Package: installation-reports
INSTALL REPORT
Debian-installer-version: 6/20/2005 debian-testing-i386-netinst.iso
uname -a: Linux debian-mana 2.6.12.1-mppe #1 SMP Wed Jun 29 22:46:25 PDT
2005 i686 GNU/Linux
Date: 6/20/2005-6/27/2005
Method: Installed from downloaded netinst image burned onto CD with
machine connected via cable to DHCP network
Machine: Compaq nx9600 notebook
Processor: Intel Pentium 4 3.6GHz with hyperthreading
Memory: 2Gig
Root Device: 60Gig ide on /dev/hda
Root Size/partition table: Results of df (/dev/sda is external usb
60Gig scsi)
/dev/hda1 55313052 6584248 45919040 13% /
tmpfs 1036560 16 1036544 1% /dev/shm
tmpfs 10240 536 9704 6% /dev
/dev/sda1 57685532 43084248 11671032 79% /home/chuck/vmwin
Output of lspci and lspci -n:
0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 915G/P/GV Processor to I/O
Controller (rev 04)
0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 915G/P/GV PCI Express Root Port
(rev 04)
0000:00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6
Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03)
0000:00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6
Family) USB UHCI #1 (rev 03)
0000:00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6
Family) USB UHCI #2 (rev 03)
0000:00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6
Family) USB UHCI #3 (rev 03)
0000:00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6
Family) USB UHCI #4 (rev 03)
0000:00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6
Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 03)
0000:00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801 PCI Bridge (rev d3)
0000:00:1e.2 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corp.
82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03)
0000:00:1e.3 Modem: Intel Corp. 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family)
AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 03)
0000:00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82801FB/FR (ICH6/ICH6R) LPC
Interface Bridge (rev 03)
0000:00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6
Family) IDE Controller (rev 03)
0000:00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corp. 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family)
SMBus Controller (rev 03)
0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc: Unknown
device 3150
0000:0b:00.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments: Unknown device 8031
0000:0b:00.2 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments: Unknown device 8032
0000:0b:00.3 Unknown mass storage controller: Texas Instruments:
Unknown device 8033
0000:0b:00.4 0805: Texas Instruments: Unknown device 8034
0000:0b:02.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
RTL-8169 Gigabit Ethernet (rev 10)
0000:0b:03.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306
802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 03)
0000:00:00.0 0600: 8086:2580 (rev 04)
0000:00:01.0 0604: 8086:2581 (rev 04)
0000:00:1c.0 0604: 8086:2660 (rev 03)
0000:00:1d.0 0c03: 8086:2658 (rev 03)
0000:00:1d.1 0c03: 8086:2659 (rev 03)
0000:00:1d.2 0c03: 8086:265a (rev 03)
0000:00:1d.3 0c03: 8086:265b (rev 03)
0000:00:1d.7 0c03: 8086:265c (rev 03)
0000:00:1e.0 0604: 8086:244e (rev d3)
0000:00:1e.2 0401: 8086:266e (rev 03)
0000:00:1e.3 0703: 8086:266d (rev 03)
0000:00:1f.0 0601: 8086:2640 (rev 03)
0000:00:1f.1 0101: 8086:266f (rev 03)
0000:00:1f.3 0c05: 8086:266a (rev 03)
0000:01:00.0 0300: 1002:3150
0000:0b:00.0 0607: 104c:8031
0000:0b:00.2 0c00: 104c:8032
0000:0b:00.3 0180: 104c:8033
0000:0b:00.4 0805: 104c:8034
0000:0b:02.0 0200: 10ec:8169 (rev 10)
0000:0b:03.0 0280: 14e4:4320 (rev 03)
Also relevant: ATI Mobility Radeon X600 video card on PCI Express bus
The overall chipset is Intel 915P Express
Base System Installation Checklist:
[O] = OK, [E] = Error (please elaborate below), [ ] = didn't try it
Initial boot worked: [O]
Configure network HW: [O]
Config network: [O]
Detect CD: [O]
Load installer modules: [O]
Detect hard drives: [O]
Partition hard drives: [O]
Create file systems: [O]
Mount partitions: [O]
Install base system: [O]
Install boot loader: [O]
Reboot: [E]
Comments/Problems:
There were many problems with this install and I had great difficulty
finding solutions.
I'd like to first express my gratitude to Stuart Prescott who
responded (off-list) to my pleas
for help on debian-latop, pointed me at the fglrx drivers, suggested
my sound problem my be a
conflict with the modem driver, and generally provided encouragement
during various frustrating moments.
Note: I quickly moved from the installer 2.6.8 kernel to a 2.6.12
kernel (and now 2.6.12.1) for
several reasons, including:
1. I wanted the latest drivers to try to get more devices to work
2. I need to custom-compile my kernel anyway in order to get the
mppe patch for a pptp vpn
The problems I hit and their solutions were:
Problem: Reboot after installation crashes the kernel.
Solution: Blacklist i810_audio
Problem: Display will only run with vesa driver in XFree86 (radeon
driver crashes). Vesa does not not
have access to appropriate video modes. This is a widescreen WSXGA+
display with a natural resolution
of 1680x1050. Running at 1280x1024, best available after install,
is both under-using the screen
and distorts everything.
Solution: Use the fglrx package at
http://xoomer.virgilio.it/flavio.stanchina/debian/fglrx-installer.html.
For fglrx to run in the 2.6.12 kernel required two patches:
1. In agpgart_be.c: dev->slot_name ==> pci_name(dev) everywhere
2. In firegl_public.c: inter_module_get(x) ==>
inter_module_get_request(x,y) in #define, and the two calls to
inter_module_get become calls to inter_module_get_request that
pass the
same argument twice ("drm" ==> "drm","drm" and "drm_agp" ==>
"drm_agp","drm_agp")
After getting the appropriate kernel, it was of course necessary to
configure XF86Config-4 to
use the fglrx driver. All functions of the video card appear to
work properly now,
Problem: Wireless networking device did not work
Solution: Load ndiswrapper package and encapsulate their recommended
Windows driver for the
Broadcom device listed above.
Problem: System bell worked, but neither alsa nor esd sound would work.
Solution: Blacklist snd_intel8x0m as it was improperly associated
with the sound device instead
of with the modem device. The proper sound driver is snd_intel8x0.
(Rather than blacklist, I just
compiled snd_intel8x0m out of my kernel). One consequence of this
is that presumably the modem will
not work -- I haven't bothered to check since I didn't plan on using
it anyway.
Problem: pptp tunnel seems to conflict with vmware virtual nics
Solution: I haven't resolved this one yet, but am confident I will be
able to resolve it. I run
mppe, pptpconfig, tsclient and vmware all successfully on my
desktop. The difference on this laptop
is that I've configured vmware to be on a host-only network with NAT
to provide access to the external
network if one is available. The reason for that is that I need to
be able to network the host Linux and
a virtual Lossdows for certain applications when completely
disconnected.
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS:
Generally I find installing Debian and Linux on anything non-standard
to be a pain. I do it because I
love Debian and Linux and don't want to use anything else, plus I'm a
persistent SOB who doesn't like to give
up. Many people do give up, including friends of mine. More people
would use and come to love Debian/Linux
if it was easier to install.
The biggest problems are accurately identifying the hardware, finding
the proper drivers, and getting them
installed and working properly. The biggest issue in this for me is
to accurately assess the current state
of affairs. E.g., devices are reported and/or specified in different
ways by lspci, /proc, /sys, /dev,
hal-device-manager and XF86Config-4. I have found no way to do these
basic things:
1. Determine definitively which device is mapped to which /dev node
2. Associate bus addresses as reported by /sys, hal-device-manager,
/proc and lspci -n with bus address
specifications as required by XF86Config-4
Getting accurate information on the hardware in the machine is also
difficult. You can see from the lspci
above that important devices on this machine are simply "unknown". I
did Google searches, searched Debian
archives and posted messages to debian-user and debian-latop, but
could find no one who had installed on
this kind of machine before, and no definitive information. I
contacted HP technical support to at least
get accurate detailed hardware specs. They publish a technical
specification document on their site, but
it is incomplete. HP Support could not, or would not, give me any
additional information. They said,
"Unfortunately, we did not test Linux operating system with nx9600
notebook. The nx9600 is designed to work
with Windows 2000/XP operating system with optimum performance. And
the device drivers for Linux are not
designed or available for this model notebook. However, we suggest you
install the preloaded Windows that was
shipped with the notebook."
Needless to say, that infuriated me and they were the brunt of what
ensued, but it didn't solve any of
my problems.
Life would be better if the two device and /dev identification issues
above were addressed, and if there
was a single place one could go to find all available drivers. In the
end, all the drivers I needed for this
machine were available (modulo the modem confict and a minor patch to
fglrx, which I found a description of
on a discussion board that Google turned up). The problem wasn't
making it work, it was discovering how to
make it work. If information was more readily available, this would
have gone much quicker and smoother.
For example, I did not know that ndiswrapper existed. I only stumbled
on it after expending considerable
effort on other fruitless attempts.
Debian is great and I wish more people used it. But for that to
happen these issues need to be addressed.
I want to thank everyone who contributes to Debian and Linux. Your
work is greatly appreciated -- the above is
intended to be constructive suggestions. I have not contributed
anything to Debian yet, but hope to in the
futre as I have contributed to some other open source efforts.
Chuck
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