Changes

02.04.2007: I bought a new laptop (HP nx7300) so I probably will not update this article any more.

23.12.2006: Fixing the DVD+RW problem in Dapper/Edgy

05.01.2006: Workaround for DVD+RW problem in Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy)

07.05.2005: Kernel parameters had a few mistakes, and added a little information about firewire.

Table of contents

Booting the install cd

Install cd has to be booted with following commandline to work properly:

linux vga=771 acpi=off noapic nolapic

Otherwise the installer hangs when partitioning is loaded.

Hardware

AMD Athlon XP-M 2600+, 512MB, 40GB

DeviceStatus 
Graphics: ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 OK  
10Mbps Lan: Via Rhine OK  
Soundcard: Via AC97 OK  
DVD+RW OK A few issues
Firewire Probably OK No Firewire devices for testing.
USB OK  

ATI Mobility Radeon 9000

Radeon worked straight from the box, but without DRI so I had to install fglrx -drivers.

  1. Install package xorg-driver-fglrx with apt-get or synaptic
  2. Edit device section in file /etc/X11/xorg.conf. Change driver from "ati" to "fglrx", add following options to the file and restart X.

Extra options needed by fglrx -driver

Option "VideoOverlay" "On"
Option "UseInternalAGPGART" "no"

With "VideoOverlay" -option you can use XV -output in your programs, and without 'Option "UseInternalAGPGART" "no"' X doesn't even start with fglrx -drivers.

TV-Out

I haven't properly tested the tv-out yet, but it should be working if you add following lines to the device section in /etc/X11/xorg.conf:

Option "DesktopSetup"               "0x00000100" 
Option "MonitorLayout"              "NONE, TV"
Option "IgnoreEDID"                 "off"
Option "HSync2"                     "31.5 - 37.9" 
Option "VRefresh2"                  "50 - 70" 
Option "ScreenOverlap"              "0" 
Option "NoTV"                       "no"     
Option "TVStandard"                 "PAL-B"     
Option "TVHSizeAdj"                 "0"     
Option "TVVSizeAdj"                 "0"     
Option "TVHPosAdj"                  "0"     
Option "TVVPosAdj"                  "0"     
Option "TVHStartAdj"                "0"     
Option "TVColorAdj"                 "0"     
Option "GammaCorrectionI"           "0x00000000"
Option "GammaCorrectionII"          "0x00000000"
Option "Capabilities"               "0x00000000"

Note. I tested this with MonitorLayout "LCD, TV" and didn't get anything from the tv-out. Another laptop with almost same gpu (Acer Ferrari 3000) works with MonitorLayout "NONE, TV", but naturally you can use only the tv as a display then.

DVD+RW

DVD+RW is Ricoh RW8160 and it had some issues. After the installation it didn't work and dmesg printed following errors:

hdc: lost interrupt
hdc: cdrom_pc_intr: The drive appears confused (ireason = 0x01)

Succesful workaround for this is using following kernel boot parameters:

hdc=noprobe hdc=cdrom

Parameters are added to the kernel -line in file: /boot/grub/menu.lst

DVD+RW in newer Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy)

There is the same lost interrupt problem in Breezy also, and those parameters don't work with default 2.6.12 kernel which comes with it. I have tested the 2.6.14 and it didn't work either.

You can install older 2.6.10 kernel to Breezy from the Hoary repositories or compile one from the sources. If you want to use Hoary's kernel add following line to the /etc/apt/sources.list and install proper linux-image-2.6.10 package.

deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hoary main restricted

DVD+RW with Ubuntu 6.06/6.10 (Dapper/Edgy)

The same old problem exists still with Dapper and Edgy, but you can get around it by adding the same boot parameters which were used with Hoary:

hdc=noprobe hdc=cdrom

This works with the original Dapper/Edgy -kernel so you don't have to do the downgrade like with the Breezy.

Firewire

I don't have any firewire devices for testing, but at least lshw lists following information:

*-firewire
     physical id: 9
     bus info: pci@00:09.0
     version: 80
     clock: 33MHz
     capabilities: bus_master cap_list
     configuration: driver=ohci1394 irq=10

The firewire is auto-recognized and the kernel module is loaded so I would presume that it works.

LAN, USB & Soundcard

Lan, USB and soundcard are detected automatically and also usb-storage devices work straight from the box.

Conclusion

Installing Ubuntu to A7620 is quite straightforward though there are a few issues:

  1. Installer needs parameters: vga=771 acpi=off noapic nolapic
  2. Configuring fglrx -drivers.
  3. Lost interrupt -error with DVD+RW

After all I have following extra kernel parameters in my grub conf. file and the system is working:

vga=771 acpi=off hdc=noprobe hdc=cdrom

NOTE: After the install parameters noapic and nolapic don't have to be used.

Links