installing [debian]linux on a aopen 1559as barebook

jan 16th, 2006 - some things have changed (to the good)! so if you are starting with this notebook before i have updated this page (still testing), please send me a mail.

jan 31th, 2006 - meanwhile (not the best) photos:

this document describes my experience with assembling the aopen barebook [1], installing debian/unstable [2] on it and using it. it's not really new, but there were no specific docs in the net, only specific hardware in other laptops. i got some help and advice first from david lightman and lots of other help later.

why i choose this notebook and with it the insecurity of choosing the parts, assembling correctly and warranty? because of the price, a portabe with this configuration costs normally much more. you have the possibility to chose good parts with few EURs more instead of the usual cheapcomponents of the promotion devices. i used to open notebooks from my former ones, so i had not really fears of assembling it. and right now, i'm really satisfied with it.

lspci gives a overview:

0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/PM/GMS/910GML Express Processor to DRAM Controller (rev 03)
0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/PM Express PCI Express Root Port (rev 03)
0000:00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 04)
0000:00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #1 (rev 04)
0000:00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #2 (rev 04)
0000:00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #3 (rev 04)
0000:00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #4 (rev 04)
0000:00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 04)
0000:00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev d4)
0000:00:1e.2 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 04)
0000:00:1e.3 Modem: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 04)
0000:00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FBM (ICH6M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 04)
0000:00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801FBM (ICH6M) SATA Controller (rev 04)
0000:00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 04)
0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV43 [GeForce Go 6600] (rev a2)
0000:06:05.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications, Inc. AR5212 802.11abg NIC (rev 01)
0000:06:07.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8169 Gigabit Ethernet (rev 10)
0000:06:09.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCIxx21/x515 Cardbus Controller
0000:06:09.2 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
0000:06:09.3 Mass storage controller: Texas Instruments PCIxx21 Integrated FlashMedia Controller
0000:06:09.4 0805: Texas Instruments PCI6411, PCI6421, PCI6611, PCI6621, PCI7411, PCI7421, PCI7611, PCI7621 Secure Digital (SD) Controller

well, here is a short note to the assembling of this device because of the lack of a documentation from aopen. it was a bit easier for me, i already have opend several notebooks and they are using nearly the same system. harddisk and memory are easy, there are covers at the bottom side for them. the other things are more tricky.

to install the components at the upper side (cpu, wireless, keyboard) you have to open the panel with the speakers and media player. there are two screws at the bottom side behind the cover of the memory. after screwing them off you lift the panel at the back side using a finger nail (or similar) to open the catches of the two knolls. then you open the display 180° and lift the panel from the keyboard side (catchers too). that's it. there are four screws to lift the fan of the cpu (right side), put in the cpu, lock it and fix the fan.

the wireless module is easy to install, there are already the wires from the antennas there, just plug it in, fix it, plug antennas in... *aaaargggghhh* forgot it. there is one thing with the gigabyte-module. you have to sellotape pin13 of the module according to [5]. the wireless led is always lighting and the wirelessbutton on the left side doesn't switch it on/off. the ipw2200 doesn't need this taping according to david lightman.

for the keyboard you have to lift the small ring of the keyboardplug socket, put the ribbon cable in and fix the ring. push the keyboard in and close the panel. take care of the wires there.

there are some issues for the built-in dvd. i chose the toshiba slimline dvd writer because of its price in comparison with the specs. the bay for it seems to be a standard, it fits without any adapters nor problems. the only thing was that the cover does not have the shape of the notebookcase. the problem was that the dvd tray cover was a little bit to high for open without helping. so i cut it more or less one milimeter (with sandpaper), now it opens perfectly. you can seperate the cover from the dvd, there are some catches, for manipulating it. i'll make a photo of the bay later.

so, this shoud be the part of assembling. not difficult, is it?

starting now with the ubuntu breezy 5.10 [3] works fine. the most important parts have been working, so i haven't test it exactly. installing sid was more interesting. i made a fault while assembling the cpu. i hadn't fixed it correctly so the computer hadn't turned on, not even until the bios screen.

i downloaded two images of netinstall cds, one for testing and later the stable netinst-img.

first i tried the etch/testing boot-cd. at the beginning the cdrom wasn't detected when looking for package archives. this is caused by the ata_piix sata driver. a workaround is that you boot into expert mode, disable the ata_piix module until the packages have been read in, and then activate it (the installer will ask you later) [6].
unfortunately the installer stopps at 70% package installation (configuring apt). while writing this lines i got the idea that this can be caused by the problem with the sata/cdrom and apt is configuring the sources for cdroms too - not verified nor tested, just a thought.

then i tried with the sarge/stable installer, kernel 2.4. the installer works ok, but the harddisk and cdrom are detected as ide and are very slow (well, i had that time). kernel 2.6 at the installer-cd hasn't worked (i dont remember why).
installation continues, in expert mode you might change the apt-sources to unstable, and the installation finishes. for netinstalling i used the ethernet connection.

after rebooting i downloaded new kernel-sources, compiled them with sata included, changed the fstab to /dev/sdaX and now the harddisk works with a normal speed. for working both harddisk and cdrom see section cdrom.

the intel cpu works fine, speedstepping is working with four levels between 800MHz and 1,73GHz with powernowd installed (debian package). the speedstepping is compiled into the kernel, see .config. calibration delay gives 3463.19 BogoMIPS.

the disk works fine with the kernel-drivers (scsi disk support CONFIG_BLK_DEV_SD and Intel PIIX/ICH SATA support CONFIG_SCSI_ATA_PIIX) compiled in the kernel, i enabled the 32bit data in the bios and get with hdparm -tT /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
 Timing cached reads:   2816 MB in  2.00 seconds = 1407.91 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:   92 MB in  3.00 seconds =  30.62 MB/sec

i read at [7] that there are problems with spinning down the harddisk, because hdparm doesn't work for scsi-drives. i applied the patches as described there. the hdparm now gives me a info, and even smartctl works (just tested the info options smartctl -a -d ata /dev/sda) [8].

by default the dvd wouldn't work with the sata driver. this because the sata/atapi bridge isn't enabled (i hope i decribed it correctly). you have to append
libata.atapi_enabled=1
to the kernel boot command line (stolen from [7]). both harddisk and dvd are working fine, but i haven't tested writing and watching a dvd.

i choose the atheros chipset because i already knew there is a good driver from the madwifi-project[4]. the driver compiles without problems and works great. now i'm using debian archives from [11] by writing

# madwifi deb snapshots
deb ftp://debian.marlow.dk/ sid madwifi
deb-src ftp://debian.marlow.dk/ sid madwifi

apt-get install madwifi-tools madwifi-source
cd /usr/src
tar xvzf madwifi.tar.gz
cd linux
make-kpkg --added-modules madwifi modules_image 

works fine, don't forget to compile the EHCI_HCD _and_ UHCI_HCD driver for low speed peripheral devices. the drivers says that there are 8 usb ports, but on the back side are just three. maybe there are some internal ports for extra hardware. sugestions?

driver loads, but i have nothing tested already. a external harddisk and a small videocam are possible for me to test, but later.

the cardservices start with no problem (yenta socket in the kernel config). i'd tested it with a modem-card and a scsi-caqrd, both are working fine.

the internal cardreader is on the texas multi-controller, but i haven't found any driver yet. there is one for winbond chips in the kernel source, that's it. i found a project for the texas FlashMedia controller at [9], but in a very early stage. maybe anyone could help?
other informations are on [16].

here are some multimedia keys. i got them working with acerhk [10], compile with no problems (version 0.5.28). more exactly, they five keys on the left side plus Fn+F1 plus Fn+F4 are sending keycodes. you can use them easyly in gnome with keyboard shortcuts in the gnome-config.
the power, lid and standby-buttons are working with acpi. the player-buttons apears in the log of acerhk, but doesn't send anything yet. wireless led cannot be controlled, too. thanks to olaf taubner for helping.

the internal touchpad works fine, scrolling pages with the right and lower side of the pad works, there is a right mousebutton at the lower right corner and a mittle mousebutton at the upper right corner of the pad. detecting of the amount of the fingers touching the pad works too, standard configuration to middle (two fingers) and right (three fingers) button. funny. funny. funny. :-)
don't forget to use the evdev module (or compiled in) of the kernel to get this features, i load it with /etc/modules.

--framebuffer

framebuffer support compiled in the kernel, using vga=0x318 at kernel boot command line gives a framebuffer with 1024x768px. the mode 0x342 should bring the full resolution.
in the syslog i get a entry of

Nov 14 19:48:25 gusti kernel: nvidiafb: nVidia device/chipset 10DE0148
Nov 14 19:48:25 gusti kernel: nvidiafb: CRTC0 not found
Nov 14 19:48:25 gusti kernel: nvidiafb: CRTC1 found
Nov 14 19:48:25 gusti kernel: nvidiafb: CRTC 0 is currently programmed for DFP
Nov 14 19:48:25 gusti kernel: nvidiafb: Using DFP on CRTC 0
Nov 14 19:48:25 gusti kernel: Panel size is 1400 x 1050
Nov 14 19:48:25 gusti kernel: allocation failed: out of vmalloc space - use vmalloc= to increase size.
Nov 14 19:48:25 gusti kernel: nvidiafb: cannot ioremap FB base

i haven't found anything yet to correct this. maybe that's the reason that the videomode 0x342 does not work.

--xorg

the dexconf from debian configures the x-window-system nearly perfectly. it works out of the box with a resolution of 1400x1050 (wow, what a display! :-)), the nv opensource video driver and touchpad.
i noticed that there are small horizontal lines flashing around the screen sometimes when typing in writer or console, somewhen else. so i installed the binary-driver from nvidia [12]. changing the nv entry in the driver section to nvidia makes it work. the flashing lines now have gone. and i got around 4500 fps with glx-gears.

i read a howto of installing the nvidia driver on debain way at [17] and gave it one chance. there were no problems at all, i just have to deinstall the original nivia installer by sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-7676-pkg1.run uninstall because of different locations and versiond between the two driverpackages. interesting is that now i have about 4300 fps (glxgears), maybe becaus of the different versions of the driver (1.0-7676 and 1.0-7174)?!?

sound

sound works out of the box with alsa kernel-module snd_intel8x0 (don't forget to compile the modules snd_mixer_oss and snd_pcm_oss). the quality of the speakers is not enormous. mybe i'll look for others.

here is ia ac'97 softmodem installed. the driver is in the alsamodules too, named snd_intel8x0m. for using the modem you need a softmodem driver like sl-modem, which is in debian repository. i haven't tested the modem yet.

i haven't done much for this part. the standard acpi recognises the power, lid and standbybuttons, they are working so far. battery and power are switched correctly, reads the capacity but not the remaining time. standby to memory doesn't work at the moment. it sleeps but won't wake up again. i don't have suspent to disk configured yet, but should work with the software suspend from the kernel, as david told.

now software suspend works! i had to patch the nvidia kernel driver, installed vbetool, put the sleep scripts in the file section below to /etc/acpi, and with the sleep button (Fn + F2) the computer suspends. the atheros driver also needed to restart, i have a little startscript that loads/unloads the driver and sets the connection up. the nvidia-kernel driver needs the patch from [20].

the controlling of the brightness works, muting the speakers too (with gnome). dis/enabling the touchpad gives a beep, and the other for switching the display don't seem to work, too. have to research the acpi stuff later.

as usual i'd looked for the dsdt tabel of acpi and tried to recompile (iasl version 20051117) it, but it's always the same thing. some errors and warnings, i corrected them with the help of [18] and uploaded the table to [19] and attached it in the files section. there were no changes, or better, i don't have noticed one yet.

kernel config
Xorg config
suspend_to_ram_from_lkml.patch
02_libata_passthru.fixed.patch
03_libata_passthru_bugfix.patch
dsdt_fixed.dsl.gz
suspend to disk scripts
wlan start script - include it with update-rc.d -n wlan defaults 20

i got my printer working. because here is no parport (instead the dmidecode says one exists) i had to use usb (luckily my old printer has one), and it installed without problems. plugged in the printer (with usb-printer support in the kernel as module compiled) and configured it over cups webinterface, and the testpage passed on the first attempt.

nice things, the gnome-art package in debian.

i'm using a tablet too. bought it a a disconter (lidl), is a aiptek T6000U, and works with the 'still in development' opensource driver at [13]. read the mailing lists, the cvs is a bit confused and the homepage partly out of date.

this page is just for information and helping anyone. all things you can do at your own risk, i'm not responsible for any damage happens nor anything.
but, if you have suggestions or hints or anything, feel free to mail to masc at operamail dot com.

thanx to david lightman, olaf taubner and espacially aquin for hosting this page.

[1] http://www.aopen.de
[2] http://www.debian.org
[3] http://www.ubuntu.com
[4] http://www.madwifi.org
[5] http://www.madwifi.org/wiki/UserDocs/MiniPCI
[6] http://wiki.debian.org/SamsungX50/HDDandCDrom.
[7] http://linux.spiney.org/debian_gnu_linux_on_an_ibm_thinkpad_t43p
[8] http://rtr.ca/dell_i9300/
[9] http://www.webcon.ca/~imorgan/tifm21/
[10] http://www.informatik.hu-berlin.de/~tauber/acerhk/
[11] ftp://debian.marlow.dk/
[12] http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux_display_ia32_1.0-7676.html
[13] http://aiptektablet.sf.net
[14] http://www.linux-laptop.net/
[15]
[16] http://mmc.drzeus.cx/wiki/Controllers/TexasInstruments
[17] http://home.comcast.net/~andrex/Debian-nVidia
[18] http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=122145
[19] http://acpi.sourceforge.net
[20] http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=339329