wach-o-witz.de - Linux, ASUS L3500D Installation SUSE 8.2

Here are some other installs: SUSE 8.2, SUSE 9.1, Ubuntu 5.04

Ok, here some of my experiences about the installation of SuSE Linux 8.2 on an ASUS L3500D Notebook.

Let us start with some details about this machine [1].

As a test I tried Knoppix 3.1. Surprise, it worked just fine. Everything up and running with no hassle.

Difficulties:
At the beginning, the most recent version of SuSE I had was 8.1 pro. Actually it installed quite well. BUT: The needed module for the integrated NIC could not be loaded. The module should be 'sis900' but I could find no way to load this '$%&#&! thing ;-(

Ok, I could have compiled a new kernel or so. OTOH, hey, I am a lucky one who ownes a DSL flatrate. So I just downloaded the complete sourcetree of 8.2, burned the CD-ISO for the setup and here we go.

What shall I say; right from the beginning everything worked great. The complete hardware, except the winmodem, was detected and configured. The only problem occured when the setup tries to configure the X-Server. Although the chipset [2] was correctly recognized, when starting X the screen went off and showed some really funny looking effects. Remembered me of the last time I smoked some not really legal stuff ;-)

Anyway, the solution was easy. I simply edited the XF86config to get the generic VESA support working. Later I installed a new sis-module [3]. You will find the relevant entries for generic VESA [4] and SIS [5] below.

As candy I also installed the synaptics driver for the touchpad [6]. Here are the relevant entries from XF68config [7].
The touchpad driver has the following functions (some function requires features from the touchpad that must be present, multifinger taps for example):

Movement with adjustable, non-linear acceleration and speed (Options: MinSpeed, MaxSpeed, AccelFactor)
Button events through short touching of the touchpad (Options: MaxTapTime, MaxTapMove)
Double-Button events through double short touching of the touchpad
Dragging through short touching and holding down the finger on the touchpad
Middle and right button events on the upper and lower corner of the touchpad (Option: Edges)
Scrolling (button four and five events) through moving the finger on the right side of the touchpad (Options: Edges, VertScrollDelta)
The up/down button sends button four/five events
Adjustable finger detection (Option: Finger)
Ext Mouse repeater support - Alpha! (Option: Repeater)
Multifinger taps: two finger for middle button and three finger for right button events
Online configuration through short-memory (in development) (Option: SHMConfig)

2004-01-13 OFFTOPIC

This is NOT Linux related but may be interesting for some of you: I've heard from some of my contacts that sometimes the CPU fan doesn't start when powering up your toy. This leads very quickly to an overheating and the system shuts down. ASUS released a new BIOS (0115a) which solves this problem. You may get this BIOS through the usual channels.

Unfortunately the new BIOS does not solve my problem. Well, let's see if using kernel 2.6 will do the trick. But not now. Later.......;-)

2003-11-17 After sending a couple of people a tutorial about where the second memory-slot is, I added a description [14].

Now a short summary of what is working and what refuses to cooperate:

UNKNOWN (never tried):
TV-Out

Working
audio
NIC
USB
firewire
touchpad
DVD & CD-ROM burner
PCMCIA
Irda (infrared, used for synchronizing my Palm[TM] )
modem

ACPI:
To bring the notebook into suspend mode, I simply use this little trick. By issuing 'echo 1 > /proc/acpi/sleep' the machine will suspend. By pressing any key it will resume. Mhh, but how to suspend the machine after some idle time? Using X, quite easy: use 'xautolock'. Simply call it in your ~/.xinitrc [8].

WARNING: NEVER echo anything other then '1' to /proc/acpi/sleep. For example '3' has simply no effect, '4' freezes everything and '5', which is my favorite, does nothing except stopping the CPU-fan. Even echoing '0' did not help. Never ever had I done such a quick shutdown ;-))

BUT, and this is funny, after some hours in suspend mode, the notebook will switch off. Without any trace in the logs. It simply switches off. I have no idea why. I think this is issued by some obscure BIOS ACPI command. I still have to investigate this further. If you have any idea why this happens, feel free to drop me an email [11].

2003-07-26 - Ok, some new infos about the shutting of while in suspend. By using the above mentioned command to enter the suspend mode the fan will also be switched off. As the the CPU still produces heat, its temperature starts to rise.

cat /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/THRM/trip_points will give:

critical
(S5):           103 C

passive:                
90 C: tc1=1 tc2=4 tsp=300 devices=0xebfdaa80

          active[0]:              
70 C: devices=0xc1859540

After some playing around it seems that the notebook will switch off when the temperature reaches the critical level. No good. I am not sure whether this can be fixed by waiting for an improved ACPI-Support within Linux or by waiting for an updated BIOS from ASUS.

In the meantime i will stop using ACPI for suspend and try some other methods. I will keep you informed.

There is an 'acpi4asus' module [9] which I never tried. This should get the [Fn] key combinations for brightness, volume etc working. As I do not need them, I skipped it. Anyway, for volume-control I use 'xvolume' [10]. This is a kind of OSD control which works out-of-the-box with any mixer device. If not, the sourcecode is easy to tweak (what I did to get it change the main volume, not just PCM).

2003-07-27 - As I feeled a bit bored this afternoon, I tried 'acpi4asus'. Nice piece of candy. It does exactly what the author states it should do.
Nonetheless I only use it for the blue LED in the frontpanel to show if there is some mail waiting and for controlling the brightness of the screen.

One more thing: SuSE uses the kernel '2.4.20-4GB-athlon'. If you get the error '/lib/modules/2.4.20-4GB-athlon/kernel/drivers/acpi/asus_acpi.o was compiled for kernel version 2.4.20-4GB while this kernel is version 2.4.20-4GB-athlon' when you try to load the module, simply use 'insmod -f'. This will give you a warning but it will work w/o any problem.

2003-10-16 - Not really bored but I'm curious today. I just got the idea that I could play around with 'powernow' etc. Simply to see how to set this up, how it works etc. After some reading and fiddeling around with some tools it's working. Those of you who know me will not be surprised that I'm doing things my own way. Not elegant, but functional. With normal use (surfing, email, news, office, etc) this will give you about 2.5 hours of battery live instead of just above 1 hour without this hack. Not bad at all ;-)

Here are the details:
My target was to find a way to save some batterypower while beeing on the road with my little toy. As first thoughts are usually the best ones I decided to slowdown the CPU; This shouldn't be a problem as my CPU supports AMD-Powernow. I ended with a solution consisting of 'idlebeep [13]' and two little scripts.

Let's start with the first one, called 'cpufreq.sh':



#!/bin/bash

          

#################################################

          # checks if on battery
and sets
the CPU freq to low, 

          # starts 'idlebeep' for
dynamic
freq settings

          #

          #
enviroment    :
Console

          # Depends
on    : 

          #
written       : 20031010

          # last modified : 

          #
Author        : Uli Wachowitz

          #
Status        : Beta

          

          /sbin/lsmod | grep -q
powernow-k7
|| /root/bin/powernow.sh --load

          

          acpi -a | grep -q
on-line

          STATUS=$?

          

          if [ "$STATUS" == "0"
]; then

              ps
-A | grep
-q idlebeep && killall -9 idlebeep

             
SPEED=`cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep MHz | cut -d":" -f2 | cut -d" " -f2 |
cut -d"." -f1`

              [
"$SPEED" -lt "1000" ] && /root/bin/powernow.sh --sethigh

              exit

                 
          

          elif [ "$STATUS" -gt
"0" ]; then

             
SPEED=`cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep MHz | cut -d":" -f2 | cut -d" " -f2 |
cut -d"." -f1`

              [
"$SPEED" -gt "1000" ] && /root/bin/powernow.sh --setlow

          

              ps
-A | grep
idlebeep && exit

             
/usr/local/bin/idlebeep \

              -C \

              -i
10 \

              -w 5
\

              -I
"/root/bin/powernow.sh --setlow " \

              -W
"/root/bin/powernow.sh --sethigh" 

          fi

This script is called every minute by cron. It simply checks the ACPI output to see if we are running on battery. If not, it will kill an eventually running instance of 'idlebeep' and checks the actual CPU-speed. If the speed is below 1 GHz it calls 'powernow.sh --sethigh' to set the speed to maximum and exits.
If running on battery, it checks the speed and, if above 1 GHz, calls 'powernow.sh --setlow' to bring the CPU-speed down to the lowest possible value. Then it checks if 'idlebeep' is already running. If so, the script stops. If 'idlebeep' is not running, it will be started with the option to dynamically change the speed, depending on CPU-load. Have a look at the man-page of 'idlebeep' for details.

The above mentioned script 'powernow.sh':



#!/bin/bash

#################################################

# sets the CPU frequency 

#

#
enviroment    :
Console

# Depends
on    : 

#
written       : 20031010

# last modified : 

#
Author        : Uli Wachowitz

#
Status        : Beta

          

#

# unload all modules

#

function UnLoad () {

    SetHigh

   
/sbin/lsmod |
grep -q userspace && /sbin/rmmod userspace && echo
"unloaded: userspace"

   
/sbin/lsmod |
grep -q powernow-k7 && /sbin/rmmod powerno-k7 && echo
"unloaded: powernow-k7"

   
/sbin/lsmod |
grep -q freq_table && /sbin/rmmod freq_table && echo
"unloaded: freq_table"

    return

    }

          

#

# load all needed modules

#       

function Load () {

   
/sbin/insmod
freq_table && \

   
/sbin/insmod
powernow-k7 && \

   
/sbin/insmod
userspace

    return

   
}   

          

#

# check if all modules are
loaded,
only for use within this script

#

function Status () {

   
STATUS=NOP

   
/sbin/lsmod |
grep -q freq_table  && \

   
/sbin/lsmod |
grep -q powernow-k7 && \

   
/sbin/lsmod |
grep -q userspace  && \

    STATUS=OK

    return

    }

          

#

# as before, but this time
an
exitcode is generated. This function is called by the user

#       

function ShowStatus () {

   
LOAD_STATUS_FREQ_TABLE=0

   
LOAD_STATUS_POWERNOW=0

   
LOAD_STATUS_USERSPACE=0

    

   
/sbin/lsmod |
grep freq_table >/dev/null || LOAD_STATUS_FREQ_TABLE=1

   
/sbin/lsmod |
grep powernow-k7 >/dev/null || LOAD_STATUS_POWERNOW=2

   
/sbin/lsmod |
grep userspace >/dev/null || LOAD_STATUS_USERSPACE=4

   
((LOAD_STATUS=$LOAD_STATUS_FREQ_TABLE+$LOAD_STATUS_POWERNOW+$LOAD_STATUS_USERSPACE))

          

    if [
"$LOAD_STATUS" != "0" ]; then

   
    echo

   
    echo "Powernow-Modules NOT loaded"

   
    echo

   
    exit $LOAD_STATUS

    fi

          

   
SPEED=`cat
/proc/cpuinfo | grep MHz | cut -d":" -f2 | cut -d" " -f2`

    echo

    echo
"Powernow-Modules are loaded, CPU Speed: $SPEED MHz"

    echo

    return

    }

          

#

# set the CPU to high

#

function SetHigh () {

    Status

    if [
"$STATUS"
== "OK" ]; then

   
    echo -en "\033[10;5000]\033[11;100]\007" >
/dev/tty0; usleep 100000

   
    echo -en "\033[10;5000]\033[11;100]\007" >
/dev/tty0; usleep 100000

   
    echo -en "\033[10;5000]\033[11;100]\007" >
/dev/tty0; usleep
100000               
          

          

   
    #

   
    # Must do this in 2 steps, otherwise the machine
will freeze

   
    #

   
    echo -n "0%50%50%performance" > /proc/cpufreq

   
    echo -n "0%100%100%performance" > /proc/cpufreq

          

   
    logger "cpufreq set to HIGH"

   
    logger $(cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep MHz)

          

    elif [
"$STATUS"
!= "OK" ]; then

   
    Load

   
    SetHigh

    fi 

    return

    }

          

#

# set the CPU to low

#       

function SetLow () {

    Status

    if [
"$STATUS"
== "OK" ]; then

   
    echo -en "\033[10;1000]\033[11;100]\007" >
/dev/tty0; usleep 100000

   
    echo -en "\033[10;1000]\033[11;100]\007" >
/dev/tty0; usleep 100000

   
    echo -en "\033[10;1000]\033[11;100]\007" >
/dev/tty0; usleep 100000

          

   
    #

   
    # Must do this in 2 steps, otherwise the machine
will freeze

   
    #

   
    echo -n "0%50%50%performance" > /proc/cpufreq

   
    echo -n "0%32%32%performance" > /proc/cpufreq

          

   
    logger "cpufreq set to LOW"

   
    logger $(cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep MHz)

          

    elif [
"$STATUS"
!= "OK" ]; then

   
    Load

   
    SetLow

    fi 

    return

   
}        

          

#

# here we go ;-)

#       

case $1 in

   
--unload)    UnLoad;;

   
--load)      Load;;

   
--status)   
ShowStatus;;        

   
--sethigh)   SetHigh;;

   
--setlow)    SetLow;;

   
*)           echo "USAGE:
powernow.sh [ --unload | --load | --status | --sethigh | --setlow ]"

        

esac

I hope the comments are clear enough to understand how the script works. And, as mentioned before, I don't care very much about style etc. I write my scripts for functionality, not for beauty. Feel free to modify........

Modem
2003-08-27 - Well, bored again. Should I try to get this modem working? Yeah, why not? Aaaaaaaargh. What a §$%&!#?
First of all, I downloaded 'pctel-0.9.6' from here [12].
Then, following the instructions, I did './configure --whith-hal=sis'.

Whooops, here's the result:

checking for Linux kernel version >= 2.4.0... ./configure: line 3345: test: 2-4GB: integer expression expected
configure: error: You should have linux kernel >= 2.4.0 installed

MPF, as I'm using SuSE 8.2, my kernel [uname -r ] is: 2.4.20-4GB-athlon. Should work. After reading some docs on the author's homepage, I found a patch which should cure that error. So, patch applied, same result. Silently cursing I started working through 'configure' to do some manual patching. After some time I did it the dirty way:

Simply change all instances of this:



k_version="`echo $real_kernel_version | sed
's/\([0-9]*\).\([0-9]*\).\([0-9]*\)/\1/'`"

k_patch="`echo
$real_kernel_version | sed 's/\([0-9]*\).\([0-9]*\).\([0-9]*\)/\2/'`"

k_sub="`echo
$real_kernel_version | sed 's/\([0-9]*\).\([0-9]*\).\([0-9]*\)/\3/'`"

to this:

k_version=2

k_patch=4

k_sub=20

This time the compilation went fine. The usual steps (make, make install) and all was done.
Loading the compiled modules pctel & ptserial requires the option '-f' to force the loading but they work without problem.

The modem can be accessed using /dev/ttyS15. As I don't like the SuSE way of handling things I don't use 'cinternet' or 'kinternet' or whatever. I'm oldfashioned, so I use good, old 'wvdial' with a tailor-made configuration.

There are 2 drawbacks which can be solved quite easy:

Doesn't matter how I configure 'wvdial.conf', my default route doesn't change after connecting to my ISP. After setting the route manually, all works well as it should.
After starting the modem, ALSA stops working. And will not work until 'alsasound' is restarted. Damn' linmodem crap!

Ok, here's my solution. I simply wrote a script which will do all the necessary things, like connecting, changing the default route, etc.



#!/bin/bash

          

          function
ByeBye () {

          route
add default gw 192.168.100.251 && echo "defaultroute set to
fw-lx-01"

          /etc/rc.d/alsasound
start

          return

          }

          

          trap
'ByeBye' 0

          trap
"exit 2" 1 2 3 13 15 

          

          /etc/rc.d/alsasound
stop

          route
del default

          wvdial

Using ASUS' 'wled' is a nice workaround for the unfunctional sound if you like some feedback about the state of the dialup connection.
Two little scripts, one in /etc/ppp/ip-down.d, one in /etc/ppd/ip-up.d will do the trick:

#!/bin/bash

          

#offline.sh

echo 0 > /proc/acpi/asus/wled

#!/bin/bash

          

#online.sh

echo 1 > /proc/acpi/asus/wled

[1] Some details about the machine

Processor Type: Processor Speed, 1800 Mhz / Display Size: 15,0" / Resolution: 1024 x 768 (XGA) / Hard Disk: 40 GB / DVD Drive: DVD/CDRW Combo / Weight: 3,2 kg

Pictures of Notebook

[2] output from lspci


        		00:00.0 Host bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 740 Host (rev 01)

			00:01.0 PCI bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS 530 Virtual PCI-to-PCI bridge (AGP)

			00:02.0 ISA bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 85C503/5513 (rev 04)

			00:02.5 IDE interface: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 5513 [IDE]

			00:02.6 Modem: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] Intel 537 [56k Winmodem] (rev a0)

			00:02.7 Multimedia audio controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS7012 PCI Audio Accelerator (rev a0)

			00:03.0 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS7001 USB Controller (rev 0f)

			00:03.1 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS7001 USB Controller (rev 0f)

			00:03.2 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS7001 USB Controller (rev 0f)

			00:03.3 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS7002 USB 2.0

			00:04.0 Ethernet controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS900 10/100 Ethernet (rev 90)

			00:0a.0 CardBus bridge: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c476 II (rev aa)

			00:0a.1 CardBus bridge: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c476 II (rev aa)

			00:0a.2 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C552 IEEE 1394 Controller (rev 02)

			01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS650/651/M650/740 PCI/AGP VGA Display Adapter

[3] http://www.winischofer.net

[4] XF86config for VESA

Section "ServerFlags"

  Option         
"AllowMouseOpenFail"

  Option         
"BlankTime" "0"

EndSection

        

Section "Monitor"

  Identifier      "monitor1"

  VendorName      "Generic"

  ModelName       "Flat Panel 1024x768"

  HorizSync       31.5-48.5

  VertRefresh     40-70

  Modeline        "1024x768" 62.35 1024 1056
1184 1312
768 772 776 792 -HSync -VSync 

EndSection

        

Section "Device"

  Identifier      "device1"

  Driver          "vesa"

  Option          "DPMS"

EndSection

        

Section "Screen"

  DefaultDepth    24

  SubSection      "Display"

    Depth         24

    Modes        
"1024x768"

  EndSubSection    

  Identifier      "screen1"

  Device          "device1"

  Monitor         "monitor1"

EndSection

[5] Xf86config for SIS

Section "ServerFlags"

  Option       "AllowMouseOpenFail"

  Option       "RandR"    "on"

EndSection

        

Section "Monitor"

  Option      
"CalcAlgorithm"  
 "CheckDesktopGeometry"

  HorizSync    27-60

  Identifier   "Monitor[0]"

  ModelName    "1024X768@60HZ"

  Option       "DPMS"

  VendorName   "--> LCD"

  VertRefresh  40-60

  UseModes     "Modes[0]"

EndSection

        

Section "Modes"

  Identifier   "Modes[0]"

  Modeline     "1024x768" 62.35 1024 1056 1184 1312
768 772 776 792 -HSync -VSync 

EndSection

        

Section "Device"

  BoardName    "SiS650"

  BusID        "1:0:0"

  Driver       "sis"

  Identifier   "Device[0]"

  VendorName   "SiS"

EndSection

[6] http://tuxmobil.org/touchpad_driver.html

[7] XF86config for touchpad

Section "InputDevice"

  Driver        "synaptics"

  Identifier    "Mouse[1]"

  Option      
 "Device"         
"/dev/psaux"

  Option      
 "Edges"          
"1900 5400
1800 3900"

  Option      
 "Finger"         
"30 35"

  Option      
 "MaxTapTime"      "20"

  Option      
 "MaxTapMove"      "220"

  Option        "VertScrollDelta"
"100"

  Option      
 "MinSpeed"        "0.02"

  Option      
 "MaxSpeed"        "0.20"

  Option      
 "AccelFactor"    
"0.0008"

  Option      
 "Repeater"       
"/dev/ps2mouse"

  Option      
 "SHMConfig"       "on"

EndSection

[8] entry in ~/.xinitrc

exec xautolock -notify 60 -time 30 -locker suspend.sh
&

And here the 'suspend.sh'

#!/bin/bash

logger "starting suspend mode"

echo 1 >/proc/acpi/sleep

        

settime # NTP update

logger "left suspend mode"

[9] http://sourceforge.net/projects/acpi4asus/

[10] http://www.diku.dk/hjemmesider/studerende/valery/xvolume.html

[11] uli at wach hyphen o hyphen witz dot de

[12]http://linmodems.technion.ac.il/pctel-linux/

[13] http://www.ant.uni-bremen.de/whomes/rinas/idlebeep/

[14] Where is the second memory slot?

Well, simply follow the pics ;-)

1) Remove the battery	2) locate and remove the screw near the fan for the graphic-card

3) Just in front of the left hinge is a little hole. Use a little screwdriver and push it in there. HINT: There is no need to remove the hinge-cover as seen on the pic.	4) While pressing the screwdriver down, slide the complete cover to the left side.

5) It will move a couple of centimeters till you can lift it.	6) After removing the cover, grab the keyboard and lift it carefully.

7) Carefully turn it down till you get it out of your way. Be carefull not to damage the cable which connects the keyboard.	8) In front of the left hinge is a little metal flap. Remove its screw, open it, and BINGO, there is the second memory slot.

20020722 - generated
20040213 - last modified