REQ: linux install guide

I was actually thinking of writing something up for this... skewed for Gentoo Linux, which is what I've got installed here.

It all pretty much boils down to the kernel configuration, drivers, and XFree86 setup, however.

I'll post a message when the first version's complete, so I can get corrections and updates. Yes, it'd be extraordinarily helpful to have documents such as these for those who'd like to run linux on their sager/prostar/...

beakmyn,

I am getting my sager at the end of the week, and i believe by the start of next week it will be installed, configured ....I will then of course post a link to a guide, but it won't be with a general title "Linux on a laptop". Why ? Simply cause there is not one, but various way to install linux, as well as a lot of information on the web, covering every laptops.

I will be posting a link who shows the point specific to the Sager laptops, and where things are tricky under linux ( ex: Firewire, USB 2.0, tailored sound drivers and particulary the STD or Suspend to Disk or hibernation, which is particulary hard to get working on linux)

I believe the dual booting is covered on the web largely enough, if any of you have problems finding relevant links, don't hesitate to ask Start on www.google.com/linux or even www.google.com/bsd.

beakmyn, oops check this too http://sagerforums.com/forums/showth...5&pagenumber=6

I know I'd love to see one... cause the Sager 8886 is the crappiest machine ever to try to instal linux on at the moment. I just blew a bunch of crap away when I moved back from an experimental version of QT. Yeah, that shouldn't screw up X11, should it? ARRRGH! Plus I can't get my pcmcia worknig worth **** and that's just the beginning of the problems I've been having.

Linux RoXs .....

ROBOTHOUSE!
Bahhh, don't despair. I have posted some info on how to install the gfx drivers. No current Linux distro will install them properly
Let me know if you need the link...Lets take your problem one at the time. Linux requires patience, but when you'll get a working system, you won't regret the perfs. ( Did i mention : Desktop: Debian Linux Sid instable (buhahaha) Linux 2.4.20 kernel with preempt patch and low latency, AMD 2000+, Asus Mobo KT400 chipset, 512 MB of 400 Mhz PC3200 DDR ram, dual WD 80 Gigs 8 megs cache RaidO FastTrack PCI card, Ati 9000 Pro Hercules 128 MB DDR : Quake3Arena 1024x768 FULL details, textures etc....240/250 FPS ). I have currently running : Half Life, CS, SoF I (Native Linux Loki version) SoF II (thanks wine), Alice in Wonderland, AoE, UT, UT2k3 ( 70/80 FPS 1024x768), Max Paine and tweaking Tony Hawk Pro Skater III now but it is a pain...)

By the way, what PCMCIA card do you want to use ? WiFi ? Network ? You should install the package called pcmcia-cs, and uses the serial interface of the package. But essentially i need to know what pcmcia card you are using.....Unfortunately linux isn't user friendly, but really performing and free....plenty of different user interfaces...etc.

Hey ROBOT, you and me have been working on the same problem for awhile. The pcmcia-cs package will not work correctly with our PCMCIA controller. The guys at the pcmcia-cs told me I should be using kernel drivers. I did and I almost got everything working. Compile with PCMCIA support and cardbus support. You have to use the yenta_socket module, ds, then run cardmgr -f. That should detect your card. Then, emerge wireless-tools and use iwconfig. I used this link:

http://www.linuxonthego.com/articles.php?article=3com

Just ignore the stuff at the beginning on installing the card drivers, cardmgr should load them for you on your Belkin.

laclasse,
I saw your post on the 9000 drivers. Are you sure the commercial 9000 chip is the same as the Mobility chip?

Not same ship, but same drivers yes...

Pretty sure yes. Read the toms Hardware review of the M9 chip, it is basically a 9000 chip with power savings....Getting the 5660 this friday, and should confirm any doubt. Thanks for the pcmcia-cs tip. By the way, SOUND ship ??? Who can post the result of lspci -vv as root here ? Thank you....

dirtboy,

Couln't find my post again about the Graphic drivers install. Has it been moved ? If so where ??? A link will be mint

Linux Guide....The Beginning...

As promised, the linux install guide on the 5660 is in the works. As well i will need help for porting that to the 8886/8887. Very curious about TV Tuner and Smartcard reader/MP3 player. How will that get recognised under Linux ?

For all you desperate Linux users, i have found a link that will help you a great deal. Only thing not accurate so far in the X drivers as this laptop was a ATI 7500 Mob card instead of the 9000.
http://cpbotha.net/clevo5600/clevo5600_linux/

check it out !. As well, i have find my post again, and for anybody wishing Hardware 3D acceleration on linux. Here is the post. Enjoy.

http://sagerforums.com/forums/showth...5&pagenumber=3



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Dirtoy, right now pcmcia has dropped to low priority on my list. I screwed up my x11 by going from an experimental version of QT to the stable version of QT. Why? Because I wanted to use QT Designer, which was seg-faulting under the exp. version. This apparently blew up something I did not know hot to fix. I tried to emerge update world, but things are still broke. Actually, I'm getting a failure when trying the emerge. I'm in a pissy mood about linux right now, and will have to use another computer till I have more time to dick around with the laptop. Woe is me. I'll probably wait till someone writes a man ual about how to do it specifically for my machine, as I don't have enough time (I've already spent a month straight trying to get it to work.) So, I guess WinXP will have to do until I happen upon some free time on the weekends.

Hardware and modules on the 8886 (might be the same for 5660):

Sound: Intel ICH i8xx
Video: Vesa (vesa FB works if tyou want high resolution console)
PCMCIA: TI 1520
USB: UHCI
Power: ACPI support
IDE: Intel PIIXn
Internal Lan: RealTek RTL-8139
AGP: Intel 440LX/etc.

I haven't gotten Firewire or Video for Linux working yet. Don't have any firewire devices and want to make sure the video drivers work first.

On the PCMCIA controlller, Dave at pcmcia-cs says he will be including an exception check for TI 1520 in the next beta to see if that allows it to work correctly.

Also, the USB smartcard reader (mp3 player) shows up as a SCSI mass storage device with emulation. I haven't actually tried to mount it yet.

What X drivers were you running when the new QT crashed your display ?

usb mass storage device

Requires usbcore, usb-serial, ide-scci and usb-storage compiled in or as modules. to mount a mass storage device try:
mount -t vfat /dev/sdaX /mnt/smartcard (after mkdir -p /mnt/smartcard of course ) where X is 0 to 4. My usb zip mounts on sda4, while my dig camera mounts on sda5. Reason is that zips need 3 ghost devices ( /dev/sda0 to /dev/sda3). In your case, the smartcard should "land" on /dev/sda0, if you have no other 'real' or 'emulated' SCSI storage devices. Hope that help

Vesa

dirtboy,

Arghhh vesa, install real drivers

I'm none too sure. On second thought, I think that my drop back to a suppported QT just fried my KDM ir KDE or whatever settings. I don't know how to fix em so I'm gonna start from scratch.

I was using an experimental version of xserver that had radeon video support, and my card was running at a managable rate, as opposed to the vesa drivers, if that helps any.

I figure you could try this by opening up emerge for experimental package use and emerging the newest xserver, but NOTHING else. You see everything was working peachy until I did an emerge --update world with the experimental package use still on.

Ummm, the answer will have been to emerge all but the Xwindows system. Where you using X 4.2.99 ? Cause that is what i use on LFS and the DRI M9 driver works good. But you would have to build X manually, not emerging it. My friends use a radeon 9000 desktop and he told me that gentoo has an ati-driver package. emerge ati_drivers or something. If interested i can look into it for you.

triple

on another thread, there i was curious about a triple boot, done a dual plenty of times, not a triple though. win/mandrake win/freebsd win/suse win/redhat. So, is there any diff in the way a 2 os dual is installed from a 3 os install?

I don't really think there is any difference between setting up a dual boot or a triple boot. I have done both. Long as you have a partition for it, I don't see a problem. I tripple booted win98/XP/Linux...and I don't see any reason why you couldn't boot as many different OS's as you want.