Installing Linux on an IBM R50 Laptop.

TuxMobil - Linux on laptops, PDAs, mobile phones

Last updated: March 27, 2004 @ 1:26pm CDT

What follows are my hints, tips, and instructions for installing Linux on an IBM R50.

Disclaimer: This information came from and works on my machine. Other machines (even other R50s) may have slightly different hardware and thus require different configurations. Use at your own risk.

My Machine	Provides a quick summary of the machine and it's components
Saving Your Installation	Instructions on how to save what came pre-installed on the machine, including Windows XP
The Install	What you need to know about installing Linux onto the machine successfully
Component Status	Details on each piece of hardware, whether or not it works, and what I had to do to make it work.
Other Important Stuff	More information about the machine, including important items such as APM and ACPI.
Files & Logs	A selection of some important configuration and log files for various components.

My Machine

I needed a pretty powerful machine, so I selected alot, if not all of the upgrades. Here's my machines, as delivered:

IBM R50 (Part 1829-3HU)
Product specifications
Product views

Click on a part's link for more detailed information about it.
Clink on the part's status to jump to the install information.

Works	1.7 GHz Intel Mobile Pentium-M (Centrino) Processor w/ 1MB L2 Cache
Works	15" TFT SXGA+ display
Works/minor issues	32MB ATI Mobility Radeon 9000
Works	2G 64Bit DDR non-parity SDRAM (PC7200 @ 333MHz)
Works	40G 7200RPM HD
Works	IBM UltraBay Combo MultiBurtner
Works	10/100/1000 Internal Ethernet
Works	IBM a/b/g MiniPC Wireless LAN
Unknown	Actiontec Bluetooth II Adapter
Works	Internal 56k Modem
Works	Analog Devices AD1981B AC97 Soft Audio
Works	86 key keyboard w/ TrackPoint and UltraNav Touchpad w/ Access IBM, volume control, power buttons, and Fn key with Integrated ThinkPad Keyboard light.
Unknown	Infrared transceiver
Unknown	IEEE 1394 (Firewire) Port
Works	2 USB 2.0 ports
Works	1 Parellel (ECP/EPP) port
Unknown	Port Replicator docking port
Works	Headphones port
Works	Mic-in port
Unknown	S-Video out port
Unknown	Monitor port
Works	Built in RJ-11 and RJ-45 ports
Unknown	1 PCMCIA Slot (Type I/II/III, 16/32 Bit)
Doesn't work	Internal IBM Security Chip

Software

Works	APM
Unknown	ACPI
Works	XFree86

Configration Files, Information Files, and Output Logs

A collection of other things you might find useful:

/proc Files

lsmod Output

XF86Config

lspci -v Output

dmesg Output

Linux Distribution

I'm attempting to install:

    Fedora Core 1 w/ kernel v2.4.22, glibc v2.3.2, Xfree86 v4.3.0, and KDE v3.1.4

    Fedora package information.

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Saving Your Installation

My R50 came with Windows XP Professional and a slew of software preinstalled by IBM. I didn't really want any of it, but will save it since I paid for it. IBM doesn't provide recovery CDs with the laptop, but you can call their tech support line (within the first 30 days of purchase) and they'll ship you out a set. Mine arrived the next day.

The R50 comes configured with two partitions, a FAT32 partition where WinXP is installed, and a PreDesktop Area. This PreDesktop partition performs the function that normal recovery CDs would; it is where IBM's tools perform a system recovery from. This area isn't accessible (without tweaking) from Windows XP, but can be restored using the AccessIBM button to get at the recovery programs. If you want to keep this area intact, and make it available from Linux, IBM has some pointers for doing so.

My intent is to wipe the disk clean, but before I do, I want to save as much software as I can.

A side note, the first time you boot into WinXP, it will convert that FAT32 partition into a NTFS partition. Once that happens, Linux won't be able to use it (NTFS support is almost non-existent). Since I'm wiping the disk anyway, I don't care. If you're interested in keeping WinXP installed, I suggest you resize your WinXP partition BEFORE you boot into it the first time. If you do this, you can use parted, or similiar tools. If you've already booted into WinXP, you'll need tools that can resize NTFS partitions, like ntfsresize. Knoppix has a bootable Linux CD with ntfsresize on it.

Saving Windows XP.

I think it really sucks that IBM won't give you a Windows XP install CD even though I paid several hundred dollars for the OS. So - I made my own. Luckily, the OS install files are stored on your PC in the i386 directory on your C: drive.

Here's how to make an XP install CD out of it.

First, you need a bootable floppy disk to create a bootable CD from. Your bootable floppy should have on it:

format.com
fdisk.exe
DOS drivers for CD drive
SmartDrive (smartdrv.exe)

If you can't find or make a bootable floppy, try one of these (I make no claims about them, I haven't used them.) You could also try MicroSoft's 4 floppy disk approach, but I'd consider that overkill.

A note on SmartDrive, it's an optional piece, but if you don't have it, your install will take hours longer than it would without it. I strongly suggest you get a copy if you don't have one.

Since the laptop doesn't come with a floppy disk drive (although a USB drive is an available option), you need to make a bootable install CD. Using your favorite CD recording software:

Create a bootable CD; use your bootable floppy to create the boot image.
Add the entire i386 directory to your cd.
Burn it!

Here's more info on bootable CDs than you probably wanted to know.

Now you have a Windows XP Install CD that you can save and use to install a fresh OS if necessary. Don't forget to also save your Product Code (mine is on a sticker on the bottom of my laptop).

The steps for using the CD:

Boot your laptop using your new Windows XP installation CD. To do this, power on, and press the blue AccessIBM key (you'll be prompted to do this right at startup) and navigate to the Boot from CD option.
Using fdisk.exe, create a new FAT partition for your new OS, deleting old ones as necessary.
Format the new partition using format.com. You don't need to make it bootable or copy the system files to it.
Run smartdrv.exe, if it isn't already running.
Switch to your CD drive, then to the i386 directory.
Run "winnt.exe".
From there, follow the directions.

P.S. If you run "winnt.exe" and you get a kernel error saying that it can't find a place for a swap file, you haven't fdisk'd and format'd correctly.

Saving the Rest of the Pre-installed Software.

IBM did include a CD with software for the MultiBurner with the laptop, so there's no reason to attempt to save that. The CD has full copies of WinDVD, WinDVD Creator Plus, RecordNow, Drive Letter Access (DLA), Simple Backup, the UDF Reader, and the user guides for the drive. Best to make a backup copy of this CD, when I ordered recovery CDs from IBM, this CD wasn't included.

As for the rest of the software, most of it can be download directly from IBM's support website. This includes:

All the necessary drivers
ThinkPad Configuration Utility
AccessIBM
Access Connections
PC Doctor
Rapid Restore PC Ultra

What's left is:

I don't need or want any of those, or can get them from the links provided, so I didn't bother backing them up.

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The Install

Partitioning

I plan to run a copy of Windows 2000 (I refuse to use XP as a result of it's licensing/activation schemes) and Fedora in a dual-boot configuration. After creating the partitions, here's what I ended up with:

/dev/hda1          4.9G      Windows 2000
/dev/hda2      13.4G        Linux ext3 (/)
/dev/hda3        13.4G        Linux ext3 (/data)
/dev/hda4          2.9G      Linux swap

I suppose it breaks the rules for having a small boot partiton and making /usr separate from the rest of the partitions, but this is the scheme that works well for my needs. I often have two complete installations, one in / and one in /data and can swap either of them in and out on a whim; this is a great way to install a new OS without affecting "production" usage until the new OS is really ready to go.

I'm probably wasting a bit of space in the swap partition, but I do have 2G of memory, and wanted a bit extra to allow for future things such as sharing the swap space with Windows 2000.

Installing Fedora

Install CDs

I have a set of Fedora install CDs ready-to-go. I made them apt-aware as well so that I can easily install new libraries/programs if necessary. I don't plan to use the Red Hat Network for a few reasons; 1) I'm not paying for it; it's not worth the money, 2) I'm not sure if it will even continue to exist as Red Hat moves away from end-user OS support to enterprise OS support, and 3) apt is MUCH easier, in my opinion.

Why use apt? For one, very major reason. If I want to install a new program called "foo", I just type in "apt-get install foo"; apt figures out what libraries and dependencies need to be met and handles them all automatically. This is MUCH easier than having to track down these dependencies manually and install each piece separately.

Update: February 21, 2004 - I've recently discovered YUM and have started playing around with it. It basically does the same thing that apt does, but is seems to have better support for Red Hat flavour packages than apt does. It also comes with Fedora by default.

Doing the Install

It's time to start the install. As I stated, I'm using the CD installation method. Things work pretty much as expected, with one very important exception.

I attempted several installs but each time it would abort trying to copy the install image to my hard drive. The actual error message was "An error occurred transferring the install image to your hard drive. You are probably out of disk space." Unfortunately, this doesn't happen until you go through every single option page and select all your packages.

It turns out the problem has to do with DMA. You can correct it easily by:

1) Booting to the install CDs
2) At the boot: prompt type in:

linux allowcddma

Once I did that, the install went smoothly.

One option you might be interested in knowing now is my monitor info. My monitor wasn't detected automatically. With my LCD I chose the "Generic LCD" monitor option with a resolution of 1400x1050.

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Component Status

Processor

Status: Works	Make/Model: 1.7 GHz Intel Mobile Pentium-M (Centrino) Processor w/ 1MB L2 Cache15"
Drivers/Modules: n/a
PCI Report: n/a
dmesg Report: Initializing CPU#0 Detected 598.067 MHz processor. Calibrating delay loop... 1192.75 BogoMIPS CPU: L1 I cache: 32K, L1 D cache: 32K CPU: L2 cache: 1024K Intel machine check architecture supported. Intel machine check reporting enabled on CPU#0. CPU: After generic, caps: a7e9f9bf 00000000 00000000 00000000 CPU: Common caps: a7e9f9bf 00000000 00000000 00000000 CPU: Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1700MHz stepping 05 Enabling fast FPU save and restore... done. Enabling unmasked SIMD FPU exception support... done. Checking 'hlt' instruction... OK.
Notes: Worked out of the box. Seems to automatically handle the various CPU speeds to control battery life; have had it on for 4+ hours, with very minimal use, and still had an hour to go.

Status: Works	Make/Model: TFT SXGA+ display
Drivers/Modules: n/a
PCI Report: n/a
dmesg Report: n/a
Notes: The display itself is beautiful and works well. I'm on 1400x1050 and the display is clean, crisp, and although the text is somewhat small, it's very readable.

Status: Works, with minor issues	Make/Model: 32MB ATI Mobility Radeon 9000
Drivers/Modules: agpart, radeon (XFree86 v4.3)
PCI Report: AGP 00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82855PM Processor to AGP Controller (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode]) Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B- Status: Cap- 66Mhz+ UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- Latency: 96 Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=64 I/O behind bridge: 00003000-00003fff Memory behind bridge: c0100000-c01fffff Prefetchable memory behind bridge: e0000000-e7ffffff BridgeCtl: Parity- SERR- NoISA+ VGA+ MAbort- >Reset- FastB2B- Video Card 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon R250 Lf [Radeon Mobility 9000 M9] (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [VGA]) Subsystem: IBM: Unknown device 0531 Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping+ SERR+ FastB2B+ Status: Cap+ 66Mhz+ UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- Latency: 66 (2000ns min), cache line size 08 Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 11 Region 0: Memory at e0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M] Region 1: I/O ports at 3000 [size=256] Region 2: Memory at c0100000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K] Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled] [size=128K] Capabilities: [58] AGP version 2.0 Status: RQ=47 SBA+ 64bit- FW+ Rate=x1,x2,x4 Command: RQ=31 SBA+ AGP+ 64bit- FW- Rate=x1 Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2 Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1+ D2+ AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0-,D1-,D2-,D3hot-,D3cold-) Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-
dmesg Report: Linux agpgart interface v0.99 (c) Jeff Hartmann agpgart: Maximum main memory to use for agp memory: 1919M agpgart: Detected Intel(R) 855PM chipset agpgart: AGP aperture is 256M @ 0xd0000000 [drm] AGP 0.99 Aperture @ 0xd0000000 256MB [drm] Initialized radeon 1.7.0 20020828 on minor 0 [drm] Loading R200 Microcode
Notes: Worked out of the box, however I do notice screen flickering when using some of the GL screensavers. Resolution set to 1400x1050 works well. TuxRacer seems to run fine (although I don't play it) and glxgears reports at least 750 fps.

Status: Works	Make/Model: 2G 64Bit DDR non-parity SDRAM (PC7200 @ 333MHz)
Drivers/Modules: n/a
PCI Report: n/a
dmesg Report: 1151MB HIGHMEM available. 896MB LOWMEM available. Memory: 2068012k/2096512k available (1503k kernel code, 28112k reserved, 1110k data, 136k init, 1179008k highmem)
Notes: Worked without configuration.

Status: Works	Make/Model: 40G 7200RPM HD
Drivers/Modules: n/a
PCI Report: n/a
dmesg Report: ide0: BM-DMA at 0x1860-0x1867, BIOS settings: hda:DMA, hdb:pio hda: IC25N040ATCS05-0, ATA DISK drive ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14 hda: attached ide-disk driver. hda: host protected area => 1 hda: setmax LBA 78140160, native 71123954 hda: 71123954 sectors (36415 MB) w/7898KiB Cache, CHS=4703/240/63, UDMA(100) Partition check: hda: hda1 hda2 hda3 hda4
Notes: Worked out of the box. hdparm tesitng reports: :hdparm -T /dev/hda /dev/hda: Timing buffer-cache reads: 1804 MB in 2.00 seconds = 902.00 MB/sec :hdparm -t /dev/hda /dev/hda: Timing buffered disk reads: 76 MB in 3.01 seconds = 25.25 MB/sec

Status: Works	Make/Model: IBM UltraBay Combo MultiBurtner
Drivers/Modules: n/a
PCI Report: n/a
dmesg Report: ide1: BM-DMA at 0x1868-0x186f, BIOS settings: hdc:DMA, hdd:pio hdc: MATSHITADVD-RAM UJ-811, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15 hdc: attached ide-scsi driver. scsi0 : SCSI host adapter emulation for IDE ATAPI devices Vendor: MATSHITA Model: DVD-RAM UJ-811 Rev: H102 Type: CD-ROM ANSI SCSI revision: 02 Attached scsi CD-ROM sr0 at scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 0 sr0: scsi3-mmc drive: 24x/24x writer dvd-ram cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.12
Notes: Worked out of the box as a CDROM and DVDROM drive, need to test more features.

Status: Works	Make/Model: 10/100/1000 Internal Ethernet
Drivers/Modules: e1000
PCI Report: n/a
dmesg Report: Intel(R) PRO/1000 Network Driver - version 5.1.13-k1 eth0: Intel(R) PRO/1000 Network Connection
Notes: Worked out of the box, however if you must "ifup eth0" to enable it. I'm sure this could be done autmotically in various ways.

Status: Works	Make/Model: IBM a/b/g MiniPC Wireless LAN
Drivers/Modules: driverloader, WindowsXP drivers
PCI Report: 02:02.0 Ethernet controller: Unknown device 168c:1014 (rev 01) Subsystem: Unknown device 17ab:8331 Flags: bus master, fast Back2Back, medium devsel, latency 128, IRQ 11 Memory at c0210000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K] Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2
dmesg Report: PCI: Found IRQ 11 for device 02:02.0 PCI: Sharing IRQ 11 with 00:1d.2 PCI: Sharing IRQ 11 with 00:1f.1 PCI: Sharing IRQ 11 with 02:00.2 driverloader: halAuthenticate driverloader: found _DMI_ @ physical offset 0x6ad0 <3>driverloader: found _SM_ @ physical offset 0x6ac0 <3>driverloader: Mapped the DMI data @ e0010 driverloader: Magic string found: KHOIHGIUCCHHII eth1: New link status: Disconnected (0002) eth1: WPA, AES, TKIP, WEP128, WEP64 supported eth1: at 02:02.0 (MAC address 00:05:4E:44:27:E1) ready
Notes: There are now several different options for getting this card working, including madwifi and Linuxant. madwifi has the advantage of being open source and free, Linuxant has the advantage of using the WindowsXP drivers directly. I know some would not call that an advantage, but as I write this madwifi is still in alpha stage, Linuxant is a full release. But, I chose the Linuxant approach for one reason only; my VPN software expects to use "eth0" or "eth1", madwifi creates the interface as "ath0" so my VPN software wouldn't work. Why the madwifi guys took this approach is beyond me. I probably could have fixed the source, but I went with Linuxant for simplicity's sake. The Linuxant software works well, and is reasonably priced; it's free for 30 days, but (at the time of this writing) $20 after that. Because Linuxant actually uses the WindowsXP drivers, you need to have them available. Probably the best bet is to get them directly from IBM, but in lieu of that, you can use my copies of ar5211.sys and net5211.inf. If you use IBM's versions, you need to "install" them using Windows, which actually just extracts them to a directory of your choosing. The files are in that directory, under the subdirectories XP/DRIVERS. Install the Linuxant driver as instructed, register it with your MAC address, and then go to http://127.0.0.1:18020 to "upload" the ar5211.sys and net5211.inf files. Your MAC address can be found on a sticker on the bottom of your laptop, or by using the Linuxant configuration tool command "dldrconfig -i". The Linuxant documentation will walk you through all of this. I've been using this as a 802.11b wirless device as I don't (yet) have an 802.11a or 802.11g access point to test it with. Out of the box, you need to "ifup eth1" the card to get it connected as it starts up disconnected. Obviously, this could be handled automatically in various ways.

Status: Unknown	Make/Model: Actiontec Bluetooth II Adapter
Drivers/Modules: bluez, hci_usb, usbdfu
PCI Report: n/a
dmesg Report: BlueZ Core ver 2.3 Copyright (C) 2000,2001 Qualcomm Inc Written 2000,2001 by Maxim Krasnyansky <maxk@qualcomm.com> BlueZ HCI USB driver ver 2.4 Copyright (C) 2000,2001 Qualcomm Inc
Notes: I don't have any Bluetooth devices, so I'm unable to test this at all. Pressing Fn-F5 turns on and off the Bluetooth device.

Status: Works	Make/Model: Internal 56k Modem
Drivers/Modules: slamr, slmdm
PCI Report: 00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corp. 82801DB AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 01) (prog-if 00 [Generic]) Subsystem: IBM: Unknown device 0525 Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 11 I/O ports at 2400 [size=256] I/O ports at 2000 [size=128] Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2
dmesg Report: slmdm: version 2.7.10 Feb 4 2003 15:18:20 (Smart Link Ltd.). slmdm: country set is 0xb5 (USA). Smart Link AMRMO modem. amrmo: probe 8086:24c6 Intel Corp. 82801DB AC'97 Modem Controller : ICH card...
Notes: This was a difficult one to solve as it's a WinModem, but after quite a bit of research, I got it working. The modem is an AC'97 modem, which means it uses part of the soundcard to provide services. It's labeled as an IBM device, but the chipset is provided by AgereSystems. Drivers for this modem, thankfully, are provided by SmartLink. Do not attempt to use the latest releases. I tried with several of the 2.9.x releases; they installed and recognized the modem succesfully, but when attempting to dial, it was very difficult to establish a successful connection, the modem would try to negotiate a connection at several levels before giving up. I finally went back to a known stable release, 2.7.10. You do have to make a very small software change for this to work. Unpack the slmdm-2.7.10.tar.gz file to a directory of your liking, and made the following change: Edit the file amrmo_init.c. On line 75, change the value at the end of the line from 0x2486 to 0x24C6. This will make the line look like the one below it. 75c75 < #define PCI_DEVICE_ID_ICH3 0x24C6 --- > #define PCI_DEVICE_ID_ICH3 0x2486 Then, do the "make install-amr" as directed. Installation will create a new device called /dev/ttySL0, and link it to /dev/modem for you. The solution allows the modem to work flawlessly.

Status: Works	Make/Model: Analog Devices AD1981B AC97 Soft Audio
Drivers/Modules: OSS: i810_audio, ac97_codec, soundcore ALSA: snd-intel8x0, soundcore, snd-mixer-oss, snd-seq-oss, snd-pcm-oss, snd-seq-oss, snd-pcm-oss
PCI Report: 00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 01) Subsystem: IBM: Unknown device 0554 Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 11 I/O ports at 1c00 [size=256] I/O ports at 18c0 [size=64] Memory at c0000c00 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512] Memory at c0000800 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256] Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2
dmesg Report: OSS Intel 810 + AC97 Audio, version 0.24, 15:50:18 Oct 29 2003 PCI: Found IRQ 11 for device 00:1f.5 PCI: Setting latency timer of device 00:1f.5 to 64 i810: Intel ICH4 found at IO 0x18c0 and 0x1c00, MEM 0xc0000c00 and 0xc0000800, I RQ 11 i810: Intel ICH4 mmio at 0xfafbdc00 and 0xfafbf800 i810_audio: Primary codec has ID 0 i810_audio: Audio Controller supports 6 channels. i810_audio: Defaulting to base 2 channel mode. i810_audio: Resetting connection 0 i810_audio: Connection 0 with codec id 0 ac97_codec: AC97 Audio codec, id: ADS116 (Unknown) i810_audio: AC'97 codec 0 supports AMAP, total channels = 2 ALSA PCI: Found IRQ 11 for device 00:1f.5 PCI: Setting latency timer of device 00:1f.5 to 64 intel8x0: clocking to 48000
Notes: OSS support works out the box, but not very well. KDE uses artsd by default, and artsd locks the /dev/dsp device, so other software that wants to share the port will have issues. This used to work on other boxes I had with different soundcards, but doesn't work on this machine. You can allow the other devices to use the sound card by killing the "artsd" daemon and telling KDE not to load it by default. However, an ever better option is to switch to ALSA (which will be required soon anyway). This page provides easy-to-follow and accruate instructions. Really, all you have to do is 1) edit /etc/modules.conf and remove the old OSS stuff and add in the new ALSA stuff, 2) run "depmod -a", and 3) reboot (unfortunately you can't unload the OSS drivers any other way). Once you get ALSA up, kill artsd again, and tell KDE not to restart it automatically (KDE Control Center \| Sound & Multimedia \| Sounds System (aRTs tab) - turn off the "Start aRts soundserver on KDE startup" option). Thankfully KDE doesn't require artsd, and with ALSA installed, you can get KDE sounds, and still use your soundcard for other things. Further, I find the sound quality under ALSA significantly better than it was with OSS. Under , always a problem where sound is involved, it's about the best I've ever encountered.

Status: Unknown	Make/Model: 1 PCMCIA Slot (Type I/II/III, 16/32 Bit)
Drivers/Modules: ds, yenta_socket, pcmcia_core
PCI Report: 02:00.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments: Unknown device ac46 (rev 01) Subsystem: IBM: Unknown device 0552 Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 168, IRQ 11 Memory at b0000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K] Bus: primary=02, secondary=03, subordinate=05, sec-latency=176 Memory window 0: 80000000-803ff000 (prefetchable) Memory window 1: 80400000-807ff000 (prefetchable) I/O window 0: 00004000-000040ff I/O window 1: 00004400-000044ff 16-bit legacy interface ports at 0001
dmesg Report: Linux Kernel Card Services 3.1.22 options: [pci] [cardbus] [pm] Yenta IRQ list 06f8, PCI irq11 Socket status: 30000086 cs: IO port probe 0x0c00-0x0cff: clean. cs: IO port probe 0x0100-0x04ff: excluding 0x3b8-0x3df 0x4d0-0x4d7 cs: IO port probe 0x0a00-0x0aff: clean.
Notes: Drivers load, but haven't tested it yet.

Status: Works
Drivers/Modules: n/a
PCI Report: n/a
dmesg Report: apm: BIOS version 1.2 Flags 0x03 (Driver version 1.16) IBM machine detected. Enabling interrupts during APM calls.
Notes: Everything seems to work perfectly, including suspend. I don't know if hibernation works as I've never tried to get it working. Battery monitors, lid open/close, on/off button, and display dimming all seem to work as they're supposed to. I didn't even have to create or alter any of the suspend/resume scripts! Some sample messages: Mar 14 19:20:00 localhost apmd[3625]: Battery: * * * (100% unknown) Mar 15 08:19:19 localhost apmd[4229]: Battery: * * * (100% unknown) Mar 16 08:37:17 ben apmd[4232]: Battery: * * * (100% unknown) Mar 17 01:59:51 ben apmd[4232]: Now using Battery Power Mar 17 01:59:51 ben apmd[4232]: Battery: 0.013428 17:23 4 days, 10:44 (86% 4:16) Mar 17 07:59:58 ben apmd[4232]: Normal Resume after 14:27:24, -23.24%/day (86% 4:16) Battery power Mar 17 09:36:45 ben apmd[4232]: Battery: -0.144653 (1:37) 4294967285:4294967266 (100% unknown) Mar 18 07:48:23 ben apmd[4229]: Battery: * * * (100% unknown) Mar 18 13:50:33 localhost apmd[976]: Battery: * * * (100% unknown) Mar 18 14:16:33 ben apmd[4235]: Battery: * * * (100% unknown) Mar 18 14:38:46 localhost apmd[4230]: Battery: * * * (100% unknown) Mar 19 09:51:42 localhost apmd[4230]: Battery: -0.152698 (1:38) 4294967286:4294967243 (100% unknown) Mar 21 14:16:24 localhost apmd[4229]: Now using Battery Power

Status: Unknown
Drivers/Modules: n/a
PCI Report: n/a
dmesg Report: BIOS-e820: 000000007ff60000 - 000000007ff78000 (ACPI data) BIOS-e820: 000000007ff78000 - 000000007ff7a000 (ACPI NVS) ACPI: have wakeup address 0xc0001000 ACPI: RSDP (v002 IBM ) @ 0x000f6b40 ACPI: XSDT (v001 IBM TP-1R 0x00002110 LTP 0x00000000) @ 0x7ff6c263 ACPI: FADT (v003 IBM TP-1R 0x00002110 IBM 0x00000001) @ 0x7ff6c300 ACPI: SSDT (v001 IBM TP-1R 0x00002110 MSFT 0x0100000e) @ 0x7ff6c4b4 ACPI: ECDT (v001 IBM TP-1R 0x00002110 IBM 0x00000001) @ 0x7ff77e26 ACPI: TCPA (v001 IBM TP-1R 0x00002110 PTL 0x00000001) @ 0x7ff77e78 ACPI: BOOT (v001 IBM TP-1R 0x00002110 LTP 0x00000001) @ 0x7ff77fd8 ACPI: DSDT (v001 IBM TP-1R 0x00002110 MSFT 0x0100000e) @ 0x00000000 ACPI: Subsystem revision 20031002 ACPI: Interpreter disabled.
Notes: From looking at the bootup messages, it looks like everything is in order. Interestingly, the last message says "Interpreter disabled". Don't know why. I didn't really have a reason to try to get ACPI to work at the moment since APM seems to handle everything prefectly.

Status: Unknown	Make/Model: Infrared transceiver
Drivers/Modules: n/a
PCI Report: n/a
dmesg Report: n/a
Notes: I have no idea if this works or not, I don't have anything to test it with, or any experience using IR links.

Status: Unknown	Make/Model: IEEE 1394 (Firewire) Port
Drivers/Modules: ieee1394, ohci1394
PCI Report: 02:00.2 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments: Unknown device 802a (rev 01) (prog-if 10 [OHCI]) Subsystem: IBM: Unknown device 0553 Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 11 Memory at c0224000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=2K] Memory at c0220000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K] Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2
dmesg Report: ohci1394_0: OHCI-1394 1.1 (PCI): IRQ=[11] MMIO=[c0224000-c02247ff] Max Packet=[2048] ieee1394: Host added: ID:BUS[0-00:1023] GUID[00061b03200464bb]
Notes: All the drivers appear to load successfully, but I don't have any devices to test this with.

Status: Works	Make/Model: 2 USB 2.0 ports
Drivers/Modules: usbcore, usb-uhci, ehci_hcd, hid
PCI Report: 00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB USB (Hub #1) (rev 01) (prog-if 00 [UHCI]) Subsystem: IBM: Unknown device 052d Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 11 I/O ports at 1800 [size=32] 00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB USB (Hub #2) (rev 01) (prog-if 00 [UHCI]) Subsystem: IBM: Unknown device 052d Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 11 I/O ports at 1820 [size=32] 00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB USB (Hub #3) (rev 01) (prog-if 00 [UHCI]) Subsystem: IBM: Unknown device 052d Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 11 I/O ports at 1840 [size=32] 00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB USB2 (rev 01) (prog-if 20 [EHCI]) Subsystem: IBM: Unknown device 052e Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 11 Memory at c0000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K] Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2 Capabilities: [58] #0a [2080]
dmesg Report: usb.c: registered new driver usbdevfs usb.c: registered new driver hub usb-uhci.c: $Revision: 1.275 $ time 15:50:32 Oct 29 2003 usb-uhci.c: High bandwidth mode enabled usb-uhci.c: USB UHCI at I/O 0x1800, IRQ 11 usb-uhci.c: Detected 2 ports usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1 usb-uhci.c: USB UHCI at I/O 0x1820, IRQ 11 usb-uhci.c: Detected 2 ports usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 2 usb-uhci.c: USB UHCI at I/O 0x1840, IRQ 11 usb-uhci.c: Detected 2 ports usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 3 usb-uhci.c: v1.275:USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 4 usb.c: registered new driver hiddev usb.c: registered new driver hid usb-uhci.c: interrupt, status 3, frame# 1778 ehci_hcd 00:1d.7: Intel Corp. 82801DB USB2 ehci_hcd 00:1d.7: irq 11, pci mem fac5f000 ehci_hcd 00:1d.7: enabled 64bit PCI DMA ehci_hcd 00:1d.7: USB 2.0 enabled, EHCI 1.00, driver 2003-Jun-19/2.4 hid-core.c: v1.8.1 Andreas Gal, Vojtech Pavlik <vojtech@suse.cz> hid-core.c: USB HID support drivers
Notes: Works out of the box.

Status: Works	Make/Model: 1 Parellel (ECP/EPP) port
Drivers/Modules: parport, parport_pc, lp
PCI Report: n/a
dmesg Report: parport0: PC-style at 0x3bc (0x7bc) [PCSPP,TRISTATE] parport0: irq 7 detected parport0: PC-style at 0x3bc (0x7bc) [PCSPP,TRISTATE] parport0: irq 7 detected lp0: using parport0 (polling).
Notes: Appears to work, although I haven't actually connected anything to it. I'm saying this works because parallel ports haven't changed much in recent years and are very standard and stable. You shouldn't have any problems with it.

Status: Unknown	Make/Model: Port Replicator docking port
Drivers/Modules: n/a
PCI Report: n/a
dmesg Report: n/a
Notes: No idea if this works or not, I don't have a replicator to test with.

Status: Works	Make/Model: Headphones port
Drivers/Modules: n/a
PCI Report: n/a
dmesg Report: n/a
Notes: Works perfectly.

Status: Works	Make/Model: Mic-in port
Drivers/Modules: n/a
PCI Report: n/a
dmesg Report: n/a
Notes: I haven't tested this, but mic-in ports have been standardized for years, so I have no reason to believe it won't work. Actually making use of it is the responsiblity of the soundcard and it's software, not the port itself.

Status: Unknown	Make/Model: S-Video out port
Drivers/Modules: n/a
PCI Report: n/a
dmesg Report: n/a
Notes: Haven't tested it yet, so I don't know if it works or not.

Status: Unknown	Make/Model: Monitor port
Drivers/Modules: n/a
PCI Report: n/a
dmesg Report: n/a
Notes: Haven't tested it yet, so I don't know if it works or not.

Status: Works	Make/Model: Built in RJ-11 and RJ-45 ports
Drivers/Modules: n/a
PCI Report: n/a
dmesg Report: n/a
Notes: Both ports work perfectly.

Installing Linux on an IBM R50 Laptop.

Contents:

My Machine

Software

Configration Files, Information Files, and Output Logs

Linux Distribution

Saving Your Installation

Saving Windows XP.

Saving the Rest of the Pre-installed Software.

The Install

Partitioning

Installing Fedora

Install CDs

Doing the Install

Component Status

Processor

Display

Video Adapter

RAM

Hard Drive

CD/DVD Combo Drive

Ethernet

Wireless LAN

Bluetooth

Modem

Sound

Keyboard

Infrared

Firewire

USB

Parallel Port

Port Replicator

Headphones port

Mic-in port

S-Video out port

Monitor port

RJ-11/RJ-45 Ports

PCMCIA

Security Chip

Other Important Stuff

APM

ACPI

XFree86

Files & Logs

/proc Files

lsmod Output

XF86Config

lspci -v Output

dmesg Output

Status: Doesn't Work	Make/Model: Internal IBM Security Chip
Drivers/Modules: n/a
PCI Report: n/a
dmesg Report: n/a
Notes: The security chip is supposed to be TCPA compliant, and projects are just beginning to make use of the chip. For now, might as well disable it so it doesn't use any resources.