This page is for the vprMatrix 175b4. Maybe you have a 200A5 or a 180B5 or a 185B5.
Updated: 2005/10/22
These notes refer to running Debian/GNU Linux on the vprMatrix 175B4 laptop. Most everything except ACPI works easily on a 2.4.x , or 2.6.x kernel.
| Hardware | Kernel Modules | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Video: ATI Mobility 7500 | radeon | XFree86 4.2.1 or higher |
| Sound: Cirrus Logic CS4299 chip. Intel 82801CA-ICH3 card (according to alsamixer). | snd-intel-8x0 | using ALSA 0.9.2 |
| Network Card Intel EtherExpress Pro 100 | eepro100 | it just works |
| USB Controller | todo | - |
| IEEE-1394 Firewire Controller | todo | - |
| Modem | todo | - |
| ACPI Support | processor, ac, battery, button, thermal, fan | Processor performance states work. Fan works. AC, and battery do not show anything under /proc/acpi/battery or /proc/acpi/ac. Thermal shows an error when loaded. Button: not tested. See also Roberto Mello's advice on patching the kernel for ACPI. This doesn't quite work, but get's you going in the right direction. When I figure it out, I will update this page. |
| CDRW | todo | - |
| DVD | todo | - |
October 2005: Running 2.6.13.4 with acpi patch and software suspend2. I had to apply the software suspend2 patch first then the acpi patch.
Sound is broken, something missing with the alsa drivers.
Late 2004: I now am running 2.6.9 kernel which seems to work pretty well. What is really cool is that you can specify the custom DSDT to load when you configure the kernel so no more patches. I just copied my DSDT over to the new kernel source tree and pointed at it, and it "just worked".
I need some more information of patching the kernel. I am using 2.4.21-rc1 because it seems to fix some stuff I want to use. To this I applied the 2.4.21-rc1-ac3 patch.
After doing that I tried to apply the ACPI patch for 2.4.21-rc1 and it says that it is already applied. Does anyone know how this is supposed to work, or when and when not to patch?
Thanks to Stefan Behnel and his page on patching ACPI for the Samsung P10 I figured out how to get rid of most of the errors. I am fairly certain that the P10 is mostly the same as the vprMatrix 175b4.
Reading http://www.cpqlinux.com/acpi-howto.html I found some of the information I needed. I also referred to http://acpi.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/HowToOverrideTable to get the trick of using iasl to disassemble the DSDT table. After disassembling it, I tried to use iasl to assemble it, and lo and behold, I found some compile errors and warnings. Using some hints from the first link, I cleared up and compiled with 0 errors and 0 warnings. After that you need to insert the new DSDT table into your kernel source and compile a new kernel.
This works ok in 2.4.20 kernel patched for ACPI with my patched DSDT table. That is, until I added more RAM, then the machine wouldn't boot. I upgraded to 2.6.0 and recently tried 2.6.1, but ACPI is broken differently. I am getting AE_NO_MEMORY errors when the ACPI stuff tries to load. I need to look into that.
Update: Seems the amount of RAM gets exported when you grab the DSDT file from the BIOS so I definitely need to recompile my DSDT table from a new dump from the BIOs with the extra RAM installed. Thanks to the ACPI-devel list which was very responsive.
One plus is in 2.6.1 the toucpad has a driver! You need to install the Synaptics XFree 86 driver and the scroll button works on the touchpad. Very cool.
Next mission, making the one-touch buttons work!
Acme package from gnome should do the trick.
Added 2005-02-24
I purchased a Netgear WG511 Cardbus card. It is a "Made in China" model and does not work with the open source PRISM54 drivers. I found alot of references to using ndiswrapper and it works. I used the Debian Install instructions to add the ndiswrapper module. Its pretty simple since I build a kernel anyway, the Debian instructions tell you how to compile and build a Debian package for the module. Then you just need to get the drivers. I used http://kbserver.netgear.com/support_details.asp?dnldID=842 the "Version 2.9 Beta Service Pack 2 and Code 10 Fix" which contains the driver version 2.1.25 that was recommened. After the module install I followed part 2 of the install procedure at http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/phpwiki/index.php/Installation
If the green light flashes you need to associate to an access point but the driver is loaded. If lsmod shows prism54 driver, it will conflict with ndiswrapper. rmmod it. Good referece http://felipe-alfaro.org/blog/2005/08/19/smc-2835w-v3-and-smc-2802w-v2/
Add prism54 to blacklist echo prism54 >> /etc/hotplug/blacklist
I installed Ubuntu 5.1.0 and it works great. Installed ndisgtk package and pointed it to the windows .inf file and it "just works".
I have not configure WEP yet, the access point is not even connected to the internet yet.
Added 2003-05-29
This laptop doesn't come with wireless networking built in, but I borrowed a PCMCIA wireless card. I will list some resources to making it work in Linux. I haven't actually accomplished this yet though.
http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/Linux/Tools.html
http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/Linux/DISTRIBUTIONS.txt
-- Dave Bauer