Gentoo Linux on HP Compaq nx6120 (1)

July 27, 2008 – 15:42 by Dani Iswara. Words count: 905.
Last updated: Wednesday, December 30, 2009 at 14:36.

Why Gentoo Linux? Just want to give it a try as a simple and fast desktop. I’m a newbie on GNU/Linux. I love Slackware as a simple Linux distro too. For an easy of use Linux distro, read my choice at Generik di Linux dan Kedokteran (Bahasa Indonesia; on Dani Iswara .Net).

My normal machine (notebook/laptop; HP Compaq nx 6120, Intel, Pentium M, 1.6GHz, 256MB, 40GB) with:

lspci

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/PM/GMS/910GML Express Processor to DRAM Controller (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #2 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #3 (rev 03)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #4 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev d3)
00:1e.2 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1e.3 Modem: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FBM (ICH6M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 03)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) IDE Controller (rev 03)
02:04.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection (rev 05)
02:06.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCIxx21/x515 Cardbus Controller
02:06.1 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCIxx21/x515 Cardbus Controller
02:06.2 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
02:06.3 Mass storage controller: Texas Instruments PCIxx21 Integrated FlashMedia Controller
02:06.4 SD Host controller: Texas Instruments PCI6411/6421/6611/6621/7411/7421/7611/7621 Secure Digital Controller
02:06.5 Communication controller: Texas Instruments PCI6411/6421/6611/6621/7411/7421/7611/7621 Smart Card Controller
02:0e.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5705M_2 Gigabit Ethernet (rev 03)

Installation media

• Gentoo Linux 2008.0-r1 i686 liveCD bought from GudangLinux (plus nice “Linux-Powered” CPU-label as bonus)
  
• Networkless

Harddisk space

With df output:

Filesystem           1K-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on

/dev/sda1              5269288   4593260    676028  88% /mnt/windows
/dev/sda5              7922640   6491312   1431328  82% /mnt/programs
/dev/sda6              4886488   4451512    434976  92% /mnt/data
/dev/sda8             13486328  10673680   2524916  81% /
/dev/sda9              5275812         0   5275812   0%

So I have 5 Gigs available for the new Gentoo. Get more free space (1-2GB) if you want to compile some large packages (eg. OpenOffice).
I chose graphical mode installation.

Post installation problems

• Gentoo Linux with kernel-genkernel-2.6.24-gentoo-r5 (default)
• Xfce 4.4.2
• Not working hardware marked in red, see lspci (above)
• Modules: ac, battery, fan, processor & thermal (important) needs loaded manually by editing /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6, fill in with:

  ...
  ac
  battery
  fan
  processor
  thermal

• Xorg needs xorgconfig with i810 option
• Scrolling (horizontal & vertical) touchpad needs manual configuration (see next series)
• Hibernation & suspend not yet tested (not needed in this case; minimum disk space reason)
• Built-in infrared (irda) not yet tested (it should work with irda-utils and kernel configuration)

For the SD/MMC card reader, (built-in) WiFi, infrared (irda) and some deprecated ACPI feature works, I have to manually configure the new kernel. On another disk (/home/dani/updates/) I have already linux-2.6.25.10.tar.bz2 & .config (save as .config; kernel configuration) from Sabayon Linux 3.5 (Gentoo-based distro) in /home/dani/updates/.config.

Kernel compilation

Better if we have from Gentoo-patches (gentoo-sources). As root:

emerge gentoo-sources

Or we can use from the pure kernel-vanilla sources (kernel.org):

tar -xvjf linux-2.6.25.10.tar.bz2
mv linux-2.6.25.10 /usr/src/
cd /usr/src/linux-2.6.25.10
ln -s /usr/src/linux-2.6.25.10 /usr/src/linux
cp /home/dani/updates/.config /usr/src/linux-2.6.25.10/

use the Sabayon .config, otherwise if needed,

make oldconfig

or

make menuconfig

some basic configuration for MMC/SD built-in into the kernel :

Device Drivers –––>
[*] Misc devices –––>
 <*> TI Flash Media interface support
 <*> TI Flash Media PCI74xx/PCI76xx host adapter support

<*> MMC/SD card support –––>
 –*– MMC/SD card support
 <*> MMC block device driver
 [*] Use bounce buffer for simple hosts
 <*> Secure Digital Host Controller Interface support
 <*> TI Flash Media MMC/SD Interface support

source: SD and MMC card readers – Gentoo Linux Wiki.

Linux Kernel configuration for Bluetooth support:

Networking ––>
<m> Bluetooth subsystem support ––>
 <m> L2CAP protocol support
 <m> RFCOMM protocol support
 [*] RFCOMM TTY support
 Bluetooth device drivers ––>
 <m> HCI USB driver

save new kernel configuration, then

make && make modules_install

It needs approximately 1 hour on my machine. Name the new kernel as you like,

cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/kernel-2.6.25.10

Edit the new kernel list on /boot/grub/menu.lst using nano (text editor):

nano /boot/grub/menu.lst

...
title Gentoo Linux (kernel-2.6.25.10)
        root (hd0,8)
        kernel /boot/kernel-2.6.25.10 real_root=/dev/sda9
...

ctrl + o (overwrite; save), enter, ctrl + x (exit).

For the WiFi, remember to install net-wireless/ipw2200-firmware:

emerge net-wireless/ipw2200-firmware

My new module on /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6:

...
ac
battery
bluetooth
ipw2200
ieee80211

Try to reboot. If you find a kernel panic, please don’t panic.
Or make some automatic reboot after a kernel panic, see on TIP – Kernel Panic Reboot – Gentoo Linux Wiki.

On a success reboot, continue some configuration.
Check lspci output & dmesg | tail for the hardware detection by new kernel.

WiFi LED

Open file /etc/modprobe.d/ipw2200 using nano (text editor) as root:

nano /etc/modprobe.d/ipw2200

fill in:

options ipw2200 led=1

Maybe you’ll need some wireless packages (need Internet access). Or download it first on another computer & configure manually.

emerge wireless-tools

Source: Ipw2200 – Gentoo Linux Wiki.

Dial up using Huawei e220 modem

Download and configure net-dialup/ppp package. As root:

emerge ppp

pppconfig

Here is my wireless (iwconfig modules by default), LAN & dial-up configuration in /etc/conf.d/net:

...

config_eth1=( "dhcp" )
essid_eth1="any"

config_eth0=( "dhcp" )

#essid_eth1="name of hotspot"
#key_name_of_hotspot="s:passkey enc open"
#config_name_of_hotspot=( "dhcp" )
#channel_eth1="6"

config_ppp0=( "ppp" )
link_ppp0="eth0"
plugins_ppp0=( "pppoe" )

username_ppp0='yourusername'
password_ppp0='yourpassword'

pppd_ppp0=(

    "noauth"
    "defaultroute"
    "usepeerdns"
    "default-asyncmap"
    "ipcp-accept-remote"
    "ipcp-accept-local"
    "lcp-echo-interval 15"
    "lcp-echo-failure 3"
    "mru 1492"
    "mtu 1492"
    "debug"
)

source: PPPOE – Gentoo Linux Wiki.

Next, see on Gentoo Linux on HP Compaq nx6120 (2).

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Dani Iswara, mail me: [myfirstnamelastname]@gmail.com or use contact form.