(Updated 17/06/2001)
This computer is a good ratio between price and performance.
It is composed of :
|
Device |
Type |
Works with |
|---|---|---|
|
Processor |
Intel pIII 650 |
Normal kernel |
|
RAM |
64 MB |
Normal kernel |
|
Screen |
14.1'' 1024x768, active matrix |
Xfree86 3.3 or 4.0 |
|
Graphic card |
ATI 3D Rage LT Pro 4c42 8 MB-TV out |
Xfree86 3.3 or 4.0. Chipset mach64- The TV-out does not work. 3D accelerated : works automatically with Mandrake 7.2, but not very fast (Xfree 3.3). Still not accelerated with Xfree 4.x |
|
Mouse |
Glide point 2 buttons |
PS2- irq12 |
|
CDROM |
Integretad Teac CD 224E (x24) |
Normal IDE Atapi Ide1 - hdc irq15 |
|
Floppy |
Integrated |
Normal kernel - irq6 |
|
HD |
Toshiba 6 Go |
Normal IDE Ide 0 - hda irq14 |
|
Modem |
Winmodem Lucent V90 |
Lucent Driver irq5 ttyS1 See Below |
|
Sound Card |
Crystal-Mic in-Headphones out |
Alsa module cs46xx irq5 |
|
USB |
1 port Intel 82371 ab/eb |
Works with kernel 2.4 - irq 9 (UHCI module) |
|
Parallel port |
1 EPP port |
Normal kernel irq7 |
|
PCMCIA |
2 ports |
Works fine with i82365 irq 10 |
|
Infra Red |
1 port |
Untested- irq3 |
|
Serial port |
1 port |
Normal kernel ttyS0 irq4 |
|
External screen |
1 port |
Works with/without integrated screen |
|
External ps2 port |
1 keyboard/mouse port |
Works with a 3 button mouse, but impossible to make the glide-point work later. Necessary to reboot. The keyboard must be plugged in before switching power on, but you can still use the embedded keyboard. |
Making the modem work is now easy
You must get the driver at http://www.linmodems.org
The installation is very easy. You need to have the kernel source installed, activate ppp support, and then type « ./build_module » in the ltmodem archive (don't unzip the inner archive). Then « modprobe ltmodem ». It works with 2.2 and 2.4 kernels. It also works fine with french Minitel (V23 mode). The device name is /dev/ttyLT0.
Energy saving functions must be changed (in the BIOS). You must disable suspend mode and ask for the screen to get turned off when closing the screen.
You can use the Suspend mode only from a text console. If you want to use it from X without crashing the sytem, you must put in /etc/sysconfig/apmd :
CHANGEVT="7"
If you want your PCMCIA network still works after suspend mode, just write
NET_RESTART="no" in the same file.
If not, you must restart pcmcia (/etc/rc.d/init.d/pcmcia restart)
The mouse
Sometimes (rarely), the mouse gets crazy, but during a very short time only.
Hard disk and cdrom optimizations
hdparm -X66 -c1 -d1 -m16 -k1 /dev/hda
will accelerate your hard disk
hdparm -d1 /dev/hdc
will accelerate your cdrom
The frame buffer
It is not a good idea to use a frame buffer kernel. The text mode will work fine, but X will blink and will be very slow. In this case, X will work fine only if you use X frame buffer driver, which is slower than Mach 64 Driver.
You have perhaps seen the problem when installing the system if your distribution (Mandrake for instance) uses frame buffer during the installation. If you ask for testing your graphical configuration, it will blink. Just accept. It will work fine when starting again.
The boot
I had many trouble when trying to make LILO work on this laptop. I just managed to boot using GRUB.
This computer can be used with Linux. The only unsupported device is the TV-out (should work soon). The autonomy is short (about 1 hour). The sound card and the screen have been automagically configured by Linux Mandrake.