General info

  • Fujitsu S2010. Tech.specs. here
  • Gentoo 1.4 Started with stage 2. Info here
  • Kernel 2.6.2. Download here

    Software list

  • Gentoo 1.4 on 2.6.2 kernel
  • GRUB. I have 2.4.22-ac4 as a backup as well
  • XFree86 Version 4.3.0 (initial manager twm)
  • Window Maker 0.80.1 with a couple of docked system monitors. Screenshot coming soon
  • KDE 3.2 KDE seems to become my main WM. Although I stripped of fancy effects to minimum
  • GNOME (I use Evolution, Gnome-pilot, and some other staff. Nether started it)
  • Eterm. Customisible replacement to xterm. For use with Window Maker
  • Midnight Commander 4.6.0 and Gnome Midnight Commander 1.0.1. Krusader in KDE
  • Konqueror - KDE file browser. Unlike GNOMEs Nautilus it doesn't start KDE desktop under WM :)
  • Ximian Evolution 1.4 with 5 mailboxes :)
  • OpenOffice 1.1 - it even converts to pdf...
  • Cups 1.1.19 and foomatic 3.0.0 Printer via HP Jet Direct protocol. Configuration via http://localhost:631 is just sweet
  • Samba 2.2.8.a access to corporate Win2000/2003 servers
  • Wine 20031016 for fun of it :)
  • Intel fortran compiler 7.0
  • GDB 5.2.1 + GDBF95 are installed but gonna be removed soon I guess
  • Kdeveloper 2.1.4 and Gideon (Kdeveloper 3.0.0a5).Gideon is expected to support Fortran. It seems like F77 only....
  • Mozilla FireBird browser. Nice :) Mozilla w/o mail'n'news
  • Nedit. Simple, efficient editor
  • Kate. Seems like the best editor to me.
  • XMMS, Xine, Grip. Respectively audio player, video player, ripper
  • Ghostscript 7.05 + XPDF 2.0.2pl1
  • gQviwer. Light and fast image viewer with fullscreen slideshow abbility
  • GIMP
  • XChat. Supports russian w/o problems
  • Gaim. Great ICQ/MSN/name-it-gaim-have-it chat client - switched to KDE build in one.
  • XCDRoaster 0.98alpha 13 (supports ATAPI CDR) + cdrdao + cdrecord + mkisofs
  • XscreenSaver. I use it to lock terminal when working with my laptop in the office
  • sudo - nice and easy customisable package allowing to set up user "root" access to certain resources
  • libtrash -trashbin for console / GUI. Detailed instructions are avialavle on its home page
  • rdesktop - remote desktop connection. Perfectly works with Windows 2000/2003 Terminal Servers

    Kernel config

    Avialable here

    Russian support in X

    I didn't make any attempts to "teach" console russian - I simply do not need it. In X I did it using kbd driver. Here is keyboard settings in /etc/X11/XF86config:
    Section "InputDevice"

    Identifier "Keyboard0"
    Driver "keyboard"
    Option "AutoRepeat" "250 30"
    Option "Protocol" "Standard"
    Option "XkbRules" "xfree86"
    Option "XkbLayout" "us,ru(winkeys)"
    Option "XkbModel" "pc104"
    Option "XkbOptions" "grp:alt_shift_toggle,grp_led:scroll"
    EndSection

    I also had to create /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xkb/X0-config.keyboard with the following content to make it work. (I don't know why I need it - in Redhat9 everything worked w/o it) :

    Rules = "xfree86"
    Model = "pc104"
    Layout = "us,ru(winkeys)"
    Options = "grp:alt_shift_toggle,grp_led:scroll"
    MouseKeysCurve = 0

    Ximian and Gaim use aspell dictionaries. Just emerge the ones you need
    OpenOffice has it's one once avialable on the web
    In XChat be sure to set cyrilic encoding for the irc server in the connection tab

    Touchpad and USB wheel mouse in X

    In short - it works :) Touchpad scroll doesn't work yet, and I don't use touchpad scroll in windows anyway.... I have two different mouses, I connect via USB (one at home one in the office) and the wheel works in both. Configuration file - /etc/X11/XF86config:

    Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier "XFree86 Configured"
    Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
    InputDevice "Mouse1" "SendCoreEvents"
    InputDevice "TouchPad" "CorePointer"
    InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
    EndSection

    Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier "Touchpad"
    Driver "mouse"
    Option "Protocol" "auto"
    Option "Device" "/dev/mouse"
    Option "Buttons" "5"
    Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
    EndSection

    Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier "Mouse1"
    Driver "mouse"
    Option "Protocol" "ExplorerPS/2"
    Option "Device" "/dev/input/mouse0"
    Option "Buttons" "5"
    Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
    EndSection


    Firewall

    Kernel setup and iptables tutorial is avialable here
    I have installed fwbuilder - GUI firewall and emerged iptables package.

    Ximian evolution. Sony CLIE SJ22

    Well, Ximian evolution emerged without problems, setting up mailboxes was easy. I just had to add corporate POP3/SMTP server to /etc/hosts to be able to access it from the office and from home.
    I do love it much more than Outlook in MSOffice... The possivility of setting up default signature file for each account separately is just superb!!! I have 5 account in - corporate, my web-site, couple of net accounts... Love it :))

    I have pilot-link, gnome-pilot and gnome-pilot-conduits emerged. Here is what I did:
    1. Enabled USB support in the kernel: CONFIG_USB_SERIAL=M and CONFIG_USB_SERIAL_VISOR=M If I compile them into kernel - nothig works.
    1a. Added them to autoload (usbserial, visor modules in the given order)
    2. Connected my clie and pressed Sync on it. As a result new device in /dev/usb/tts/1 Yes, I have 0 in tts as well :)
    3. /usr/bin/pilot-xfer -p /dev/usb/tts/1 -b /sync-folder/ (as a root so far) - this MUST work before you continue
    3a.chmod 777 /dev/usb/tts/1 and then I can use it as a user as well
    4. Got a long list of my databases and then:
    RAM backup complete.
    Time elapsed: 0:02:34
    5. Gnome-pilot (Ximian Evolution uses it) didn't worked till I've compiled 6. Now gpilotd-control-applet mannaged to get a name and id from my PAlM, but no Ximian conduits, f#$@...
    7. Aha! Did some reading export USE="pda" ; emerge evolution 8. Sweet :))) It worked out :) I have calendar, contacts and todo list in Evolution :)
    9. To sync I have a menu item in WM menu opening terminal with gtermd running in it - I prefer to see statistics Generally it would be nice to::
    1) Russian contact code page is screwed up(seen how-to already)
    2) IRDA Sync(May be I can figure out how to sync my Nokia6210 as well...


    USB compact flash reader

    That was easy. Very nice instruction here. In short:
    1. Enable in kernel SCSI Support, SCSI disk support, SCSI generic support, Support for USB, Preliminary USB device file system ECHI and/or UHCI and/or OHCI, USB Mass Storage support (I enabled all smart card readers. I'll try to switch them ofg llater)
    2. Compile, copy new kernel, restart
    3. Check your /dev. Most probably after connection it'll show-up as /dev/sda1
    4. Add /dev/sda1 /mnt/flash vfat noauto,umount=0000 0 0 to your /etc/fstab
    5. N'Joy :)

    CDBurner

    Multisession CD complains about cdrecord: Premature EOF on stdin.
    Standard mode works both in ATAPI mode with 2.6 kernel and SCSI emulation with 2.4

    Xscreensaver

    Works fine for me just added /usr/bin/xscreensaver& into /home/my-user-name/GNUstep/Library/WindowMaker/ autostart to autoload it on Xwindow start.

    Connection to corporate Win2000 server

    Spent a little time on that. I can view list of avaialble shares on the 2000. Donwloaded some files using smbclient from corporate win2000 servers form folders, with restricted access.
    UPDATE:
    Konqueror easily opens / browses / reads / writes from corporate servers using smb://server-name in command line

    Xfree-DRM

    Neither xfree-drm emerged from gentoo portage tree no CVS version worked with my IG320M chipset. Still running 2.6 kernel drm driver. Still have glxinfo complaining:
    name of display: :0.0
    Xlib: extension "XFree86-DRI" missing on display ":0.0".
    display: :0 screen: 0
    direct rendering: No

    still have 160 FPS. I'm not a gamer, so I didn't put a lot of tome in that. Have mine 1024x768x24bit on my laptop screen...

    Intel Fortran Compiler

    RPM didn't worked, so I had to go with "unsupported" Intel installation procedure and I have to do a some thinking how to make it work. So here is my "unsupported installation" :)
    Here is the routine:
    1. Create a directory called /opt. (Most of you probably have it anyway)
    2. Using rpm2cpio, convert the compiler rpm file to cpio format.
    For example: rpm2cpio intel-icc/ifc-XXXX.rpm | cpio -i MUST BE DONE AS ROOT FROM / FOLDER!!!
    3. Edit the compiler driver script in /opt/intel/compiler70/ia32/bin/ifc
    replacing with /opt/intel directory
    4. Copy your license file to /opt/intel/licenses. (You obtain it for free for non-comerc. use from Intel)
    5. Modify user section of /etc/profile: to inculde:
    5.1.export PATH="/bin:/usr/bin:/opt/intel/compiler70/ia32/bin:${PATH}"
    export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="/opt/intel/compiler70/ia32/lib"
    That's all folks!

    Kdevelop 3.0 / Gideon

    Seems like all compilers have "issues" :))))
    In case of the issue was graphviz. It didn't emerged, so I downloded and compiled it. No problems here, the only thing that default folder for the graphviz programs is /usr/local/bin/ and I didn't find the way to convince Gideon to look for dot program anywhere but in /bin. Never mind :) changed bindir in graphviz Makefile.
    It works. New interface in Kdevelop 3.0 is much better and much less crouded.
    g77 has f90 support options. As I've been told by one of developers it is possible to connect external compiler. Haven't tried it yet.

    UPDATE: Final version of Kdevelop emerged on my desktop and failed on laptop :)

    Alsa sound

    My sound card is on ALI5455M chipset, so I enbled it in the kernel. Restarted the machine and started XMMS it does not complain but no sound is coming out, which is expected. Next step is to emerge alsa-utils, alsa-tools, alsaxmmsdirver and alsamixergui. On my laptop alsa-drivers (which are necessary package for many of above listes) failed to compile for both 2.6 and 2.4.22-ac4 kernels. Nevermined them - alsa is build in in 2.6 kernel. Just emerge packages with emerge -O (no dependencies). It perfectly works now. The only issue is that sounds is reset to zero after each reboot...
    I've tried /usr/sbin/alsactl store
    Then I have to add /usr/sbin/alsactl restore to /home/my-user-name/GNUstep/Library/WindowMaker/autostart script. Now it works :)

    CPU frequency

    Wrote 4 simple scripts, (one as example below) to change AMD Athlon XP1.7M (1.4GHz) regimes. Hopefully soon I'll have time to write a demon to change regimes automatically. Or maybe I'll find one that works :)
    Scripts require 2.6 kernel with info in, /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/ and root access to this folder. I'll keep you updated on that.

    echo -n "powersave" > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor
    cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/cpuinfo_min_freq > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_min_freq
    cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/cpuinfo_max_freq > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_max_freq

    DVD playback

    I guess it works, seens my device is recognised as DVD-CDRW and Xine supports DVD playback. I just need to find the software to play DVD from different zones...

    Screen brightness and sleep mode

    I group this two together. My laptop goes into sleep (stage 3) without any problems, but fails to switch on the screen when it comes out of sleep. I think that an issue here is that system can not handle screen brightness properly. When I try to change (Fn+F6/F7 on my laptop) linux freezes completly.
    Some update here: Gentoo 2004.0 liveCD handles the change of the screen brightness.
    The reason, as far as I found it is xfs-sources 2.4.24 kernel. If I emerge it and use "as is" Fn+F6,F7 works beautifully, but there is no support for CPU frequency scaling.
    Installing CPUfreq on top of this kernel causes problem during make bzImage - it crashes
    Taking 2.4.24, applying CPUfreq patch and then XFS-rc3 patch makes a kernel which sometimes can survive the change of brightness but often it halts the pc on change of the brightness....

    VmWare (Workstation 4) virtiual PC emulation

    Found my perfect solution for the laptop. I've dual booted from the beginning, now I'm running Gentoo Linux by VmWare Workstation 4.0 from WindowsXP. There were a few tricks needed:
    1. To install VmWare tools locate linux.iso in vmware folder in WinXP partition and connect it as a CD for the Linux virtual machine. When under linux mount the CD and isntall the tools;
    2. Modify automatically created XF86Config-4 according to your standard XF86Config to have mouse and touchpad, russification, and so on;
    3. Recompile the kernel to include support for the AMD PCNET32 network adapter (that's what VmWare emulates) and Ensonic 1371 sound adapter;>
    Hint - do not forget to change your firewall settings under windows accordingly;
    4. Everything works just great.
    Some warnings
    DO NOT DO IN THE EMULATION:
    1. Run locate -u My laptop complains about disk integrity and stops virtual machine.
    2. Recompile kernel. Completly frozen my laptop. And screwed up several modules, and kernel config.
    I would recomend to do all Linux maintainces and emerges / installation when BOOTING into system, not running it in virtual machine...