As of 24 hours ago I have just dipped a toe into the debian waters by
attempting my first debian install on an old (but still much used)
Libretto 110CT, and wondered if there were any other users of such
'classic' hardware out there...
I am interested in comparing notes on getting an installation that
supports the integrated hardware as fully as possible...
The Linux install that I am replacing was a SuSE 7.3 running
a 2.4.10 kernel. One of the big incentives for the switch to
Debian was the promise of an end to the process of periodic
upgrade by re-install. The Libretto, lacking a CD-ROM and having a
non-standard floppy, is particularly painful to install on, and
getting everything configured just right takes so long anyway
that I tend to put the process off as long as possible - hence
the ancient kernel I was running. But eventually the pain involved
in installing current software on old kernels becomes great enough
to force an upgrade, and I am taking to opportunity to try a new,
and what looks like an interesting distribution.
The net-install, bootstrapped from the old system, went very smoothly,
and I have the basic necessities going - PCMCIA Ethernet connection
and rudimentry X server.
However I am not yet at the point I was at with SuSE as far as
hardware support goes. In particular:
1. X11 Configuration
On my old system I had resorted to using the commercial Xi Graphics
'Accelerated-X' laptop display server - primarily because it supported
the unconventional Libretto 800x480 LCD out of the box, and I had
originally bought it to use on my BSD/OS system for which it was
the only option.
However I have since seen mention of others having gotten XFree86
working on the Libretto display, and if this can be done, it would
be preferable because:
a. Xaccel does not come with source, and
b. Xaccel does not support the 1024x768 SVGA CRT connector which I would
like to be able to use when at my desk...
So far the sample XF86Config files I have found online have not
worked with the default XFree86 server (4.3.0.1) on Debian, and my attempts
to modify the generated config file, which creates a 800x600 display
with the bottom 120 pixels obscured, have not worked. (I havn't
attempted the externel display mode yet).
>From the log, it the place it seems to go wrong is:
(II) NEOMAGIC(0): Chipset is a MagicGraph 128XD (NM2160)
(II) NEOMAGIC(0): vgaHWGetIOBase: hwp->IOBase is 0x03d0, hwp->PIOOffset is
0x000
0
(--) NEOMAGIC(0): Panel is a 800x600 color TFT display
Which has miscalculated the panel size, leading to:
(II) NEOMAGIC(0): Generic Monitor: Using hsync range of 30.00-64.00 kHz
(II) NEOMAGIC(0): Generic Monitor: Using vrefresh range of 50.00-100.00 Hz
(II) NEOMAGIC(0): Clock range: 11.00 to 90.00 MHz
(II) NEOMAGIC(0): Removing mode (800x480) that won't display properly on LCD
(II) NEOMAGIC(0): Not using mode "800x480" (unknown reason)
etc...
2. Audio.
I have tried installing support for the sound using
apt-get install alsa-modules-2.4.27-2-586tsc
and there were a few unsettling messages which I am not sure
if I shold be concerned about, such as:
Setting up kernel-image-2.4.27-2-586tsc (2.4.27-10sarge1) ...
depmod: *** Unresolved symbols in /lib/modules/2.4.27-2-586tsc/updates/alsa/snd-
pdaudiocf.o
depmod: *** Unresolved symbols in /lib/modules/2.4.27-2-586tsc/updates/alsa/snd-
vx-cs.o
depmod: *** Unresolved symbols in /lib/modules/2.4.27-2-586tsc/updates/alsa/snd-
vxp440.o
depmod: *** Unresolved symbols in /lib/modules/2.4.27-2-586tsc/updates/alsa/snd-
vxpocket.o
and
Setting up alsa-modules-2.4.27-2-586tsc (1.0.8+2) ...
depmod: *** Unresolved symbols in /lib/modules/2.4.27-2-586tsc/updates/alsa/snd-
pdaudiocf.o
depmod: *** Unresolved symbols in /lib/modules/2.4.27-2-586tsc/updates/alsa/snd-
vx-cs.o
depmod: *** Unresolved symbols in /lib/modules/2.4.27-2-586tsc/updates/alsa/snd-
vxp440.o
depmod: *** Unresolved symbols in /lib/modules/2.4.27-2-586tsc/updates/alsa/snd-
vxpocket.o
Strangely, I could not see any pre-built modules for the 2.6 kernel..
But sound does not seem to come up in either kernel, and I can't find anything
like 'sndconfig' which I have seen mentioned in some of the Linux on
Libretto descriptions..
I don't see any audio modules loaded. This is what I see on the working
SuSE system:
snd-pcm-oss 18368 0 (autoclean)
snd-pcm-plugin 14480 0 (autoclean) [snd-pcm-oss]
snd-mixer-oss 4768 1 (autoclean) [snd-pcm-oss]
snd-card-opl3sa2 8144 1
isa-pnp 27248 0 [snd-card-opl3sa2]
snd-cs4231 17808 0 [snd-card-opl3sa2]
snd-pcm 29184 0 [snd-pcm-oss snd-pcm-plugin snd-cs4231]
snd-mixer 23488 0 [snd-mixer-oss snd-card-opl3sa2 snd-cs4231]
snd-opl3 4336 0 [snd-card-opl3sa2]
snd-hwdep 3120 0 [snd-opl3]
snd-timer 8336 0 [snd-cs4231 snd-pcm snd-opl3]
snd-mpu401-uart 2288 0 [snd-card-opl3sa2]
snd-rawmidi 9312 0 [snd-mpu401-uart]
snd-seq-device 3744 0 [snd-rawmidi]
snd 31344 1 [snd-pcm-oss snd-pcm-plugin snd-mixer-oss
snd-card-opl3sa2 snd-cs4231 snd-pcm snd-mixer snd-opl3 snd-hwdep snd-timer
snd-mpu401-uart snd-rawmidi snd-seq-device]
soundcore 3280 2 [snd]
Do I need to rebuild the kernel, or is something else missing...?
Thanks for any advice..
Regards,
DigbyT
--
Digby R. S. Tarvin digbyt(at)digbyt.com
http://www.digbyt.com
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