HP ZE4560us - Anything and Everything
I have been tinkering with Knoppix on my HP ZE4560us laptop for a while now and I have decided to post what I have learned through experience so others may benefit.
First of all, this tutorial assumes you're using Knoppix version 3.7 as it is the current version. I may update the tutorial for later versions as they are released but since I don't have the CDs for previous versions anymore, nor do I wish to re-download and burn them, I cannot support them.
--- Getting the dang thing to boot at all without freezing at a black screen.
Use these boot options for best results with this notebook:
knoppix26 fb1024x768
This will boot the 2.6.9 kernel and set your framebuffer to 1024x768 which is the max resolution of your screen.
--- Getting the internal wireless card to work.
You will need the driver files for your card. They're called "bcmwl5a.inf" and "bcmwl5.sys." Make sure that the inf file you get has the 'a' on the end. It's very important. You can get these driver files in several ways. If you have Windows XP installed to the HDD and the wireless card is working in there, it will work here as well. Mount the windows partition by clicking on it on the desktop, and then open a terminal window. type 'su' to get root access, and then at the root prompt, type in 'updatedb'
This operation will index all of the files in your system. Once it is complete (it will take a minute and a half or so) type: 'locate bcmwl5a.inf'
You should only get one result, and it should be somewhere in your /mnt/hda1. Remember that location. You can skip the next section if this method worked for you.
The other way to bring in the driver file (note: this is the harder way, but will be the only way you will get it to work if you don't have windows on your hdd at all) is to store it on some form of USB media, be it floppy disk or USB flash key. I used the USB flash key, and here are the instructions:
Use a windoze machine to decompress the driver exe from the manufacturer's website (if you require the driver files, reply to this thread and I will arrange for you to get a copy of them) Grab the bcmwl5a.inf and bcmwl5.sys files and store them in the root directory of your USB media. Boot knoppix, get a root terminal open, and enter this command: mkdir /mnt/usb
now type this command, but do not execute it yet: mount -t vfat /dev/uba1 /mnt/usb
plug in the usb flash key, wait a couple seconds, and hit enter. It seems this distribution freaks out with USB flash keys if you don't mount them right away. If you get no feedback at the command line, your flash key was mounted successfully. Now, follow the directions below.
Now click on the penguin next to the kicker menu button, and open the network/internet submenu. Click on the 'ndiswrapper configuration' button. It will ask you for the location of your driver. Point it to the location you found using the locate function (or /mnt/usb if you used the flash disk method), and click OK. It will take a minute or so for it to load the module for your WiFi card, but it will work. Next, open up that same network/internet submenu and click on "Network card configuration"
Choose the one that has "wlan0" in the title, and click OK. This will activate DHCP on your card. If it fails, you will need to run the "Wavelan configuration" script from that same menu and enter any details the card may need to know about the network you're trying to connect to, such as ESSID (if it's not broadcasted) or WEP encryption key.
Once you have made any necessary changes in the wavelan configuration script, run the "Network card configuration" script again and it should run just fine. Now, go back to that terminal window and run this command to check if you have been assigned an IP address:
ifconfig wlan0
If it shows an IP, you're connected, and you can try accessing network resources or the internet now. If not, you missed something. Go back through the steps and make sure you did everything.
-- Getting LILO to not take FOREVER when it's loading the kernel on a HDD install
edit the lilo.conf file by:
sudo vi /etc/lilo.conf
[enter root pw]
go down to the line
# compact
hit the "i" key to get into "insert" mode
delete the "#" character, hit escape, make a colon, type 'wq" and hit enter
back at the command prompt, type
sudo lilo
[enter root pw]
reboot and enjoy the much faster kernel loading time
-- Watch this thread. I'll be updating as I learn more about this notebook and its capabilities under knoppix. I previously wrote that I would be attempting to hack down the original wireless driver file, but after trying for a few hours the other night, it just doesn't look like it's going to happen. As mentioned earlier, if you would like the files, I can email them to you at your request.
