This is what TCLUG is all about. Return what you have learned without any thought of self. Sam. Jeff Nelson wrote: > About a month ago I asked for help getting Linux to install on a HP > laptop, model "compaq nc6000". I'm happy to report that I've finally > got it working--more or less. Thanks to all the replies that came in > and offers for help. > > The key thing that I was stuck on was the configuration of the > wireless adaptor. It turns out there's a separate on/off button for > the built-in wireless adaptor! Once I had that figured out, the rest > went pretty smoothly. > > What follows is an email response I sent to someone who happened to be > looking for help setting up Linux on a nc6000. It has more details. > I'm offering it back in case it helps anyone else. > > -Jeff > > ------------------------------------------------------- > > Yes, I should report back on what I finally got running. I tried two > distributions that worked. > > The first distribution is SuSE 9.0 Pro. It worked out-of-the-box: > sound works fine, 10/100/1000 adapter works, and SuSE distribution > comes with madwifi pre-compiled and installed with the distribution, > so the wireless adapter works too. The downside is that the graphics > support isn't that great -- there's no 3D support, and some > applications won't run without it (some of the games I tried; can't > remember which ones off the top of my head). > > The second distribution--and the one I picked--is Fedora Core 1. 3D > graphics works (vesa device driver). Madwifi is not included, but I > fetched the sources from CVS and built it myself. I guess the reason > why I picked Fedora is because my company has a lot of enterprise > RedHat experience and I wanted something similar. > > With both distributions, the key thing to remember to get the wireless > adapter to work is to push the wireless button (located above the > number keys, in the middle of a group of 3 buttons, with an icon that > looks like a radio antenna). This is my first laptop and I didn't > realize it had a separate button to enable/disable the radio > transmitter. When the transmitter is on, a blue light will appear at > the lower left edge of the case. It stays enabled through reboots and > power cycles. > > After you install the madwifi driver, add the line > > alias ath0 ath_pci > > to /etc/modules.conf and then reboot. When the system comes up, > automatic hardware discovery will find the adaptor and try to > configure it as eth1. Let it do what it wants, then fix it after the > system is up: remove eth1 from /etc/modules.conf, and move ifcfg-eth1 > to ifcfg-ath0. (More about that last part in the next paragraph.) > > The wireless adapter device is called ath0. You can set up wireless > keys, essid, and other parameters in the file > /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ath0. See the ifup-wireless > script in the same directory for the list of variables you can set. > The commands /sbin/ifup and /sbin/ifdown are used to turn the device > on and off. My parameters in ifcfg-ath0 are: > > DEVICE=ath0 > ONBOOT=no > USERCTL=yes > ESSID=myessid > KEY=mykey > > With USERCTL=yes, I can bring up the wireless up when I want without > being root. I made the eth0 wired adaptor user-controllable as well. > > I have an Advanced Port Replicator, and it just works (external > network, keyboard, mouse, monitor). The external video runs at 60Hz, > however, which is annoying. > > Other notes: > > 1. Do not specify acpi=on as a boot parameter. It doesn't work in the > 2.4 kernels and I"m not sure it's that much better in the 2.6 kernels > either. The downside is that power management isn't perfect: when you > unplug the power cord and switch to battery, the system thinks the > battery level is at -1; in addition, the fan runs all the time. If you > ignore the initial battery notification, eventually you will get a > real notice that the battery is going to run out. I get about 3 or 4 > hours of life out of mine before the notice appears for real. You have > about 5 minutes to wrap up and shut down before you lose power. > > 2. Visit the fedora websites, especially fedoranews.org. They've got a > great set of updates and articles on how to do stuff specifically for > Fedora. The best one by far is the one that explains how to make > up2date run faster. If you pick Fedora Core 1, be sure to read and > apply this as soon as you have finished the install, before you do > anything else. > > 3. Things I haven't figured out: > > -- how to turn off external speakers but let the headphones in the > headphone jack still work. > -- external buttons for volume and mute controls don't work > -- where the real sound control application is hiding. I've run aumix > -- haven't tried using the modem > -- haven't tried using the SD media reader > -- CD playing works fine. Haven't tried burning a CD yet. > -- Can't get xine to work yet for playing DVDs > -- How to get external video to run at a higher refresh rate than 60Hz > -- Haven't tried any pcmcia cards > > I will probably try Fedora Core 2 (beta was just announced a few days > ago) but I want to repartition first so I don't lose my working copy > of Fedora Core 1. > > My final recommendation is this: focus on one thing at a time. At > first there's so much that needs to get done, so make a check list and > don't move on to the next thing until the first is finished. I made > the mistake of bouncing around trying to fix one thing, then another, > then going back to the first. I also made the mistake of spending too > long to get Mandrake to work. I tried 9.2, Cooker 2003-12-31 and 10.0 > Beta 1. The most recent (Beta 1) was actually the worst of the 3. My > advice is to give up on Mandrake and try Fedora or SuSE. > > ---------------------------------------- > >------------------------------------------------------------------------ > >_______________________________________________ >TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota >http://www.mn-linux.org tclug-list at mn-linux.org >https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list > _______________________________________________ TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota http://www.mn-linux.org tclug-list at mn-linux.org https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list