[Novalug] EeMachine mini tower EL1200-05w anyone ever put linux on one?

RJ Bergeron rbergero@gmail.com
Mon Jul 30 16:45:16 EDT 2012


On Mon, Jul 30, 2012 at 3:04 PM, Bonnie Dalzell <bdalzell@qis.net> wrote:
>
> thanks to all who have suggested a different graphics card for the
> eMachine.
>
> unfortunately the eMachine is one of these cheap compact computers and the
> only slot in it at all is a tiny slot that has the card that accepts the
> network cable.

>From looking at other pictures of that system board online, especially
http://www.isuppli.com/PublishingImages/Teardowns/2009-01-16_eMachine.jpg
it looks like the tiny slot for the network card is a PCIe 1x slot.

With that, you could pull the network card and install a PCIe 1x video
card, something off this page:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007709%20600007854&IsNodeId=1&name=PCI%20Express%20x1
and see if the system can use it for a primary display. Then you can
get a USB2 adapter for the network connection, something from here:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100010064%20600016288&IsNodeId=1&name=USB
though I recommend double-checking for linux compatibility.
Unfortunately, this setup would put you back $50+ bucks.

Other possibilities for the adventurous is modifying a x16 card to fit
in a x1 slot, which works for some of the lower-end cards, but details
are spotty. A third adventure would be to get a USB DisplayLink
adapter and reconfigure X to use that - which is *possible*, but
configuring X in this fashion is tedious, and the boot console is
still on the system video.

RJ



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