(Version numbers are of the form YYMMDD. An optional serial number may be added “.1″, “.2″, “.3″ to differentiate multiple updates occurring on the same day.)

Changelog (in reverse chronological order; the topmost item is the most recent):

  • 081031:

    • Update for Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex.
    • Removed all instructions about installing on Gutsy. Please use Hardy or Intrepid.
    • Removed the “Long term considerations” section since it became obsolete from Hardy on.
    • Removed the instructions for upgrading to BIOS 1.13
    • Removed several broken links appearing in the old Changelog.
    • Reinstated the usage of ricoh-r5c832-fix.
  • Older changes can be found here.

TODO:

  • Investigate faulken’s comment about how the modem can be made to work in Fedora.

I’m going to record here the caveats of installing Linux on a Compal IFL90 and on a Compal JFL92. My focus will be Ubuntu 8.10 aka Intrepid Ibex. I’ll try to provide useful information for those who want to use other distributions.

The machine I own is actually a Sager NP2090 which is a Compal IFL90 configured and sold by Sager. The Compal IFL90 is actually available under a variety of different names depending on where it is bought. I bought my machine from PowerNotebooks, a reseller with great customer service.

My wife owns a Sager NP2092 which is a Compal JFL92 configured and sold by Sager. It was also bought from PowerNotebooks. The JFL92 has the same set of peripheral controllers as the IFL90. The main difference between the two machines is the CPU they accept. For most purposes, the JFL92 can be considered to be a newer revision of the IFL90.

Unless I state otherwise, you can assume that everything I say here applies just as well to the JFL92 as to the IFL90. But keep the following in mind:

  • The only version of Ubuntu I have installed on my wife’s JFL92 is Kubuntu 8.04. However, I eventually switched her from KDE to Gnome so in effect she is running Ubuntu 8.04. I have not yet upgraded her JFL92 to 8.10.
  • The only BIOS I have experience with on the JFL92 is version 1.16.

Acknowledgments: many thanks to the guys in the forums at notebookreview.com for testing, helping, googling and so forth. Special thanks to El Profe for translating and to anyusr for seeking information on the web. Special thanks too to walkerk at the Ubuntu Forums for providing the method by which to install kernel 2.6.22 in Feisty and 2.6.24 in Gutsy.

I divide hardware functionality into four categories:

  • hardware which works right out of the box.
  • hardware which works after manual configuration: configuration files might need to be edited manually, or software might need to be compiled, etc.
  • hardware which currently does not work.
  • unknown.

Again, keep in mind that Intrepid is my guide to divide the hardware among those categories. Distributions which upgrade their packages more aggressively than Ubuntu could have more items in the “works right out of the box” category. I will only give details about the last three categories above plus items which will work right out of the box but for which there are some caveats.

Also note that I DO NOT TAKE RESPONSIBILITY IF YOU BREAK ANYTHING ON YOUR SYSTEM. You have to evaluate how comfortable you are with installing Ubuntu packages, performing compilations and editing configuration files. (Then again, people who have never used Ubuntu might be wondering what the heck I’m talking about with “Hardy” and “Intrepid”. As usual, Google is your friend!)

At a glance

In the following table, “Y” means that it works, “N” means that it does not and “MC” means that it requires manual configuration to work. Columns marked “RB” mean that you should “Read Below” to know the full story. (Using the “find” facility of your browser is helpful to find the specific place.) For the “Linux in general” column, only “Y” “N” or “?” are possible since this is an abstract category. Items marked with (O) are optional when ordering the machine. Even for devices that show a “Y”, you should read the detailed information which follows to know about any potential issues. The Intrepid + Procedure column shows the results of applying the installation procedure described below to a stock Intrepid installation.

Function Linux in general Intrepid Intrepid + Procedure
Network Card Y Y Y
Touchpad Y Y Y
Wireless (O) Y Y Y
Video Card Y Y Y
Sound Y Y Y
BlueTooth (O) Y Y Y (should work on NP2092 but not tested)
Webcam Y Y Y
Modem Y ? ?
MMC Reader Y RB Y
FP Reader ? ? ?
Sleep RB RB RB
Hibernation RB RB RB
Firewire Y ? ?
Express Card Y Y Y
Infrared (O) ? ? ?
Robson (O) ? ? ?
TV Tuner (O) ? ? ?
Intel VT Y Y Y

NOTE: I have all the optional devices in the table above except for Robson, the Infrared and the TV Tuner.

Peripherals

I maintain separate pages for the peripherals I use with my IFL90:

Hardware which will run right out of the box

  • Network card: Broadcom BCM5787M

  • Wireless (OPTIONAL): Intel 4965agn

  • BlueTooth (OPTIONAL): Broadcom BCM2045 (Broadcom BCM92045MD)/Foxconn T60H928.06. It seems that Foxconn is manufacturing OEM hardware for Broadcom. [Bizcom] mentions the Foxconn device. However the device is properly a Broadcom BCM2045 (BCM92045MD). I don’t know why they use so many different model numbers.

  • Video Camera: Chicony CNF6212.

  • Sound: Realtek ALC268

  • Memory card reader, according to [Bizcom] is a Ricoh R5C833. However, here is what lspci shows me:

          0e:06.1 Generic system peripheral [0805]: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 22)
          0e:06.3 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev 12)
        

    Does this mean that the R5C833 is a combination of R5C822 and R5C592??? At any rate, it seems that the card reader is properly a R5C822.

    The MMC is supported in Linux but it will not resume properly from suspend unless registry values are tweaked.

  • Hardware virtualization (Intel VT): yes! I can use kvm which depends on VT to run.

Hardware which will run right out of the box (but with caveats)

  • Touchpad: Elantech 810511-0911
  • Video Card: nVidia 8600GT

    • Linux in general: supported both in open and closed source drivers. To take full advantage of the card, you need to use the closed source drivers. Notably you cannot play DVDs with the open-source drivers because they don’t support XVideo. I’ve tried it and wept.
    • Intrepid: use the restricted drivers manager to install the closed source drivers.

Hardware which will require manual configuration

  • Both Sleep and Hibernation are not working in Hardy as of April 26th 2008. This is a regression bug because both were working in Gutsy!
  • Sleep (Suspend-to-Ram): Definitely needs BIOS 1.13 or higher to work properly.
  • Hibernation (Suspend-to-disk): See the note above about BIOS versions. I have had problem with fans after hibernation. It has happened twice that I resumed from hibernation and my fans were not working. It has been a long time since I had the fan problem so I consider it fixed. Also note that hibernation is likely to abort if you plug or unplug devices while the system is going into hibernation.

Hardware which does not work yet

  • Fingerprint reader: Upek TCS4BA.

  • Robson (OPTIONAL): Intel chipset. Does not seem supported.

Unknown

About Hardy and the BIOS

Ok, this is a bit preliminary but I need to warn people. After my upgrade to Hardy, X started crashing almost 100% of the time after a resume from suspend-to-ram (aka: sleep). My machine was still at BIOS 1.13. After upgrading to BIOS 1.16, the crashes are still present. I am using BIOS 1.18 now which seems more stable and any previous BIOSes.

How to add my repository to your sources

  • The repository is signed with my private OpenPGP key. Execute:

          $ sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list
        

    Add the two following lines at the end of the file:

          deb http://lddubeau.com/downloads/ubuntu intrepid main
          deb-src http://lddubeau.com/downloads/ubuntu intrepid main
        

    Save and exit. Execute:

          $ sudo apt-get update
        

    apt-get should execute normally except that it will complain that it does not have the GPG key for my repository. Execute the following commands to get my key:

          # The next 3 commands import my public key to your
          # apt keyring.
          # (Note: if you don't have gpg installed already you should execute
          # "apt-get install gnupg" and continue after that is done.)
          $ gpg --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys F70DFA47
          $ gpg --export --armor F70DFA47 > /tmp/key.asc
          $ sudo apt-key add /tmp/key.asc
    
          # apt-get should not complain about a missing GPG key now.
          $ sudo apt-get update
    
          # This installs the required package
          $ sudo apt-get install alsa-source
        

Upgrade procedure from Hardy to Intrepid

NOTE: Please note that I’ve encountered some significant issues when I upgraded. You might want to take a look. None of those issues appear to be specific to the IFL90 or JFL92. You might want to hold off upgrading for now.

NOTE: USE THIS PROCEDURE AT YOUR OWN PERIL.

NOTE: You must have used the procedure to install Hardy on a IFL90 described on this page. If you used any other procedure all bets are off.

  1. If you use EnvyNG, I recommend that you remove it and return to the restricted drivers provided by Ubuntu before you upgrade. EnvyNG is neat but if you file bugs which may be related to the nVidia driver installed by EnvyNG, the Ubuntu developers won’t be happy.
  2. Follow the normal upgrade instructions.
  3. Install the nVidia drivers as described below for Hardy..
  4. Install MMC support.

    If ricoh-r5c832-fix is already installed you do not need to do anything.

    If you do not do this, the MMC will not resume working after resuming your laptop from suspend. If you’ve added my repository like suggested above in the section on adding sound support, then you just need to perform the following command:

          $ sudo apt-get install ricoh-r5c832-fix
        

    Otherwise, you need to grab ricoh-r5c832-fix_1_i386.deb and install it with the following command:

          $ sudo dpkg -i ricoh-r5c832-fix_1_i386.deb
        

Installation procedure for Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron)

NOTE: USE THIS PROCEDURE AT YOUR OWN PERIL.

NOTE: It is a good idea to read the steps ahead a little bit to make sure you won’t miss a step.

NOTE: lines that begin with $ are to be typed at the command line prompt. Lines that begin with # are comments.

NOTE: You should be connected to a network to perform the installation of Ubuntu. You’ll have to use a wired network for the initial steps.

NOTE: This is the procedure to use for installing from scratch. I have used this procedure to go from Gutsy to Hardy. I have also upgraded from Gutsy to Hardy as described below but later decided to install from scratch to make sure I did not mess things up.

Note about the JFL92: As of May 5th, 2008 the Kubutu alternate installation CD for amd64 displays a strange behavior during installation. See this bug report. It does not prevent installation nor does it cause any insurmountable problem later. After the system is fully installed and updated, the problem still manifests itself at boot: after entering the passphrase to open the encrypted filesystem, the boot process sometimes stops until a key (any key) is pressed. For most users this is an annoyance. It would be a problem for someone who wants unattended boots.

Update 080605: faulken reported a solution to this problem: disable AHCI in the BIOS.

This bug does not happen on my IFL90 but that may be because I have AHCI disabled anyway (because of XP).

Ok, here is the installation process:

  1. It is a good idea to install Windows before installing Ubuntu. If you are new to Linux or if Windows is your primary OS you should certainly install Windows before Linux. It is possible to install Ubuntu first but the problem is that installing Windows later messes with the boot process and then you have to fix it yourself.

  2. Do an installation of Hardy using either the Desktop or Alternate CD. (I think the Desktop CD should work but I have not tested it.) The following links contain useful information:

  3. The first time you log in, the system might tell you that there are updates to be performed. Do perform those updates before going further.
  4. Install the nVidia drivers.

    Log in and go into System->Administration->Hardware Drivers. There you will see a driver for your nVidia card. Turn it on and follow the instructions.

  5. Install sound support:

    • Execute the following:

      	$ sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base
            

      Go to the end of the file and add the following lines. The first line is just a reminder to yourself as to what the next line is about. Such reminders are useful when packages are upgraded. You might want to change “LDD” to your own initials.

      	# LDD: I added this line for supporting the ALC268 audio chipset.
      	options snd-hda-intel model=toshiba
            

      Press Control-X to exit and save.

    • Now you should reboot. The advantage of rebooting instead of just trying to fiddle with modules is that by rebooting you can make sure that everything is going to work right after a reboot. If you just fiddle with the modules, you may be setting up something which will be undone next time you reboot. So rebooting is better to make sure to trap possible problems early.

    • Question: But I still have no sound! What is going on?!?

      Answer: This is a Linux problem, not a IFL90 problem. Sound support in Linux is still a bit on the arcane side. Open the “Volume Control” application. (A right click on the volume applet will do it.) Go into “Edit -> Preferences” and make sure that all channels (called tracks by the application) are selected. That’s because multiple channels affect the volume. For instance, the sound that comes out of the headphones is controlled by the PCM and the Headphone channels. If either of them is muted, you get no sound. To summarize briefly:

      • PCM: all sound output goes through that channel so changing the volume on this channel will affect all sound output.
      • Front: this controls the volume of the internal speakers.
      • Headphone: this controls the volume of the headphones.

      I have not played enough with the other channels to give a good description. See this comment for an initial stab at explaining microphones.

  6. Suspend and Hibernate support

    Execute the following:

          $ sudo nano /etc/default/acpi-support
        

    And change SAVE_VBE_STATE and POST_VIDEO from true to false.

  7. TODO: Install modem support.

Upgrade procedure from Gutsy to Hardy

NOTE: USE THIS PROCEDURE AT YOUR OWN PERIL.

NOTE: You must have used the procedure to install Gutsy on a IFL90 described on this page. If you used any other procedure all bets are off.

  1. Follow the normal upgrade instructions.
  2. Your machine will reboot. When I rebooted my X resolution was screwed. I fixed it by doing the following. This assumes you are using the NVIDIA PROPRIETARY DRIVERS. If not, skip the second command. Run:

          $ sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg
          $ sudo nvidia-xconfig
          $ sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart
        

    Upon my first try, I ran the dpkg-reconfigure command above with -phigh but that created a xorg.conf file which did not enable emulation of the middle button on the touchpad.

  3. Now, X should start. Log into your account. After logging in, Hardy reported to me numerous crashes of applications but they were spurious because I was not running those applications at that time.
  4. Install the nVidia drivers as described above.
  5. Install sound support as described above.
  6. Install MMC support.

    If ricoh-r5c832-fix is already installed you do not need to do anything.

    If you do not do this, the MMC will not resume working after resuming your laptop from suspend. If you’ve added my repository like suggested above in the section on adding sound support, then you just need to perform the following command:

          $ sudo apt-get install ricoh-r5c832-fix
        

    Otherwise, you need to grab ricoh-r5c832-fix_1_i386.deb and install it with the following command:

          $ sudo dpkg -i ricoh-r5c832-fix_1_i386.deb
        

Quirks and Solutions

I am listing here some quirks and their solutions:

  • Using the video camera:
    • I never got ekiga-gtkonly to work.
    • I was able to use ekiga. However, it needs to have the package libpt-1.11.2-plugins-v4l2 installed! This package may be missing from your installation so make sure it is installed before reporting problems with the video camera.
    • For future reference, my preferences under the “Video Devices” tab are set to “Video plugin: V4L2″, “Input Device: USB 2.0 Camera”, “Format: Auto”, “Channel: 0″, “Image: None”.
  • Incorrect panel position and size in Gnome: although the X Window resolution can be set to 1680×1050 (the native resolution of my laptop), it seems that upon subsequent logins Gnome forgets the resolution and returns to 1024×768. This is a problem that will happen for people who used to run Gnome at a different resolution previously, like I did. Fix: Start gnome-display-properties from a terminal, switch to 1024×768, click “Apply” and then click “Return to previous resolution”. At this point, the panel should be the right size and position. If it is, then run gnome-session-save from the terminal. A different and faster method is to execute “killall gnome-panel”. This will kill the panel and it will automatically be restarted by Gnome. Then you save the session with gnome-session-save. The trick is to start a terminal if you panel does not show the “Applications” menu. Right clicking on the background should show a menu that has an item named “Open Terminal”. Use that if needed.

Upgrading to a newer BIOS

NOTE: The instructions here are for BIOS version 1.16 but I’ve also used them for version 1.18 without any problem. Adapt as needed.

NOTE: You are following this procedure at your own risk. If things break, I’m not responsible.

NOTE: BIOS upgrades should always be performed with a full battery or preferably while on AC. If the process is interrupted before it is complete, you are likely to turn your laptop into an expensive and fancy brick.

This guide is based on this page about how to boot from a USB drive. I’ve boiled down the instructions to what worked for me. You may want to look at that guide if your situation is different than mine.

Here is the procedure:

  1. Install the necessary tools:

          $ sudo apt-get install dosemu mbr dosfstools
        
  2. Get the BIOS from the official channels and unzip it somewhere.

  3. Now you need to format your USB drive as a hard-disk. There are basically two ways your USB drive can be treated: superfloppy or hard-disk. I know the hard-disk method works. I have not tried superfloppy. To do the following steps you need to know which device your USB drive appears as. With the hardware I have in my machine, it appeared as /dev/sdb.
  4. Your drive needs to have one partition on it. Mine was already set up that way because when I insert it, the filesystem is mounted from /dev/sdb1. If yours is not set up with one partition, you need to use cfdisk, fdisk, gparted or whatever you want to create one single partition on the device.
  5. Next, you want to set the MBR properly so that the device can boot:

          $ sudo install-mbr -p1 [your device]
        

    The -p1 argument tells install-mbr that you want to automatically boot from the first partition. Replace “[your device]” with the actual name of the block device, not the partition! It would be /dev/sdb for me. (NOT /dev/sdb1).

  6. Then you want to create a file system. I did not have to do that because I already had a filesystem on my disk. You may also skip this if you already have a file system, otherwise:

          $ sudo mkdosfs -I [your partition]
        

    Replace “[your partition]” with the partition on your device, not the block device itself! It would be /dev/sdb1 for me.

  7. Edit your ~/.dosemurc so that you can access your USB drive. Mine reads:

          $_hdimage = "drives/* /tmp /dev/sdb1"
        

    This means that the drives under ~/.dosemu/drives/ are going to be mapped to C and D. The directory /tmp is mapped to E. This is a placeholder really because E should normally be a CD-ROM drive. And /dev/sdb1 is mapped to F.

  8. If your USB drive was mounted, please unmount it.
  9. There is a bug currently in dosemu or Linux or something. To work around it, execute:
          echo 0 | sudo tee /proc/sys/vm/mmap_min_addr
        
  10. Start dosemu in a terminal. It will start and display the usual messages. Now the default dosemu installation does some drive remapping in autoexec.bat so by the time you get the dos prompt the drive mappings are:

    • C: what you booted from.
    • D: this maps to your home directory in Linux.
    • E: this maps to /tmp.
    • F: this maps to your USB drive.
    • Z: this is where FreeDOS is actually installed.
  11. Now you need to install FreeDOS on the drive so run the following:
          $ z:
          $ sys f:
        
  12. Then you need to copy the files from the BIOS archive you downloaded. Go onto d: and cd to where the files are. Then copy them to f:.
  13. Exit dosemu by running exitemu.
  14. You are done in Linux so you can close everything you need to close and reboot.
  15. Press F12 to get the boot device list, select the USB drive.
  16. It should boot automatically but if you get a prompt of the form “MBR FA:”, hit A. Then you will get a prompt of the form “MBR 1234F:” hit 1.
  17. FreeDOS will ask for the time and date. Just hit enter.
  18. When you get to the DOS prompt, execute the batch file JFT02116.BAT by typing “JFT02116″ at the prompt and hitting return. (This is the file for BIOS 1.16. If you are upgrading to another BIOS find the appropriate batch file and execute that.)
  19. The flashing process will start. It takes a bit to go through the whole process.

REFERENCES

Old Changelog

Entries are in reverse chronological order. (The topmost item is the most recent.)

  • 080605:

    • Added a solution to the momentary freeze problem during install or bootup.

    080526:

    • Update regarding an Ubuntu bug on the JFL92.
    • According to Revan (search comments), the Express Card works.
    • Spell checking… eek!
  • 080521:

    • Added information regarding the JFL92.
    • Added information about making ekiga work properly.
  • 080512:

    • Updated the information regarding the fingerprint reader
    • Cosmetic fixes.
  • 080430:

    • Proper support for sound needs modifications to alsa-base otherwise the sound does not recover from sleep or hibernate. I’ve updated the installation procedure accordingly.
  • 080426:

    • General cleanup of the procedures and what is supported and not.
  • 080423:

    • Added information about how to upgrade to BIOS 1.16
    • Added a note about upgrading to Hardy and BIOS versions.
  • 080418:

    • ricoh-r5c832-fix is no longer needed in Hardy.
    • Removed -phigh from the xserver reconfiguration command.
  • 080416:

    • Instructions for upgrading to Hardy Beta.
    • Instructions for installing Hardy.
    • Removed instructions for installing a Hardy kernel in Gutsy.
  • 080104.2:

    • Fan problem after hibernating occurs in 2.6.24-2.
    • I’ve downgraded sleep and hibernate status from “Y” to “RB” (i.e. “Read Below”) because I think there are still issues.
  • 080104.1:

    • Updated instructions on how to use a Hardy kernel in Gutsy.
  • 080103:

    • Added instructions on how to use a Hardy kernel in Gutsy.
    • Began forecasting support in Hardy.
    • Added a warning about possible fan problems after hibernating.
  • 080101:

    • Removed the instruction to install debconf-support when installing audio since it does not seem to exist anymore.
    • Added a bit of information about sound channels.
  • 071217:

    • Added links to new pages I created about how to configure in Unbutu peripherals I use with my IFL90.
  • 071216:

    • Help to upgrade to BIOS 1.13
    • Suspend and hibernate work fine.
    • Posted a warning about kvm.
    • Spellchecked the page again. Yuck! Corrected many typos.
  • 071019:

    • Removed all instructions for Feisty. I do not support Feisty anymore and will not answer any questions about Feisty on an IFL90. Use Gutsy.
  • 071005:

    • Moved to Ubuntu 7.10 beta, aka Gutsy Gibbon Beta. The entire installation procedure is much easier than it was with Feisty Fawn in August. Kudos to the Ubuntu developers.
    • There are two procedures: one for installation from scratch and one for upgrading from Feisty to Gutsy.
    • Moved to alsa 1.0.15rc3 for sound support. This fixes the muting problem and adds support for microphones. I found that the recording obtained from the mikes is very noisy but have not investigated.
    • The new procedures for Gutsy can be used but I’m not finished testing everything. For instance, it is possible that suspend/resume now works fine. I’ll have to check when I have time.
  • 070920:

    • Added instructions to upgrade the nVidia drivers from 100.14.11 to 100.14.19.
    • Updated my observations about sleeping and hibernating. Upgrading the nVidia driver and the kernel upgrades have improved the stability of the system but we’re not quite out of the woods yet.
    • Split the changelog in two. Old entries are now at the end of the page.
    • Reinstated the TODO list…
    • I’ve got feedback that Linux does not recognize Robson at all. Absent evidence to the contrary, I consider Robson to be unsupported in all versions of Linux.
    • Added a “Gutsy + Procedure” column to my table even though I don’t have a procedure for Gutsy yet. I’m forecasting what we can expect.
    • Cosmetic changes.
  • 070916:

    • There is now a solution for making the MMC chipset work. People who have already used the installation procedure I propose here should jump to the section about Installing MMC support and follow the instructions there.
  • 070910:

    • Added the procedure to upgrade from 2.6.22-10 to 2.6.22-11. This kernel has support for the video camera “out of the box”. This means that Gutsy will have “out of the box” support for the video camera!
    • Updated the initial installation procedure to work with 2.6.22-11.
    • Fixed the chmod commands to have the “+x” argument! (Argh!)
    • Deprecated some old procedures.
  • 070822.2:

    • The repositories are now fine. You may use the new installation procedure which installs a 2.6.22-10 kernel and the upgrade procedure to go from 2.6.22-9 to 2.6.22-10.
    • Added a note that my actual machine is a Sager NP2090.
  • 070822.1:

    • A word of caution: Ubuntu is in the process of refreshing its repositories but at the moment the repositories are inconsistent. Do not try to perform the processes indicated here until further notice. Nothing tremendously bad will happen if you do but it will make things a bit more complicated. Things will probably stabilize tomorrow.
    • I have deprecated the procedure that upgrades to 2.6.22-9.
  • 070821:

    • Spellchecked the whole page. Found many typos!
    • Started creating an initial installation procedure based on Ubuntu kernel release 2.6.22-10.
    • Started creating an upgrade procedure to go from 2.6.22-9 to 2.6.22-10.
    • Please do not use these two new procedures yet. You can still use the one based on 2.6.22-9.

    070816:

    • I’ve created a real repository for the packages I created for the installation procedure and added instructions to add those repositories. I urge people to use the repository rather than install my packages using dpkg.
    • Reworded 2 passages that were way too obscure.
  • 070814:

    • Changed vi to nano in one of the commands I ask people to perform in the installation procedure. Both vi and nano are text editors but nano is more user friendly, in my opinion. I use vi personally, hence the mistake.
    • Removed the TODO, which I think was confusing some people.
  • 070813:

    • Added a step to enable the universe repositories (and optionally multiverse).
    • Added an issue with movie playback.
  • 070812:

    • Removed the separate version number at the top of the page. From now on, to know the version number of the document just look at the top entry in the changelog.
    • Added new unresolved issues with sensors and audio.
  • 070809:

    • Added entries for Firewire and Express Card in the table. I have not yet investigated the chipsets.
    • Added some information about the inability to get the machine to sleep.
  • 070807:

    • Found a solution to the resolution problem.
    • Added a temporary solution to the problem of recognizing the DVD drive.
    • Added instructions to get the webcam working.
    • Contrary to reports, the IFL90 does not come with a TPM module. If somebody knows something different, let me know.

399 Responses to “Linux on a Compal IFL90 and JFL92”

Pages: « 2017 16 15 14 13 [12] 11 10 9 8 71 » Show All

  1. 240
    Louis-Dominique Says:

    Revan: Mon portatif est un Sager de chez PowerNotebooks alors je ne peux moi-même répondre à ta question. Peut-être qu’un autre visiteur de cette page a acheté chez Surcouf et peut commenter?

    kmg: I am perplexed. I have certainly used the instructions as posted here but those instructions were created when I was running Feisty. If you can get things to compile without debconf-support, then it means that debconf-support is no longer necessary. (Heck, it does not seem to even exist…)

    Were you able to compile and install the sound modules?

    Did you read this comment?

  2. 239
    kmg Says:

    Hi,
    i have a compal ifl90 notebook, and i tried to install the sound like you said, but there is no sound.
    apt-get install debconf-support said he didn’t found that package. What else can i do?

  3. 238
    Revan Says:

    Salut excellent site !
    Je voulais savoir si quelqu’un ici avait déjà flashé le BIOS d’un Compal FL90 de chez Surcouf. Je voudrais pas prendre de risque inutile, même si d’après ce que j’ai lu le passage vers le 1.13 a posé moins de problèmes que les précédentes mise à jour de BIOS (qui rendaient inutilisable la machine).
    En fait, l’hibernation ne marche pas chez moi, et j’aimerais la faire marcher, hors je viens de lire que c’était peut être en mettant à jour le BIOS qu’on pouvait la faire marcher sous linux….
    Ou alors attendre une mise à jour du noyau ou un petit bidouillage quelque part…

  4. 237
    Louis-Dominique Says:

    Pascal: great to know things are finally working.

  5. 236
    Pascal Says:

    YES!!

    it was all my fault… didnt check if the alsa-source updated properly and it was still 1.0.14

    now I did follow your instruction again with the 1.0.15 (downloaded manually) and voilà

    SOUND WORKS!!

    thanks again for the patience and help

    this guide is awesome!

  6. 235
    Pascal Says:

    still no sound here…

    @Louis-Dominique:

    $ lspci | grep Audio

    00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03)

    $ cat /proc/asound/cards
    0 [Intel ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel
    HDA Intel at 0xf8400000 irq 20

    $ head -n 3 /proc/asound/card0/codec#0
    Codec: Realtek ALC268

    this is what I get.

  7. 234
    Xan Says:

    Je pense que je vais rester comme ça en attendant le noyau 2.6.24 ^^

    Merci pour ton aide!

  8. 233
    Louis-Dominique Says:

    Ok, a bit of an update regarding kvm. I mentioned earlier that after I successfully suspended and resume my laptop, my kvm virtual machine was dead. Well, I suspended again later and was not able to resume… I searched a bit on the kvm-devel list and found this thread:

    http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.emulators.kvm.devel/3870

    Based on what I read there, I think that kvm won’t be able to cleanly suspend until kernel 2.6.23 or higher. There seem to be something in the kernel which causes the kvm modules to behave badly and apparently that requires not just new kvm modules but a change in the kernel too.

    And from what I can tell, there is no kernel upgrade planned right now for Gutsy. Hardy will run 2.6.24 at a minimum so the problem will probably be solved when Hardy hits the street.

    That’s a bummer because I use kvm all the time these days to run CBETA. Maybe I’ll have to poke Walkerk and see if he’s going to test running Gutsy with a Hardy kernel and provide a procedure for it.

  9. 232
    Louis-Dominique Says:

    Xan: Malheureusement, je crois que l’équipe d’Ubuntu rejetterait la soumission d’un bogue parce que le support pour ce lecteur de carte n’est pas encore officiel. Philip Langdale dit que le support pour ce lecteur devrait être intégré au noyau 2.6.24:

    http://intr.overt.org/blog/?p=59#comment-16105

    Quand ce noyau sera intégré à Ubuntu, les soumissions de bogues seront alors légitimes.

    sum41: I’m only interested in Gutsy now. My recommendation is to upgrade and see whether you still have that problem or not. I will try soon to add some information about how to debug suspend problems but it may take a while. In the meantime, you can check this out:

    http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=3066404

    https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingKernelSuspend

    The information you will find there is good but incomplete in my opinion.

    Bas: Yeah, you can do that but the version of kvm included in the Ubuntu repository is quite ancient: version 28. The current version is 56 (or maybe even 57 or more now) so I compile my own. The problem is that some versions of kvm include a buggy kvm_intel module which prevents the kernel from resuming properly. It is possible that version 28 does not have that bug. The previous version I was using, version 40, is definitely buggy.

    By the way, independently of whether the kvm_intel module allows the Linux kernel to suspend there seem to be other problems with kvm. This morning I had XP running in kvm. I suspended my machine without problem. I resumed without problem, except that the kvm virtual machine is not responsive anymore. *Grumble*… This is not dramatic but annoying nonetheless.

  10. 231
    sum41 Says:

    sorry, I forgott to tell that I’m still on feisty. could that be the reason it is not working?
    thx

  11. 230
    Bas Says:

    Hi Louis-Dominique,

    I don’t know how you installed kvm but I just did the following:
    apt-get install kvm

    and to be sure that kvm is loaded every time I boot my laptop I added
    the following line to the /etc/modules file (as root of course)
    kvm-intel

    Just add it at the last line, that is what i did.
    That is all you need to do to get kvm working correctly (as far as I can still remember :) ).

    Ow and thanks for help ;). Don’t know what I would have done without it.

    Bas

    Edit: hmm I read your post again and I can’t remember why I wrote this…
    but still it is usefull, I think, so posted it anyway :)

  12. 229
    sum41 Says:

    Hi Louis-Dominique
    I uptated Bios to 1.13, but I still can’t hibernate nor suspend properly. Suspension works pretty well, but it resumes in console mode and displays some odd messages about filesystem journaling errors. If I try to get to X again [Alt + F7], I can see the mouse pointer and parts of my desktop panels, but nothing else. Restarting X doesn’t work.
    Hibernation doesn’t work at all, first lots off messages are displayed in console mode, then the screen is turned off but the pc doesn’t power off (fans still working, leds on (not blinking)).
    What can I do? A module problem aswell? Here my lsmod:

    Module Size Used by
    binfmt_misc 12936 1
    rfcomm 42136 0
    l2cap 26240 5 rfcomm
    nfs 245868 0
    nfsd 220912 17
    exportfs 7040 1 nfsd
    lockd 67592 3 nfs,nfsd
    sunrpc 172412 12 nfs,nfsd,lockd
    ppdev 10244 0
    af_packet 24840 6
    ac 6148 0
    battery 11012 0
    acpi_cpufreq 10568 1
    container 5504 0
    video 18060 11
    cpufreq_powersave 2688 0
    cpufreq_ondemand 9612 1
    dock 10656 0
    cpufreq_userspace 5280 0
    sbs 19592 0
    button 8976 0
    cpufreq_conservative 8072 0
    cpufreq_stats 7232 0
    freq_table 5792 3 acpi_cpufreq,cpufreq_ondemand,cpufreq_stats
    nls_iso8859_1 5120 1
    nls_cp437 6784 1
    vfat 14080 1
    fat 54300 1 vfat
    sbp2 24072 0
    parport_pc 37412 0
    lp 12580 0
    parport 37448 3 ppdev,parport_pc,lp
    arc4 2944 2
    ecb 4608 2
    blkcipher 7684 1 ecb
    snd_hda_intel 268060 1
    snd_pcm_oss 44800 0
    snd_mixer_oss 17920 1 snd_pcm_oss
    snd_pcm 81156 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm_oss
    snd_seq_dummy 4996 0
    uvcvideo 48644 0
    snd_seq_oss 35328 0
    snd_seq_midi 9728 0
    snd_rawmidi 26112 1 snd_seq_midi
    snd_seq_midi_event 8576 2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi
    iwl4965 101480 0
    compat_ioctl32 2304 1 uvcvideo
    snd_seq 54256 6 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
    iwlwifi_mac80211 175112 1 iwl4965
    videodev 29312 1 uvcvideo
    hci_usb 18332 2
    nvidia 6221776 36
    snd_timer 24452 2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
    snd_seq_device 9740 5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
    v4l1_compat 15364 2 uvcvideo,videodev
    v4l2_common 18432 2 uvcvideo,videodev
    bluetooth 57060 7 rfcomm,l2cap,hci_usb
    usbhid 29536 0
    hid 28928 1 usbhid
    snd 56580 12 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
    cfg80211 7304 1 iwlwifi_mac80211
    sdhci 18828 0
    mmc_core 28420 1 sdhci
    i2c_core 26112 1 nvidia
    soundcore 8800 1 snd
    intel_agp 25620 0
    agpgart 35016 2 nvidia,intel_agp
    serio_raw 8068 0
    psmouse 39952 0
    shpchp 34580 0
    pci_hotplug 32704 1 shpchp
    evdev 11136 3
    snd_page_alloc 11272 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
    sr_mod 17828 0
    cdrom 37536 1 sr_mod
    ext3 133768 2
    jbd 60456 1 ext3
    mbcache 9732 1 ext3
    sg 36764 0
    sd_mod 30336 5
    ata_generic 8452 0
    ehci_hcd 36108 0
    tg3 110980 0
    ohci1394 36528 0
    ieee1394 96312 2 sbp2,ohci1394
    ahci 23300 4
    ata_piix 17540 0
    libata 124528 3 ata_generic,ahci,ata_piix
    scsi_mod 147084 5 sbp2,sr_mod,sg,sd_mod,libata
    uhci_hcd 26640 0
    usbcore 138248 6 uvcvideo,hci_usb,usbhid,ehci_hcd,uhci_hcd
    thermal 14344 0
    processor 31944 2 acpi_cpufreq,thermal
    fan 5764 0
    capability 5896 0
    commoncap 8320 1 capability

    Thanks for help!!
    sum

  13. 228
    Xan Says:

    Oui, en effet, ma carte ne fonctionne pas sous linux, fonctionne bien sous windows… Reste maintenant à savoir d’où vient le bogue…
    Suis-je bon pour faire un rapport à ubuntu?

  14. 227
    Louis-Dominique Says:

    Sager Owner: When I wrote the instructions for Feisty, I went to this site:

    http://www.intellinuxwireless.org/?p=iwlwifi

    And followed the instructions there.

    Xan: À titre d’information: le matériel est le même sur nos deux machines.

    Tu as dit que la carte qui ne fonctionne pas avec Linux, fonctionne bien avec Windows, non? Il semblerait donc que le pilote de carte multimédia ait un bogue.

  15. 226
    Xan Says:

    Voilà le résultat de lspci |grep Ricoh

    0e:06.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller (rev 05)
    0e:06.1 Generic system peripheral [0805]: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 22)
    0e:06.2 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C843 MMC Host Controller (rev 12)
    0e:06.3 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev ff)

    J’ai eu l’occasion d’essayer une autre carte, et celle-ci a été détectée sans problème !
    Mon problème vient donc de ma carte flash…
    Bizarre… :o/

  16. 225
    Sager Owner Says:

    I’m trying to run the latest version of aircrack-ng. That’s why I need the latest version of Intel’s wireless drivers. If anyone has it running and working, please let me know.

  17. 224
    Louis-Dominique Says:

    Ok, an update on my previous post:

    1. My report that hibernate did not work was a load of nonsense. Hibernate works with 1.13 no problem.

    2. However, I really had a problem with suspend but that was caused by the kvm_intel module.

    If you don’t use kvm, then you won’t run into that problem. If you do use kvm, then make sure you upgrade to kvm-56 and make sure you apply the patch in this post:

    http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.emulators.kvm.devel/10712

    Otherwise, kvm and kvm_intel won’t load.

  18. 223
    Louis-Dominique Says:

    henriquemaia: I’m glad your touchpad situation is better.

    I’ve upgraded to 1.13. Neither sleep nor suspend worked before and they still don’t work.

    I’ve downgraded from the NVidia closed-source driver to the one bundled with X: still does not work.

    I’ve booted in single user mode: still does not work.

    I’ve written a script which unloads all unused modules: using the script while in single user mode, I’m able to suspend but upon resume the LCD is dead. I know Linux is running though because I can type commands and get a response. (e.g. I can cleanly shutdown the system.)

    So I’m thinking I have a module which prevents the system from coming back and there’s a problem with restoring the video state on my machine, somehow.

  19. 222
    henriquemaia Says:

    Your advice worked, thanks. Now the touchpad it’s more tolerable, not so sensitive, albeit it still gives me some random jumps from time to time. I can live with it now. :)

    On another issue, I have recently updated my BIOS to version 1.13 and now hibernate and suspend are working fine. I have to test this more, but it sure looks promising. I don’t know if this made any difference, but after the upgrade they just work.

  20. 221
    Louis-Dominique Says:

    fortAlamo: Oops… I forgot to reply to you.

    [By the way, one of your posts ended up in the moderation queue: it was very similar to the last one you posted. I typically have to approve new posters only once. There's probably a cookie set which then allows you to post again without me having to approve your every posts. But if you post from a different browser, you have to be approved again.]

    Your case is a cautionary tale: if you diverge from the procedures I propose above, you can end up with something that does not work.

    As for sidux, I understand that it is a distribution based on Debian sid. I’ve run sid for several years before I decided to switch to Ubuntu last summer. I wouldn’t dream of going back. I’m not saying people should absolutely not use it but it does not fit my needs. Sid is quite clearly labeled as “unstable” and that label is true. You can be fine for months and then one update completely hoses the system. I’ve been able to recover from those but it took more work on my part than I like. On the other hand, Debian’s stable releases are just too far apart for my taste. Ubuntu is just right for me.

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