(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):

  • 091101:

    • Update for Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala. This update was done to the best of my knowledge. I have not retested or reinvestigated old issues.
  • Older changes can be found here.

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 9.10 aka Karmic Koala. 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, 9.04 or 9.10.
  • 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. Thanks too to the commenters on my web site who have provided information.

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 Karmic is my guide to divide the hardware among those categories. Other distributions would have different results. 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 “Karmic”. 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 Karmic + Procedure column shows the results of applying the installation procedure described below to a stock Karmic installation.

Function Linux in general Karmic Karmic + 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 ? ?
Webcam Y Y Y
Modem Y Y Y
MMC Reader Y Y Y
FP Reader Y N RB
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

  • Video Camera: Chicony CNF6212.

  • Sound: Realtek ALC268

  • Touchpad: Elantech 810511-0911

  • 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.

  • 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)

  • 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.
    • Karmic: use the restricted drivers manager to install the closed source drivers.

  • Modem: Motorola UbiSurf(tm) SM56 Software Modem.

    • Linux in general: the drivers exist.

    • Karmic: go into the restricted drivers manager and add the one for the modem. I’ve done that and tried sending at and atdt and the modem responded. I do not know if there are problems because I don’t use modems anymore but I’m going to count it as “works”.

  • Sleep and Hibernation work in Karmic.
  • 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. IMPORTANT NOTE: in a few rare cases, after resuming from hibernation, the fan did not resume operation. If you use hibernation, do check whether your fan is working properly after resuming.

Hardware which will require manual configuration

Hardware which does not work yet

  • BlueTooth (OPTIONAL): Broadcom BCM2045 (Broadcom BCM92045MD)/Foxconn T60H928.06. BlueTooth worked fine in Hardy. Then there was a regression in Intrepid and Jaunty. I do not know whether the regression is gone in Karmic. I have not tested. There’s a bug report. Note that this issue is not specific to the IFL90 but common to a whole range of machines. It is a Linux bug, not an IFL90 bug.

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

Unknown

  • Infrared (OPTIONAL): ENE chipset… exact model unknown for now. I do not have this device.
  • TV Tuner (OPTIONAL): Lifeview LR535NTA. I don’t have a clue about this device because I have not ordered it.

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 (replace the [distribution] bit with whatever distribution you are interested in “jaunty”, “hardy”, etc.):

          deb http://lddubeau.com/downloads/ubuntu [distribution] main
          deb-src http://lddubeau.com/downloads/ubuntu [distribution] 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
        

Installation procedure for Karmic

NOTE: USE THIS PROCEDURE AT YOUR OWN PERIL.

  1. You can use either the alternate install or the desktop install. I only used the desktop install.
  2. Follow the normal Ubuntu installation instructions.
  3. Install the closed source nVidia driver.
  4. (Optional:) Install the closed source modem driver.
  5. Reboot.

Optional: You can install Cezary’s compal-laptop tool. Go over to his page and read what it does and how to install it. I don’t use it myself.

Upgrade procedure from Jaunty to Karmic

I’ve not tried to upgrade this time, so I have no specific procedure in place. The instructions above (for installing from scratch) should put you on the right track.

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”.

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.

Old Changelog

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

  • 090803:

    • Added a note again about fans not resuming after coming back from hibernation.
    • Set the status of BlueTooth support to “N” because there’s been a lingering issue in Intrepid and Jaunty. It appears that the problem will be fixed in Karmic.
    • Set the status of the fingerprint scanner to “Y” in Linux, “N” in Jaunty, and “RB” in Jaunty+Procedure. I have not developed a procedure for it and do not have time to research it. Added reference to some tools.
    • Added reference to Cezary’s compal-laptop tool.
    • Removed old cruft.
  • 090410:

    • Update for Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope.
    • Removed the instructions to upgrade from Hardy to Intrepid.
    • Changed the status of the fingerprint reader from “does not work” to “unknown”. I’ve lost track of what development has been made with supporting this hardware.
  • 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.

    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.

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Leave a Reply

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

  1. Qba says:

    @Javed: Fingerprint doesn’t work.

  2. Cezary says:

    Hello,
    today I made new wersion compal-laptop module (0.2.8: http://eko.one.pl/index.php?page=compal-laptop). Added posibility of change battery charging level (smoothly for 1 to 100%). It working for me (compal fl90+).

    Q-Charging button not working (you can set charging level to 75%, but pressing button does not loading battery do 100%).

  3. Qba: Caller ID and Off-hook have to do with the modem I think. I don’t use the mic in Windows so I don’t know about any “disable background noise” option.

    tweetdezweet: Welcome to the party. There should be no significant difference in booting times between 32bits and 64bits, afaik.

    Javed: I think Qba is correct that the figrerprint scanner does not work yet. There is work being done but I’m not up to date on what is going on with it. Search in the comments to find out.

    Cezary: Thanks for the update. I really should add a link to your software in my instructions. It might have to wait until I upgrade to Intrepid or upgrade my BIOS or do something major which requires editing of the pages.

  4. Krzysztof says:

    Hello,

    I’ve just bought Compal JFL92 on santa rosa refresh. But i found very strange thing – when i’m booting live cd Ubuntu Hardy, Kubuntu Hardy, Fedora 9 – after udev starts (on fedora) i can hear from right speaker (or somewhere from this area) a litle noise. Similar noise can occure when you will unplugg or plugg in turned on speakers. When gnome starts to load this noise starts to be like: “knock, knock,knock….”. I don’t know what cause this issue and how to solve it. What is strange this issue doesn’t occure on Ubuntu Feisty.

  5. Qba says:

    R U from Poland? I you are, feel free to contact me on my gg 1671925. Rearding sound card noise I think it has something to do with power management, and waking up sound card when needed (normally system disables sound card to save power).

  6. sager owner says:

    I have been getting a strange freezing over the past few weeks. At seemingly random intervals my laptop will freeze and the num and caps lock keys would flash and everything goes totally inactive. I have to reboot it by holding the power button. I don’t even where to look for error messages to support this.

    Rarely after these frozen reboots, my keyboard won’t work to log in. After a few more reboots the keyboard seems to come back. Any ideas?

  7. sager owner and Krzysztof: I have not experienced the symptoms you are reporting so I don’t know what you can do to fix those.

    In unrelated news: there is definitely a problem with running the restricted nvidia drivers + compiz and trying to put the laptop to sleep. Here’s the deal. I first installed Ubuntu 8.04 and experienced lockups on resume from sleep. Then I switched to Kubuntu for several months: no problem at all. Then I recently came back to Ubuntu and the freeze problems came back. I’m now going to try EnvyNG and see if with the latest nVidia driver, the problem goes away.

    BTW, EnvyNG is much nicer than Envy. Alberto Milone took care to integrate it well with Ubuntu.

  8. EnvyNG is really nice. Envy was useful but did a lot of things behind the scenes, outside the packaging system. EnvyNG does not seem to do anything which would confuse the packaging system. The only caveat I can think of with using EnvyNG is that if you use a driver which is not officially shipped with Ubuntu, you can’t file on Launchpad bug reports which are likely to be related to the driver.

  9. Upgrading to the latest nVidia driver did not fix my freezing problems. Time to test a newer BIOS.

    • Tiago says:

      Hello Louis,

      I’ve just installed FC10 x86_64 in a Compal IFL 90 and I am experience the same lock ups when resuming from suspend as you describe.

      Did the BIOS upgrade had any effect?

      Regards!

      • I’m using BIOS 1.18 and my Ubuntu installation is updated to the latest stable release. Kernel version:

        Linux bodhi 2.6.27-9-generic #1 SMP Thu Nov 20 22:15:32 UTC 2008 x86_64 GNU/Linux.

        My nVidia driver is now 177.82.

        With this combination, freezes upon resuming are very very rare. It is unclear to me whether the solution was the BIOS upgrade or a kernel upgrade or a later nVidia driver upgrade. Or it could be a combination of all three together. I can’t be more specific.

        • Tiago says:

          Ok, thank you.

          I made all the upgrades last night. Now, I have:
          FC10 x86_64
          BIOS v1.19
          KERNEL 2.6.27.12
          NVIDIA 180.22

          And still, the resume from suspend will let the screen blank and the keyboard unresponsive most of the times.

          I also tried a solution that worked for me when I was using open suse 10.3. I used the s2ram package. See here:
          http://tiago.estima.googlepages.com/Install_log_Linux_OpenS.html

          In Fedora the s2ram (with the -f -a3 flags) only fails rarely.

          I will keep investigation this issue.

          Regards!

  10. Upgraded to BIOS 1.18. Will report anything worth reporting.

  11. Xan says:

    Hi Louis,
    I was wondering if you found a solution to the fan stop after hibernating, because I’m experiencing the same issue, and to not being able to use hibernating is quite annoying :o s

    Thanks by advance to let me know,

    Cheers!

  12. Hi Xan,

    Sorry for the delay. I have not experienced the fan problem in a very long time. I don’t know whether it is because of a software upgrade or something else.

  13. Jori says:

    Hey Louis,

    I recently installed arch linux on my ifl90, and everything is working great, except that compiz seems to be running a tad slower than it did on ubuntu. I’m trying to troubleshoot the problem and was wondering if you could email me your xorg.conf, or post it. Thanks!

  14. Revan says:

    Louis-Dominique >> J’ai toujours le BIOS 1.13 et je suis passé sur Intrepid (noyau 2.6.27). Il semblerait que l’hibernation et la mise en veille fonctionne et qu’au réveil , les ventilos fonctionnent bien a priori.
    Donc je pense que le nouveau noyau apporte pas mal d’améliorations de ce point de vue là.
    Bon par contre, on peut toujours pas déconnecter/connecter un périphériques (USB) pendant la mise en hibernatino, ca semble faire planter, mais bon, c’est anecdotique ça…
    Voilà @++

  15. @Jori: I’ll send you my xorg.conf.

    @Revan: Merci pour l’info.

  16. Cezary says:

    BTW: fingerprint works with Fingerprint GUI and libbsapi.so –
    without problem. In GUI or console (debian, 32bit).

  17. sum41 says:

    @cezary
    how did you do?

  18. sum41 says:

    fingerprint works great for me (hardy ifl90)! follow the instructions in this file: http://www.n-view.net/Appliance//fingerprint/ubuntu-step-by-step.pdf

    you will need to adapt the file /etc/udev/rules.d/50-libfprint0.rules once it has been created. simply add the following line at the end:
    ATTRS{idVendor}==”147e”, ATTRS{idProduct}==”2016″, MODE=”0664″, GROUP=”plugdev”

    continue the installation afterwords and everything will work great!!!

  19. Jori says:

    Louis,

    I never got your xorg.conf. Perhaps I entered my email wrong. It is jyro215 at gmail dot com.

  20. Krzemin says:

    New version of Compal Laptop Control (0.3.2) supporting changing battery charging level with compal-laptop 0.2.9: http://krzemin.iglu.cz/compal-laptop-control