Redhat Linux 6.1 on a Compaq Presario 1621 Laptop

http://www.academ.com/presario1621.html
Redhat Linux 6.1 on a Compaq Presario 1621 Laptop
Stan Barber, sob@academ.com
http://www.academ.com/~sob
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This document is designed as a technical reference for the configuration of hardware using Redhat Linux 6.1 on a Compaq Presario 1621 laptop. Keep in mind that all of the information here pertains to my particular laptop and that your machine may differ slightly. Much of the information comes from '/proc/pci', '/proc/ioports' and '/proc/interrupts' all of which can be viewed using the 'more' command. Many of the nitty-gritty details involved are beyond the scope of this document and can be found at Linux with Laptop Computers, Linux on Laptops and the Linux Documentation Project.

Disclaimer: I am sorry but I cannot offer any assistance beyond this webpage. Remember that incorrectly configuring software or hardware can damage your system beyond repair. I am not responsible for damaged software/hardware and I cannot help repair a damaged system.

This document was last updated on April 22, 2000.

Internal Hardware
Audio
Battery and Advanced Power Management
BIOS
CD-ROM Drive
Display and Video Adapter
Floppy Drive
Hard Drive
Modem
PCI Bridges and Interfaces
PCMCIA Cardbus
Ports
Processor and Memory
Touchpad
Third Party Hardware
Ethernet LAN PC Card
Mouse
Configuration Files
fstab
rc.local
XF86Config



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Internal Hardware
Audio
Compaq lists the audio device as a 'Presario ESS 1887/1888/1869 Custom Proshare Audio'. Run 'sndconfig' and configure the device with the 'ESS1868 AudioDrive' module. On my machine I/O Port 0x220, IRQ 5, DMA 0, MPU I/O 0x330. You can control these parameters at the BIOS level if desired.
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Battery and Advanced Power Management
I selected APM as a startup service during the Redhat install and I have APM activated in the BIOS. The APM daemon starts and stops normally. You can add '/sbin/hdparm -S 240 /dev/hda' as the last line of '/etc/rc.d/rc.local' to switch the hard drive to low power mode after 20 minutes. Consult the hdparm man page and rc.local for more information.
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BIOS
Open your computer's BIOS setup utility by pressing F10 when the white cursor appears in the upper-right corner of the Compaq startup screen. Go to the 'Advanced Configurations' section of the BIOS. Under the 'Large Disk Access' you can choose 'DOS' or 'Other'. If you are running a Linux only system, selecting 'Other' seems to increase performance a little bit. You can also change the configuration of the audio system if desired in the BIOS.
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CD-ROM
The ATAPI 20x CD-ROM drive (128kB cache) is detected as '/dev/hdc' and '/dev/cdrom'. The drive is bootable. See fstab for more information.
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Display and Video Adapter
12.1" LCD Laptop Display Panel
Resolution 800x600, Horizontal Synch Range 31.5-37.9, Vertical Refresh Range 50-70.
Display Adapter
Neomagic MagicGraph NM2160.
See the XF86Config file for more information. Feel free to use that file for your own needs although I cannot guarantee that it will work. Remember that improperly configuring X can seriously damage your hardware.
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Floppy Drive
1.44mb standard floppy drive detected as '/dev/fd0'. See fstab for more information.
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Hard Drive
HITACHI DK226A-21U ATA Disk Drive. The device is detected as '/dev/hda'. Add '/sbin/hdparm -S 240 /dev/hda' as the last line in '/etc/rc.d/rc.local' and reboot the machine. This will make the hard drive switch to low power mode after 20 minutes. For more information consult rc.local, the hdparm man page and fstab.
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Modem
Lucent Technologies Winmodem (aka Compaq 56K-DF). This can be accessed using a version of the Lucent Winmodem driver. This modem is on IRQ 3 and port 0xEC. It's important that the configuration options for PCMCIA be set to exclude IRQ 3 as a usable IRQ for PCMCIA cards, otherwise this modem will not be usable. The driver zip file is available here. After installing this driver (see the readme file), edit the /etc/rc.d/rc.local file to add this line:
/bin/setserial /dev/modem uart 16550A port 0x00ec irq 3 spd_normal skip_test
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PCI Bridges and Interfaces
Host Bridge: OPTi 82C701 FireStar Plus (rev 50)
IDE Interface: OPTi 82C825 Firebridge 2 (rev 48)
ISA Bridge: OPTi 82C700 (rev 49)
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PCMCIA Cardbus
PCMCIA Cardbus Bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1131 (rev 1)
During the install, select pcmcia as one of the services to start up automatically. Then it should just be a matter of inserting a pc card and booting the machine. Keep in mind that the pc card must be supported by Linux as well. For more information look in '/var/run/stab' and '/var/log/messages'. You can use 'cardctl' and 'cardmgr' to manage PCMCIA devices. Consult the man pages for more information.
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Ports
The following ports are available on the back of this particular 1621; keyboard/mouse port, parallel printer port, port replicator port, 1 serial port, and an external monitor port.
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Processor and Memory
233 MHz AMD-K6 MMX 64Mb.
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Touchpad
The Synaptics PS/2 Touchpad configures the same way as any other 2 button PS/2 mouse. The Redhat installer should detect it for use by 'gpm' and when you run 'xconf' to configure X simply select the PS/2 mouse protocol.
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Third Party Hardware
Ethernet LAN PC Card
3Com Etherlink III LAN PC Card 3c590-TP 10Base-T
Insert the card and boot the computer. Run 'kernelcfg' and add the 3c509 kernel module.
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Mouse
I use the Logitech three button mouse when I don't use the Synaptics pad. It works just fine. Turn the computer off, plug the mouse into the PS/2 port and boot the computer. Linux should take care of the rest. Plugging a PS/2 mouse into a computer that is already on can seriously damage your hardware.
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