the disgruntled Linux surgeon

! On bootup UDEV hang

Finally nailed the problem with udev that made the laptop hang more often than not during bootup.

Change the /etc/init.d/udev script so that the line containing

{{{
/sbin/udevtrigger
}}}

to

{{{
/sbin/udevtrigger --subsystem-nomatch="*misc*"
}}}

! lspci Output
00:00.0 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Host Bridge (rev a2)

00:00.1 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 0 (rev a2)

00:00.2 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 1 (rev a2)

00:00.3 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 5 (rev a2)

00:00.4 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 4 (rev a2)

00:00.5 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Host Bridge (rev a2)

00:00.6 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 3 (rev a2)

00:00.7 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 2 (rev a2)

00:02.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation C51 PCI Express Bridge (rev a1)

00:03.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation C51 PCI Express Bridge (rev a1)

00:05.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation C51 [Geforce 6150 Go] (rev a2)

00:09.0 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation MCP51 Host Bridge (rev a2)

00:0a.0 ISA bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP51 LPC Bridge (rev a3)

00:0a.1 SMBus: nVidia Corporation MCP51 SMBus (rev a3)

00:0a.3 Co-processor: nVidia Corporation MCP51 PMU (rev a3)

00:0b.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP51 USB Controller (rev a3)

00:0b.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP51 USB Controller (rev a3)

00:0d.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation MCP51 IDE (rev f1)

00:0e.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation MCP51 Serial ATA Controller (rev f1)

00:10.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP51 PCI Bridge (rev a2)

00:10.1 Audio device: nVidia Corporation MCP51 High Definition Audio (rev a2)

00:14.0 Bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP51 Ethernet Controller (rev a3)

00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration

00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map

00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller

00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control

03:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM94311MCG wlan mini-PCI (rev 01)

07:05.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller

07:05.1 Generic system peripheral [0805]: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 19)

07:05.2 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd Unknown device 0843 (rev 01)

07:05.3 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev 0a)

07:05.4 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd xD-Picture Card Controller (rev 05)

! Drivers (Modules) I use

Currently at kernel 2.6.14-rc1-git8

firewire driver : ohci1394

SMBUS : i2c_nforce2

Video driver : nvidia 100.14.19 manually installed because I am using my own kernel and restricted driver manager was brain dead about it.

fbcon and nvidiafb give you nice 1280x800 console, but then you can't use nvidia 3D driver.

usplash stopped working for some reason.

UPDATE: fixed now, was a missing symlink.

Network driver : forcedeth

USB : ohci_hcd
ehci_hcd

Freq. scaling : powernow_k8

Temp. monitor : k8temp

SVM : kvm-amd

Multi card reader : sdhci

Sound : snd-hda-intel

Wireless : bcm43xx

Now I amusing the experimental "b43" driver and it feels much better. This driver has been merged into 2.6.24-rc1.

SATA HDD : sata_nv

PATA DVD-RAM : pata_amd

Modem : Should work with the linuxant drivers. They worked with 2.6.20 but prevented shutdown. On 2.6.22 they cause a hard hang after probing them. Crappy commercial drivers!

Not tested : firewire , pcmcia-express , XD card reader , memory stick reader, expansion port, lightscribe.

Needed : Cracked firmware for the dvd drive.

All FN and multimedia keys work properly.

! Xorg.conf Extras

Option "OnDemandVBlankInterrupts" "True" # said to save battery

Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True"

Option "RenderAccel" "True"

Option "NoRenderExtension" "False"

Option "AllowGLXWithComposite" "True"

Option "DamageEvents" "True"

Option "NvAGP" "0"

Option "NoLogo" "True"

Option "DynamicTwinView" "True"

Option "TripleBuffer" "True"

Option "UseEvents" "True"

! Power management & Suspend hibernate

echo 1 > /sys/devices/system/cpu/sched_mc_power_savings

echo mem > /sys/power/state

echo disk > /sys/power/state

echo 1500 > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_writeback_centisecs

Some moudle options:


options usbcore autosuspend=1
options b43 hwpctl=1 bad_frames_preempt=1
options snd-hda-intel power_save_controller=1


To make HAL use this method move hibernate.sh and sleep.sh from /etc/acpi as well as move /usr/sbin/pmi

You have to make sure bcm43xx is removed before suspending or hibernating otherwise it oopses the kernel badly. I added an rmmod line to /usr/lib/hal/scripts/linux/hal-system-power-suspend-linux and /usr/lib/hal/scripts/linux/hal-system-power-hibernate-linux

If you are using compiz or beryl make sure you enable the sync to vblank option so that the video driver re-initializes after resume.

! Kernel Conf
kernel 2.6.22.6 config : http://phaeronix.net/files/config-2.6.22.6
kernel 2.6.24-rc1-git8 : http://phaeronix.net/files/config-2.6.24-rc1-git8

! HWclock Quirk

Setting the hardware clock causes hard hang. disable the time scripts on startup and shutdown. You have to set the time from the bios.
A good reader, Marcelo, suggested using the 32bit hwclock binary. I am yet to try this.

! Broadcom Wireless quirks

I use the in-kernel bcm43xx driver.

apt-get install bcm43xx-fwcutter , and follow the instructions to download the firmware.

I found this bug http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=8937 and tried out the patches in there, they seem to make the card perform much more reliably. I need more testing.

UPDATE : YES! this has been included in kernel version 2.6.22.9 Hooray!

UPDATE : the upcoming b43 driver based on the devicescape framework is much better.

! MMC card fix quirk

The multicard reader will ignore MMC cards but work ok with SD and microSD cards. If you do the following then MMC cards should work.

{{{
setpci -s '07:05.0' 0xCA=0x57

setpci -s '07:05.0' 0xCB=0x02

setpci -s '07:05.0' 0xCA=0x00
}}}

This is not needed in 2.6.24-rc1 as there is a special disabler module.

! Thanks thesamo for formatting this page.