HARDWARE Asus A6V(A)

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ASUS A6V Laptop

[edit] Introduction

This article is a summary of my experiences of running and installing gentoo linux on an Asus A6VA Laptop, which I own for myself. Luckily a friend of mine owns an Asus A6V where I was able to mirror and test the installation too. Both models seem to be quite the same, except the A6V lacks the build-in camera and bluetooth support, and the case designs are different.

For easier writing I used the Article HARDWARE_Asus_A6U as a template. A great help for my installation was this site which covers installation of Debian Sarge onto a A6VA.

[edit] Hardware

The base model is Asus A6VA but there are different sub-models which should only differ in cpuspeed/hdd space/mem etc. Here there is a dump of lspci output (database snapshot of 2005-11-28)

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/PM/GMS/910GML Express Processor to DRAM Controller (rev 04)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/PM Express PCI Express Root Port (rev 04)
00:1b.0 Class 0403: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 04)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #1 (rev 04)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #2 (rev 04)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #3 (rev 04)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #4 (rev 04)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 04)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev d4)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FBM (ICH6M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 04)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) IDE Controller (rev 04)
01:00.0 Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8001 Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 13)
01:01.0 CardBus bridge: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c476 II (rev b3)
01:01.1 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C552 IEEE 1394 Controller (rev 08)
01:01.2 Class 0805: Ricoh Co Ltd SD Card reader (rev 17)
01:01.3 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev 08)
01:03.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2200BG (rev 05)
03:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon Mobility X700 (PCIE)

while this is the output of lsusb (database snapshot of 2004/09/02)

Bus 005 Device 002: ID 044e:3001 Alps Electric Co., Ltd UGTZ4 Bluetooth
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0402:5602 ALi Corp.
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000

[edit] What works

So far I have tested the following components and found them to be Linux compatible (for details see coresponding section)

• Sound
• Touchpad
• Network
  • Gigabit Ethernet
  • Centrino WLAN
• CDRW/DVDRW
• USB
• Full X/3D Acceleration with binary ATI driver
• IrDA
• ACPI (speedstepping, battery state)
• CardBus
• Bluetooth
• MMC-SD-MS Card Reader (support from kernel 2.6.17)
• Built-in microphone (but poor quality)

The following items I have not tested or have not figured out what to do to configure:

• IEEE 1394 (firewire)
• Modem

[edit] What doesn't work

I could not get these devices to work or didn't try because it is said elsewhere that there are no linux drivers:

• Builtin 1.3 mega-pixel webcam

[edit] Installation notes

[edit] -march option for CFLAGS

The laptop has a Pentium-M processor. Looking at Safe_Cflags you have two choices:

• to use the stable gcc branch (3.3.x);
• to use the unstable gcc branch (3.4.x).

Only with the gcc 3.4.x branch you can use the -march=pentium-m option for CFLAGS into /etc/make.conf: there is guide which explains how to perform a 2005.1 installation with GCC 3.4.4.

[edit] First configuration of the wireless network adapter

I began the installation using the livecd Gentoo 2005.1. I have chosen to use the wireless connection so after booting the livecd I launched iwconfig to discover the adapter name and I got

lo      no wireless extensions.
eth0    no wireless extensions.

The module ipw2200 for the wireless was loaded but there was a problem in the firmware loading:

ipw2200: Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2200/2915 Network Driver, 1.0.1
ipw2200: Copyright(c) 2003-2004 Intel Corporation
ipw2200: Detected Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection
ipw2200: ipw-2.2-boot.fw load failed: Reason -2
ipw2200: Unable to load firmware: 0xFFFFFFFE
ipw2200: failed to register network device
ipw2200: probe of 0000:01:03.0 failed with error -5

Reading the forums, I have discovered that the ipw2200 module must be loaded before the ieee1394 modules

rmmod ipw2200 ieee1394 sbp2 ohci1394
modprobe ipw2200
modprobe ieee1394
modprobe sbp2
modprobe ohci1394

Now the wireless interface is ready as eth1 and it's possible to configure the network.

[edit] Sound

The builtin sound device is an Intel HD Audio compatible chip (ALC880) manufactered from Realtek. The card works with ALSA drivers >= 1.0.10_rc1, so there are two choices:

• use the builtin kernel ALSA driver (this works only for kernel version >=2.6.14);
• use the >=media-sound/alsa-driver-1.0.10_rc1 package.

As it seems that there is Realtek support for the device, another choice is to download the latest driver version (called realtek-linux-audiopack-3.5.1.tar.bz2) from www.realtek.com.tw (never tried).

When the drivers are installed you can look at Gentoo Linux ALSA Guide for a guide on configuring ALSA on Gentoo. The first step is to unmute the audio channels:

amixer set PCM 100% unmute
amixer set Front 100% unmute

[edit] kernel builtin support

It's necessary to enable the ALSA support and select the correct device driver:

<*> Advanced Linux Sound Architecture
    PCI devices  --->
    <*> Intel HD Audio

[edit] external driver

In this way the ALSA driver installed will be the latest version. It's necessary to disable the kernel builtin ALSA support completely:

< > Advanced Linux Sound Architecture

Next emerge latest media-sound/alsa-drivers from portage (1.0.10_rc3 as time of writing)

echo "media-sound/alsa-drivers ~x86" >> /etc/portage/package.keywords
emerge alsa-driver
modprobe snd_hda_intel

and configure /etc/make.conf for compiling only the correct audio device

[edit] Multimedia keys

The volume-up, volume-down, volume-mute keys can be setup via acpi. You have to modify the /etc/acpi/default.sh script a bit. Here's how I got them working (modify your existing):

if [ "$ev_type" = "$1" ]; then
        event="$2";
        event2="$3";
else
        event=`echo "$1" | cut -d/ -f2`
fi

case "$ev_type" in
    hotkey)
        case "$event" in
            ATKD)
                case "$event2" in
                    00000031)
                        logger "acpid: volume down"
                        /usr/bin/amixer -c0 sset PCM,0 10%-,10%-
                        break
                        ;;
                    00000030)
                        logger "acpid: volume up"
                        /usr/bin/amixer -c0 sset PCM,0 10%+,10%+
                        break
                        ;;
                    00000032)
                        logger "acpid: mute"
                        /etc/acpi/actions/mute.sh
                        break
                        ;;
                    *)
                        logger "acpid: action $1 $2 $3 is not defined"
                        ;;
                esac
            ;;

         esac
    ;;
esac

And here's the /etc/acpi/actions/mute.sh:

#!/bin/bash
# simple script to mute by changing volume
filename="$HOME/.lastVolume"
numid="24"   #find apropriate number with: amixer controls
volume=$(amixer cget numid=$numid | grep : | sed -e 's/  : values=//')
if [ $volume = '0,0' ] # Or if that doesn't work try: if [ $volume = '0,0' ]
then
        echo "Volume is 0, restoring"
        volume=$(cat $filename)
        amixer -q cset numid=$numid $volume &> /dev/null
else
        echo "Volume is $volume, muting"
        echo $volume > $filename
        amixer -q cset numid=$numid 0 &> /dev/null
fi

[edit] Network

[edit] Ethernet LAN

The ethernet adapter is a gigabit one. The chipset is a Marvel Yukon Gigabit but it's better to use the SysKonnect driver (as the first one is deprecated):

<*> New SysKonnect GigaEthernet support
< > Marvell Yukon Chipset / SysKonnect SK-98xx Support

[edit] Wireless LAN

The wireless LAN is an Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG. There are two choices:

• use the builtin kernel driver (this works only for kernel version >=2.6.14);
• use the net-wireless/ipw2200 package.

[edit] kernel builtin support

Networking --->
<*> Generic IEEE 802.11 Networking Stack
<*>   IEEE 802.11 WEP encryption (802.1x)
<*>   IEEE 802.11i CCMP support
<*>   IEEE 802.11i TKIP encryption
Device Drivers ---> Network device support ---> Wireless LAN (non-hamradio) --->
<*> Wireless LAN drivers (non-hamradio) & Wireless Extensions
<*> Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG and 2915ABG Network Connection 

[edit] external driver

The first step is to disable the kernel driver

Networking --->
< > Generic IEEE 802.11 Networking Stack
Device Drivers ---> Network device support ---> Wireless LAN (non-hamradio) --->
<*> Wireless LAN drivers (non-hamradio) & Wireless Extensions
< > Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG and 2915ABG Network Connection 

and then it's necessary to emerge the drivers, the firmware and the ieee802.11 stack with

emerge net-wireless/ipw2200

[edit] Graphics

Having X works with acceleration is quite simple, with one tricky thing.

First, emerge ati-drivers. Then run fglrxconfig.

Now, edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf. Find the line Option "MonitorLayout" "AUTO, AUTO" and replace it with Option "MonitorLayout" "LVDS, TMDS"

Find the "Screen" Section, then the Subsection "Display", and change Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480" to Modes "1280x800" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"

I have also changed Option "OpenGLOverlay" "off" to Option "OpenGLOverlay" "on" but this is not mandatory to have X working.

You should now have a nice, accelerated X server ready.

[edit] Problems, Hints

If you have trouble with alsamixer getting a: "alsamixer: function snd_mixer_load failed: Invalid argument"

and also following bring the same error (0 => your card-number)

amixer -c 0

in the /etc/modules.d/alsa can help you the following:

options snd-card-0 index=0
options snd-card-0 model=6stack-digout

At me this helps for a MSI K8NGM2-FID (nForce 430 and ALC880)