[This is the first revised page. The original page is here and the current page page is here.]
Intel 700 PIII w/Speedstep
Intel 82440MX Chipset
Intel 82440MX USB Controller
TI PCI 1410 Cardbus PC Card Controller
NEC OHCI IEEE 1394 Interface
Askar HSP56 MR Winmodem
Crystal 4299 AC97 Sound (Intel i810)
Realtek RTL8139 10/100
ATI Rage Mobility M PCI
1024 x 768 12.1" display
Synaptics PS/2 Port Touchpad
20 Gig HD (Hitachi BK23BA-20)
Mitsumi USB Floppy
Toshiba DVD-ROM SD-C2502 (external - IDE)
This is the revised page. To see the original page visit This page
The system is very light (about 3.5 lbs.) and, as you can see, all of the drives are external (I have the floppy and the DVD stacked on top of each other on the left in the picture.) Like all small notebooks, there are a lot of compromises in the design, some good, some not so. Most of the connectors, including the ide, two USB, one 1394, the modem and the NIC and the single PCMCIA slot, are all on the left edge. That's a lot of stuff. The push-button for the release of the PCMCIA card is around ¼" from the NIC cable. If you want to use a USB mouse and you're right-handed, you have to string the cable around the system. The right edge has the IR port, and a large vent for the fan. The fan is fairly loud, and has a will of its own. There is no software or hardware control for it; it's probably locked into a CPU heat sensor.
The keyboard has an inverted T of arrow keys art the lower right. There's a function key at the lower left which converts the arrows to PGUP, PGDN, HOME and END. This presents some key-mapping challenges in Linux. DELETE/SCRLOCK is at the upper right edge. just next to INSERT/NUMLOCK. The keyboard is 'almost' full size; it seems easier to use than the one on my old Toshiba Portege 650. I'm getting used to it.
USB and IEEE 1394 devices should insert on the fly without a problem, but since the DVD is actually an IDE device, you are warned not to attach or remove it unless the unit is powered down.
There are no legacy ports. Period.
The system came with Windows™ ME pre-installed, and the disk set up in what appears to be a typical Compaq way: large C drive on a primary partition, smallish D drive inside a logical partition, occupied by a large set of 'recover data' files (about 1.4 Gig). There is a 'rescue' CD which is really a floppy image, and which can recover the system to its as-delivered state by reading the files on D.
After some exploration of the system, I copied the recovery data off to another system and put it onto tape. I expanded the logical partition holding D drive and added several Linux partitions. I then removed the primary partition and installed Windows™ 2000 from scratch. The Compaq drivers for Windows™ 2000 were all available from their web site and all worked well.
This year, after loaning the laptop to my significant other when her iMAC suffered apparently irreparaible harm, I got the laptop back and decided to take some time off over the holidays reinstalling Linux. I had left the system in a bit of a state, with a Debian Woody pre-release install with a custom 2.2.19 kernel, and another Debian woody install in the other bootable linux partition, this one with a very trashy 2.4.xx kernel. The reinstall of Debian 3.0r1, which I decided to do from scratch, turned out to be a breeze.
Using a Bootable ISO I did a base install with a 2.2.20 kernel, and immediately upgraded to a 2.4.18 kernel, still using the ext2 file system. And basically, there is no story: everything works 'right out of the box,' including sound, usb (and the floppy,) X-Free 4.1, apm modules, and the infamous yenta/orinoco modules for my Linksys WPC11 wireless card. This time around I was wise enough to avoid auto-starting the built-in ethernet adapter, so on just the wireless it's a fast and clean boot, and acceptable if somewhat erratic performance.
Debian still has it's issues as a 'just a bit behind the leading edge' distribution. It assumes that a 'floppy' is /dev/fd0, so a lot of diskette utilities still fail. Other distributions are beginning to deal with usb-based floppies and refining their assumptions a bit. DVD support looks like it will be a challenge. But still, it was a very smooth install, both times. (Well, I won't go into how I trashed the partition shortly after the first install; entirely my fault.
from my old report:
I've seen reports that the Lucent ASKAR linmodem may work with one of the Lucent™ binary drivers. I've tried the one in linux568.zip, but it reports an interrupt conflict and fails. This 'modem' performs poorly even under Win2K with custom drivers from Compaq, so that's one Linux problem I'll probably not bother trying to solve.
I haven't bothered with the modem under Woody.
My next adventure was to try to replace the other linux bootable with a different distribution. I was keen to try Mandrake 9.0. I downloaded the ISOs, booted up, and the installation 'seemed' to go well. It's just that I couldn't get the system to boot. The kernel (2.4.19) would try to run INIT, and stop dead. I tried re-installing with 'safer' options, and still no joy. Gave up.
Plan B was back to SuSE, now up to version 8.1. I booted from an 8.1 boot ISO and dragged through the notoriously slow (throttled) FTP installation. I just installed a minimim system, intending to see that all three systens (WIN2K, Debian and SuSE) booted OK before investing any more time. Except that when I tried to boot, I got a dread 'bad partition table' message and an apparently dead box. Damn SuSE! What the heck had they done?
Turns out that it was nothing more (or less) than marking the Win2K partition (which still held the only valid MBR) as in active (or non-bootable, for purists.) I rescued that with a DOS floppy, of all things, and FDISK, and I was back in business. Win2K loaded my Debian LILO, which loaded the SuSE GRUB, and off it went. (I've cross-linked the various boot loaders, so Win2K can boot Debian or SuSE directly; Debian can boot Win2K or SuSE, and SuSE can also boot Win2K. I can spend all day hopping between boot loaders.) Still tweaking the SuSE install, mainly because they throttle their FTP install so badly. But it's up and running and, as in Debian, everything works, within reason.
I'm using alsa sound drivers in SuSE, and OSS in Debian. Kernels are close to identical, and I run Windowmaker/GNOME on both. Kylix 3.0 Open Edition works in both.
So here are some key configuration files.
Debian 3.0r1 files:
/etc/X11/XF86Config_04
### BEGIN DEBCONF SECTION
# XF86Config-4 (XFree86 server configuration file) generated by dexconf, the
# Debian X Configuration tool, using values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the XF86Config-4 manual page.
# (Type "man XF86Config-4" at the shell prompt.)
#
# If you want your changes to this file preserved by dexconf, only make changes
# before the "### BEGIN DEBCONF SECTION" line above, and/or after the
# "### END DEBCONF SECTION" line below.
#
# To change things within the debconf section, run the command:
# dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86
# as root. Also see "How do I add custom sections to a dexconf-generated
# XF86Config or XF86Config-4 file?" in /usr/share/doc/xfree86-common/FAQ.gz.
Section "Files"
FontPath "unix/:7100" # local font server
# if the local font server has problems, we can fall back on these
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/Type1"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi"
EndSection
Section "Module"
Load "GLcore"
Load "bitmap"
Load "dbe"
Load "ddc"
Load "dri"
Load "extmod"
Load "freetype"
Load "glx"
Load "int10"
Load "pex5"
Load "record"
Load "speedo"
Load "type1"
Load "vbe"
Load "xie"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "keyboard"
Option "CoreKeyboard"
Option "XkbRules" "xfree86"
Option "XkbModel" "pc104"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Protocol" "PS/2"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "ImPS/2"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Generic Video Card"
Driver "ati"
Option "UseFBDev" "true"
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Generic Monitor"
HorizSync 28-50
VertRefresh 43-75
Option "DPMS"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "Generic Video Card"
Monitor "Generic Monitor"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 1
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 4
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 15
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen "Default Screen"
InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"
InputDevice "Configured Mouse"
InputDevice "Generic Mouse"
EndSection
Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection
### END DEBCONF SECTION
/proc/modules listing
Module Size Used by Not tainted nls_cp437 4384 2 (autoclean) vfat 9276 1 (autoclean) fat 29080 0 (autoclean) [vfat] sg 27972 0 (unused) usb-storage 48000 0 (unused) scsi_mod 84984 1 [sg usb-storage] usb-uhci 21028 0 (unused) usbcore 48192 0 [usb-storage usb-uhci] orinoco_cs 4296 1 orinoco 29280 0 [orinoco_cs] hermes 3360 0 [orinoco_cs orinoco] ds 6464 1 [orinoco_cs] yenta_socket 8384 1 pcmcia_core 38656 0 [orinoco_cs ds yenta_socket] apm 8892 1 i810_audio 19968 0 (unused) ac97_codec 9376 0 [i810_audio] soundcore 3556 2 [i810_audio] 8139too 13632 0 (unused) mii 1088 0 [8139too] af_packet 11432 0 (unused) rtc 5368 0 (autoclean) ext2 30400 3 (autoclean) ide-disk 6592 5 (autoclean) ide-probe-mod 7968 0 (autoclean) ide-mod 129420 5 (autoclean) [ide-disk ide-probe-mod] ext3 56544 0 (autoclean) jbd 34968 0 (autoclean) [ext3] unix 13316 18 (autoclean)
pci device list:
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 82440MX I/O Controller (rev 01) 00:00.1 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corp. 82440MX AC'97 Audio Controller 00:00.2 Modem: Intel Corp.: Unknown device 7196 00:07.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82440MX PCI to ISA Bridge (rev 01) 00:07.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82440MX EIDE Controller 00:07.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82440MX USB Universal Host Controller 00:07.3 Bridge: Intel Corp. 82440MX Power Management Controller 00:08.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1410 PC card Cardbus Controller (rev 01) 00:09.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Rage Mobility P/M (rev 64) 00:0a.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139 (rev 10) 00:0b.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): NEC Corporation: Unknown device 00cd (rev 02)
SuSE 8.1 files
/etc/XF86Config (by SaX):
# /.../
# SaX generated XFree86 config file
# Created on: 2002-12-31.
#
# Version: 4.7
# Contact: Marcus Schaefer , 2001
#
# Automatically generated by [ISaX] (4.7)
# PLEASE DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE!
#
Section "Files"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/local"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/URW"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/PEX"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/latin2/misc:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/latin2/75dpi:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/latin2/100dpi:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/latin2/Type1"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/latin7/75dpi:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/baekmuk:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/japanese:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/kwintv"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/truetype"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/uni"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/CID"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/ucs/misc"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/ucs/75dpi:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/ucs/100dpi:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/hellas/misc:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/hellas/75dpi:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/hellas/100dpi:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/hellas/Type1"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc/sgi"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/xtest"
InputDevices "/dev/ttyS0"
InputDevices "/dev/ttyS1"
InputDevices "/dev/ttyS2"
InputDevices "/dev/ttyS3"
InputDevices "/dev/ttyS4"
InputDevices "/dev/ttyS5"
InputDevices "/dev/ttyS6"
InputDevices "/dev/ttyS7"
InputDevices "/dev/ttyS8"
InputDevices "/dev/psaux"
InputDevices "/dev/logibm"
InputDevices "/dev/sunmouse"
InputDevices "/dev/atibm"
InputDevices "/dev/amigamouse"
InputDevices "/dev/atarimouse"
InputDevices "/dev/inportbm"
InputDevices "/dev/gpmdata"
InputDevices "/dev/mouse"
InputDevices "/dev/usbmouse"
InputDevices "/dev/adbmouse"
InputDevices "/dev/input/mice"
InputDevices "/dev/input/event0"
InputDevices "/dev/pointer0"
InputDevices "/dev/pointer1"
InputDevices "/dev/pointer2"
InputDevices "/dev/pointer3"
EndSection
Section "ServerFlags"
Option "AllowMouseOpenFail"
EndSection
Section "Module"
Load "dbe"
Load "type1"
Load "speedo"
Load "freetype"
Load "extmod"
Load "glx"
Load "v4l"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
Driver "Keyboard"
Identifier "Keyboard[0]"
Option "MapName" "Generic keyboard [ pc101 ]"
Option "Protocol" "Standard"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
Option "XkbModel" "pc101"
Option "XkbRules" "xfree86"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
Driver "mouse"
Identifier "Mouse[1]"
Option "Device" "/dev/mouse"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "on"
Option "Name" "Autodetection"
Option "Protocol" "ps/2"
Option "Vendor" "Sysp"
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
Option "CalcAlgorithm" "CheckDesktopGeometry"
HorizSync 31-65
Identifier "Monitor[0]"
ModelName "1024X768@70HZ"
VendorName "--> LCD"
VertRefresh 58-78
UseModes "Modes[0]"
EndSection
Section "Modes"
Identifier "Modes[0]"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
DefaultDepth 16
SubSection "Display"
Depth 15
Modes "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1024x768"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 32
Modes "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "640x480"
EndSubSection
Device "Device[0]"
Identifier "Screen[0]"
Monitor "Monitor[0]"
EndSection
Section "Device"
BoardName "3D Rage P/M Mobility"
BusID "0:9:0"
Driver "ati"
Identifier "Device[0]"
VendorName "ATI"
EndSection
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Layout[all]"
InputDevice "Keyboard[0]" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Mouse[1]" "CorePointer"
Option "Clone" "off"
Option "Xinerama" "off"
Screen "Screen[0]"
EndSection
Section "DRI"
Group "video"
Mode 0660
EndSectionlsmod:
Module Size Used by Not tainted isa-pnp 29664 0 (unused) ipv6 138964 -1 (autoclean) orinoco_cs 4488 1 orinoco 29912 0 [orinoco_cs] hermes 5700 0 [orinoco_cs orinoco] ds 6436 1 [orinoco_cs] yenta_socket 9536 1 pcmcia_core 40448 0 [orinoco_cs ds yenta_socket] joydev 5600 0 (unused) evdev 4352 0 (unused) input 3168 0 [joydev evdev] usb-uhci 21612 0 (unused) af_packet 12904 1 (autoclean) 8139too 14280 1 mii 1056 0 [8139too] snd-intel8x0 18848 0 snd-pcm 63328 0 [snd-intel8x0] snd-timer 11524 0 [snd-pcm] snd-ac97-codec 26628 0 [snd-intel8x0] snd-mpu401-uart 3296 0 [snd-intel8x0] snd-rawmidi 13920 0 [snd-mpu401-uart] snd-seq-device 4140 0 [snd-rawmidi] snd 31300 0 [snd-intel8x0 snd-pcm snd-timer snd-ac97-codec snd-mpu401-uart snd-rawmidi snd-seq-device] usbcore 56768 1 [usb-uhci snd] soundcore 3396 0 [snd] nls_iso8859-1 2812 1 (autoclean) nls_cp437 4316 1 (autoclean) vfat 9620 1 (autoclean) fat 30584 0 (autoclean) [vfat] lvm-mod 62976 0 (autoclean)
lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 82440MX Host Bridge (rev 01) 00:00.1 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corp. 82440MX AC'97 Audio Controller 00:00.2 Modem: Intel Corp. 82440MX AC'97 Modem Controller 00:07.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82440MX ISA Bridge (rev 01) 00:07.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82440MX EIDE Controller 00:07.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82440MX USB Universal Host Controller 00:07.3 Bridge: Intel Corp. 82440MX Power Management Controller 00:08.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1410 PC card Cardbus Controller (rev 01) 00:09.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Rage Mobility P/M (rev 64) 00:0a.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10) 00:0b.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): NEC Corporation IEEE 1394 [OrangeLink] Host Controller (rev 02)
Document maintained by rgm at fabbnet.net. last update: January 12, 2003