Linux on Laptops

For Linux configurations on many specific laptops, see this page.

Linux On Laptops

Linux on the Clevo M400A

 

Introduction

The manufacturer characteristics of this laptop can be found here.

In short, the one described here has the following characteristics:

Being Clevo/Kapok, surely it is sold under different brands worldwide. It included an adequate manual (for Windows 2000 and XP), and the following CD's:

I installed Mandrake 10.2, with kernel 2.6.11-6. Debian users may be interested in seeing this.

BIOS

For the rest, the important items in bios are:

Operating systems

I installed two operating systems:

Partitioning:

Partitioning

IDE disk and DVDRW are at primary IDE. I placed linux swap partition before the linux partition; this may reduce head travel.

'fdisk -l /dev/hda' shows:
Disco /dev/hda: 60.0 GB, 60011642880 bytes
255 cabezas, 63 sectores/pista, 7296 cilindros
Unidades = cilindros de 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Disposit. Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 3526 28322563+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2 3527 3763 1903702+ c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/hda3 3764 3994 1855507+ 82 Linux swap
/dev/hda4 3995 7296 26523315 83 Linux

Windows information

Most internal components can be seen below, which are screen captures from Windows 2000 Control Panel (Device Manager).

Intel CPU identification utility shows the following information about the processor:

Intel(R) Processor Identification Utility
Version: 1.5.20050202
Time Stamp: 2005/05/21 07:59:32
Number of processors in system: 1
Current processor: #1
Processor Name: Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 750 1.86GHz
Type: 0
Family: 6
Model: D
Stepping: 8
Revision: 20
L1 Instruction Cache: 32 KB
L1 Data Cache: 32 KB
L2 Cache: 2 MB
Packaging: µFCPGA/µFCBGA
EIST: Yes
MMX(TM): Yes
SIMD: Yes
SIMD2: Yes
SIMD3: No
Enhanced Halt State: No
Execute Disable Bit: Yes
Hyper-Threading Technology: No
Intel(R) Extended Memory 64 Technology: No
Expected Processor Frequency: 1.86 GHz
Reported Processor Frequency: 1.86 GHz
Expected System Bus Frequency: 533 MHz
Reported System Bus Frequency: 533 MHz

The fast infrared port can be further inspected as being manufactured by National Semiconductor (see below).

 

Kernel

Kernel 2.6: see "/usr/src/linux/.config".

Modem

Smart Link, its manufacturer, supports it in Linux, including support for kernel 2.6. See http://www.smlink.com.

Decompressing "slmodem-2.9.10.tar.gz" (or whatever version), running commands:

make; make install

as documented, the corresponding devices ("/dev/slamr0-3") were created, but the generated module ("slamr.ko") didn't load, appearing in dmesg after 'modprobe slamr':

slamr: module license 'Smart Link Ltd.' taints kernel.
slamr: Unknown symbol get_device
slamr: Unknown symbol put_device
slamr: Unknown symbol device_release_driver

This is solved applying patch "slmodem-2.9.10-abby.diff", which can be found here.

Smart Link also includes script "slmodemd" for Mandrake to be placed at "/etc/rc.d/init.d" and configured with 'chkconfig --add slmodemd', also you should edit it to configure the modem for your country.

This does not work well.

Elantech touchpad

It is not supported, so it appears as a PS/2 mouse (the wheel buttons don't work).

IrDA

Although I tried module "nsc-ircc", I was not succesful. Moreover, /dev/ttyS1 resources (ports 0x2F8+ and irq 3) are never seen; I couldn't make SIR work either.

IPW2200

This is the Wifi board with Intel chip. It is configured at the kernel, but aditionally a firmware is needed, contained in "ipw2200-fw-2.2.tgz".

Software suspend

It is supported by the kernel.

(To be tested)

Euro symbol

In X applications the Euro (0xA4) and Cent (0xA2) symbols appeared without any effort, but getting it in text virtual terminals required:

X

X version in Mandrake 10.2 is Xorg 6.8.2. Here is a simple configuration file that works with the LCD screen at 1400x1050: "/etc/X11/xorg.conf", although with the VESA driver

The graphic chip is an ATI mobile X700.

Drivers from ATI can be used (file "fglrx_6_8_0_8-8.14.13-1.i386.rpm" or newer):

ATI drivers "fglrx_6_8_0_8-8.14.13-1.i386.rpm" caused hang on laptops with 1 GB or more memory (see this bug); drivers version 8.16.20.1 ("fglrx_6_8_0-8.16.20-1.i386.rpm") solve this.

Miscellaneous

See 'dmesg'.

This is miscellaneous information:

Cdrecord-Clone 2.01.01a01-dvd (i686-pc-linux-gnu) Copyright (C) 1995-2004 Jörg Schilling
Note: This version is an unofficial (modified) version with DVD support
Note: and therefore may have bugs that are not present in the original.
Note: Please send bug reports or support requests to <warly@mandrakesoft.com>.
Note: The author of cdrecord should not be bothered with problems in this version.
scsidev: 'ATAPI:0,1,0'
devname: 'ATAPI'
scsibus: 0 target: 1 lun: 0
Warning: Using ATA Packet interface.
Warning: The related Linux kernel interface code seems to be unmaintained.
Warning: There is absolutely NO DMA, operations thus are slow.
Using libscg version 'schily-0.8'.
Device type : Removable CD-ROM
Version : 0
Response Format: 2
Capabilities :
Vendor_info : 'TOSHIBA '
Identifikation : 'CD/DVDW SD-R6472'
Revision : 'TU50'
Device seems to be: Generic mmc2 DVD-R/DVD-RW.

Also interesting:

Files

/etc/modprobe.conf

/usr/src/linux/.config

/etc/X11/xorg.conf for VESA driver.

Several "/etc/X11/org.conf" for ATI drivers.

New/to do

Conclusion

(Pending to be filled)

For sharing experiences about all this: webillo<at>gmail.com.

Last update 24/08/05