Setting Up a Laptop on Top of Pappys Seeds

Moriah · Posted: Sat Jan 02, 2010 4:49 am Post subject:

Pappy & cach0rr0:

I have gentoo-sources 2.6.31-gentoo-r6 running on my Lenovo w500 laptop. I got X limping on it in 640x480 vga mode this evening, and with some fiddling, I even got the mouse working. I then tried to get bluetooth working since I use a bluetooth mouse with it all the time unless its actually on my lap. Now X clobbers the video until I log in via ssh from another box and kill X.

Oh well, I really need 1920x1200 on the display, both the internal one, and the external one connected via vga cable.

I was using the ATI graphics hardware, but I am not a gamer; I am a programmer. I look at mounds of text and need high resolution, but I do not need 3D or fast motion. I only rarely even watch a video clip on it.

I have heard that the w500 also has an Intel graphics device, and it uses less battery. That sounds good to me. How do I make it use the Intel graphics instead of the ATI graphics? How do I get the 1920x1200 resolution with 24 bits per pixel?

And how do I get the bluetooth working. I need the mouse, but I also have a bluetooth printer and bluetooth stereo headphones.

I currently only have wired ethernet working. I have never set up wifi under any linux before.

My experience with X stopped while xfree86 was still the way to go. I started using headless systems and vnc for all my linux boxes. I have never used xorg and its somewhat different configuration files. I have never messed with dbus and hal before either.

Yikes! What a pile of X and network stuff has passed me by!

I appreciate all the help you and the others here provide.
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NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sat Jan 02, 2010 2:32 pm Post subject:

Moriah,

Lets deal with one issue at a time. Pick the one that's most important to you and we can work that.
Maybe start a seperate thread so we don't pollute Pappys thread.

If we work one thing at a time, you won't get confused, we won't get confused and there will be no cross contamination that doesn't get spotted either.

Feel free to PM me a link to your new thread so I don't miss it
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Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

Moriah · Posted: Sat Jan 02, 2010 4:22 pm Post subject:

I certainly agree with the one thing at a time approach; I was just listing the issues I am facing as a result of never having put linux on a laptop, at least not since 1997 anyway. I had it on an old thinkpad way back then and loved it. Slackware back then.

Since all the issues are important, I guess the start should be getting X working at full 1920x1200 with Zoom enabled since I may have to plug into a projector or monitor of a different resolution from time to time. We need to discuss the pros and cons of which graphics adapter to use, since we have a choice of intel or ATI.

Once X is working, bluetooth should be next, so I can use my good mouse.

After that, wifi, since I have never done that before either.

etc. until we have covered all the bases.

Amazing how many things one has never done and still used Linux since 1993, isn't it?

So, Neddy, splitting this off to a separate thread is a good idea. Why don't you split it starting with my original long post above, and put a link there in its place, as this will be a thread on setting up a laptop with Pappy's Seeds.

Thanks!

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NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sat Jan 02, 2010 4:28 pm Post subject:

Spilt from this topic as this thread will carry on from installing a kernel from Pappys Seeds to add Xorg and other things
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NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sat Jan 02, 2010 4:40 pm Post subject:

Moriah,

OK, lets start with Xorg. Review the

The X Server Configuration HOWTO

Xorg 1.6 Upgrade Guide

making sure you have Xorg installed in accordance with both of those documents.

hal is the way of the future - it also manages hot plugging pf keyboards and pointing devices for Xorg, so its a good thing.
As you have two graphics chips, we may as well build for both of them. I don't know how you select between them, so any picture will be a bonus.

You should have xorg build with hal and dbus, the hald abd dbus daemons running (in the defaukt runlevel). You will need evdev support in your kernel and in your INPUT_DEVICES ... this will also take care of yor touchpad.

When you are ready to test, rename your xorg.conf so it can't be found and start Xorg with no config file at all.
Be prepared to ssh in from another system to kill Xorg in case you don't get a picture or your keyboard doesn't work (or both).
Whatever happens, post your /var/log/Xorg.0.log file so we can see what to do next
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Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

Moriah · Posted: Sat Jan 02, 2010 4:44 pm Post subject:

I also plan to re-install after these issues are settled, so I can set it up with LUKS and a USB key to boot with a fully encrypted drive. Although I am currently using a 320 GB 7200 RPM SATA drive, I have a 256 GB OCZ Vertex solid state drive I plan to use, and maybe get another one for the CD bay adapter so I can have 500 GB in a RAID-0 configuration.

The box has 8 GB ram in it and a WUXGA (1920x1200) display and an Intel core2duo at 2.56 GHz, so it should make a good workstation.

I need to run windoze XP to support some clients, plus I am working on a project that will soon require windows CE, so I want to try the Linux KVM kernel virtual machine, but if that doesn't work well for me, then I will use vmware workstation, which I am using now under XP. The ability to set up virtual machines with snapshots and network them together is great for debugging.

I run nightly backups for all the machines on my network using a backup server I built. All the Linux machines use LVM on the root filesystem so they can make use of the snapshot feature to freeze the filesystem view during a backup. Therefore I plan to run LVM on the root filesystem of thislaptop as well, but not until the X, bluetooth, and wifi issues are solved.

I also use a Pantech PX-500 to connect to Sprint broadband wireless. It plugs into the PCMCIA slot. Either Sprint or Pantech (I forget which) has a guide for using it under Linux. It looks like 2 serial ports on USB, and uses PPP. I would like to get the Lenovo internal adapter for this, both so I can use the built-in antenna, which ought to work better, and so I do not have the little "wart" sticking out of the side of my laptop.

Once this is done, I should probably write a HowTo or a wiki page to document what worked.
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Moriah · Posted: Sat Jan 02, 2010 4:55 pm Post subject:

Another thought came to mind. I want to mention it before I forget. If I decide to go with a pair of SSD's, it will take up my SATA CD/DVD drive slot. Lenovo has an adapter so you can put a laptop drive there for a second disk instead of the CD/DVD drive. They also have another adapter that lets you plug in extra batteries there instead of the CD/DVD drive. I currently have both of these adapters on order, as they were running a pre-Christmas special and I saved $60.00 US.

I have not decided whether I will go with a single SSD and the extra batteries -- for longer battery time, or with the RAID-0 for screaming speed and more storage, but shorter battery life. The SSD has write speeds of about 150 MB/sec, and read speeds of about 250 MB/sec, so a RAID-0 in Linux software RAID should nearly double these speeds.

But either way, I do not expect to have a CD/DVD drive available. With the RAID setup there will be no way to plug it in, and with the extra battery setup it could be plugged back in, but I probably will not have it with me.

All of the above considerations mean I will need to be able eventually to boot and install from a USB stick. That's another topic for later on, as right now the CD/DVD drive is available, but I do expect it to go away before this saga is finished.

Likewise, to use LUKS to boot from a fully encrypted disk, I will need a bootable USB drive. I have located a drive on Amazon that has a write-protect switch, which I consider essential for this application.
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The MyWord KJV Bible tool is at http://www.elilabs.com/~myword

Foghorn Leghorn is a Warner Bros. cartoon character.

Moriah · Posted: Sat Jan 02, 2010 5:04 pm Post subject:

Final nit picking thought: this laptop has a fingerprint reader. It attaches via USB. I think it would just be cool to use the fingerprint reader as a way to unlock the screen, instead of having to type my password.

Don't get me wrong here. I think the password is still impostant for logging in, and anywhere else it is used, except for unlocking the screen after a time-out causing a screen blank or a sleep.

I read somewhere that the fingerprint reader was not working under Linux, but I think that was Ubuntu. Maybe we can get it working here.

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Foghorn Leghorn is a Warner Bros. cartoon character.

Moriah · Posted: Sat Jan 02, 2010 5:06 pm Post subject:

OK, end of laundry list, start of Xorg configuration!

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Foghorn Leghorn is a Warner Bros. cartoon character.

Mike Hunt · Watchman Joined: 19 Jul 2009 Posts: 5287

My box defaults to 800x600 without an xorg.conf file, so I use this minimal config that you could adjust to taste:

Moriah · Posted: Sat Jan 02, 2010 6:12 pm Post subject:

I am just getting ready to swap out the XP drive and swap in the Gentoo drive. Then I will start with the guides Neddy pointed out. After that I will report what I got with no config at all.

Hi priority interrupt! Wife wants to go shopping. :-(

I'll be back after the expedition.

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The MyWord KJV Bible tool is at http://www.elilabs.com/~myword

Foghorn Leghorn is a Warner Bros. cartoon character.

pappy_mcfae · Posted: Sat Jan 02, 2010 10:38 pm Post subject:

On changing to the Intel chipset:

From this URL, "The other option is to change the BIOS display config to either Integrated or Discrete. Integrated enables Intel's GM45 hardware, which is fully supported out of the box and has the best power-efficiency. Discrete enables the ATI Mobility FireGL v5700, which is basically an ATI Radeon HD3650. I have not tested this out yet, but this card would required installing the AMD binary driver for the most functionality."

With this in mind you would:
a. Make sure the BIOS is set for Integrated.

b. change /etc/make.conf thusly:

pappy_mcfae · Posted: Sat Jan 02, 2010 10:44 pm Post subject:

About your drive questions, I'd say go for the fastest drive configuration you can get, use the SysRescueCD in USB Stick form, and have at it. If you have other machines on your net with optical drives, you can move anything from one of those machines to the lappy without issue.

For the rest of the stuff, just Google "w500 linux". The first three pages will tell you pretty much all you want to know about that machine running under Linux.

Blessed be!
Pappy
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NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sat Jan 02, 2010 11:54 pm Post subject:

pappy_mcfae,

It looks like you have done this before :)
I'll just watch and learn
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Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

pappy_mcfae · Posted: Sat Jan 02, 2010 11:57 pm Post subject:

I've done it a couple times on my own machines.

BB!
P
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Moriah · Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2010 5:52 am Post subject:

Whew! Back from the shopping expedition. Actually, it was motivated b y a few errands that needed running, but while we were out, she wanted to look for Christmas bargains. The most expensive thing we bought was dinner.

We had a good time, but now I can get back to the w500 gentoo project.

Thanks for all the details, Pappy. Yes I had already seen the page you pointed out. I think that was an Ubuntu setup, if I remember correctly. I did not know if a way to switch drivers without a BIOS adjustment had been worked out under gentoo yet or not, so I was waiting to see what others had to say. As far as I am concerned, long battery life is a virtue, but super quick graphics is not a big deal for me, and I never do 3D or games. This box is my main income generating tool, not a toy. I think the intel graphics sounds better to me, so I will try that first.

Well, I just swapped drives from XP to gentoo, and switched the video from ATI to Intel, and it still booted OK, so that's one milestone reached!

Now to make sure Xorg is properly installed and configured. I will check back before I go to bed tonight...
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The MyWord KJV Bible tool is at http://www.elilabs.com/~myword

Foghorn Leghorn is a Warner Bros. cartoon character.

Moriah · Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2010 6:00 am Post subject:

Pappy, I will need a way to boot from a USB stick and do what I do booting from gentoo minimal live CD now. I take it that this SysRescueCD in USB Stick form will do that for me, or do I need to make a gentoo X_64 Live USB stick instead? I have never made a bootable CD before, but I will also need to make a different one to address the LUKS on root filesystem ultimate goal that I have for this box. Can you give me a link to the procedure?
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The MyWord KJV Bible tool is at http://www.elilabs.com/~myword

Foghorn Leghorn is a Warner Bros. cartoon character.

pappy_mcfae · Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2010 6:02 am Post subject:

Good luck.

BB!
P
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pappy_mcfae · Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2010 6:05 am Post subject:

The sysrescueCD supports both x86 and x86_64. While I've not used the USB version, I have used the CD version on all of my machines. It's one disk I keep lots of copy of, and one within reach.

When you get to the boot prompt, type in rescue64. As soon as it validates your CPU is 64 bit, it's off to work.

BB!
P
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Moriah · Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2010 6:50 am Post subject:

So where do I get a sysrescue USB image from? Do you have a link handy?
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The MyWord KJV Bible tool is at http://www.elilabs.com/~myword

Foghorn Leghorn is a Warner Bros. cartoon character.

Moriah · Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2010 6:53 am Post subject:

I just finished the steps in the Xorg 1.6 Upgrade Guide that Neddy pointed out. Everything went without a hitch.

I think I will wait until tomorow to work through The X Server Configuration HOWTO he also linked to.

Its almost 2 AM; if I keep working now, there is a good chance I will mess up somewhere.

_________________
The MyWord KJV Bible tool is at http://www.elilabs.com/~myword

Foghorn Leghorn is a Warner Bros. cartoon character.

pappy_mcfae · Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2010 8:00 am Post subject:

Try this on for size. As I say, I haven't tried it on a stick, but it works great as a lowly CD.

And yes, sleeping before making errors is a good thing. It gives you more time and mental energy to find the errors, or be more conscious, and not make them in the first place...hehehe

BB!
P
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cach0rr0 · Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2010 8:33 am Post subject:

Moriah · Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2010 6:07 pm Post subject:

When I first started using gentoo -- spring 2004 -- I had some machines without CD drives, or with broken CD drives. I had been using the redhat 9 install from floppy, as I had working floppy drives on all my boxes. What I did to install gentoo was create a partition to install redhat on from the flopy drive, then used redhat as a bootstrap loader to install gentoo. When gentoo was fully up, I deleted the redhat partition, expanded the gentoo partition and filesystem, and voila! Pure gento.

I will try the liveUSB or sysrescueUSB after I get X, bluetooth (at least the mouse!), and wifi working.
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The MyWord KJV Bible tool is at http://www.elilabs.com/~myword

Foghorn Leghorn is a Warner Bros. cartoon character.

Moriah · Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2010 7:50 pm Post subject:

I went thru the X-server configuration HowTo and renamed /etc/X11/xorg.conf to hide it so the X-server would start up with its internal config, but it failed to start. Here is the /var/log/xorg.0.log file: