them incorporate some sort of passive hub; which brings a couple of low-current USB connectors right up to the desktop-level. This makes it a bit easier to deal with flash media of various sorts without scampering-about under the desk, behind tower cabinets...you get the idea. Also nice is the fact that one can connect a couple of USB-connected trackballs to the same machine--right at the keyboard itself--a situation I prefer when doing combined sessions of precision graphics editing AND word processing or page editing. Each trackball possesses pointer speed and acceleration characteristics which differ according to the task associated with the device (low-speed and no acceleration for graphics work, and higher speed and acceleration for word-crafting fare).

Here we have a detail-view of the "Keytronics Multi-function Me keyboard R0"...

...which happens to be sold by Gateway under the part number of '7002195'.

Undressing the machine was fairly intuitive, following the usual conventions for low-profile fare like this one. The grey, "swoopy" front trim easily pops-off from the ivory front panel/drive bezel, revealing a couple of screw driver slots to disengage the locking tabs from the chassis and sleeve. Depressing the side lock release buttons, while pressing rearward on the CD-ROM and floppy drives, pushes the chassis rearward out of the metal sleeve.

Here you can see the machine interior fully revealed.

Removing the drives, if you can call it that, was straight-forward. Press on a green-labeled pressure point, below and on the left of the CD-ROM drive, and your drive mounting sub-assembly pivots upward and forward to expose the front-half of the motherboard and chassis base.

The chassis is now flipped-open and ready for inspection and service--should the need exist.

If you're sharp of eye, you'll notice that this photo, and the one previous,
constitutes a bit of cheating on my part. The photos were shot later in the
process of gussying-up the machine.

The machine came with two, bracketless, cards in the PCI slots; which wanted to be removed to make way for a network adapter or two. It looks like these folks had problems with the integrated, AC'97 modem; and added a bottom-line Adaptec Parallel-SCSI adapter to facilitate printing, scanning, etc..

The top card is a generic, Motorola chipset-sporting, Win-Modem.
It's junk, and headed for the trash can.

The Adaptec card will probably find some utility in the future.
I'll keep it in the junk drawer for the time being.

Obviously, this thing isn't going to be of much use unless it's network-connected, and the internal modem just isn't going to hack-it. The complicating factor is that of the low-profile chassis; which means that I have to be a bit more selective about the NICs that I'm debating tossing into the PCI slots. At this point, I'm considering that this machine could do fairly well as either a print server or proxy filter/firewall. For the former, the Adaptec would go back into the chassis, with an added bracket of course. For the latter, I will need a couple of my favorite 3Com NICs--of which I happen to have a liberal reserve to fall-back on.

The 3Com, 3C905C-TX-M Etherlink 10/100 PCI Network Interface Card.

This card is the maximum height that this chassis can accommodate.

As with any vertical expansion card orientation, low-profile, computer chassis; this machine requires some chopping of the card brackets to make things fit correctly. In this case, it was quickest and easiest to simply fold-over the top of the card bracket, eyeball the measurements, and lop-off the excess with a pair of aircraft snips. Not pretty, but it gets the job done quickly. (Gateway should have ditched the AC'97 modem and dropped a 3Com Boomerang chipset in there, instead.) I'm sure MSI would have done the run modification on contract, for little to nothing extra, in terms of delivery price.

The 'defiled' 3Com NIC installed.

In this case, eyeballing the measurements worked-out fine.
According to 'Murphy's Law', it won't next time.

The chipset incorporated into any motherboard is, of course, of some concern, since certain chipsets happen to be--at the firmware-level--buggier than Maine in June. In this case, we are graced with the exceedingly plentiful Intel, FW82810E/FW82801AA chipset. This notorious pair falls into the buggy category, of course; as anyone who has been in the business for a reasonable length of time could tell you.

According to Intel-published marketing hype:
Intel 82810E Graphics and Memory Controller Hub (GMCH) provides interconnect between the system bus, hub interface, and SDRAM.
The I/O controller has the following features:

Processor interface control

Support for processor host bus frequency of 66/100-megahertz (MHz)
Optimized 64-bit GTL+ based compliant host bus interface

Integrated Synchronous DRAM Memory Controller

Supports 100MHz/133MHz Unbuffered SDRAM DIMMs
512MB maximum system memory

Digital Visual Interface (DVI) header for optional card to support Flat Panel, Digital CRT or TV out
Interface to ICH2 via the Accelerated Hub Architecture (AHA) interface for I/O support
ACPI Rev 1.0b and APM Rev 1.2 compliant Power Management
AGP Interface

Integrated Video

Integrated 2D and 3D graphics engines
Integrated Hardware motion compensation engine

Complies with AGP specification revision 2.0
Support up to 133MHz display cache using AIMM
Power Management Functions

Support for suspend/resume
Compliant with ACPI power management

According to Intel-published marketing hype:
Intel W82801AA ICH Logic controller has the following features:

PCI Bus interface

Supports PCI bus at 33-megahertz (MHz)
Supports PCI Specification Rev 2.2
Supports up to six Master Devices on PCI bus

Integrated IDE Controller

Supports Ultra DMA 33/66
Supports PIO Mode 4 Transfers
Separate IDE Connections for Primary and Secondary controllers
Independent timing of up to four drives

Universal Serial Bus

UHCI Implementation with four ports
Supports Wake from sleep states S1, S3, and S4
Supports legacy Keyboard/Mouse software

AC'97 Link for Audio and Modem CODECs

AC'97 2.1 Compliant
Separate independent PCI functions for Audio and Modem
Supports wake-up events

Power Management

Support for APM-Based legacy power management
ACPI 1.0b Compliant

Low Pin Count (LPC) bus

Allows connection of legacy ISA and X-Bus devices
Supports two master DMA devices

Real-Time clock

256-byte battery backed CMOS RAM
Hardware implementation to indicate century rollover
SM Bus Host interface allows CPU to communicate with clock

...And, of course, pictures follow...

LEFT: The Intel FW82810E, GMCH Controller.

RIGHT: The Intel, FW82801AA, ICH Logic Controller.

Since we can see no obviously-cooked epoxy on either of the controller packages, we can move-on to other things.

Most machines of this ilk are very underpowered. This machine is certainly no exception to the rule, and probably sets new standards of 'low' in this category. Beware of power supply manufacturers who advertise their maximum peak output ratings as though they were maximum continuous output ratings. Such advertisements are unethical, and usually results in a power supply which can't supply the motherboard with enough current to do the job. The power supply pictured below, should I decide to keep this machine (If it even works!), will have to be beefed-up a bit. There are a number of 225W to 300W power supply PC boards which could be easily made to fit within the confines of this particular power supply case.

Pip-Squeek Power Supply.

Maximum Continuous Output Power is what we're interested in,
and we only have 90W to work with.

Next-up, in our tour de l'inspection, is the area around the µP itself.

Popping-off the heatsink reveals a Celly-633MHz which looks none the worse for the wear, and the capacitors to the left- and right-sides of the µP socket look fine. (This was a major issue for a majority of the motherboards of this vintage. Long story. I'll tell you about it later.) The heatsink was reinstalled with a bit of standard silicone (thermally conductive) grease and left alone. You'll also notice that the power supply fan inlet is fairly dusty. The P/S will be disassembled and completely cleaned at a later time.

The µProcessor and heatsink area.

Did you notice something obviously wrong in the foreground of this photo?

I believe that we've happened upon the reason this particular machine is so crashy; and, exclusive of the 'leaky cap' issue of recent history, a general indictment against under-powered power supply units, like the one in this machine. These swelled and leaking capacitors aren't doing their intended job of filtering the 5-Volt rail; which produces sporadic crashing of the machine--usually when you haven't saved your document, it's due yesterday, and you've been typing for a couple of hours straight. (What the heck, it was only your dissertation or thesis.)

They are also a problem because they will eventually dry-out, and dried-out capacitors will short-out; which has a tendency to kill a few other things in the machine. That's when most folks kick a machine to the curb; because it's simply not within their expertise to fix, nor--often times--is it deemed worth the cost to repair. In most cases, by the time a machine has spontaneously nuked an E-Cap, something else is destroyed in the transaction, making the job even more of a hassle and expense. Unless you practice your ounce of prevention, a machine like this will magically transform itself into parts-fodder--for somebody like me, that is.

In and of themselves, these caps are only symptom of the root of the problem; which is likely thermally- or electrically-related. This machine has probably been on an unfiltered power mains, with highly variable loads imposed upon it, with poor ventilation, and an under-rated PSU. This is also why the machine had not been--at the time these photos were taken--plugged-in and powered-up. It may not be much of a machine to be worth saving, but that's no excuse to waste ten bucks, y'know.

These two Electrolytic Capacitors are Destined to Die.

Needed: 2 - 1500µF, 10+WV E-Caps.

The first order of business is to remove the two failing capacitors, and scunge-up some replacement parts. That's where the omni-present, ever-growing, junk-drawer will come into play. BTW: the failed capacitors were installed on the 5-volt rail. Any guesses as to what component(s) that particular 5-Volt rail supplied current to? (It should be pretty obvious to you at this point.)

E-Caps removed from the Motherboard.

These units were removed from the 5-Volt rail.

I searched through my store of old motherboards and found a couple of relatively new caps, in very good condition, possessed of better thermal ratings, and slightly higher working voltage. They would suffice for 5-Volt or 12-Volt implementation; although I would prefer 18WV to 25WV for use on a 12-Volt rail. Their actual capacitance tested to within +50% of their nominal rating, which makes them ideal for the purpose.

Removed From a New DOA Motherboard.

Now Have: 2 - 1500µF, 16WV E-Caps.

Soldering such things into a motherboard is your garden-variety "ho-hum" chore; unless you have an eight year-old daughter looking on. I found myself smiling in response to her unrestrained amazement at the "Thing Daddy's using to make wire smoke and melt! You gotta see this! It is so cool!" I like seeing things through new eyes, often enough to keep my perspective freshened-up a bit.

I think I'll let her 'help me' when I do the PSU mod on this thing.

New Caps: Nice, Flat Tops. No Discoloration.

They'll Last at Least a Week or Two.

Had the cabinet been possessed of more room around the DIMM region, I might have taken liberties with the nominal values for the replacement capacitors--favoring something along the lines of 3300µF--but, things are so tight in that region of the motherboard that is simply isn't worth the risk of winding-up a couple of millimeters tall on the units and discovering that the drives won't lower and latch-up properly.

Now that the potential bullet of the 'sudden, self-nuking capacitor' is artfully dodged, we need to get rid of that 64MB DIMM, and drop at least 256MB into this thing; which will adequately address the issue of "slowness" that the yard sale woman had complained of.

64MB, PC-133, DIMM.

It Goes Into the Junk Box.

I keep memory of all varieties. Heck, I still have 30-pin SIPPs and SIMMs laying around--some of them even 4MB and 8MB, if you can believe that. The first thing an obviously dead system gives-up to my waiting hands is any and all memory (SRAM, DRAM, Flash...it doesn't matter what it is) residing within its confines. Even dual-ported hard drive and video memory isn't safe around me. From within the collection of esoteric stuff that I hang onto, a couple of 128MB, PC-133, DIMMs are easily yielded-up.

Remembering where I put the darn things, on the other hand...in a house-full of five childern, that can be a bit of a magic trick. There has to be at least 5 or 6 memory-stashes in the house.

2- 128MB, PC-133, DIMMs.

These are the same height as the 64MB DIMM that I removed.

If you recall that I mentioned the fact that this machine has no PS/2 ports; you'll probably intuit that I wouldn't have mentioned that fact if it didn't pose some sort of minor speed-bump for me; that being every spare pointing device that I happen to have on hand, at the moment, is cord-capped with a PS/2 connector. All my USB Trackballs, and the one USB mouse we use, are dedicated to designated use machines, from which I cannot divest said machine of its USB-connected pointing device without the threat of grevious bodily injury--to me.

It was with a spirit of mild-irk-i-tude that I schlepped-off to spend nine bucks on a mini USB optical mouse. Yes, it's pretty small, and I detest mice as pointing devices (the mammals are kind-of chewy if overcooked); however, the cheapest USB-connected trackballs to be had, at that time, were more than 5-times the cost of the little critter pictured below.

Yes, ladies. I hear you: "It's so cute!" (Whatever.)

The cord on this mini-rodent certainly isn't sturdy enough for the stated purpose, that being the laptop/notebook mouse on the go; but it'll do well-enough for desktop use--if I put another cord on it, now that I think about it.

Pretty-Darn-Small at: 8.5cm long x 4.5cm wide, and on sale for $8.95 (US).
[On sale, of course.]

This nearly doubled the total cost of the research for this article!

What is a Gateway computer without the "Mark Of The Beast"?

Well...definitely more secure, stable, usable and faster than it is with the "Mark Of The Beast", that much is certain.

This was the part that 'creeped me out' the most.

The Removed Millennium Product Key Was: "6G6A6-T6E6S-6B6A6-L6L6M-6E6R6".

OK. All the repairs and parts-swapping have been accomplished; and it's now time to fire-up this thing to see if it smokes, just sits there, or boots.

Power On: Omaighod! It still has WhinnyMe installed! _A-n-d___i-t___r-u-n-s___a-s___s-l-o-w___a-s___s-l-o-w___c-a-n___g-o_!_

Forget walking. It literally crawls on hands and knees. We have to get rid of that...but...what the heck is this thing doing with an OS still installed? They didn't even wipe the drive!

THEY DID NOT FREAKIN' WIPE THE HARD DRIVE!!!

All their personal information and dirty, little secrets. Given to me for basically nothing.
Online banking login names and passwords; contracts and business contacts; personal letters and information; taxes and monthly budget information; email addresses, phone numbers and addresses of all their friends and family members; credit card information, saved AOL PFCs and downloads...uh...whoa! We'll just skip a description of some of that garbage. After all, this is a family-oriented web site, y'know.

More to the point, folks, what would you lose if you sent a hard drive to the trash bin, or out to the yard sale blanket? How much information do you have on your computer; which can be used to facilitate identity theft or other forms of fraud, perpetrated against you? How badly would it hurt you and your family if somebody like me could grab even a fraction of your cash reserves?

Can you afford the loss if somebody were able to gain online access to your checking account and transfer the entire balance to a disposable proxy account? Could you recover from it without going through some major issues? Would you be able to make your mortgage payment?

It's a good thing I'm the one who bought this machine, because they left enough information on this hard drive to allow me to nearly destroy them, financially. I don't take anything that doesn't already belong to me.

By the way...just in case you're wondering...the hard drive is in a different machine, and on its 30th-iteration through a shell script that includes, among other things, "dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/hda bs=512" as a part of its series of commands. I think I'll let it continue to run, uninterrupted, for a week or so.

Installing SimplyMEPIS 6.0-Final
Yes. You will hear stories about how Linux is a nightmare to install; however, this simply isn't the case with the latest final release of the SimplyMEPIS distro, by Warren Woodford, and company. This one is so easy to install that even an iMac user could do it all by his little, adolescent-self.

I won't bore you with the granular blow-by-blow description of the installation process. You can read plenty of that elsewhere, if that's what tickles your eye balls. Suffice it to say that I follow a recipe, of sorts, which rarely varies from installation to installation.

Here it is, in all its overly-general glory:

Write down how much memory is installed in the computer (256MB, in this instance).
Double that number (we get 512MB).
Make a note of that as the size of your SWAP partition (0.5GB).
Remove, or disconnect, all hard drives from the target system.
Grab a hard drive from the shelf (6GB as an absolute minimum for a D/T).
Install the hard drive as /dev/hda.
Boot computer and enter the BIOS configuration utility.
Configure the machine to boot from the first CD-ROM drive in the IDE chain.
Open CD-ROM drive and insert the SimplyMEPIS_6.0-Final CD.
Save changes to the BIOS configuration settings.
Exit BIOS configuration utility and reboot the machine.
Get a cup of coffee.
Return to the machine and login as root (yes, the password is 'root').
Use QTParted to write a new partition table to the drive.
Create a primary, ReiserFS partition; having a size of the total drive capacity, less the intended size of your SWAP partition.
Create a primary, Linux-swap partiton of at least twice the total capacity of the memory installed in the computer.
Commit the changes to disk.
Exit QTParted.
Shut down the computer.
Wait about 30 seconds.
Boot the computer again.
Get another cup of coffee.
Return to the machine and login as root.
Use QTParted to verify partition arrangement.
Exit QTParted.
Click on 'Install MEPIS'.
Use hda for installation.
Skip QTParted (we already did that).
Custom install on existing partitions.
Put the / (root) partition on /dev/hda1.
Put the swap partiton on /dev/hda2.
Select ReiserFS for the filesystem.
Get another cup of coffee.
Put GRUB into MBR of hda.
Use initrd.
Set the default username and password.
Set the root password.
Set the computer name.
Set the domain name.
Select Samba for install and set the W/G name.
Select the firewall & CUPS only for installation.
Locale is good at the default (US/EN).
Set the time zone (GMT-08, for me).
Finish, pull the CD and reboot.
Another cup of coffee.
Login.
Run 'apt-get update; apt-get install lshw; apt-get install gimp; apt-get upgrade; [etcetera]'.
Customize the desktop, et al.

For a machine like this, because it's no speed demon, it might take you about half-an-hour to get to the point of the following photo...

The Exorcism Was a Success!

Another Gateway Saved From Eternal Damnation.

Despite its inadequacies, this really isn't a bad little machine; and it runs quite a bit faster with Linux on it, instead of that travesty: 'WhinnyMe'.

It's slightly larger than an X-Box (without all the problems that come with an X-Box), and probably more than adequate to the task of a starter machine for somebody just learning about computers; a small print server for 3-to-five USB-connected printers and a parallel printer; or a proxy server/filter and firewall. Given a bit more drive space, a home caching proxy and file/print server isn't out of the question.

Total Out-of-Pocket Cost: $19.⁶⁹ (North American Dollars)

I will put some free time into replacing the rest of the caps on the MoBo, adding a NorthBridge H/S, re-working the PSU, dropping a quicker Celeron µProcessor in (with a bit beefier H/S-Fan combo), improve the airflow through the chassis, add a couple of fans.

This will be the casual, fiddle-with-it-on-odd-occasion, box; which will wind-up as a caching proxy/filter on our network. (It has also occurred to me that it wouldn't be a bad idea to yank the floppy drive, replace it with a HDD, and put it on the secondary IDE channel, instead of the CD-ROM drive. Sharing the swap across both drives would have a positive impact on things.

For a machine like this--consider it in the 'Fisher Price' computer venue--everything that goes into it is going to be strictly recovered/recycled parts--zero dollars out of the pocket from today-forward.

What can you find in your neighborhood?

Article Feedback:

Date: Fri, 9 Mar 2007 00:37:11 -0700
X-Originating-IP: 67.55.158.xxx
"Okay, I'm a fledgling computer nerd who recently came into possession of a Gateway 'Bro'. It powers up and is running Windows 2000. Somebody has repalced the original internal modem with one that is too long to fit into the slot/case. I found an external fax/modem by Adaptec at {OnLine Retailer Name} for $10.50 (US). What I would like to know is if this modem will be compatible with my Bro, and where I could find a replacement for the internal modem without breaking the bank. Could you advise me as to (1) compatibility with the Adaptec and/or (2) finding a replacement internal modem."--Jean Dough, of purported NetZero origins.

Firstly, I like the pseudonym. It hints (in a very Spider Robinson-ish way) at an anonymous baker.

Secondly, you gave me a moment of pause on that one; because, as far as I'm aware, Adaptec doesn't make modems--much less external modems; however, the vendor you mentioned does list an "Actiontec USB/Serial 56K External Modem" for the exact price you quoted. The name is similar enough to make the brand mix-up plausible, so I'll go forward based upon the presumption that the Actiontec device is what is really involved, here. For your reference, I'm referring to the device which sells under the UPC of: 7 89286 80530 0

You can see, by consulting the service information for the motherboard, that the Gateway Bro doesn't have any kind of RS232C Serial port hardware, so you'll have to content yourself with either an expansion slot (internal) modem or a USB-connected external modem. The modem that is integrated into the MSI motherboard isn't something that is consumer-replaceable, per se (not to mention that Conexant chipset modems are garbage); so we generally understand that you're going to disable the integrated modem, and add something to give yourself the same function set.

The considerations that sit foremost in my mind are these:

You only have 2 PCI expansion slots available to to you in this machine.
External modems are almost always preferrable to internal modems.
USB-connected communications/networking devices aren't a first-choice solution.
Cost is a driving consideration for you.
You've already spent ten and-a-half purchase, and a maximum of 21 shipping, dollars on the Actiontec EX560LKU.
You're running windoze 2000
The Actiontec modem is a Rockwell chipset sporting device which is specified as "working with/having drivers for" windoze 98/Me/2000/XP.
Messing with the short expansion card heights on this machine is an eye-rolling pain in the patoot.

A positive for any machine running w2k, would be the explicit inclusion of that windoze release in the supported Opearting Systems list. Seeing that driver support for w2k was abysmal, I'd wager that you're looking at a standards-compliant external modem that would probably work with DOS or Linux as well. This may not necessarily be a consideration for your specific needs, but it does imply that you won't be bound to a specific Operating System family, should you decide to explore alternatives later on.

I can't speak for the quality of the modem, nor the reliability of the vendor you mentioned; however, since I could actually drive to that particular vendor (Oceanside, CA) and pick up the modem--saving on shipping costs--I would be sorely tempted to save those two PCI slots for a couple of NICs or SCSI adapters; were I to find myself in need of a modem on a machine like this.

Cost is a consideration. It will only cost you something like an absolute maximum price of $32.37. ** Furthermore, external modems do have some very attractive advantages which I won't delve into here...that's enough for another article, in it's own right.

Without your specific hardware in front of me (there are variations within the FlexATXSTC BRO Essential model line) and, without a modem product sample; the best I can tell you is that I do not see an obvious reason why you cannot use the Actiontec external modem on the Gateway Bro. Your mileage on that count may, however, vary. I certainly wouldn't waste the time and money looking for a replacement for the internal modem; which must be a third-party unit that didn't ship with the FlexATXSTC BRO Essential models that utilized the MS-6312 Ver. 1 motherboards.

** That's $10.50 plus 87¢ sales tax, if you live in California, and $21.00 for overnight shipping...$6.00 if you aren't in a hurry. Now, since you live in Iowa, no California state sales tax for you, and plan on the six bucks for shipping. Please realize that $16.50 is a fantastic price for an external modem--if it works. Most people pay more for even a bad quality internal modem.