For general Infos/tips+tricks about linux you can check out my
linux section.
Since I switched from debian to gentoo (pushing debian to a nice second place in my most favorite distribution) I thought I will update this page a little. The main reason I switched was that while the package management don't differ that much from Debian to Gentoo, Gentoo offers the most reacent packages (like current Gnome and KDE) making it much more versatile when used on a Laptop (as the zd7000) - you just have the newest software :)
The only thing that kinda bothers me is that the recompile sometimes takes forever... but I can live with that :)
Now:
I installed Gentoo using http://gentoo.vidalinux.com/ (anaconda based gentoo isntall) - and recompiled pretty much everything from there (I like an up-to-date system). My kernel configs worked fine there too and so it was almost no trouble (I also switched to gnome, but I kinda miss kde, I guess I will go back sooner or later)
When using debian:
I used a Knoppix 3.3. to install the base system and upgraded from
there. (just put the cd in and start sudo knx-hdinstall).
Most help I got was from the zd7000
forum, this board also helped me decide to actually buy this fine
piece of hardware. So if you got any questions/problems with your
laptop, just ask there. It's about the best information I found on the
net!
Since switching to gentoo I most of the time find answers in forums.gentoo.org and bugs.gentoo.org
| Feature |
Working |
Notes |
| SMP/Hyperthreading |
yes, but... |
Not compiled in. SMP brings some
Problems in combination with the NDIS Wrapper for the wireless card,
and if you have a HyperThreading CPU (some zd7000 have it), it won't
bring that much performance anyways (at least in my expierience -proof
me wrong), also there is a bug with SMB/Hyperthreading and Highmem I was unable to fix |
| Power Management |
mostly |
The basic Power Management (like
seeing the state of the battery, etc.) works perfect. Suspend/standby
is not compiled in and will not work therefore. Suspend won't work anyway before nvidia don't bring out a new driver that complies to ACPI and APM standards. |
| Network Card |
yes |
using the 8139TOO module
compiled in, |
| Sound |
yes |
ALSA SND_INTEL8X0 module. Works
perfect (How I love those harman/kardon fronspeaker) |
| Touchpad |
yes |
Works nicely, except it's pretty
hard to control under X |
| USB(1.1/2.0) |
yes |
My Logitech mouse and my
external USB2.0 drive work - So I guesst most other stuff will to
:) |
| IEE1394/FireWire |
yes |
Video Capturing using a digital
camer, and the external IEE1394 drive work |
| Infrared |
not
tested |
I do have a cellphone with
infrared, but that's it. So I did not test it yet. I compiled infrared
support in the kernel so one of you guys may be able to tell me if it's
working or not :) |
| TV Out/External Monitor |
yes |
It is not the kernel who's
responsible for thease features. It's
the invidia graphics driver and the XFree config. I was able to
successfully use a second monitor/projector , did not try the TV-Out,
but that should not be a problem at all (on the other hand, my tv is
smaller than the laptop display and also only 3:4 hmmm guess it
will need some time to test that out :P) |
| DVD/CD Rom/Writer |
yes |
works (my preffered
burning prog under Linux is K3B). Also reading DVDs and CDs is not a
problem at all. |
| digital media Reader |
not
tested/dont work |
I did not test the card reader
yet, but what I've read it does not work. |
| PCMCIA |
yes |
Since I got the "cheap" version
I do not have an internal wlan card, but using a pcmcia wlan card
worked - so I guess this feature works :) |
| WLAN |
unable
to test |
Since I do not have an
internal WLAN card I can not test it. I heard it works with an NDIS
Wrapper. |
| Multimedia Keys |
mostly |
The key for loudness and mute work using ACME but I was unable to get the camera and multimedia key to work. The WLAN and Mouspag keys work without any driver since they are hardwired and not controlled by software. |
I am currently running a 2.6.8 kernel you can either get from kernel.org or use emerge gentoo-dev-sources. I didnt apply any patches
and with this kernel 2.6.8 config file
everything works really nice. USB, Firewire, Sound (alsa), network,
shutdown... pretty much everything (except I didnt try the card-reader
yet). Since I got me an USB Bluetooth dongle I now have most bluetooth stuff as Module included, also the alsa pach (you can get it from http://www.gargan.org/linux/snd-bt-sco/
A
more extensive information on how to install a new kernel is in the linux section!
Old configs:
kernel 2.6.5 config file
kernel
2.6.3 config file
The boot manager of my choice is GRUB. Not only can you customize with nice images, but it allows you to add kernels much nicer than lilo does, and if you messed something up, you can still load an old kernel (even if it's not in your menu.lst). And it doesnt need anything else to allow a windows running next to it (for those lan-gamers who cannot get some games running under linux).
Getting grub in gentoo is easy enough (just follow the description or use vidalinux) emerge grub.
Similar to get grub on your knoppix just apt-get install grub as
root, and run grub-install /dev/hda. It will install
grub, and doesnt even ruin an existing
windows installation.
When compiling a new kernel, all I do is copy the bzImage as /boot/vmlinuz and the System.map file under /boot. Then I just update my menu.lst and everything works :).
My menu.lst file: menu.lst (just put it in
/boot/grub/ and modify the kernel path)
My splashimage (got it from www.heise.de): island.xpm.gz
There is not much to do than get the newest nvidia linux drivers (http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux.html
the new drivers already compile fine under kernels >2.6 ),
install them and update your XF86Config-4. You can use mine, it's set up for using the nvidia driver
and use a second display at 1024x768 with a virtual size of 1440x900 in
clone mode. If you want to enable TV-Out or use different resolutions
just check out the readme from nvidia (normally:
/usr/share/doc/NVIDIA_GLX-1.0/README) - be sure to remember that on
laptops the lcd screen is the second screen (1) not the first (0) as
you would expect!
With this configuration I got a prefectly running X with NO Problems at
all :)
I got a nice USB2/Firewire Harddrive. There is nothing to it using
it. you can use the script rescan-scsi-bus.sh
in
case you come into troubles, but with 1.6.3 kernel there should not be
any problem - just connect and mount it (it's normally /dev/sda1).
Try gscanbus
(apt-get install gscanbus)
to check if your firewire drive has been found (you may need to modprobe
raw1394 and check some info at linux1394.org unless you got my
kernel config)