Linux mit Notebook

COMPAQ Armada E500

Intel® Pentium® III, 900 MHz

14,1" TFT

256 MB RAM

20 GB HD

Floppy and

8x DVD modular

Modem/NIC combo

Windows 98SE (Linux not available preinstalled)

with Graphic card ATI Mach 64 Rage Mobility (8192 kBytes Memory)

Ethernet card Intel Pro/100 mini PCI

USB with Intel 82371AB/EB PCI

sound with ESS Maestro 2E PCI Audio

PCMCIA with intel 823682 (In Win as Texas Instr.Cardbuscontroller)

Infrared is SMC IrCC

Comment: good keyboardlayout. But drawbacks are, that cables from ethercard and modem come out on the right side , where I have my mouse usually.

Support for Windows drivers is now located here

Linux:

Comment: now I use debian distro since 3 weeks because of elegant update mechanism (I've one year experience with Red Hat (bad support for european needs) Caldera (problems with policy & their proprietary NetWare client was buggy to be useless [ and I succeeded perfectly with the free ncfps ])

Got Linux running after about 1,3 hour with KDE, sound and ethercard

After recompiling the kernel full functioning of:

Modem, Powersave, power off after shutdown, Suspend via blue button

not yet further tested:

IR port, USB ,PCMCIA

credits

Thanks to the people working on Linux and debian and their sponsors as well (I prefer their products on a regular basis)

special thanks to

Frank Steiner who has a nice and informative page for the E500

got the special keys working, by simply installing the package 'hotkeys'.

What to do:

Enter BIOS by hitting F10 durig startup , in start-options

change to CDROM boot, then change video-mode to PAL

I used PartionMagic and BootMagic (Powerquest) for disk partitioning and dual boot

Installation from debian woody untested beta as distributed on Linux Tag 2001 in Stuttgart

it has

X-Server 4.003

kernel 2.2.19

Install runs straight through except for the graphic-card and the Lucent-modem.The start floppy could not be generated.

Get my kernel_conf and XF86Config zipped here

Hints for the installation sequence: from main window, check the option to install PCMCIA, check intel i82557

go into modules selection include

module eepro100 for the ethercard

for the soundcard the maestro module

include in /etc/lilo.conf in the line with append a stetement like "idebus=100" to use databus at full speed

in tasksel I chose : Development in C , Laptop System, K Desktop, Tkl/TK, X Window complete

To get the K Desktop working:

The easy way: get my XFConfig-4 and copy it to /etc/X11/XF86Config-4

Or do it by yourself with

#xf86config

101 Keyboard de nodeadkeys answer accordingly and then in the video section

select hor-sync 32.5-48.5 , 1024x768 60 Hz

select vert 50 - 100 Hz

select video card ATI Mach 64 aka 3D Rage

select Memory video card 8192 Kbytes

recommended 1024x768

when asked 'shall I write to /etc/X11/XF86Config-4' answer 'y'

end and store. Start KDE with

#startx

let other users hear audio

KDE sounds

#chmod 666 /dev/dsp

let other users hear music from CD

#chmod 666 /dev/hdb (to which /dev/cdrom is a link)

use those special keys

quite simple: Install the package 'hotkeys. You'll be able to configure them at will

to use the modem

you have to rebuild the kernel first and then add the modem support for it. the ltmodem deb package available for the kernel build in this distro doen´t work

Building a kernel is easy : You have to get into the system somehow the files

kernel-source-2.2.19.tar.bz from debian server

and the modem driver

ltmodem-6.00a.tar.gz from www.heby.de/ltmodem

less elegant way: boot Windows , download files, mound /dev/hda1 an copy files

more elegant and faster if you have a PC with ethercard and WWW connection:

let apt-get run via proxy.

#export http_proxy=http://10.0.0.1:80/

to let apt-get know about that route.

Enter the lines

deb http://http.at.debian.org/debian woody main contrib non-free

deb-src http://http.at.debian.org/debian woody main contrib non-free

in file /etc/apt/sources.list

Recompile the kernel and make adjustments goes like: ~

#apt-get install kernel-source-2.2.19

#cd /usr/src

#bunzip2 kernel-source-2.2.19.tar.bz2

#tar -xvf kernel-source-2.2.19.tar

make a link /usr/src/linux to poit to the source

#ln -s /usr/src/kernel-source-2.2.19 /usr/src/linux

#cd /usr/src/kernel-source-2.2.19

from within KDE

you might use my-kernel-configuration

#make xconfig

from within that. load my-kernel-configuration and save it.

now:

#make-kpkg kernel_image --revision=angepasst.1

move the lib files out of the way by

#mv /lib/modules/2.2.29 /lib/modules/2.2.19.old

and

#dpkg --install /usr/src/kernel-image-2.2.19_angepasst.1_i386.deb

now for the modem driver:

#tar -xzf ltmodem-6.00a.tar.gz

#cd /usr/scr/ltmodem-6.00a1

#./build_module

#./ltinst2

#./autoload

you´ll have to redo that after each kernel recompile

wvdial doesn't find the modem, thus pppconfig must be used where

you can key-in the port for the modem which is named /dev/modem

some adjustments

Disk performance is said to be increased

with

#/sbin/hdparm -m16 -c1 -u1 -d1 /dev/hda

and

#/sbin/hdparm -u1 -k1 /dev/hdb

should inhibit serial ports tendency to drop character while cdrom is accessed

I added both commands to a /etc/init.d/local.sh which ist invoked during init

with a link entered as

# ln -s /etc/init.d/local.sh /etc/rcS.d/S99local.sh

Printer

Printer on lp0

#echo hallo > /dev/lp0

shows valid connection. Then :

#apt-get install lpr magicfilter gs

#magicfilterconfig -force

fertig

PCMCIA

Links

Debian hints

Laptops and Linux

Tip für Linux allgemein