(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: « 2018 17 16 15 14 [13] 12 11 10 9 81 » Show All

  1. 260
    Louis-Dominique Says:

    Jori: Thanks a lot for the tip. I installed xserver-xgl on my machine: lo and behold the problem is gone.

    I still think however that there is something amiss in emerald. If everything else works fine with the regular old X server except tabbing, there’s gotta be a problem.

    Now however, when I start X, I get an annoying message about my keyboard configuration reported by X being different than the one Gnome thinks I have. :-\ I have not identified the source of that problem. Maybe the fact that I use a G11 Logitech keyboard besides the one in the Compal has something to do with it.

    Regarding sleeping and hibernating: I’ve been able to put my machine to sleep several times without problem. There’s just one time when it did not come back from sleep. I was running kvm at the time so I believe kvm is still buggy. I have not spent any more time investigating the problem with fans not restarting after hibernating.

  2. 259
    Jori Says:

    I don’t know if you ever found a solution to the slow emerald problem, but I found a solution that worked for me. When Gutsy generates effects for compiz, it uses aiglx, rather than xgl. I’ve found that aiglx is a bit slow for me, so I used apt to install xserver-xgl. As soon as I restarted X, my compiz animations were smooth, and I no longer experienced slowdowns while using emerald.

  3. 258
    Louis-Dominique Says:

    ESCU and Stephan: Thank you for the reports.

    Jori: I’ve never done what you are trying to do. There are 3 places I would start messing with:

    1. The Recording tab in the Volume Control application.
    2. The Options tab in the Volume Control application.
    3. Whatever place you configure your recording source in your recording application. For instance, in the basic Sound Recorder application, there is a “Record From:” combo box on the main screen. Maybe by trial and error, you can find a combination which will record whatever is output out of your speakers.

    If no combination of those is able to give you what you are looking for, then maybe you should look for an ALSA plugin. Or maybe ALSA allows you to do what you want to do but you need to create some sort of virtual track in your ~/.asoundrc. Unfortunately, I can’t be more precise.

  4. 257
    Stephan Wezel Says:

    Hi, i have found out how to turn on/off wlan and bluetooth via the embedded controller as the “Wireless Selection Tool” does it under Windows.

    The selection if wlan or bluetooth is enabled disabled is controlled via the embedded controller Register 0xBB

    The values are as follows:
    - 0×5F (wlan and bluetooth are enabled)
    - 0×5E (wlan is disabled and bluetooth is enabled)
    - 0×5D (wlan is enabled and bluetooth is disabled)
    - 0×5C (wlan and bluetooth are disabled)

    I’m using the acer_ec.pl script to write to the embedded controller.
    http://code.google.com/p/aceracpi/wiki/EmbeddedController

  5. 256
    Jori Says:

    Hey, thanks for all the help thus far. I have a sound related question. I’ve been trying to use audacity to record streamed music online. To do this, you have to use “wave out” or something of that nature as your recording device. I don’t know if it’s this new version of alsa, but I can’t figure out how to set a recording source that allows you to record what you’re hearing out of your speakers. Any ideas? Thanks much!

  6. 255
    ESCU Says:

    Hello!, first, thank you for this excellent guide!Now some info about fingerprint reader from http://www.reactivated.net/fprint/bugs/task/9

    ” Comment by Marek (ares) - Monday, 17 December 2007, 12:02 GMT
    Hello, I wrote an email to UPEK support asking about linux support, their answer:
    “Your fingerprint reader is only USB scanner with no coprocessor, while TFM/ESS

    modules are using biometric coprocessor - companion chip.

    On TFM/ESS matching and all other things are done inside device. Even you have

    source code you will not be able to get it running because in your case you
    need matching algorithm on your PC (your reader is just something like a
    scanner).

    For Linux development UPEK only supports the coprocessor based modules and
    currently we do not plan to extend the support to these sensor-only devices.

    Anyway, as we started with MAC OS support, there is also a plan for Protector
    Suite software for Linux. Currently, there is no exact date for first preview,

    please keep checking our webpages!

    Best Regards,”

    I own this sensor on my notebook, so if I can help you, tell me how :) I hope this email helped at least with information about coprocessor.”

  7. 254
    Louis-Dominique Says:

    WARNING WARNING WARNING

    The fan not resuming after hibernation happens in both kernels 2.6.22-14 and 2.6.24-2. Until this problem is resolved, hibernation should be considered unsafe.

  8. 253
    Louis-Dominique Says:

    henriquemaia: I don’t know whether the bug is in the kernel or somewhere else. I’m going to continue to keep an eye on this. I’ve moved on to kernel 2.6.24-2 and will report whether that seems to help with hibernation and such.

    kef: I’m glad you were able to use the guide.

  9. 252
    kef Says:

    c1rcu17: i have the static&sound quality issue as well.
    seems when you dabble with the recording sliders you can (relatively) improve the voice/static ratio.

  10. 251
    kef Says:

    for someone who had not used anything but windows, i think i did just fine thanks to your awesome gu04ide.
    flashed my bios, installed 7.04, updated to 7.10, installed sound drivers, everything seems to be in working order.

    c1rcu17: i have the stat

  11. 250
    henriquemaia Says:

    I had a similar issue (strange unannounced shutdown) and I really got worried. The machine wouldn’t turn on for a couple of minutes. I didn’t understand what happened, but overheating makes sense. Is this a kernel bug?

  12. 249
    Louis-Dominique Says:

    WARNING WARNING WARNING

    I’ve just experienced a strange shutdown on my machine. I had put it into hibernation last night. I resumed it this morning. A few hours later, my laptop shutdown without warning. I think that after I resumed my machine the fans were no longer running at all. The CPU got progressively hotter and hotter until the BIOS forcibly shut down the machine to prevent the CPU from melting. This is something to keep an eye on. I looked in /var/log/syslog and saw that the sensors reported higher and higher temperatures until the laptop shut down. When I restarted it, the fans were running at full blast.

    By the way, suspending works better than it did but I still have problems from time to time. I got Ubuntu to unload the kvm modules before suspending and reload them after resuming but maybe they still cause problems.

  13. 248
    Louis-Dominique Says:

    Happy arbitrary chronometer rollover, everyone!

    c1rcu17: my experience with the microphone is limited so I can’t help much. My wife and I are probably going to start experimenting with video conferencing soon so I’ll have an informed opinion at that time. What I know at this moment has been described in this comment.

    Kevin: Thanks for the tip. My only problem in compiz is that the emerald theme manager is slow as hell with changing titles on windows. There’s a comment that describe how I dealt with the situation. By renicing like that do you know whether that takes care of the emerald problem?

    kmg and Peter: Thanks for the thanks. By the way, I should warn people about my spam filter. A fair amount of comments that just say “thanks for your guide” are blocked. All those I looked at were clearly spam because they were sent by people whose email was something like viagra@whatever. (Somebody who takes viagra@whatever as their email address is really asking for trouble.) Comments like kmg’s and Peter’s are fine but they are at risk of being filtered out as spam.

    I’m just mentioning this for the benefit of people who may have sent thanks that never made it to the comments list.

    Jori: The ampersand (&) at the end of the command just tells the shell that the command you are issuing should be run in the background. This means that the shell does not wait for that command to end before giving control back to you at the prompt. That’s pretty useful for things that should continue running for a long long time like gtk-window-decorator because if you let the shell wait for it to end, you won’t get a shell prompt again unless gtk-window-decorator dies unexpectedly.

    brujus: Setting up bluetooth is not a IFL90-specific problem so I have not documented how to get it running. Check this:

    https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BluetoothSetup?highlight=%28bluetooth%29

    And check in the forums at:

    http://ubuntuforums.org/

    That’s what I did and I was able to get it running without problem.

  14. 247
    brujus Says:

    Hello,
    First, let me thank you for this excellent guide.
    I have a problem with bluetooth.
    I do not know how to make it work.
    Can you help me?
    It is crazy to me. Greetings.

  15. 246
    c1rcu17 Says:

    Ok, I got the mic to record something on the digital channel, but it sounds horrible. It is full of static, and you can barely hear the voice above it. Am I doing something wrong?

  16. 245
    Jori Says:

    This is just a general linux question, not really a problem, but I figured you could answer it. When we couldn’t figure out why emerald was causing slowdowns, you suggested that we type gtk-window-decorator –replace &. I put this in my session manager so it does it automatically, and I was just wondering. What exactly does ‘&’ at the end of that command do? I’ve noticed it at the end of other commands as well.

  17. 244
    Peter Says:

    Thank you so much man!

  18. 243
    kmg Says:

    thanks the comment was useful sound works! GREAT!

  19. 242
    Kevin Says:

    Hello,

    First, let me thank you for this wonderful guide :) I’ve just flashed my bios to 113, and finaly the suspend and hibernate work perfectly.

    I had one problem I was able to fix by myself… I thought I’d share it for other people that might encounter the same thing:
    For some reason, my Compiz was being really really slow. By fiddling around I found that setting the compiz.real priority to -5 or -6 fixed the ‘lag’ it was having completely… So I created a way to automatically set the process priority on every boot:

    There is one problem though. The script needs to be run with root-rights… Therefore we first need to give a certain command the right to be run as root without a password. (Attention: this is a potential security risk!!)

    Open a shel and run:
    sudo visudo

    then add this at the bottom:
    %admin ALL=(ALL) ALL, NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/renice

    Create the following file, you can name it ‘whateveryouwant.sh’
    #!/bin/bash
    sleep 5
    sudo renice -6 `pstree -pah | grep -i “compiz.real” | grep -v “grep” | grep -v “killer” | cut -d ‘,’ -f 2 | cut -d ‘ ‘ -f 1`

    Next, make sure the file has the right to be executed.
    After that, simply add the file to System->Prefs->Sessions Preferences. That way it will be ran on every login, and compiz will hopefully stop lagging for you :)

    Greetings

  20. 241
    c1rcu17 Says:

    I have a quick question. I got everything up and running, including the sound, but I want to use the two built in mic’s. I tried using the gusty sound recorder and messing with its settings, trying all (i think) capture sources, and raising the capture volume. No luck. Are the mic’s on the “digital” input or is it one of the others?

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