Linux on Compaq EVO 1015V notebook
Srihari Vijayaraghavan
I am just wondering if anyone has tried installing any Linux
distribution on Compaq EVO N1015V (Athlon 1.5GHz) notebook?
I plan to buy this notebook if this can run Linux. I looked for some
feedback from from anyone who is already using Linux on it, and could
not find anything except for one guy who could not install Red hat
8.0, however he was able to boot through the Red Hat CDROM.
From Hardware specs it seems like, it has ALi chipset (ALi North
Bridge, and ALi M5229 IDE Controller) and ATI Radeon video card.
Any Feedbacks are welcomed and thanks in advance.
Bye,
Hari
har...@bigpond.com
Peter Christy
were using the Via chipset....
Also, if its a Radeon 9000 chipset, this is currently unsupported under
XFree86. I have a patch I found on the 'net which got my desktop 9000
running OK. It may well work for the mobile chipset too, though you will
need to check the PCI idents are the same......
--
Pete
chr...@attglobal.net
David
Hi Hari,
Firsty i would try http://www.linux-laptop.net/
Secondly be a bit careful, i have just purchased a Compaq Presario and
SuSE 8.0 & 8.1 both refuse to install. My hunch is the combined
DVD/CDRW, i have recently posted elswhere on this issue if you want to
take a look.
David.
Srihari Vijayaraghavan
> Also, if its a Radeon 9000 chipset, this is currently unsupported under
> XFree86. I have a patch I found on the 'net which got my desktop 9000
> running OK. It may well work for the mobile chipset too, though you will
> need to check the PCI idents are the same......
The compaq Marketing department reckons it is an ATI Radeon IGP. We
can only wish it isn't a Radeon 9000 series.
Thanks Peter.
Hari.
Srihari Vijayaraghavan
> Firsty i would try http://www.linux-laptop.net/
Unfortunately that website has no reference to Compaq Evo N1015v. I
beleive Presario 905 (AMD CPU models) is very identical to Evo N1015v
(both or based on ALi chipset - both North and South bridge, Radeon
Video Card etc..), and linux-laptop.net has no reference to Presario
905 either.
> Secondly be a bit careful, i have just purchased a Compaq Presario and
> SuSE 8.0 & 8.1 both refuse to install. My hunch is the combined
> DVD/CDRW, i have recently posted elswhere on this issue if you want to
> take a look.
OK. Now that is interesting, what model would that be?, a friend
(Stowe) I met at Red Hat forum
(http://www.redhat.com/mailing-lists/redhat-install-list/msg50905.html
) had issues installing using the DVD/CD-ROM unit ("Compaq DVD-ROM
GDR8081N") on that computer. Would your drive be of the same model?
Thanks for your help David.
Hari.
Chad Marlow
IDE controller. My Presario 900 has the same chipset and I have still not
gotten it to install RH8. I hear there is a patch but to use it you need to
have a working OS. But to have a working OS you need the patch. Sounds
like a catch 22 to me...
I don't understand why it detects the CD-ROM to boot up but cannot continue.
Is there some type of 'basic compatiblity mode' that can run the
installation?
"Srihari Vijayaraghavan" <har...@bigpond.com> wrote in message
news:284b44c2.02111...@posting.google.com...
Srihari Vijayaraghavan
"Chad Marlow" <cma...@eecs.wsu.edu> wrote in message news:<aqrv9c$1es5$1...@murrow.it.wsu.edu>...
> The problem lies in the compatiblity issues between linux and the Ali M5229
> IDE controller. My Presario 900 has the same chipset and I have still not
> gotten it to install RH8. I hear there is a patch but to use it you need to
> have a working OS. But to have a working OS you need the patch. Sounds
> like a catch 22 to me...
Nope. While it is true that ALi M5229 is well supported under Linux,
the Prisario 90x and Evo N1015v models appear to have ATI Radeon IGP
320M (or 340M etc..), this isn't just a video card as everyone
thinks, it also acts as North Bridge (which means it controlls Memory
Bus - DDR, AGP and PCI etc..). And yes the South bridge components
(like the IDE controller) are ALi components, and I suspect they have
to communicate through the North bridge. I don't know the patch to
support this chipset even exist. Can you please let me/us know if you
come across that?
Now something very interesting:
Refer this link from LKML (Linux Kernel Mailing List) about ATI Radeon
IGP 320M:
http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-kernel&m=103711434422788&w=2
Refer Alan Cox's (core kernel developer/maintainer) response for the
same here:
http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-kernel&m=103711574724787&w=2
The kernel (2.2/2.4/2.5 etc..) doesn't support this North bridge
out-of-the-box, and it is very likely that this computer's PCI
implementations aren't upto the specs (thanks to ATI IGP). In other
words, I am afraid to say that this is a "Designed _ONLY_ for Windows"
hardware :(. Someone please prove me wrong.
> I don't understand why it detects the CD-ROM to boot up but cannot continue.
> Is there some type of 'basic compatiblity mode' that can run the
> installation?
Try "linux pci=bios" or "linux pci=biosirq" (without quotes) to see
what happens. You can also try booting through floppy based
distributions (such as TOMSRTBT) to see if you can access the PCI
information (lspci, dmesg etc..) and IDE devices.
As Alan suggests someone can try running a kernel with just the
"Generic PCI IDE chipset" support, and see what happens. Any floopy
based distributions (like TOMSRTBT) will be a good start as one can
replace the shipped kernel with a custom built with little efforts (!)
I guess.
Thanks,
Hari