Monday, January 26, 2009
Linux on a laptop Acer 2001WLCi
(pages optimized for lynx)
Tommaso Massimi, tmassimiREMOVE@hotmail.com
Last update: 2 May 2004
machine description:
Processor: Intel 1,4GHz Centrino
Memory: 512Mb
Screen: 15,4"WXGA TFT LCD, handles 1280x800 at depth 24
Graphics: Drive ATI Mobility Radeon 9000
Hard Disk: 40Gb
Sound: Intel ICH4 845G/GL chipset AC' 97
DVD/CD-RW: MATSHITA UJDA740
Ethernet: Realtek RTL-8139
Modem: Agere (Lucent) AC' 97
Other: 3 USB ports, Firewire,
Windows XP Home as standard
No floppy driver
I installed linux Mandrake Communit 10,0 on my Aspire 2000 and works very well,
in this doc the whole story of the installation phase.
Kernel 2.4
Before buy the laptop I found on the net a few complaining
because kernel 2.4 freezes on this laptop,
so I decide to start with the new kernel 2.6.3.
kernel 2.6
ACER is partitioning the hard disk in this way
(or at least this is what diskDruid showed me):
- 30 GB in a primary partition for XP, formatted FAT32
- 10 GB in a primary partition utility and recovery for XP, formatted FAT32
- a small primary partition win95 Hidden, there is a DOS boot
- a small primary partition with Linux for ARCADE,
a tool to play MP3 and audio CD.
The CDs supplied from M$ and Acer can be only used to reproduce the
original situation software, crushing each modification you made(also to XP);
such CDs can't work if you changed the size of the partition.
In other words these CDs are unuseful at all.
However since I have had to buy also XP I have decided to keep it,
also to be able to test all the devices with the software supported
from the laptop producer.
Installing Mandrake 10
From XP, run defrag on the disc C:,
then reboot with a Linux CD in the reader and go on with the install process.
With diskdruid I tried to resize 30 Gb partition and create a new EXT3 partition,
but I received an error "4 primary partition already present".
So I erased the Arcade linux partition and finally it was possible
to create both ext3 and swap partitions.
The installation went on without other trouble,
but soon I see that XP was not more working (NTLoader missing).
After long searches and keeping in mind that the original CDs are unuseful,
I discovered the source of the problem:
bug M$
if the disc is FAT32 and you try to change the size of the partition,
NT will not start anymore!
I solved as M$ suggests:
starting the laptop with a Win 98 bootable CD
(there isn't a floppy driver in the laptop),
I transferred the system on the fixed disc (D:\sys c:),
then restart with a bootable XP CD and finally
from the console I used bootfix.
Now both the SO are available:)
Finally it was possible to see mandrake 10,0 (kerne 6.2.3)
and refine the configuration
ACPI
is the Advanced Power Control Interface,
useful to check battery status on a laptop.
Mandrake doesn't start it and it does not install a part
of its package,
so it is necessary to modify /etc/lilo.conf
to remove acpi=ht
Then it is necessary to install acpid and kdeutil3-laptop.
After reboot open system->configuration->powercontrol
and select "laptop battery"; now you should have the battery icon
on the task bar.
TOUCHPAD
the touchpad works like mouse with two buttons,
it doesn't detect finger pressure
and that species of joystick centers doesn't work.
But if install the Peter Osterlund's driver
you will forget all these problems.
The joystick will not work, but you'll never need it :)))
The driver is here :
http://w1.894.telia.com/~u89404340/touchpad/index.html
http://freshmeat.net/projects/synaptics/
the package is named synaptics-0.12.5.tar.bz2,
compile and it install it,
load at startup the module evdev (/etc/modprobe.preload)
and... go!!
Now you have on the touchpad the left, centers and right mouse button,
windows scrool and more... thanks Peter!! :))
NET and WIFI
At the first boot network didn't start,
but it worked manually loading the right module
(modprobe 8139too)
ifconfig showed a strange HW addr, so I made a few investigation.
seems that at boot time ifplugd tries to load the wifi device as eth0,
creating a lot of confusion.
Commenting the line related to the wifi module in
/etc/modprobe.conf the problem is solved.
I haven't the possibilty to use wifi,
so I don't care if its module is loaded or not.
USB
A few trouble also on the USB section:
to fix them I installed the kernel 6.4 and
changed the initialisation script (/etc/modprobe.conf) to
usb-interface /sbin/modprobe ehci-hcd; /sbin/modprobe uhci-hcd;
Now USB works a lot better.
MODEM
It's a winmodem, Agere (Lucent) AC' 97
in kernel the 2,6 it is supported by ALSA,
but you need to apply a patch for kernels older than 2.6.5
Here there s what you need
ftp://ftp.smlink.com/linux/
package name is slmodem-2.9.2.tar.gz
I have still not tested it, I have a net connection to Internet.
Thank for this learning to "http://home.tele2.it"
Tommaso Massimi, tmassimiREMOVE@hotmail.com
Last update: 2 May 2004
machine description:
Processor: Intel 1,4GHz Centrino
Memory: 512Mb
Screen: 15,4"WXGA TFT LCD, handles 1280x800 at depth 24
Graphics: Drive ATI Mobility Radeon 9000
Hard Disk: 40Gb
Sound: Intel ICH4 845G/GL chipset AC' 97
DVD/CD-RW: MATSHITA UJDA740
Ethernet: Realtek RTL-8139
Modem: Agere (Lucent) AC' 97
Other: 3 USB ports, Firewire,
Windows XP Home as standard
No floppy driver
I installed linux Mandrake Communit 10,0 on my Aspire 2000 and works very well,
in this doc the whole story of the installation phase.
Kernel 2.4
Before buy the laptop I found on the net a few complaining
because kernel 2.4 freezes on this laptop,
so I decide to start with the new kernel 2.6.3.
kernel 2.6
ACER is partitioning the hard disk in this way
(or at least this is what diskDruid showed me):
- 30 GB in a primary partition for XP, formatted FAT32
- 10 GB in a primary partition utility and recovery for XP, formatted FAT32
- a small primary partition win95 Hidden, there is a DOS boot
- a small primary partition with Linux for ARCADE,
a tool to play MP3 and audio CD.
The CDs supplied from M$ and Acer can be only used to reproduce the
original situation software, crushing each modification you made(also to XP);
such CDs can't work if you changed the size of the partition.
In other words these CDs are unuseful at all.
However since I have had to buy also XP I have decided to keep it,
also to be able to test all the devices with the software supported
from the laptop producer.
Installing Mandrake 10
From XP, run defrag on the disc C:,
then reboot with a Linux CD in the reader and go on with the install process.
With diskdruid I tried to resize 30 Gb partition and create a new EXT3 partition,
but I received an error "4 primary partition already present".
So I erased the Arcade linux partition and finally it was possible
to create both ext3 and swap partitions.
The installation went on without other trouble,
but soon I see that XP was not more working (NTLoader missing).
After long searches and keeping in mind that the original CDs are unuseful,
I discovered the source of the problem:
bug M$
if the disc is FAT32 and you try to change the size of the partition,
NT will not start anymore!
I solved as M$ suggests:
starting the laptop with a Win 98 bootable CD
(there isn't a floppy driver in the laptop),
I transferred the system on the fixed disc (D:\sys c:),
then restart with a bootable XP CD and finally
from the console I used bootfix.
Now both the SO are available:)
Finally it was possible to see mandrake 10,0 (kerne 6.2.3)
and refine the configuration
ACPI
is the Advanced Power Control Interface,
useful to check battery status on a laptop.
Mandrake doesn't start it and it does not install a part
of its package,
so it is necessary to modify /etc/lilo.conf
to remove acpi=ht
Then it is necessary to install acpid and kdeutil3-laptop.
After reboot open system->configuration->powercontrol
and select "laptop battery"; now you should have the battery icon
on the task bar.
TOUCHPAD
the touchpad works like mouse with two buttons,
it doesn't detect finger pressure
and that species of joystick centers doesn't work.
But if install the Peter Osterlund's driver
you will forget all these problems.
The joystick will not work, but you'll never need it :)))
The driver is here :
http://w1.894.telia.com/~u89404340/touchpad/index.html
http://freshmeat.net/projects/synaptics/
the package is named synaptics-0.12.5.tar.bz2,
compile and it install it,
load at startup the module evdev (/etc/modprobe.preload)
and... go!!
Now you have on the touchpad the left, centers and right mouse button,
windows scrool and more... thanks Peter!! :))
NET and WIFI
At the first boot network didn't start,
but it worked manually loading the right module
(modprobe 8139too)
ifconfig showed a strange HW addr, so I made a few investigation.
seems that at boot time ifplugd tries to load the wifi device as eth0,
creating a lot of confusion.
Commenting the line related to the wifi module in
/etc/modprobe.conf the problem is solved.
I haven't the possibilty to use wifi,
so I don't care if its module is loaded or not.
USB
A few trouble also on the USB section:
to fix them I installed the kernel 6.4 and
changed the initialisation script (/etc/modprobe.conf) to
usb-interface /sbin/modprobe ehci-hcd; /sbin/modprobe uhci-hcd;
Now USB works a lot better.
MODEM
It's a winmodem, Agere (Lucent) AC' 97
in kernel the 2,6 it is supported by ALSA,
but you need to apply a patch for kernels older than 2.6.5
Here there s what you need
ftp://ftp.smlink.com/linux/
package name is slmodem-2.9.2.tar.gz
I have still not tested it, I have a net connection to Internet.
Thank for this learning to "http://home.tele2.it"
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