slackware update oops

So I decided to update one of my old laptops the other day (IBM Thinkpad T40), I only use it for web browsing and it's running slackware 14.0.

It's CPU is quite old and doesn't support PAE kernels ...

But for some reason slackpkg decided to change to the PAE kernel when it ran lilo. Actually it's kind of funny it still uses lilo; I thought that died a decade ago. By luck I found the install DVD relatively easily and managed to boot into single-user mode against the on-board HDD and point lilo to the correct kernel. Although booting off dvd was a bit flakey - i had to power down and disconnect the mains beteen reboots otherwise the screen stayed black.

It's only got 512MB RAM which sadly isn't really enough to do much these days. I looked into buying some more SODIMMs but it looks like it isn't worth it (around here, if you can even find PC2100 SODIMMs). For a 10 year old machine it still functions pretty well otherwise. Not sure it's worth upgrading the memory on my X61 thinkpad either, and the fan seems to be getting worse - I don't want to have have to pull the whole thing apart to see if i can fix that.

I've been contining to look into getting a small-as-possible ITX Kaveri machine going to replace my day-today use of the X61. At first I was initially dissapointed in the sizes of case available but there are one or two that will probably suffice - with psu, heatsink, hdds and air-flow you just can't make it too small. Unless gigabyte come out with a Kaveri based BRIX anyway. Or I get keen enough to make my own case using a low-profile PSU. Most PC shops around here are all intel so the AMD stuff isn't that common, although it's still possible to get it. The fanless heatsink cases (can't remember the brand) looked interesting, until I realised they needed an external power brick and cost a bit too much. Not particularly attractive either. I have another workstation but that's in a less convenient room; and is pretty much relegated to a shitty/unreliable mythtv server atm so that can stay there (not sure why i bother, i haven't watched any recordings from it for months).

But for now i'm more pre-occupied with a dental issues. After some fuckups when I got braces back in my youth I don't have much enthusiasm for dentists but after having a problem that wasn't fixing itself I finally went to a dentist (after, err, 25 years or something) and found out I need root canal work done; well whatever, so long as it just gets fixed. Seeing a specialist in a couple of hours. My shitty teeth have always been a pita since I was a kid and i have a feeling this wont be the last of it (and looking back, i'm sure it affected my life trajectory somewhat. There's a reason i only smile when i'm drunk), and i'm pretty sure that the sleep apnoea device didn't help. At least the local dentist was quite good.