Warning about newer Compaq and HP systems...

[Dave_Bechtel]

--Just passing it on. Pretty much confirms the experience I've had with HP & Compaq - their home-user machines are crappy. Stuff like this is probably the reason some people are having trouble booting Knoppix.

Avoid HP & Compaq Laptops with ATI
by Anonymous Reader on 2003.04.04 8:52 (#48123)

This is a word of warning for anyone buying a new, consumer-class laptop: Avoid HP and Compaq like the plague.

They are shipping machines with the ATI 320 or 340 IGP, an "integrated" chip that purports to be a "Radeon" on the box, but isn't in reality.

The regular Radeon drivers do not work with this card under X -- there is -no- 3d acceleration, nor will there likely be for some time. 2d only works because some kind soul in the community hacked it together.

ATI has been completely unresponsive to this issue, and hp/compaq just throw their hands up.

Again: If you see a "consumer-grade" laptop that says it contains an ATI Radeon, it's likely an IGP, and will -not- work well with linux at all. This includes most new HP and Compaq consumer-grade machines.

( http://newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=03/03/28/1323227 )

[Zhila]

I would just like to add to this that I also have an HP Pavilion notebook with WinXP natively installed, and it doesn't support KNOPPIX very well, so much that I only would use KNOPPIX when I really just got into a "linux" mood, and only then for about 2 hours at the most. The biggest problem I have is with the AVANCE 98 audio and the fact that it automatically sets my SSID for my wlan to "linuxtag_wlan" instead of letting me "easily" changing it to "linksys" or scan for it. However, I have installed a PC emulator that runs on WinXP, and now, KNOPPIX seems more compatible to it that to my system, plus I can actually save to my virtual hard disks, and I don't even have to burn my ISO to a CD. The only problem is any "good" PC emulators cost sometimes more than I am willing to pay.

[beaky]

A word of caution - This is true of all new notebooks in general, I've heard complaints about most manufacturers at one time or another.

In fact I've just bought a Compaq EVO nx9005, and Knoppix boots fine but does not configure the network card. This is most definitely NOT a problem with the machine, as Lindows sets it up fine.

Also, I think Lindows sets up X with a VGA or VESA driver, but the frame buffer would probably be OK too. Can't remember what Knoppix does, but X runs.

I can provide dmesg, lspci and lsmod output for both Knoppix and Lindows if anyone is interested in helping to fix the network config. I'm pretty sure it's an IRQ conflict, but I don't have much experience chasing these down . . .

[blahblahblah]

i have a compaq presario 900 laptop and knoppix installed and runs fine. the only thing is the above mentioned lack of 3d acceleration. that doesnt bother me too much though. i have a windows partition about 7 gigs to play games on. so its all good.

[Dave_Bechtel]

--You might try the ' pci=biosirq ' cheat code, or find out which module Lindows loads for the netcard and try loading the module manually with modprobe. Under Lindows, do ' lsmod ' and also do ' cat /proc/interrupts '; it should look something like this:

cat /proc/interrupts
           CPU0
  0:   69206151          XT-PIC  timer
  1:       1425          XT-PIC  keyboard
  2:          0          XT-PIC  cascade
  5:         14          XT-PIC  soundblaster
  8:          1          XT-PIC  rtc
  9:    2116722          XT-PIC  aic7xxx, usb-uhci, eth0
 11:     295955          XT-PIC  ide2
 12:      22934          XT-PIC  PS/2 Mouse
 15:         92          XT-PIC  ide1

--The number on the left is the IRQ that's occupied.

--Then in Knoppix you can do something like ' modprobe NETCARD-DRIVER irq=7 ' or whatever IRQ is free and supported by the module.

A word of caution - This is true of all new notebooks in general, I've heard complaints about most manufacturers at one time or another.

In fact I've just bought a Compaq EVO nx9005, and Knoppix boots fine but does not configure the network card. This is most definitely NOT a problem with the machine, as Lindows sets it up fine.

Also, I think Lindows sets up X with a VGA or VESA driver, but the frame buffer would probably be OK too. Can't remember what Knoppix does, but X runs.

I can provide dmesg, lspci and lsmod output for both Knoppix and Lindows if anyone is interested in helping to fix the network config. I'm pretty sure it's an IRQ conflict, but I don't have much experience chasing these down . . .

[beaky]

Hmm, BTW the cheatcode made no difference. It looks like knoppix does not assign an interrupt for the natsemi driver:

Lindows:

CPU0
0: 160553 XT-PIC timer
1: 2560 XT-PIC keyboard
2: 0 XT-PIC cascade
3: 0 XT-PIC hsf
5: 1439 XT-PIC ALI 5451, O2 Micro, Inc. OZ6933 Cardbus Controller
8: 4 XT-PIC rtc
9: 4 XT-PIC ohci1394, usb-ohci
11: 102417 XT-PIC O2 Micro, Inc. OZ6933 Cardbus Controller (#2), eth0
12: 11736 XT-PIC PS/2 Mouse
14: 41309 XT-PIC ide0
15: 3765 XT-PIC ide1
NMI: 0
ERR: 0


Knoppix:

CPU0
0: 44159 XT-PIC timer
1: 732 XT-PIC keyboard
2: 0 XT-PIC cascade
5: 19 XT-PIC O2 Micro, Inc. OZ6933 Cardbus Controller, ALi Audio Accelerator
8: 1 XT-PIC rtc
9: 2 XT-PIC usb-ohci
11: 11 XT-PIC O2 Micro, Inc. OZ6933 Cardbus Controller (#2)
12: 6510 XT-PIC PS/2 Mouse
14: 500 XT-PIC ide0
15: 20402 XT-PIC ide1
NMI: 0
LOC: 44126
ERR: 31
MIS: 0

The lsmod output is different, too, the natemi driver is not used by anything with knoppix:

natsemi 17344 0

but with Lindows it is:

natsemi 15296 1

Interestingly (?), the lspci output is identical for the ethernet card, showing an IRQ of 11 in both cases:

00:12.0 Ethernet controller: National Semiconductor Corporation DP83815 (MacPhyter) Ethernet Controller
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company: Unknown device 0024
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 90, IRQ 11
I/O ports at 8c00 [size=256]
Memory at d0008000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled] [size=64K]
Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2

I'm still puzzled, the natsemi driver does not appear to accept parameters, and the kernel documentation is absent.

If anyone is still reading this, all suggestions gratefully accepted

[fingers99]

Can you try switching to "non Plug & Play OS" in the bios?

[beaky]

I don't believe that option exists. I couldn't find it anyway.