Version 0.12
Copyright © 2006-2007 by
Zack Smith
All rights reserved.
0. Summary
Currently this is my assessment:
This machine is an acceptable platform for Linux,
with only one major problem:
-
The Atheros wireless card is not supported by the Madwifi driver.
I tried using the popular ndiswrapper to run the Windows
driver under Linux but it didn't work for me. (YMMV)
And there is 1 minor problem:
- Currently cannot get intelfb framebuffer driver to support
a higher resolution than 1024x768, although 1152x864 or fullscreen
should be feasible.
1. System Profile
My P205-S6307 has the following hardware:
| Item | Description | Status
|
|---|
| CPU | Intel Core Duo T2130 @ 1.86GHz
L2=1 MB
| Works
| | Memory | 1024 megs DDR2 533 MHz (4200MB/sec theoretical max.)
| Works
| | Hard drive & controller |
Toshiba MK1637GS
160GB SATA drive &
Intel 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7 Family) SATA IDE Controller
|
Works
| | Optical drive | Pioneer
DVR-K17LF
DVD writer with Labelflash
&
Intel 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7 Family) SATA IDE Controller
|
Works with DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD+-RW, DVD-RAM
| | Display & Video Chip |
17" 1440x900 LG-Philips TFT, model
LP171WP4
&
Intel Mobile 945GM Express Integrated Graphics Controller
|
Works in wide-screen mode under X.
| | Sound |
Intel 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller
| Works fine
(kernel 2.6.20.15)
| | Wireless Networking
|
Atheros AR5007EG 802.11 b/g Wireless PCI Express Adapter
|
Does not work (Madwifi driver doesn't support it)
| | Ethernet
|
Realtek RTL8101E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller
| Works great
| | USB | Intel Corporation 82801G
| Works
| | Card34/54 slots |
Texas Instruments PCIxx12 Cardbus Controller
| Not tested
| | Trackpad | Synaptics
|
Works good.
|
2. Installation
This information is provided as-is. Proceed at your own risk.
2.1 Downloading Slackware 12
You can buy the DVD, or you can download it.
If you download, it can easily require 12 hours,
so plan to do it overnight.
Amazingly, Toshiba includes an ISO writing utility with Vista.
You need merely double-click on the ISO file's icon to start it.
2.2 Linux + Vista
I suggest that you do not use Vista connected to the Internet.
There is some evidence that Vista communicates with servers
at Halliburton, Department of Defense, and possibly Department of Homeland Security.
This evidence first appeared on Whitedust.net, which shortly after was shut down
suspiciously. Then a copy appeared at Abandonia, which then deleted the article.
Best to be safe. If you need to use a Windows program,
try running it in WINE.
Source:
Infopackets article
If you must use Vista,
there is no need to use
ntfsresize
if you are OK with reinstalling Vista from scratch.
The Toshiba install DVD
gives you the option to reinstall
in a small partition that it will create.
20 gigs is the minimum.
Then you can use the rest for Linux.
2.3 Linux alone
There's nothing preventing you from, upon buying this laptop,
downloading the Slackware 12 DVD mentioned
above
along with the additional needed files
and then completely replacing Vista.
(If you need to occassionally run a Windows
program there is the WINE emulator.)
You may find that Linux lacks a few things you may want,
like a certain video game,
but otherwise Slackware 12 is surprisingly complete.
The only things that you'll need to get
first are:
- The DVD ISO if you don't have it.
- Current Madwifi driver for the Atheros wifi chip -- in case they've added support by the time you read this.
- Linux kernel 2.6.20.15 might be good -- the sound works w/this one.
- The proper xorg.conf file (below).
2.3.1 Before abandoning Windows
If you plan on using Linux exclusively,
be sure that before you do,
you copy all of the Windows TrueType fonts
to a disk for use with Linux. They're in c:\windows\fonts.
Firefox looks much better when using Windows fonts.
2.4 Fine adjustments
The following is my personal checklist for installing
Slackware on this machine. You may want to do things
differently.
Install Slackware 12.
If you install everything except TCL, Emacs,
and KDE-Intl, it requires 4.04 gigs.
Get linux 2.6.20.15 and untar it into /usr/src.
Copy the good config to /usr/src/linux-2.6.20.15/.config
Go to /usr/src and remove the linux link.
Create a new link: ln -s /usr/src/linux-2.6.20.15 linux
Go to /usr/src/linux-2.6.20.15 and 'make'.
Do 'make modules_install'.
Put madwifi driver in /root.
Go to /root/madwifi* directory.
Do 'make'.
Do 'make install'.
Add -h to the poweroff command in /etc/rc.d/rc.6
to ensure a quiet hard drive powerdown.
Add "hdparm -c1 /dev/sr0" to enable 32-bit mode.
Create /etc/hosts.deny as ALL : ALL
Copy the good xorg.conf to /usr/X11.
Reboot; wireless driver should load during startup.
Create user account.
Create mount directories for storage: mkdir /dvd /usb
Set acceptable speaker volume with alsamixer.
Store this volume setting w/ "alsactl store"
Add aliases to /etc/profile...
alias d1="pushd; mount /dvd; cd /dvd; ls -l --color "
alias d0="popd; umount /dvd"
alias u1="pushed; mount /usb; cd /usb; ls -l --color"
alias u0="popd; umount /usb"
alias w1="iwconfig ath0 essid ...."
alias w0="rmmod ath_pci"
alias ll="ls -l --color"
alias ..="cd .."
alias D="cd /nt/Users/Me/Desktop; ls --color"
alias lx="cd /usr/src/linux"
alias mk="make"
3. Drivers
3.1. Video
3.1.1. X Windows
In Slackware 12,
you can start up X Windows without
modifying xorg.conf, however
this will get you the VESA mode, which is
1024x768.
It is better to use the xorg.conf that I provide
below, which allows
for wide screen operation.
For a possible future alternative to X,
check out my project
FramebufferUI
or my subsequent
Frugal Windowing Environment.
3.1.2. Framebuffer
You can start up in VESA 1024x768 mode.
The intelfb driver works, but it doesn't let you change the video resolution.
The documentation for the driver
claims that it does, if you set the mode at /etc/lilo.conf,
however that fails and the
person that wrote the driver is unresponsive to emails.
Here is an example of what doesn't work:
(in /etc/lilo.conf:)
append="video=intelfb:mode=1152x864-16@60,vram=8"
vga = 355 # 1152x864 16bit
Incidentally, I used the utility "915resolution"
to confirm that there is no video BIOS mode for
1440x900.
The utility read-edid
reports the following:
./parse-edid: parse-edid version 1.4.1
./parse-edid: EDID checksum passed.
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "LPL:02a0"
VendorName "LPL"
ModelName "LPL:02a0"
Mode "1440x900" # vfreq 59.901Hz, hfreq 55.469kHz
DotClock 88.750000
HTimings 1440 1520 1552 1600
VTimings 900 917 923 926
Flags "-HSync" "-VSync"
EndMode
EndSection
3.2. Sound
The high-Def audio chip works with
kernel 2.6.20.15, but not with 2.6.2[12].*.
Problems:
-
The headphone jack works but audio continues
to play on the speakers while the headphones are
in use, although not very loudly.
-
The volume control on the front of the machine doesn't work
because it's a new type of control -- it's basically a jog dial
without start or stop position.
Using it results in codes being sent to the console.
Sound recording does work. The following command will record 10 seconds
of WAV data:
arecord -d 10 foo.wav
3.3. ACPI
I haven't learned how to change the power-management strategy just yet.
CPU throttling appears to be unsupported,
which is to say that this kernel feature, even when
enabled, does not work.
3.4. USB
Four ports total. They work.
3.5. External flash drive
These work fine.
I ran some tests to determine the speed
of my various CompactFlash cards, which was
fairly revealing.
Link.
3.6. Card34/Card54 slot
The Cardbus driver seems to load fine.
I don't have any Card34 cards to test it with.
3.7 Networking
3.7.1 Ethernet
The Realtek RTL8101E Ethernet chip is a Gigabit speed chip and
works very well. I am using the 8169 driver that's in the kernel.
Before you connect to a network,
don't forget to create
/etc/hosts.deny
in which
you should have the line: ALL: ALL
3.7.2 Wireless
The Atheros chip that's in the system is not
as of August 2007 supported by the Madwifi driver.
In the Madwifi.org forums people do complain
about this problem.
Here is the error from dmesg:
MadWifi: unable to attach hardware: 'Hardware revision not supported' (HAL status 13)
Someone claims in the Atheros forums that
you can get it to work by changing the order
in which the kernel modules are loaded,
but I tried that without any positive result.
FYI, the process for using Wifi if you get it working is:
- modprobe ath_pci
- iwlist ath0 scan
- iwconfig ath0 ....
- dhcpcd ath0
3.8 Internal DVD writer
It works.
3.9 SATA drive
It works. The utility hdparm
indicates (hdparm -I /dev/sda)
that it's using udma4.
Be sure to include "/usr/sbin/hdparm -Y /dev/sda"
near the end of /etc/rc.d/rc.6
to ensure that your drive shuts down quietly
instead of with a "cluck-brrrr" sound.
3.10 Synaptics trackpad
Surprisingly, it works fine.
4. Performance
4.1. Video playback
Overall very good.
You will need to download
xvid, xine-lib & xine-ui
and compile/install them. The version of Xine that's included with Slackware 12
is broken.
After that, MPEG and Xvid videos play fine.
However h.264 do not.
If you need support for h.264, get mplayer.
4.2. Hard drive
The program hdparm says that buffered reads
happen at 43 MB/sec, which seems to be
typical for a laptop drive.
Cached reads happen at 905 MB/sec.
I think file copying was 12 MB/sec.
You should add -h to the poweroff command in /etc/rc.d/rc.6 to ensure a quiet hard drive powerdown.
4.3. Processor
The Intel Core Duo T2130 has two processors
and is sufficient for most purposes.
It rates at 3724 bogomips.
The BYTE magazine Dhrystone benchmark,
is available
here.
The
T2130 processor gets an index of 180.5.
4.4. Memory Bandwidth
To ascertain memory performance,
I wrote a utility called "bandwidth",
which is
here.
The results for this machine
are as follows. CPU throttling was not enabled.
CPU MHz = 1862.132
L2 cache sequential read 4194.3 MB/sec
L2 cache sequential write 3728.27 MB/sec
Main memory sequential read 3195.66 MB/sec
Main memory sequential write 1398.1 MB/sec
Framebuffer resolution: 1024x768, 16bpp
Framebuffer memory sequential read 40.96 MB/sec
Framebuffer memory sequential write 2621.44 MB/sec
Library: memset 1677.72 MB/sec
Library: memcpy 1118.48 MB/sec
Library: bzero 1677.72 MB/sec
4.5. Internal DVD writer
Reading works fine for single-session DVD-R & DVD-R DL discs.
I wrote a 2X DVD-RW at exactly 2X using
growisofs.
I wrote a 16X DVD+R at using
growisofs. It operated at
three different speeds while writing the disk:
2.4X, then 4X, then 6X, the final one
being the longest-used.
I have read a large file from a 3X DVD-RAM disk at 3.68 MB/sec = 2.8X.
I wrote a large file (with sync'ing) to a 3X DVD-RAM disk at 1.67 MB/sec = 1.27X.
These were 5 for $13 at Circuit City, rated on the disc as "2-3X".
4.6 KDE
I got tired of the fact that KDE crashes periodically
so I switched to Xfce. It is much better.
5. Applications
If you're installing Slackware, you're probably already
technically adept.
Still, you may not know about all your options.
Here is a table of equivalent applications between Vista & Slackware 12.
(I'm not very familiar with KDE so I mostly leave its apps out.)
| Type | Vista | Slackware X-Windows | Slackware framebuffer | Slackware command-line
|
| Word processing | MS Office, Open Office | Open Office, Koffice | - | TeX
|
| Web browser | Firefox, IE | Firefox, Mozilla, SeaMonkey, Konqueror | ? | Lynx, links
|
| Email reader | Thunderbird, OutlookExpress | Thunderbird | - | Pine?
|
| DVD writer | Windows, Nero | K3B | - | growisofs
|
| Audio player | WMP, Winamp, Real | Xine | fbxine | aplay, amp, mpg123, mpg321
|
| Video player | WinDVD, Zoom player, Quicktime, WMP, Winamp, Real | mplayer, xine | fbxine - | aplay, amp, mpg123, mpg321
|
| Video editor | Windows Movie Maker, VirtualDub | AviDeMux | - | N/A
|
| Photo editor | Windows Photo Gallery, Photoshop, GIMP | GIMP, xv | ? | N/A
|
| CD ripper w/net capability | Windows Media Player, FreeRip, iTunes | - | ? |
|
| DVD backup utility | FairUse, DVDShrink, DVD Decryptor | Same programs, run using Wine | - | ?
|
| DVD authoring | Movie Factory | dvdauthor? | - | -
|
| Simple document editor | Wordpad | ? | ? | ?
|
| Text editor | Notepad | XVim | ? | Vim, Emacs
|
| Keyboard macro utility | AutoHotkey | ? | N/A | N/A
|
6. Kernel
My .config file for kernel 2.6.20.15 is
here.
Here is the compiled kernel that the
above .config creates, which I provide
AS-IS so you use it as your own risk:
bzImage.
7. XOrg.conf
Section "Module"
Load "dbe" # Double buffer extension
SubSection "extmod"
Option "omit xfree86-dga" # don't initialise the DGA extension
EndSubSection
Load "type1"
Load "freetype"
Load "glx"
EndSection
Section "Files"
RgbPath "/usr/share/X11/rgb"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/local/"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/misc/"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/OTF/"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/TTF/"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/Type1/"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/CID/"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/Speedo/"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/cyrillic/"
EndSection
Section "ServerFlags"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard1"
Driver "kbd"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse1"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "PS/2"
Option "Device" "/dev/mouse"
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "My Monitor"
HorizSync 31.5 - 50.0
VertRefresh 40-90
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "IntelDriver"
Driver "intel"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "LCD"
Device "IntelDriver"
Monitor "My Monitor"
DefaultDepth 16
Subsection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1440x900"
EndSubsection
EndSection
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Simple Layout"
Screen "LCD"
InputDevice "Mouse1" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard1" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection
8. Mailing list
Link.
Links
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