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Gentoo Linux/AMD64 (2004.2) on the Acer Ferrari 3200 Notebook

Here I document the installation of the Gentoo Linux/AMD64 distribution on my Acer Ferrari 3200 notebook. The main purpose is to document how to get a 64bit Linux distribution working on this notebook for those who want to really make use of the AMD64 CPU. This means that I have as yet not put much effort into getting all the hardware working. I did put effort into getting various bits of software working (such as fortran compilers, Java, and IDL) and I've included some remarks on that below.

Anthony Brown

Last Update Aug 11 2004

Hardware table

• Framebuffer support

• Getting the X-server to work

• Keyboard and Locale issues

• 32bit applications, g77, Java

• The touchpad

This laptop is operating under Kernel version 2.6.7-gentoo-r13

Basic Installation of Gentoo Linux/AMD64 distribution:

• After some browsing on the web I decided to have a go at the Gentoo distribution which seemed a good option because of its high level of configurability for the specific machine one is working with and because it seemed to offer good (and continuously ongoing) AMD64 support.
  
  Before trying Gentoo I also managed to install Fedora Core 3 Test-1, which is a 32bit distribution. Contact me for more information.

• The Gentoo distribution can be obtained from www.gentoo.org

• I downloaded version 2004.2 of the LiveCD and PackageCD and installed the distribution according to the instructions in the Gentoo Handbook. Do not forget to print a copy of this handbook before installation. If you're new to Gentoo you will be lost without it! Also read the technotes on the AMD64 version of Gentoo. I chose to go for the (easiest) 'stage 3' installation.
  
  Note that the Ferrari 3200 comes with WindowsXP Home Edition pre-installed. The hard disk is partitioned into three primary partitions: C: (ACER, FAT32), D: (ACERDATA, FAT32) and a hidden(!) partition *: (ACER_SERVIC, FAT16). Before installing Linux you have to (obviously) resize/change these partitions. I decided to put the Linux (ext3) partition on an extended partition at the end of the disk. The space was taken from C: and D: and I only moved the hidden *: partition, leaving it untouched otherwise. I used PartitionMagic 8.0 to do all this. (Keep windows to make use of that big graphics card if you like gaming!)
  
  On the web I discovered there are/were some issues with setting up a dual boot WindowsXP/Linux environment due to differences between the Linux 2.6 kernel series and the WindowsXP kernel's interpretation of the layout of a hard disk. For details see: Making Fedora Core 2 and Windows play well together. Basically, to be on the safe side I booted the Linux kernel from the installation CD with the option hda=9729,255,63 (the Ferrari 3200 HDD has 9729 cylinders, 255 heads and 63 sectors per track). This is what is advised in the above-mentioned article and indeed I had no problems later on with the dual boot setup.
  
  After booting a modprobe ide-disk was necessary to get the kernel to see the hard disk (ide support is by default compiled as a module) and modprobe tg3 was necessary to get the Ethernet card going. The latter worked straight away and I could simply set up the network connection using DHCP.
  
  After that I managed to install everything by simply following the instructions in the Gentoo handbook. The installation involves compiling the kernel and I have re-compiled the kernel after installation as well in order to further tune it. Contact me if you would like to see my config file for the gentoo-2.6.7-r13 sources
  
  I have the following flags in the /etc/make.conf file:

  CFLAGS="-O2"
  CHOST="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"
  CXXFLAGS="${CFLAGS}"
  MAKEOPTS="-j2"
  USE="cups fftw dvd dvdr cdr alsa"
  

Post-Install modifications/tweaks

After installation of Gentoo one is left with a very basic Linux system (no X, no desktop etc) and one has to add whatever packages one wants to use. I added some of the packages needed to get a desktop going from the Gentoo PackageCD, which means they are installed directly as binary packages.

I also re-compiled the kernel in order to further tune it to the hardware on the notebook (see config file).



Framebuffer support

This can be compiled into the kernel as follows: In the kernel configuration menu under "Processor type and features" one should enable "MTRR (Memory Type Range Register) support" (as built-in) and under "Device drivers ---> Graphics support" one should enable the "Support for frame buffer devices" and "VESA graphics support" as built-ins. "ATI Radeon display support" can be selected as a module and one can optionally select "DDC/I2C for ATI Radeon support" (Which also requires "I2C support" and "I2C bit-banging support", see the kernel config help for instructions).
With the kernel options listed above one can also use the framebuffer to get high-resolution screens in virtual-console mode by adding the options "video=vesafb:ywrap,mtrr vga=0x31B" to the kernel-line of the boot-loader (grub in my case). Here's the relevant section from grub.conf:

title=Gentoo Linux 2.6.7-r13 (+framebuffer)
        root (hd0,4)
        kernel /kernel-2.6.7-gentoo-r13 root=/dev/hda6 video=vesafb:ywrap,mtrr vga=0x31B

This gives a 1280x1024 screen with 24 bits per pixel. One can also embed the consoles in a boot-splash image. For detailed instructions on how to do that see: http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Framebuffer:Bootsplash:Grubsplash
Note that the framebuffer works fine without the "ATI Radeon display support".

Getting the X-server to work

There are currently no ATI drivers for the Mobility Radeon 9700 card for the x86_64 ISA and one has to make use of the "radeon" driver that comes with the X11 distribution. This will only enable the 2D features of the card. The 3D features require either drivers from ATI (still to be developed for 64bit architectures) or the software from the DRI project. The latter does not support the Mobility Radeon 9700 card yet.
The configuration of X11 makes use of the classical configure scripts that require you to provide the graphics card type and the monitor frequencies. I used "HorizSync 31.5 - 64.3" and "VertRefresh 60-160". However I'm not sure this is the best setting.

Keyboard and Locale issues

Having a keyboard with a Euro symbol one would like to use this. The use of modern character encodings is also desirable. There are very useful pointers in the Gentoo docs (http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/guide-localization.xml).
Basically I want to use the "ALT GR" key to access the Euro symbol (a so-called third-level character) and I want have a compose key for accents etc.
The "ALT GR" and "compose" keys can be set up in the xorg.conf file by using the following for the keyboard:

    Option "XkbRules"   "xorg"
    Option "XkbModel"   "pc105"
    Option "XkbLayout"  "us"
    Option "XkbOptions"  "lv3:ralt_switch,compose:menu"

However this will only work for applications that are governed by the X-server for the keyboard input. This includes xterm and Emacs. Note that the Model, Layout and Options settings can be copied from the /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xkb/rules/xorg.lst file.
For gnome-terminals use the Gnome "keyboard preferences" application (under the "Desktop preferences" menu item). To get things to work choose:

Generic 105-key (Intl) PC               keyboard model
U.S. English                            layout
Menu is compose                         layout option
Press Right Alt to choose 3rd level     layout option

The character encodings in the gnome-terminals can be set to UTF-8 (for example) using the Terminal-->character encoding menu item. But one can also set it permanently by doing:

localedef -c -i en_GB -f UTF-8 en_GB.UTF-8
export LANG=en_GB.UTF-8

This gives a GB english with UTF encoding. Any character can then be called up by pressing crtl-shift followed by its code (e.g. crtl-shift-20ac gives the euro symbol). This works in gnome-terminals but not necessarily in other apps! (It does work in vim)

For the console mode I have in rc.conf
KEYMAP="us"
CONSOLEFONT="lat9w-16"
CONSOLETRANSLATION="8859-15_to_uni"

The changes to /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc/fonts.alias according to the explantion in the Gentoo localization guide and also used their suggestion for getting the Euro symbol to work in Emacs are not necessary as far as I can tell.
Useful files/directories:

/usr/share/consolefonts
/usr/share/consoletrans
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc/fonts.alias
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xkb/rules/xorg.lst
/usr/share/i18n/charmaps/
/usr/share/i18n/locale/

32bit applications, g77, Java

For my work I make use a lot of the IDL data analysis software and in order to get that running you need to install the 32bit emulation environment (packages app-emulation/emul-linux-x86-*). The GUI install for IDL version 6.0 does not work but an install without GUI works without problems. So far IDL seems to run just fine with the 32bit emulation environment.

In order to have a working g77 compiler one has to re-emerge the gcc compiler and set the extra USE flag "f77". If one wants to keep compiling programmes for the x86 (32bit) architecture then also set the "multilib" USE flag. The compilation of 32bit executables with g77 then works using: g77 -m32 -L/emul/linux/x86/usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-pc-linux-gnu/3.2.3/

It should work with just -m32 but I found that then the compiler complains about not being able to find the libfrtbegin library. Hence the extra -L flag.

The Java SDK from sun (version 1.5beta2) is available for the AMD64 architecture and works just fine. Also ant (version 1.6.2) builds just fine.

I have not been able to get the latest (8.0.34) "free" Intel Fortran compiler working. However, programmes compiled with ifc on a 32bit machine work fine on the AMD64 and are still a lot faster (factor of 4 gain compared to my old Pentium III notebook).

Setting up additional features for Gentoo Linux/AMD64

Getting the touchpad to operate as more than a PS/2 mouse

Download the synaptics touchpad driver from http://w1.894.telia.com/~u89404340/touchpad/ and follow the instructions for the options needed in the kernel compilation. Alter the makefile to activate the x86_64 architecture option and then just do 'make, make install' and the driver should be in place and work. The software comes with instructions for the X11 config file. I have the touchpad working alongside the USB mouse that comes with the Ferrari and the relevant part of the xorg.conf file is:

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier	"Synaptics Mouse"
    Driver	"synaptics"
    Option      "Corepointer"
    Option      "Device"        "/dev/psaux"
    Option      "Protocol"      "auto-dev"
    Option      "LeftEdge"      "1700"
    Option      "RightEdge"     "5300"
    Option      "TopEdge"       "1700"
    Option      "BottomEdge"    "4200"
    Option      "FingerLow"     "25"
    Option      "FingerHigh"    "30"
    Option      "MaxTapTime"    "180"
    Option      "MaxTapMove"    "220"
    Option      "VertScrollDelta" "100"
    Option      "MinSpeed"      "0.06"
    Option      "MaxSpeed"      "0.12"
    Option      "AccelFactor"   "0.0010"
    Option      "SHMConfig"     "on"
    Option      "Buttons"       "7"
    Option      "ZAxisMapping"  "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
# If the normal CorePointer mouse is not a USB mouse then
# this input device can be used in AlwaysCore mode to let you
# also use USB mice at the same time.
        Identifier  "DevInputMice"
        Driver      "mouse"
        Option      "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
        Option      "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
        Option      "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
        Option      "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier  "Default Layout"
    Screen "Screen0"
    InputDevice "DevInputMice" "CorePointer"
    InputDevice "Synaptics Mouse" "AlwaysCore" "true"
    InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

The driver works fine and even the vertical and horizontal scrolling with the 4-way button works!

Unresolved issues

• See hardware table above.

Configuration Files

• Here's my full xorg.conf file (without all the comments).

  Section "Module"
  
      Load "synaptics"
      Load        "dbe"  	# Double buffer extension
      SubSection  "extmod"
        Option    "omit xfree86-dga"   # don't initialise the DGA extension
      EndSubSection
  
      Load        "type1"
      Load        "speedo"
      Load        "freetype"
  
      Load       "glx"
  
  EndSection
  
  Section "Files"
  
      RgbPath	"/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
  
      FontPath   "/usr/share/fonts/misc/"
      FontPath   "/usr/share/fonts/TTF/"
      FontPath   "/usr/share/fonts/Speedo/"
      FontPath   "/usr/share/fonts/Type1/"
      FontPath   "/usr/share/fonts/CID/"
      FontPath   "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/"
      FontPath   "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/"
      FontPath   "/usr/share/fonts/local/"
  
  EndSection
  
  Section "ServerFlags"
  
  EndSection
  
  
  Section "InputDevice"
  
      Identifier	"Keyboard0"
      Driver	"keyboard"
      Option "AutoRepeat" "500 30"
      Option "XkbRules"   "xorg"
      Option "XkbModel"   "pc105"
      Option "XkbLayout"  "us"
      Option "XkbOptions"  "lv3:ralt_switch,compose:menu"
  
  EndSection
  
  Section "InputDevice"
      Identifier	"Synaptics Mouse"
      Driver	"synaptics"
      Option      "Corepointer"
      Option      "Device"        "/dev/psaux"
      Option      "Protocol"      "auto-dev"
      Option      "LeftEdge"      "1700"
      Option      "RightEdge"     "5300"
      Option      "TopEdge"       "1700"
      Option      "BottomEdge"    "4200"
      Option      "FingerLow"     "25"
      Option      "FingerHigh"    "30"
      Option      "MaxTapTime"    "180"
      Option      "MaxTapMove"    "220"
      Option      "VertScrollDelta" "100"
      Option      "MinSpeed"      "0.06"
      Option      "MaxSpeed"      "0.12"
      Option      "AccelFactor"   "0.0010"
      Option      "SHMConfig"     "on"
      Option      "Buttons"       "7"
      Option      "ZAxisMapping"  "4 5"
  EndSection
  
  Section "InputDevice"
          Identifier  "DevInputMice"
          Driver      "mouse"
          Option      "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
          Option      "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
          Option      "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
          Option      "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
  EndSection
  
  Section "Monitor"
  
      Identifier  "LCD"
      HorizSync   31.5 - 64.3
      VertRefresh 60-160
  
  EndSection
  
  Section "Device"
      Identifier	"Standard VGA"
      VendorName	"Unknown"
      BoardName	"Unknown"
      Driver     "vga"
  EndSection
  
  Section "Device"
      Identifier  "ATI Mobility Radeon 9700"
      Driver      "radeon"
  EndSection
  
  Section "Screen"
      Identifier  "Screen0"
      Device      "ATI Mobility Radeon 9700"
      Monitor     "LCD"
      DefaultDepth 24
  
      Subsection "Display"
          Depth       8
          Modes       "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
          ViewPort    0 0
      EndSubsection
      Subsection "Display"
          Depth       16
          Modes       "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
          ViewPort    0 0
      EndSubsection
      Subsection "Display"
          Depth       24
          Modes       "1400x1050" "1280x1024" "1024x768"
          ViewPort    0 0
      EndSubsection
  EndSection
  
  Section "ServerLayout"
  
      Screen "Screen0"
      InputDevice "DevInputMice" "CorePointer"
      InputDevice "Synaptics Mouse" "AlwaysCore" "true"
      InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
  
  EndSection
  

More Specific Information

• Here's the /sbin/lspci output

  0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8385 [K8T800 AGP] Host Bridge (rev 01)
  0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 PCI bridge [K8T800 South]
  0000:00:07.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI4510 PC card Cardbus Controller (rev 02)
  0000:00:07.1 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments PCI4510 IEEE-1394 Controller
  0000:00:09.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 03)
  0000:00:0b.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5788 Gigabit Ethernet (rev 03)
  0000:00:10.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 80)
  0000:00:10.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 80)
  0000:00:10.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 80)
  0000:00:10.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 82)
  0000:00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8235 ISA Bridge
  0000:00:11.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
  0000:00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 50)
  0000:00:11.6 Communication controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. Intel 537 [AC97 Modem] (rev 80)
  0000:00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 NorthBridge
  0000:00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 NorthBridge
  0000:00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 NorthBridge
  0000:00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 NorthBridge
  0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV350 [Mobility Radeon 9600 M10]
  

Contact Information

• E-mail: agabrown%xs4all.nl

Links

• Linux on Acer Laptops

• Gentoo on Acer Travelmate 803LCi

• Linux on Laptops
  
  

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