[vox-tech] Fwd: Re: Debian Sid amd64 on a Compaq v2310us (status report)

[Bill Kendrick]

It appears Lennart is not subscribe to vox-tech, or posted from an alternate
address.  I'm taking the liberty of posting this for them...


Date: Tue, 20 Sep 2005 08:43:30 -0400
From: lsorense at csclub.uwaterloo.ca (Lennart Sorensen)
Subject: Re: Debian Sid amd64 on a Compaq v2310us (status report)
To: Ken Bloom <kbloom at gmail.com>
Cc: debian-amd64 at lists.debian.org, vox-tech at lists.lugod.org

On Mon, Sep 19, 2005 at 08:50:07PM -0500, Ken Bloom wrote:
> Display:    14.0" WXGA High-Definition BrightView Widescreen (1280 x
> 768) display

Hmm, interesting.  That is 15:9 ratio.  Most I have seen were the 15.4"
WXGA which are 1280x800 (16:10 ratio).

> Wireless connectivity:    54g Integrated 802.11b/g wireless LAN with
> 25HSM/SpeedBooster support (based on a Broadcom chipset)

Yeah broadcom needs ndiswrapper.

> Digital media:    6-in-1 integrated Digital Media Reader for Secure
> Digital cards, MultiMediaCard, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro,
> SmartMedia or xD-Picture Cards (Texas Instruments)

Most I have seen are a TI pci device, and have no support in linux (and
probably never will).  They also work very badly in windows (the one my
wife has can't work with cards over 512M in size making it completely
useless.)

> External ports:    3 Universal Serial Bus (USB) 2.0, 1 notebook
> expansion port, 1 IEEE 1394 (FireWire)

At least those ports are standard and should just work.

> Communications:    Integrated 10/100Base-T Ethernet LAN (RJ-45
> connector), high speed 56K modem (RJ-11 connector)

Ethernet should usually work fine, modem is probably going to be a pain
if possible at all.

> Dimensions:    13.15" (L) x 9.1" (W) x 1.29" (H) (min) or 1.53" (H) (max)
> Weight:    5.38 lb.
> Sound:    Altec Lansing
> 
> *** Debian Install ***
> I installed Debian Sarge, using a netinstall CD over wired ethernet. The
> install used Kernel 2.6.8 as the install kernel. As DMA for the ATI
> chipset is not supported until kernel 2.6.11, I had another working
> computer download kernel 2.6.12 from Debian sid amd64, so that I could
> scp it over and install it as soon as possible after the initial install
> is done.

ATI support is rather flacky in linux still, although by 2.6.12 at least
some stuff is starting to work.

> After installing the 2.6.12 kernel, I upgraded to Debian Sid, and
> installed my favorite packages.
> 
> *** Video ***
> You can use the ATI driver, or the non-free fglrx driver.
> 
> The ATI driver is unaccelerated, but supports suspend/resume.
> 
> The fglrx driver is accelerated, but does not support suspend/resume.
> 
> I chose the former. To specify that you want unaccelerated video, you
> must use the option
>         Option          "noaccel"
> in Section "Device".
> Becuase my cursor looked ugly after that, I also used
>         Option          "swcursor"
> You may be able to get away without swcursor. Try it. The worst that can
> happen is aesthetic problems.
> 
> My xorg.conf is attached.
> 
> For some reason, I can't use the scroll stuff, and can't get the
> typing-disables-trackpad behavior. I could probably reconfigure that,
> but I would have to use
> 	Option "shmconfig" "on"
> in the Section "InputDevice" corresponding to the synaptics touchpad.
> When I turned that on, things started to crash, so I turned it off. I
> might have even had that working on Debian and lost it in a
> dist-upgrade. I'm not sure.
> 
> If you have a solution, let me know.

Typing disabling the touchpad would be a nice feature.  The one I have
set up does however have an on/off switch above the touchpad so it's not
a big deal.

Len Sorensen


----- End forwarded message -----

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