Configuration
Installation (SuSE 7.2, 7.3, 8.0, 8.1, 8.2)
The installation goes fully automatic, there is no need to configure
anything! Sound, CD-R/RW/DVD, USB, etc. It seemed too easy to be true, but
SuSE just rocks ;).
Ok, there is one caveat with 8.0 and 8.1: Don't install from the DVD, the
second part of install won't find it, because the SCSI emulation is active at
this point. You may want to try "hdc=scsi" as boot parameter when the
installation is started. On 8.2 the DVD installation works very well.
Sound (VIA 82c686b AC97)
With kernels < 2.4.17 (except for SuSE kernels, don't know which magic they
have put in), sound doesn't work because of wrong IRQ routing. I nearly went
mad, trying with 2.4.16. Neither OSS nor ALSA drivers worked. When 2.4.17 came
out, all the troubles were gone.
I'm using the ALSA drivers now, because they also support the 3D-enhancements
of the VIA 82C686b onboard sound.
Note: Don't enable SonyPI (Sony Programmable Interrupt Controller),
because it uses an I/O address within the port range of the VIA onboard sound.
I have no solution for this so far, but it is no great loss for our models
anyway.
You can download pre-compiled alsa modules
for my custom kernel. Go to the root directory(!) and extract them there.
They will go into /lib/modules/2.4.xx/kernel/drivers/sound. (see also the
kernel section).
CD-Writer (Matsushita UJDA710)
The internal CD-Writer works perfectly with ide-scsi emulation. I use "hdc=scsi" as kernel parameter. With cdrecord dev=0,0 -atip the drive and the inserted cd-recordable can be tested.
Graphics (ATI Rage M1, some Mach64 derivate)
3D acceleration is not available out-of-the-box yet, but everything else
works fine. I'm using the ati.2 driver of the
GATOS project, which enables the
XVideo extension. XVideo is necessary for using
MPlayer, a great video and DVD player
software for linux.
3D acceleration (DRI, direct rendering) works with a special
Mach64 branch of
XFree86, but at the moment XVideo does not work with it, so I'll stick with
the ati.2.
I heard of a version that supports both XVideo and DRI, but there are no binary snapshots of it available. DRI also breaks software suspend (or the other way round ;), and is therefore not interesting for me.
TV out works (Fn+F8), but defaults to NTSC. With
atitvout, you can switch from NTSC to PAL, which makes TV work as it should
in europe. I have been watching MPEGs and DVD on my TV with this :)
If you change resolution, you have to switch to TV again (cycle through all
combinations of screen/TV out until you have the right one), if you use another
resolution for video playing.
Note, that atitvout has to run as root. I'm starting it in my
/etc/init.d/boot.local.
To control the panel brightness, use Fn+F5 to increase brightness, and
Shift+Fn+F5 to decrease brightness. Brightness is not software-controllable,
because the SonyPI module conflicts with the onboard sound.
Mouse (Alps Touchpad)
The touchpad is auto-detected as two-button PS/2 mouse. If you press both
buttons simultaneously, the middle button is emulated.
Fortunately, the touchpad is capable of more things. Unfortunately, these only
work with linux kernel 2.6 (my .config for 2.6),
but this is not as bad as one might think. The desktop-performance is
noticeable better! But now the details:
You need the kernel patches from http://www.geocities.com/dt_or/input/2_6_4/,
and the synaptics driver
software. The instructions on the homepage are very good, at least I had no
problem to follow them. Most important is the README.alps file inside the
synaptics package and the alps.patch file, that also needs to be applied to the
kernel.
After patching and compiling the kernel, read the
XFree86 section for more information and configuration instructions.
Network (Realtek 8139C)
Works just fine (except with APM, see Power
Management).
A very fine tool is ifplugd, which starts and stops the network
interface when the network cable is (un)plugged. It also has configurable
delays and actions, when a cable is plugged. For instance, I had xosd configured to write a text on the screen (eth0 up/down).
Ethtool can also be used
to query the link status, speed, duplex, etc. Note, that it only works with the
8139too driver from 2.4.19-rc1, which is included in my
pre-built kernel. A patch for 2.4.18 to upgrade the driver can be found
here.
IEEE1394/iLink/Firewire
Works fine, I attached an external firewire drive which was recognised as
SCSI drive. Speed is ~20MB/sec which is less than I expected, but ok.
The
ohci1394 and sbp2 kernel modules are needed to use the drive.
USB
I'm using a Logitech Optical USB mouse. See the configuration section for X
windows configuration. With my configuration I can plug in the mouse any time
and just use it. For some reason I still have to switch to a text console and
back to X sometimes, to make this work, but it's better than nothing.
2002-02-14: Update: I found out, why connecting the mouse after starting X
didn't work. Edit /etc/hotplug/usb.rc (on SuSE 8.2 /etc/sysconfig/usb) and put
X11_USBMICE_HACK=true near the top. (you may have to create the file
on SuSE 8.2).
Onboard Modem
Thanks to the effort of Marc Boucher, AC97 modem drivers are available since 01 Jun 2002.
The HSF linmodem drivers are no
longer free, but available for a very moderate price (~15$). If you need a copy
of the old beta version, you can get it from SuSE cd's (8.2 at least) or ask me.
A free demo version, limited to 14.4kbps, is also available.
PCMCIA Slots
Work. I am using a Compact Flash to PCMCIA converter to mount the CF-Card of my digital camera. The pcmcia drivers have to be unloaded before suspending (my susp script takes care of this).