VL 5.8 Final on Acer Travelmate 8000

[BlueMage]

Alrighty, the installation went well, and I've got a happily dual-booting system with a nicely large shared section.

Naturally, there are some issues.

First and foremost, some of the hardware buttons don't work - I haven't tested the four used as program hotkeys yet, but I'm pretty sure they won't work.  More pressing however are the buttons that enable my wireless and bluetooth respectively.  These appear to be hardware lockouts built around push-buttons.  Bluetooth is nominally off under Windows, Wifi is nominally on.

I'll include the results of lsmod and lspci.

Code:

Module                  Size  Used by
radeon                121760  1
drm                    71324  2 radeon
iptable_nat             7172  0
nf_nat                 16556  1 iptable_nat
nf_conntrack_ipv4      14860  2 iptable_nat
nf_conntrack           53128  3 iptable_nat,nf_nat,nf_conntrack_ipv4
nfnetlink               6168  3 nf_nat,nf_conntrack_ipv4,nf_conntrack
iptable_filter          3460  0
ip_tables              12020  2 iptable_nat,iptable_filter
x_tables               12804  2 iptable_nat,ip_tables
cpufreq_conservative     6920  0
cpufreq_ondemand        7308  0
cpufreq_performance     2816  0
cpufreq_powersave       2560  0
p4_clockmod             5412  0
speedstep_lib           5128  1 p4_clockmod
freq_table              4640  2 cpufreq_ondemand,p4_clockmod
sg                     28456  0
snd_seq_dummy           3980  0
snd_seq_oss            30208  0
snd_seq_midi_event      6912  1 snd_seq_oss
snd_seq                47344  5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_seq_device          7308  3 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq
snd_pcm_oss            42176  0
snd_mixer_oss          15616  1 snd_pcm_oss
fuse                   40724  2
snd_intel8x0           30016  0
snd_ac97_codec         92332  1 snd_intel8x0
ac97_bus                3072  1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_pcm                70540  3 snd_pcm_oss,snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec
snd_timer              20744  2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
ohci1394               32692  0
shpchp                 30496  0
pci_hotplug            28752  1 shpchp
snd                    44644  9 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer
joydev                  9024  0
ieee1394               86240  1 ohci1394
soundcore               7264  1 snd
iTCO_wdt               10032  0
snd_page_alloc          8712  2 snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm
ipw2200               144016  0
tg3                   106248  0
intel_agp              22044  1
agpgart                28748  2 drm,intel_agp
i2c_i801                8076  0
i2c_core               18816  1 i2c_i801
ieee80211              31816  1 ipw2200
ieee80211_crypt         5632  1 ieee80211
pcspkr                  3584  0
irda                  112952  0
evdev                   9088  0
crc_ccitt               2944  1 irda
serio_raw               6404  0
parport_pc             37092  0
parport                31560  1 parport_pc

Code:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor to I/O Controller (rev 02)
00:00.1 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor to I/O Controller (rev 02)
00:00.3 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor to I/O Controller (rev 02)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor to AGP Controller (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev 83)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 03)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) IDE Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) SMBus Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 03)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV350 [Mobility Radeon 9600 M10]
02:02.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5705 Gigabit Ethernet (rev 03)
02:04.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection (rev 05)
02:06.0 CardBus bridge: O2 Micro, Inc. OZ711M3/MC3 4-in-1 MemoryCardBus Controller
02:06.1 CardBus bridge: O2 Micro, Inc. OZ711M3/MC3 4-in-1 MemoryCardBus Controller
02:06.2 System peripheral: O2 Micro, Inc. OZ711Mx 4-in-1 MemoryCardBus Accelerator
02:06.3 CardBus bridge: O2 Micro, Inc. OZ711M3/MC3 4-in-1 MemoryCardBus Controller
02:07.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments TSB43AB21 IEEE-1394a-2000 Controller (PHY/Link)

I imagine I'll want to get the card-reader up and running at some point too, but for now my priority is wireless access.

And of course, to further increase the headache, I use WPA encryption on my personal networks.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

[stoichyu]

Alrighty, the installation went well, and I've got a happily dual-booting system with a nicely large shared section.

Naturally, there are some issues.

First and foremost, some of the hardware buttons don't work - I haven't tested the four used as program hotkeys yet, but I'm pretty sure they won't work.  More pressing however are the buttons that enable my wireless and bluetooth respectively.  These appear to be hardware lockouts built around push-buttons.  Bluetooth is nominally off under Windows, Wifi is nominally on.

The hardware buttons that are not the wireless and bluetooth buttons are usually just extra keys so the OS controls them, and you just have to set them up. I think you can do that from the xfce keyboard settings. For reference, these are some command you can use:

Volume Up - amixer set Master 2dB+ (note that dB is case sensitive)
Volume Down - amixer set Master 2dB-
Volume Mute/Unmute - amixer set Master toggle

The wireless and bluetooth buttons are as you said, controlled by the hardware. As for getting wifi to work, you should first read this: http://www.vectorlinux.com/forum2/index.php?topic=1282.0

If you still have a problem, just post back and we'll happily help you out.

[BlueMage]

The biggest problem with getting the wireless to work isn't so much getting it up and running once things are detected (Vector appears pretty good with that, and I have done enough work in this sort of field to be able to debug most network-based problems fairly accurately) but more likely overcoming the hardware switches.  Under windows, when I press the button for enabling/disabling the wireless, the interface isn't disabled - it just can't connect to any networks.  I admit, I'm not entirely sure how that works, as I'm not really keen to tear my baby open and have a poke around just yet.

Additionally, as you can probably see from my lspci, the wireless is detected (Intel PRO 2200BG) and as far as I know, that works pretty well under Linux.  Under windows, pushing the lockout buttons causes an OSD to appear (seemingly seperate from the OS, though I can't guarantee that - the text is the same size regardless of the resolution the screen is set at) which doesn't happen in linux.  That's not to say that the same effect doesn't occur in linux, just that there isn't any obvious indication.

Incidentally, as for the program-hotkeys, the two that are dedicated for E-mail and Browser are detected just fine in Vector (I've already assigned Firefox to the Browser button) but the other two - the user-configurable in Windows - don't seem to register.  It doesn't seem to matter if I change the keyboard layout to Acer Travelmate 800 either (I know, not strictly my layout, but at least it's the same manufacturer and machine family).

I'll go through the How-To again first though.

Oh yes - I've got one of those 4-way scroll buttons at the bottom of my touchpad.  It's finicky even in Windows, but I'm quite attached to it, so if I can get it to work in Vector too, I'll be a happy camper.

[lagagnon]

Incidentally, as for the program-hotkeys, the two that are dedicated for E-mail and Browser are detected just fine in Vector (I've already assigned Firefox to the Browser button) but the other two - the user-configurable in Windows - don't seem to register.

Try the info halfway down this webpage: http://www.familie-prokop.de/acer-travelmate8000/index_en.html

[BlueMage]

Is it can /vector/ WIRELESS tiem now?

YES IT CAN!

The page you provided lagagnon was invaluable - combined with the How-To, I'm now able to connect wirelessly in Vector.  Still some minor issues - no LED notification for example, even with the "options ipw2200 led=1" line in modprobe.conf - but that's minor.  I can Vector wirelessly.

Interestingly, it appears as though the firmware required was already present - I was surprised by that.

Additionally, I've determined that the scroll-button corresponds to [X-Button1] through to [X-Button4] going counterclockwise from the top.  However, it's considered part of the mouse, not the keyboard, so I'm not certain how to set them up to be used as scrolling.  Well, I've got an idea, but it'd require I configure shortcuts in each application individually, which I must admit, I'm not too keen on doing.  Having a read through xorg.conf so far hasn't been too helpful either.

I suppose the next thing to get onto would be getting the card-reader to work, but as I don't have any cards with me at the moment, actually trying to do so wouldn't be much use...

Will post more later tonight if I run into trouble getting connected to my home network (yay WPA encryption)

EDIT:  LED does work, my mistake - just needed to reboot for it to come online.  Apparently I need a driver for WPA encryption - I'm currently connecting on my less-secure short-range network (it only has MAC filtering as it's mostly for use with the DS).