issues on FJS M3438G Amilo (modem+internal sperakers)

KLG

Hello, i have been trying to setup Linux Gentoo on M3438G laptop. I must admint that i have seen enormous progress since this summer,
Now i can use touchepad, acpi, alsa drivers and CPU frequency scaling (great for power conservation)

But i can setup 2 things.

1. I have downloaded the recent alsa drivers and compiled kernel with default sound support, I can hear music when i connect external speakers and not from the internal speakers (they work -i have tested in win XP) I ve been reading many threads and done alot of research, found many ppl with similar problems but nothing worked on me as on them. I have noticed that something is wrong. When i run alsamixer i cannot mute PCM, i can only change the volume. In every bar you can se MM when muted or 00 when not, but under PCM -blank-

2. I just can't convince Smartlink Modem work.... i have failed completely and ultimately (i plan to buy a tiny USB modem) I just don't know what to do... I haver read wikis, threads and guides about many laptops... i just can't do it. I am afraid tha after so many attemts ad different approaches, even if there is a solution i'have ruined the system beyonf repair.
On boot up, i can see "modem loaded on /dev/ttySL0" because i have emerged some slamdr drivers but when i use gnome-ppp it says it can't find /dev/ttySL0 and when i use wvdial it doesn't find port. I even used kppp, but nothing works..

HELP HELP!!!!!!

I really would like to make this thread a place where many Ì3438G users can find solutions to their problems. I think that there are very few who have installed gentoo succesfully at this laptop, and we could all benefit from their experience

Thank you,
with regards,
Thanasis

corrosif · Apprentice Joined: 21 Dec 2003 Posts: 199 Location: France

Hi!

I am also planning on buying a M3438G-75005.
As I want to install gentoo on it, I have checked some forums to see how to make that possible.

For your alsa problem, maybe you should try with the cvs version of it... in fact, a month ago, there was a thread where someone managed to make it working this way:
https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-355155.html

By the way, which kernel are you using? Is it the latest 2.6.13?
It would be fantastic if you could do some howto on installing gentoo on M3438G... no matter if it is not perfect yet.

And finally, I would like to know if you managed to install linux on your laptop using both hard disks in raid0... The normal way to set up raid0 seems to be through a windows program, and it scares me a little.
_________________
S'il n'y a pas de solution, alors il n'y a pas de problème (logique Shadok).

KLG · Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2005 9:35 am Post subject:

corrosif> I ve read this thread thank ,it might actually work - I ll try it afte work. I know henri from the amilo-forum.de, he haw helped me setting the xorg.conf file, real nice guy and patient with my crappy german.

I am using 2.6.12r10 kernel
, and acpi was is working perfectly as mentioned above....

raid0 is set by default, you can always set it pressing <TAB> at startup (after bios). I never wanted sata drives, i think its a waste of money because i never plan to make arrays, but i couldn't do anything else. So when i first bought they were in raid0 and where seen as two different drives.

No problems, i even use GRUB witch was reported to have problems with SATA, works with me

The only issue left is the winmodem, all sunday i was trying ti get it working..... (and the cardreader ... iwould be asking a lot i know)

KLG · Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2005 2:20 pm Post subject:

corrosif> about the guide you mentioned.
If you have a broadband connection I advise you to make the completely network instalaltion, it will save you a lot of time, and you won't hahe to spend a whole day
"updating world" risking to ruin your system. That is if you plan to have an updated system and you are an emerge 'n' compile freak as i am

If you don't plan to make an up-to-date system the 2005.1 LiveCD and packageCD work absolute fine. Kernel 2.6.12-r6 is perfect, (u could always emerge gentoo-sources after and you can have a new kernel without everything else) Dont try to update your system after a binary package installation, you ll get many compile errors, witch of course can be fixed, but the time you lose is much more than downloading and compiling gnome.

About grub and xorg if you need help i am available. nvidia drivers 6629 work perfectly with nvidia 6800 go.
Here take a lok to my xorg.conf file (don't mind about the Greek language settings)

KLG · Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2005 2:38 pm Post subject:

unfortunatelly the solution provided in te 2nd post doesn't solve the problem

My alsa driver works fine, i can hear music from external Speakers, but i can't hear anything from the integrated speakes

corrosif · Apprentice Joined: 21 Dec 2003 Posts: 199 Location: France

Many thanks for your xorg configuration... it will help me a lot.

Could you also post your /etc/kernels/kernel-config-x86-... (the file containing the kernel configuration)
and the result of "lspci"?
It would be perfect!

For your audio problem, maybe you should post this problem on the alsa bug tracking system, by specifying the model of notebook and audio chipset you own:
https://bugtrack.alsa-project.org/alsa-bug/

But it is strange, because other people don't seem to complain about it... are you sure there is no hardware problem and that your speakers work under windows?
Have you removed alsa and oss support from from the kernel, but leaving basic sound support, before installing the cvs version of alsa?
Maybe things will work better with kernel 2.6.13 (maybe they have corrected something with the basic sound support)...
_________________
S'il n'y a pas de solution, alors il n'y a pas de problème (logique Shadok).

KLG · Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2005 4:10 pm Post subject:

speakers work with windows, and i have only basic OSS support in kernel, perhaps you can help if you see all these errors i get with dmesg

lspci

corrosif · Apprentice Joined: 21 Dec 2003 Posts: 199 Location: France

I finally have the notebook... which is really nice, I have to admit

I managed to put everything in raid0, and access my drives properly via the LiveCD.

But now I have some troubles with the module ipw2200 for the wifi.
In fact, when I try to load the module, I get sometimes the following message (through dmesg):

KLG · Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2005 12:01 pm Post subject:

about your wireless issues>

You should not do things according to intel website, try the wiki-gentoo for instructions on **installing** the appropriate drivers + installing the appropriate kernel modules!

About setting up your network you can find thousands of resources, I did but nothing worked, but i managed to get it working, At this point i must tell that i *never* use dhcp
The only problem i had was with the gateways, so i did the following:
1. net.eth0 and net.eth1 don't start automatic on startup (rc-update del net.eth0)
2. i wrote 2 scripts:

ethstart

corrosif · Apprentice Joined: 21 Dec 2003 Posts: 199 Location: France

Thanks for the tip... for the moment, I emerged stage1 and system via ethernet.

I am currently stuck with making grub working with raid0.
I have posted the related topic here:
https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-2727432.html

... because it is does not seem to be kernel or hardware related.
_________________
S'il n'y a pas de solution, alors il n'y a pas de problème (logique Shadok).

KLG · Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2005 5:39 pm Post subject:

can,t help u about that, never used raids. I prefer to have to seperated hdisks, i think it is safer that way.

The whole summer while I was in holiday i had problems with my laptop, i couldn;t get it started, some times hd1 was not functioning, some other time hd2, many times both. I couldn'n boot windows or gentoo, couldn,t even install windows (it found no disks). I was furious and very sad as i suspected hdisk failure. 2000 euros to be wasted like that....

Anyway when i returned in Athens, and before i take it to the vendor, after consulting the manual, i opened it to take a look. And guess what i saw???
The data cable was partially unplugged, and while i was taking laptop to the neighbors, so they see their emails, the cable was more and more unplugged, and i was being embarrased!!!!! :oops:

The point is that after you finish your setup it is good to check it out, i don,t know what happens in raid arrays if one disk is unplugged. I am just curious, why do u need one partitioned Hdisk and not 2 seperated for the two OSes...

corrosif · Apprentice Joined: 21 Dec 2003 Posts: 199 Location: France

Well I just want to have this schema:

- 80GB for windows
- 50GB for gentoo /
- 30GB for /home
- 1GB for swap
(approximatively)

And even if I know raid0 can be dangerous, I want it to gain performance (and it is also interesting to see how to administrate this kind of stuff).
Thanks for your advice about the unplugged cable...
_________________
S'il n'y a pas de solution, alors il n'y a pas de problème (logique Shadok).

KLG · Posted: Fri Sep 16, 2005 10:00 am Post subject:

when i boot i noticed that acpi causes a conflict at IRQ 10 , so i disabled it form kernel.

Needless to say that idon't like the idea at all because neither battery status or cpufreq works, anyway now the "4 devices" don't conflict they just share peacefully and quitellu IRQ 10. I was just curious to see what resides iin that IRQ ports, and booted from windows i saw Intel FMB SMBUS Controlles 266A

I still can make the speakers work, but i came accross to one solution
http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?thread_id=8072079&forum_id=1752

I ll never manage to *adjust* this solution to our laptop so any help is realy realy appreciated.

I also communicated with henri and here is his approach:
http://www.amilo-forum.de/topic,2416,30,-Linux-auf-amilo-M3438G.html

I still can hear anything from the internal PC speakers

[edit] also irq 5 conflicts, i am starting a thread about acpi issues

Timm · Posted: Sat Sep 17, 2005 2:27 pm Post subject:

Got sound and acpi working!!!!

After I tried everything mentioned in this thread and much more, I nearly gave up. The last chance was to check if Realtek did something..... and they did

Go to the realtek site and download the Linux Driver:
http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/dlhd-2.aspx?lineid=2004052&famid=2004052&series=2004061&Software=True

Unpack it somewhere and use the install script.

After this the control layout in alsamixer changed again, very few controls now, but it works. Don't forget to unmute External Speakers. Also the headphone can now be plugged in the right plug.

ACPI went fine after I changed to gentoo-sources-2.6.13-r1, which is still masked. The issue with the battery is now gone. It always show's the right state. AC and Battery.

One issue is still remaining. If I use the nvidia Driver (6629) I have random lookups when booting. When X starts the screen appears trashy and gets brighter every second. The machine is then no longer responding, even over network.
_________________
Timm

corrosif · Apprentice Joined: 21 Dec 2003 Posts: 199 Location: France

Sounds great... but how can a realtek driver for audio bus help make things work on the Amilo M3438G?
Given the output of lspci, only the ethernet controller is made by realtek.
The High Definition Audio Controller is an intel 82801 (ICH6 Family).
_________________
S'il n'y a pas de solution, alors il n'y a pas de problème (logique Shadok).

KLG · Posted: Sat Sep 17, 2005 6:16 pm Post subject:

http://www.amilo-forum.de/posting.php?mode=editpost&p=22432

corrosif u ll find it interesting, timm is already in conversation... we are forming a fine community France, Germany, Greece ....

2.6.13 works fine, but it is masked...

Vlad.Sharp · Posted: Sat Sep 17, 2005 8:13 pm Post subject:

Hi,

I recently got an Amilo M-3438 G laptop - could you post more specific info on how you got things working because I will start in a few days to try and run Gentoo on it - therefore, I am likely to run into the same kind of problems.

Thanks

Timm · 2.6.13 works fine, but it is masked...

KLG · Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2005 12:38 am Post subject:

Mireno>>No worries, perform a stage3 installation on th second disk.

After emerging gnome copy my posted xorg.conf, after that everything is easy, the only thing i can't make work is the smart link winmodem. and of course the pc speakers, but after all these instructions it won't be difficult.

I formated win, and made a tiny (1gb) partition c:. d:e:f: windows . I boot using windows bootscreen and then grub installed on hd1,0

corrosif · Apprentice Joined: 21 Dec 2003 Posts: 199 Location: France

I have made some progress... I managed to install a system with gentoo-sources 2.6.13-r1.
I still have to compile alsa, but so far, everything seem to go fine (even halting and rebooting... the only annoying thing is the fans working all the time).

Wifi works perfectly, as I am using the ~x86 ipw2200 and ipw2200-firmware drivers (no more firmware error like the one I had with the LiveCD... there is no more need to set a specific timeout; dhcpcd worked directly, there was no need for any script).
Ethernet works fine also... I have compiled both as modules, and I got them load at startup by putting the following in /etc/modules.autoload/kernel-2.6:

KLG · Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2005 1:08 am Post subject:

corrosif> i never liked dhcp, i don't use it because i want my home lan to have stable ip's and i use a very lame ADSL modem/router, it would be impossible to configure NAT and DHCP. Anyway i 2 weeks i am going to UK for studies, so in publick areas i should start using dhcp, i tried many configuration but odviously something went wrong, so i was forced to use the 2 scripts.I would be glad if you could post your conf.d/net and wireless files.

Do you start both net.eth1 and net.eth0 on startup?

kernel 2.6.13 or 2.6.13r1 ?

That alsa-guide would be really useful, but what about the modem???

I can't make it work, no matter what i tried, and i don't even remember what i tried.... :-(

Thanks

[edit] bougth and installed Creative Webcam for notebook. Piece of cake to install and very good quality with gnomemeeting.

[edit2] Regarding the fans, tomorrow i plan studing gentoo power management guide, lets see what am i going to make of it

corrosif · Apprentice Joined: 21 Dec 2003 Posts: 199 Location: France

I am running kernel 2.6.13-r1.
Now I have sound fully working thanks to the tips given by cybercoder.

You can find my steps to make it working here:
http://www.amilo-forum.de/viewtopic.php?p=22582#22582

The only strange thing is that I can only control volume through alsamixer.
The volume button on the left side of the Amilo (the plastic one) doesn't affect volume under linux.
Strange, isn't it?

For the modem, I don't know... maybe one day I will try to make it work, but it is not a big priority for me (and my studies have already begun, so I have less time now).

But studying power management would be definitely a great idea... it is a pitty to see the fans working like crazy, even if the laptop is cold!
_________________
S'il n'y a pas de solution, alors il n'y a pas de problème (logique Shadok).

KLG · Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2005 10:37 am Post subject:

i have internal speakers working, and they are much more loud than windows

anyway i downloaded the realtek drivers from
http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/dlhd-2.aspx?lineid=2004052&famid=2004052&series=2004061&Software=True

as timmhelbig sugggested and it worked!!!!!!

Now i ll work with the modem, because i ll need it, and it would be a shame not to have it working

KLG · Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2005 11:49 pm Post subject:

I was told that installing a *win* is a very tricky buisness in linux, anyway I searched the net, tried many stuff but nothing worked

i emerge slmodem, but i can't load slamr. I get
FATAL: Error inserting slamr (/lib/modules/2.6.13-gentoo-r1/net/slamr.ko): Unkno wn symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)

then i check dsmeg and i see
slamr: Unknown symbol class_simple_device_add
slamr: Unknown symbol class_simple_destroy
slamr: Unknown symbol class_simple_device_remove
slamr: Unknown symbol class_simple_create

When i use gnome-ppp i get: i can't find device
When kppp : Modem is busy
When wvdial: Can't find /dev/ttySL0

I run everything as root .

I think i ll go buy a USB modem

Jinidog · Guru Joined: 26 Nov 2003 Posts: 593 Location: Berlin

hello,

I have problems with getting the kernel to boot the laptop.
The kernel cannot find the SATA-disk and panics ("unable to mount vfs").
I have the gentoo on /dev/sda5 and tried several sd* disks with grub (in case that gentoo names the disks not the same way as Knoppix I am doing the install from).
I compiled in the libata Driver for the ICH-chipset and added IDE support for this chipset too (tried it even without).
Of course I have the right filesystem driver.

The .config file above gives me no hint what I may missing.
Please help.
_________________
Just unused Microsoft-Software is good Microsoft-Software