Installing Debian Linux (Sarge AMD64) on Maxdata ECO 4500 A

Last updated: November 6, 2005

General Hardware Specifications:

¹⁾ If you encounter the problem, that the LCD turns white when it goes to standby, then you have to download a newer version of the X.org/XFree86 module sis_drv.o from www.winischhofer.net and copy it into /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/.

²⁾ Tested with a 32bit distribution (Archlinux and Debian), because the proprietary driver is not available as 64bit module. Worked pretty much out of the box with the slmodem drivers (included in most 32bit distributions). This is surprising, because lspci once identified it as Intel chipset, but this didn't work.

³⁾ You might want to check the Maxdata homepage, if you get a battery exchange (certain serial numbers do)

This laptop was tested under Kernel version 2.6.8, 2.6.11, 2.6.12, 2.6.14 (64bit) and 2.6.11 (32bit)

Basic Installation of Debian Sarge:

• The installer worked very well. WLAN and the modem have to be configured afterwards.
• Wireless LAN:

  Install the "rt2500"-driver module with Debian's module-assistant:

      # apt-get install module-assistant
      # module-assistant auto-install rt2500
      

  or as described in this procedure (e.g. if you want to test the latest version available)

  Then you can define your WLAN settings in /etc/network/interfaces as follows:

  	# WLAN without any encryption
  	iface eth1 inet dhcp
  		pre-up modprobe rt2500
  		pre-up ifconfig eth1 up
  		pre-up iwconfig eth1 mode "Managed"
  		pre-up iwconfig eth1 essid "youressid"
  	

  	# WLAN with WPA encryption ("preshared key")
  	iface eth1 inet dhcp
  		pre-up modprobe rt2500
  		pre-up ifconfig eth1 up
  		pre-up iwpriv eth1 set AuthMode=WPAPSK
  		pre-up iwpriv eth1 set EncrypType=TKIP
  		pre-up iwconfig eth1 mode "Managed"
  		pre-up iwconfig eth1 essid "youressid"
  		pre-up iwpriv eth1 set WPAPSK="yourkey"
  	

  and bring the network up with # ifup eth1 and down with ifdown eth1
• The modem should work along similar lines (module-assistant auto-install sl-modem), but I have not tested it under Debian myself yet.

Power Management

• It seems to me, you have to pass the boot option ec_burst=1 (add it behind the kopt line: # kopt=root=/dev/hda3 ro ec_burst=1 in /boot/grub/menu.lst and run update-grub) to get ACPI working best.

• Scaling the processors frequency works two ways:

  1. Control in kernelspace (cleaner): Use kernel modules "cpufreq_ondemand", "powernow_k8" and tell it to use the "ondemand-governor" by echoing the following at startup: echo "ondemand" > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor
  2. Control in userspace: Use kernel modules "cpufreq_userspace", "powernow_k8" and a daemon, for example powernowd.

  With both methods, under low load the processor will be scaled down to ~800 MHz/1577 bogomips (according to /proc/cpuinfo) and on high load back to ~1600 MHz/>3100 bogomips.

• Pushing the "fan button" in the top row above the keyboard will make the processor scale down to 800 MHz and turn the fan completely off with kernel version 2.6.14. Any of the previous versions did not react to that button. The same button will make it come back into normal mode (which means frequency control as mentioned above, with a running fan.

• Suspend to RAM (on Lid-close or Fn-F1) worked under Archlinux Kernel 2.6.11 (32bit) without configuring anything but passing the boot option "pci=noacpi". The ACPI-Daemon acpid did not run. No dmesg output appeared as far as I remember. Don't ask me, what made it work. Waking up worked with the fan-button within half a second.

  With Debians 2.6.8 kernel I have not been this lucky yet, but I will work on it.

  Update: As far as I have tried, ACPI Suspend To RAM will not work. Maybe in one of the upcoming kernel versions (>2.6.12)... The workaround is to use the APM Suspend To RAM as described above, by passing the boot option "pci=noacpi" and disabling anything ACPI related (e.g. the acpid Daemon).
  Drawback: On 64bit kernels APM is not supported, so with a pure 64bit distribution you won't be able to suspend to RAM. :-(

• Display light can be dimmed with hardware buttons.

Setting up additional features

• Touchpad is synaptics and works with "apt-get xfree86-driver-synaptics" and the following XFree/Xorg section:

        Section "Module"
                ...
                Load            "synaptics"
                ...
        EndSection "Module"
        
        Section "InputDevice"
                Identifier      "Synaptics Touchpad"
                Driver          "synaptics"
                Option          "CorePointer"
                Option          "Device"                "/dev/psaux"
                Option          "Protocol"              "PS/2"
                Option          "Emulate3Buttons"       "true"
                Option          "ZAxisMapping"          "4 5"
        EndSection
        
        Section "ServerLayout"
                ...
                InputDevice     "Synaptics Touchpad"
                ...
        EndSection "ServerLayout"
      

  You might want to also activate the option

                 Option          "SHMConfig"             "on"

  and then use e.g. syndaemon to disable the touchpad while typing.
• Special keys, like Browser, E-Mail, Mute, ... can be activated with xmodmap. I am using the following script for this:

      #!/bin/sh
      # Special keys for Maxdata ECO 4500 A
      xmodmap -e "keycode 178 = XF86HomePage"
      xmodmap -e "keycode 236 = XF86Mail"
      xmodmap -e "keycode 160 = XF86AudioMute"
      xmodmap -e "keycode 174 = XF86AudioLowerVolume"
      xmodmap -e "keycode 176 = XF86AudioRaiseVolume"

  You have to run this on every startup of the X server (e.g. create it in .kde/Autostart/). Now these buttons are known to the X server and you can use e.g. KDE's shortcuts system to assign certain actions to them. (Btw... muting, lowering volume and raising volume (KMix) worked without any further setup for me)

Unresolved issues

• S-Video port not yet tested
• Display won't wake up after Suspend to RAM (since kernel 2.6.14 everything else does wake up), you might have to use vbetool to enable it.

Configuration Files

• Nothing here yet. Do you need anything? Contact me.

More Specific Information

• lshw
• lsmod with mostly every module that you could need

Contact Information

• Please contact me if you have Linux running on this notebook, so that I can ask you some question that I have not yet figured out and we can append more information in this description:
• e-mail: hugelmopf before the @ and web.de after.

Links:

• Maxdata - the manufacturer, a German company.
• KCT Systemhaus (Oberod), Siecom (Dresden) - two German retailers who usually seem to have good prices on Maxdata notebooks and sell the notebooks without preinstalled Windows!
• guenstiger.de - To check where you will get the cheapest deal on this notebook in Germany (~820 € with 512 MB and 60 GB options in April 2005). Be careful, some retailers sell ECO 4500 A still equipped with the older Athlon64 Mobile instead of Turion or they have both versions offered.
• This report is listed at tuxmobil.org
• linux-on-laptops.com (took them quite a while to list this report)

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