Last time I checked, ACPI was very experimental code? Of course, last time I
checked was against a 2.4.4 kernel, and I have no idea how the ACPI code in
2.2 works.
If ACPI is absolutely not necessary, I would recommend going with a 2.4
release. When I enabled ACPI, my kernel panicked when I rebooted, so maybe
they fixed something in 2.4.5.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Alex Hewitt USG" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2001 4:41 PM
Subject: Experience trying to install Linux on laptop
> I thought I'd post my recent experiences trying to get Linux running on my
> Compaq 1700XL notebook computer.
>
> A few details about the system:
>
> o 600 mhz Pentium III with Speedstep technology
>
> o 192 megs of ram
>
> o 6 gig hard drive
>
> o DVD player (Future bay - swappable with floppy)
>
> o Touchpad mouse (PS/2)
>
> o ATI Rage Mobility graphics
>
> o ESS Allegro sound
>
> o Win modem
>
> o 14.1 TFT 1024x768 LCD panel
>
> o ACPI power management circuitry *
>
> * This last item caused lot's of headaches.
>
> My first attempt - install Mandrake 7.2:
>
> Mandrake 7.2 uses the 2.2.x version of the Linux kernel. I was able to
install
> it to the portion of the disk (about 2 gigs) that I obtained by erasing my
> Windows D partition. Mandrake managed to get the network PCMCIA card
working but
> didn't manage to get my ATI Rage Mobilility working properly. Indeed my
first
> attempt to start X resulted in a bright white screen which paniced me (I
was
> thinking I was burning it up) into pulling the battery to shut the system
off. I
> then visited the Linux laptop web page and found a working XF86Config file
which
> allowed my system to display X windows at 1024 x 768 resolution. The linux
> laptop web page is at:
>
> http://www.linux-laptop.net/
>
> Unfortunately Mandrake 7.2 didn't have ACPI support. This is only
supported in
> the 2.4 series kernels. My sound electronics weren't recognized and of
course I
> could only play DVDs from Windows. I concluded that too much of the system
would
> be unuseable with this version of Linux and scrubbed it off the system.
>
> Second attempt - install Mandrake 8.0:
>
> This looked a lot more promising! The install went smoothly. My graphics
> hardware worked right out the box. Sound worked immediately too. However,
when
> I shut the the system down, it didn't power down. I pressed the power
button.
> Too late I saw the Phoenix "suspend to disk" splash screen appear. When I
> powered my system back up, I saw the Phoenix splash screen start
incrementing a
> bar graph which stated that it was retoring memory from disk. The system
then
> hung at about the 80% restored point. The only way I could break out of
the loop
> was to pull the battery. When I tried to start Windows, I discovered that
> Windows had been fatally corrupted. I wasn't too concerned since I had a
full
> backup to tape sitting on the shelf. I then decided to completely
obliterate
> Windows. I erased the partition table and used my Mandrake 8.0 distro to
use the
> entire disk for Linux.
>
> Things were looking good although I was still not able to
> power down the system effectively. I located the ACPI package and
installed it.
> On the next reboot I saw messages about the acpid daemon starting but
there
> being no kernel support. Now the challenge was to build ACPI support into
the
> kernel. I didn't see any obvious way to figure out how the Mandrake kernel
that
> had been installed by the distro was configured. With Redhat, a config
directory
> is placed in the kernel sources directory tree which apparently has the
kernel
> configurations for several popular kernels such as SMP, 486, 586 etc.. I
didn't
> see that with Mandrake. So I did a 'make xconfig' and started poking in
settings
> that seemed reasonable. The kernel built ok but I started getting module
symbol
> errors as well as missing PCMCIA support. Sure enough, it turned out that
I had
> not selected PCMCIA support. I rebooted again and was getting further. My
acpid
> was working (the machine would shut itself off on shutdown) and my PCMCIA
> controller was working. My PCMCIA modules weren't working so I now set out
to
> fix the modules.
>
> The one piece of advice in the Mandrake reference guide is that
> even if you are using the same version of the kernel as the modules that
were
> installed with the system, you should delete the /lib/modules/mod-version
> subdirectory. I did that and was getting errors when I tried to do a 'make
> modules'. The build would log about 30 or 40 lines of activitity and then
die
> with a 'don't know how to make' message. I did a search on www.deja.com
and saw
> a suggestion to do a 'make mrproper'. Unfortunately I should have saved my
> kernel configuration to a file because that resulted in my previous kernel
> configuration being lost. After dutifully re-doing my kernel configuration
I was
> finally able to build a new kernel and new modules. The system booted
cleanly.
> Unfortunately, I now noticed that my mouse pointer would freeze after a
few
> minutes.
>
> My conjecture is that either the touchpad mouse is setup to use the
> wrong IRQ or there is a kernel bug of some kind. Again www.deja.com seemed
to
> indicate that a number of people were having this kind of problem but I
wasn't
> able to pin it down.
>
> One other problem - the acpi support uses a polling scheme to check the
power
> management circuitry. A message flashed on the screen during startup
stating
> that there was a command that would reduce the cpu cycles used by the
power
> management software. Also, there were some complaints that the CPU usage
was
> "excessive" whatever that means.
>
> Bottom line was that I restored my Windows software and decided to punt on
> running Linux on the system. I also think that before I spend a lot of
time
> trying to get a satisfactory Linux setup again, I'll buy a new hard disk
and
> remove the one that has the Windows software running. I'm forced to conclu
de at
> this point that this specific laptop is "Windows Centric".
>
> Comments anyone?
>
> -Alex
>
>
>
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