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Post subject: Medion MIM2210 laptop - sidux kernel incompatabilities
 Posted: Oct 03, 2007 - 01:14 PM
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Joined: Dec 21, 2006
Posts: 296
Location: Slough, England
Status: Offline
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I have been travelling for 3 months, no internet easily available. While away I had urgent need for a laptop and found this one for an affordable price in a local shop:
Medion MM2210
512 ram, 1.4GHz Intel, VIA chipsets
Graphics: VIA Chrome9 HC (P4M900)
1280x800 screen
Wlan: Zydas (uw2453)
Horrible slow Vista preinstalled
Yes I know ibm/lenovo are best for sidux but that's what was instantly available when needed.
I set about installed sidux Chaos (had that cd with me, used gparted to repartition) Mostly ran OK except the wlan (unsupported until kernel 2.6.23) keyboard brightness keys and the graphics department:
Video files can be played with VLC but not kaffeine or any other players.
Worse, there is just a blank screen on leaving X so cannot get init 3 except on reboot ("3" at grub)
Graphics driver is vesa. Via do a linux driver, I never got it working, according to the via forum neither did anyone else. There is also the openchrome project, first try with that driver failed but will try again.
I am now back at my internet connection and trying to get a proper sidux on this box but am finding with ALL post-2.6.20 kernels:
Sometimes it will boot and run OK. Other times at the point of "starting hal" lots of error messages spew out ending with "kernel panic....... not syncing" The machine will then freeze requiring hard reset.
I have tried different cheatcodes including irqpoll noacpi pnpbios=off acpi=off and combinations of. No obvious success with that although it's hard to tell as I can't find a pattern to when or why it screws up.
These errors happen with live cd (tartaros and gaia) and hdinstall. Gaia install so bad it was scrapped. I burn sidux disks DAO and slow speed, I also downloaded new ISO's and burned again on a different machine. Now running tartaros hd install fully du'd (with a variety of kernels!)
I kept the first chaos install (not du'd to sid plus a few extras from etch repos - unsupported to do that but under the circumstances........!) as well, still quite stable.
I had better luck with experimental 2.6.23 kernels. Sound is much better, the wlan works, screen brightness keys work. However sometimes (less often) the same bootup errors happen also other random freezes and failure to shutdown properly if and when it gets to X.
The bios has been flashed to a newer one.
Am I doomed to run etch with no wlan and shite graphics or can anyone come up with a solution ? Will post more info if anyone can help.
sidux users: Be warned about this machine! |
Last edited by dzz on Oct 13, 2007 - 08:37 AM; edited 3 times in total
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Post subject:
Posted: Oct 05, 2007 - 08:00 PM
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Joined: Dec 21, 2006
Posts: 296
Location: Slough, England
Status: Offline
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Update
No replies so it seems I'm on my own with this problem. My current dist-upgraded (from tartaros) sidux seems to run much better on a 2.6.20 kernel. That's the first time I've downgraded a kernel to get hardware working it's usually the other way round! I would still like to find out why, I'll try a recompile of newer kernel sometime. Not sure if future dist-upgrades will be a problem with an older kernel, then sidux will be doomed to etch downgrade.
The wlan is no good, there is a kernel patch for 2.6.23 but I don't know if or how that can be applied to 2.6.20. Linux-compatible USB sticks are cheap enough so could do that.
Also I got the graphics department working normally with the SVN openchrome driver. It was just the module had to be put in the right place and the sidux via driver removed. GLX gears 200fps, not very good. Still no kaffeine but *player ok now. It's more for a work tool anyway.
That's cheap and nasty hardware for you! Should have got the lenovo I'd looked at some weeks earlier.
My desktop machine though still good sidux with old kanotix conversion, regular DU's and current kernel, must be 3 years+ now. |
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Post subject:
Posted: Oct 09, 2007 - 11:16 PM
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Joined: Dec 21, 2006
Posts: 296
Location: Slough, England
Status: Offline
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My apologies to anyone who read this post and did not understand it.
I misquoted the model - it is MIM 2210 (not MM 2210)
Now running part-functional but reasonably stable with 2.6.21 and openchrome experimental graphics driver. Still unusable with 2.6.22/2.6.23 but dist-upgrading almost daily and trying every new experimental kernel just in hope.
There is something in that hardware setup which recent kernels cannot deal with, probably ACPI related. |
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Post subject: 2.6.23 running!
Posted: Oct 13, 2007 - 08:39 AM
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Joined: Dec 21, 2006
Posts: 296
Location: Slough, England
Status: Offline
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Update
2.6.23-slh-smp-1 now out. Still the same problem
One last try before I trash this machine, get 2.6.23.tar.bz2 and recompile. Used the config from the latest kernel that boots, tweaked nothing manually.
To my amazement it rebooted without a problem!
Code:
uname -r
2.6.23-dz1
wlan is registered (not yet configured) fn keys work as does apparently all other hardware. Many reboots later and still stable!
Kaffeine fails with "loading of player xinepart failed" "all video drivers failed to initialize!" I don't know how to fix that at the moment but the alternatives work OK including Xine. May be to do with the current openchrome SVN driver.
I got the kernel source from sidux download link. Is that sidux-modified or original? Why is it the slh sidux kernels (as installed with smxi) won't work?
But the main thing is I can now run current sid (if not -ux)! |
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Post subject:
Posted: Nov 21, 2007 - 11:31 PM
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Joined: Dec 21, 2006
Posts: 296
Location: Slough, England
Status: Offline
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Many thanks to sidux team for Eros, I have tested the ISO on my other machines and it's very good indeed.
Unfortunately it will not boot this laptop except with noacpi boot option and consequent lack of power-saving functions.
My custom-compiled 2.6.23 kernel is still running OK and the SVN openchrome driver has mostly sorted video problems. Wlan now configured and working.
But still no recent sidux kernels are any use and I note that the use of custom kernels (in my case because there is no other option) is unsupported by the sidux project
As nobody has replied to this thread and Eros does not work I suppose I must now assume it will not have sidux support anytime soon. |
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Post subject:
Posted: Nov 22, 2007 - 01:06 AM
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Joined: Nov 25, 2006
Posts: 2570
Status: Offline
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| Eventually the less problematic "noapic" or "nolapic" kernel parameters might work, but as we cannot reproduce that issue actually fixing it from our side (except through upstream kernel development) sounds unlikely. At least I'm not aware of any staging fixes regarding something like this in that domain. |
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Post subject:
Posted: Nov 22, 2007 - 02:22 AM
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Joined: Dec 02, 2006
Posts: 1908
Status: Offline
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| dzz, why not post the lspci of the machine and someone might be able to glean a resolution to the glitches. I know that machine is a cheapo, but sometimes it can be salvaged |
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Post subject:
Posted: Nov 22, 2007 - 08:54 AM
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Joined: Dec 21, 2006
Posts: 296
Location: Slough, England
Status: Offline
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DeepDayze and slh, thank you for your replies
I already know from experience with other machines that sidux with slh kernel has superior hardware support. But clearly it's a tall order to expect sidux support on demand for every new cheapo laptop
I did an install on a work colleague's year or so old Toshiba last week, to my surprise absolutely everything worked, even dialup modem!
Seems the PM4900 is the culprit here.
I have no intention of using a non-Debian OS, sidux by preference and will replace the machine if need be. Till then my own unsupported fixes have made it usable and generally stable, if not to my satisfaction.
Anyway here is the lspci output:
user@host:~$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. P4M900 Host Bridge (rev 80)
00:00.1 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. P4M900 Host Bridge
00:00.2 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. P4M900 Host Bridge
00:00.3 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. P4M900 Host Bridge
00:00.4 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. P4M900 Host Bridge
00:00.5 PIC: VIA Technologies, Inc. P4M900 I/O APIC Interrupt Controller
00:00.6 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. P4M900 Security Device
00:00.7 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. P4M900 Host Bridge
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 PCI Bridge
00:02.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. P4M900 PCI to PCI Bridge Controller
00:03.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. P4M900 PCI to PCI Bridge Controller (rev 80)
00:0f.0 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237A SATA 2-Port Controller (rev 80)
00:0f.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 07)
00:10.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev a0)
00:10.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev a0)
00:10.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev a0)
00:10.4 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 86)
00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237A PCI to ISA Bridge
00:11.7 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8251 Ultra VLINK Controller
00:12.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 7c)
00:13.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237A Host Bridge
00:13.1 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237A PCI to PCI Bridge
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. Chrome9 HC IGP (rev 01)
06:01.0 Audio device: VIA Technologies, Inc. VIA High Definition Audio Controller (rev 10)
user@host:~$ |
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Post subject: 2.6.24 Thank you slh!
Posted: Dec 09, 2007 - 10:48 PM
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Joined: Dec 21, 2006
Posts: 296
Location: Slough, England
Status: Offline
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At last:
Code:
xsnake4:/home/dzz# uname -r
2.6.24-rc4-git5-slh-smp-1
It was probably against the odds I ever got a mostly-functional Linux at all on this, never mind a fully-DU'd sidux, albeit with a (sidux-unsupported) self-compiled vanilla (?) 2.6.23.
I am now pleased to report I can at last run a slh kernel.
Kaffeine is now working!
Wlan is up!
Bootup is fast, (default kernel options) if there were error messages, I never saw them.
Not so sure about ACPI and powersave yet, find out in due course.
Thanks slh. |
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Post subject:
Posted: Dec 10, 2007 - 02:45 AM
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Joined: Dec 04, 2006
Posts: 225
Location: Cumbria, UK
Status: Offline
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Apologies as I've only just noticed this topic.
In our experience of VIA chipsets non of the existing kernels will boot
properly without appending the pci=msi parameter to Grub.
Hope this is some help. |
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Post subject:
Posted: Dec 10, 2007 - 03:34 AM
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Joined: Dec 02, 2006
Posts: 1908
Status: Offline
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| dzz, let us know if you are able to get ACPI working as well as powersave on that lappy. Perhaps your notes can help other users who have machines with the Via PM4900 chipset. |
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