centrino laptop

[azote]

Isn't this chip supposed to be designed for Microsoft's new Paladium system ?

and hence there is no linux support yet, and who knows if it will come.

microsoft and intel are buddy buddy.

if only there was even ONE decent amd notebook. SIGH..

Microsoft and Intel are NOT buddy buddy. There is no such thing as "Wintel", and Intel has to deal with the Microsoft freight train just like anyone else. And The Centrino is NOT designed for Palladium.

sorry man .. but I second taskara..

[taskara]

I guess really only intel and microsoft know

[poisson]

sorry man .. but I second taskara..

People told Linux will never run on a TCPA-equipped system.
But I installed successfully Gentoo on a Centrino, that make me think:

1) Centrino may not have such chip.
2) People lied.
3) The chip works in a different way.

IBM declared the presence of a "secure chip" on its centrinos.
Other vendors say nothing.
Intel directive speak something about mobile & security chip starting
from second quarter 2003, but never on Banias/Centrino.

Meanwhile I'm very happy with my new Acer TM 803LCi.

[azote]

sorry man .. but I second taskara..

People told Linux will never run on a TCPA-equipped system.
But I installed successfully Gentoo on a Centrino, that make me think:

1) Centrino may not have such chip.
2) People lied.
3) The chip works in a different way.

IBM declared the presence of a "secure chip" on its centrinos.
Other vendors say nothing.
Intel directive speak something about mobile & security chip starting
from second quarter 2003, but never on Banias/Centrino.

Meanwhile I'm very happy with my new Acer TM 803LCi.

that Acer looks cool!! the only thing that I dont like is that the video is ati ... and not nvidia...
I had a alienware and I had some trouble with ati drivers to split my screen with the monitor....

[poisson]

that Acer looks cool!! the only thing that I dont like is that the video is ati ... and not nvidia...
I had a alienware and I had some trouble with ati drivers to split my screen with the monitor....

My choice was Dell or Acer, I choose the last one because dell was
nvidia equipped... expensive and too difficult to fine-tune such card.

I must admit problems with radeon 9000, there's no way to make
it run accelerated, but I think the problem is the agp chipset not
recognised by the kernel 2.4.40

[flokno]

I must admit problems with radeon 9000, there's no way to make it run accelerated, but I think the problem is the agp chipset not recognised by the kernel 2.4.40

i don't think so: when i tested the ati radeon 9000 in a friend's notebook it was 10 times faster than my matrox millenium g550 with glxgears.

[artooman]

Meanwhile I'm very happy with my new Acer TM 803LCi.

Did you manage to install Gentoo on that Centrino notebook? Have you had any major problems (like no ethernet)?

[poisson]

i don't think so: when i tested the ati radeon 9000 in a friend's notebook it was 10 times faster than my matrox millenium g550 with glxgears.

Do you remember the notebook model and the kernel version?
Module agpgart (required by "radeon") refuses to load ... so glxgears give me only 300fps.

Did you manage to install Gentoo on that Centrino notebook? Have you had any major problems (like no ethernet)?

Ethernet works fine, wireless don't.

I planned to install 2.5.68 kernel today, hoping to increase performance.

[EDIT]
Tested 2.5.68; disaster :(

Radeon:

Code: Select all

(WW) RADEON(0): [agp] AGP not available
(II) RADEON(0): Direct rendering disabled]

AGP:
module agpgart/intel-agp still does not recognise 855PM

Code: Select all

00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82855PM Processor to AGP Controller (rev 03)

Ethernet:
In 2.5.68 module name changed from bcm4400 to b44. Device is successfully detected, but netwok does not work; probably I need to update net-tools or something similar.

CPU:
Now 1MB L2 cache has been identified, but:

Code: Select all

cpufreq: Intel(R) SpeedStep(TM) for this processor not (yet) available.

Sound:
Tried to switch to alsa with no luck.

ACPI:
Works better than under 2.4.20.

Firewire:
Error while building the kernel, so I disabled the feature

[tHeoo]

Just a couple of notes on the centrino problems mentioned:

One might try the binary only driver Intel makes available, which is said to work also with the 855 chipset:

Code: Select all

http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts-df/Detail_Desc.asp?agr=Y&ProductID=955&DwnldID=5117

In addition, it is said in other documents that Alan Cox made preliminary support for the Centrino enhanced speedstep technoology available in his kernel.

Go on, make Centrino work on Linux; I'll wait a couple of months and buy myself such a cheap and beautiful Acer 800LCi! By the way: has it a 5400 rpm hard disk?

Cheers,

Maarten

[poisson]

Just a couple of notes on the centrino problems mentioned:

One might try the binary only driver Intel makes available, which is said to work also with the 855 chipset:

Code: Select all

http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts-df/Detail_Desc.asp?agr=Y&ProductID=955&DwnldID=5117

In addition, it is said in other documents that Alan Cox made preliminary support for the Centrino enhanced speedstep technoology available in his kernel.

Go on, make Centrino work on Linux; I'll wait a couple of months and buy myself such a cheap and beautiful Acer 800LCi! By the way: has it a 5400 rpm hard disk?

Cheers,

Maarten

Thanks for the link but, like the 2.5.68 kernel there is still NOT support for 855PM.
I saw a patch released few days ago about this chipset, I'll test soon.

Alan Cox patch for speedstep is "very preliminary", it only detects the feature, but nothing else.

Acer says nothing about hard disk (only that is has Anti-Shock Protection), so I presume it is a 4200rpm.

[flokno]

flokno wrote:
i don't think so: when i tested the ati radeon 9000 in a friend's notebook it was 10 times faster than my matrox millenium g550 with glxgears.

Do you remember the notebook model and the kernel version?
Module agpgart (required by "radeon") refuses to load ... so glxgears give me only 300fps.

notebook: targa visionary amd 2200+, 40gb, ati radeon 9000 64mb, 15" 1024x768, 512mb
linux: knoppix 3.2, don't know what kernel (think 2.4.20) and i can't test it again at the moment because i gave him my cd.
glxgears resulted in 2000+ fps.
my matrox in my desktop: 200 fps.

[poisson]

notebook: targa visionary amd 2200+, 40gb, ati radeon 9000 64mb, 15" 1024x768, 512mb
linux: knoppix 3.2, don't know what kernel (think 2.4.20) and i can't test it again at the moment because i gave him my cd.
glxgears resulted in 2000+ fps.
my matrox in my desktop: 200 fps.

Ahh an AMD... this confirms my theory: while kernel does not detect
Intel AGP chipset, I can forget DRI acceleration ...

[supenguin]

Not meaning to start a flamewar, but has anyone compared Centrino laptops to Transmeta laptops? Thinking mostly of battery life, performance, and price here. And Linux support of course

[poisson]

Not meaning to start a flamewar, but has anyone compared Centrino laptops to Transmeta laptops? Thinking mostly of battery life, performance, and price here. And Linux support of course ;-)

Here is my analysis, even if I don't think it's the right place to post it.

One night on internet searching for comparisons between crusoe and centrino; results: none found. Why? They simply are not comparable.

To force an indirect comparison:
- P3-M 1.2GHz vs Crusoe 867MHz performance rate is 3:1
- P-M 1.6GHz vs P3-M 1.2GHz performance rate 2:1 (at least :-)
- Transmeta released a 933MHz.
Result is that Pentium-M 1.6GHz performances are about 5 times than the fastest Crusoe.

Prices are similar, between 2000 and 2500 Euro.

Crusoe consumes less energy, but battery life mostly depend on laptop equipment (display, wireless, burner and so on).

Advantages for Crusoe are linux support and low temperatures.

I'm sorry for Linus, but transmeta laptops did not encounter my needs.

[poisson]

Finally kernel 2.4.21-rc1-ac4 contains support for intel 855PM agp bridge.

Now DRI with radeon9000m works; glxgears returns 1436fps ... not so fast but better than previous 260fps

[crazy-bee]

I have the Acer TM803, too, and it is really nice. I dont have network yet, because I cant find the broadcom to be supported in the Alan Cox kernel. I think I'll go with gaming-sources - which has support for the broadcom - and then change to Alan Cox to have the 855 supported. We'll see. Hopefully the WLAN will get drivers soon!

[hulk2nd]

hi there mister Cluaran,

i plan to buy myself a z1sp (same or nearly the same one that you own). what are your experiences with this smooth notebook? how's the compatibility with gentoo? are you happy and satisfy with your one?

greetz, hulk

[Cluaran]

hi there mister Cluaran,

Hi there,

I'm more than happy with my Z1SP, it is a lovely machine, and meets most of my requirements. Only thing I wish it had is an interchangable hard drive. I may buy a USB2/Firewire external unit I can use with my other machines.

Gentoo runs on it pretty well, tho' I don't have every hardware component working yet.

I've been trying out alternative kernels this weekend, something new for me, to get support for the Intel 855 chipset. This will give me agpgart support and hopefully DRM will work.

I merged and compiled the ac-sources and development-sources without much success so far. I can't get either to boot completely yet, they boot lock up.

I have managed to get a working mm-sources kernel but I'm still trying to get all the options I need to compile into a bootable kernel. When I add some things I get a lock up.

Anyway, off to try another compile!

M.

[ElCondor]

Since someone broke in my car last night and stole (beside other things like my digicam, zaurus, radio ...) my Sony Vaio, I have to buy a new Notebook.
Since I have to buy something new, I'm rather interested in the Acer Travelmate 800/803. What I need functional is:

• LAN 10/100 MBit onboard
• Graphics (AGP/DRM/DRI)
• PCMCIA support
• ACPI at least with battery status
• Display must be dimm-able
• as silent as possible - meaning not having the fan running during ordinary typing/surfing/...

wlan and bluetooth are not important (at the moment, I can wait for drivers). modem would be fine, but not necessary.

so, will I be happy with the Acer / Centrino?

* ElCondor (still pissed off) pasa *

[artooman]

ElCondor,

I would also consider the Dell d600. You can get a good deal through dell small business (just pretend you are a business) by selecting no office suite and by downgrading to winXP Home. I saved at least $400 by doing this. Also, check bensbargains.net for common 10% off Dell Small Business coupons.

Anyway, I just got mine, and it is extremely quiet and Linux friendly (other that this centrino wireless business). I am running kernel versin 2.5.70.

[hulk2nd]

hi there again, mister cluaran!

i am now the proud owner of a sony vaio z1sp and it would be great if you could answer me the following two questions:

- which cpu flags do you use?
- which kernel do you have installed and did you patch the kernel in any way?

ps: as far as i can see it until now, it is the loveliest machine i've ever seen.

edit
did you ever tried something from this website? http://tuxmobile.org/centrino.html
edit

thanks and greetz,
hulk

[pjv]

ElCondor,

I would also consider the Dell d600. You can get a good deal through dell small business (just pretend you are a business) by selecting no office suite and by downgrading to winXP Home. I saved at least $400 by doing this. Also, check bensbargains.net for common 10% off Dell Small Business coupons.

Anyway, I just got mine, and it is extremely quiet and Linux friendly (other that this centrino wireless business). I am running kernel versin 2.5.70.

artooman, you say it is Linux friendly... In other posts I've heard of problems with ACPI power management modes, BIOS, not working Fn keys, and ofcourse the regular Centrino (speedstep and wireless) problems. Have you tried these things yet?

To the other Acer 800 users (poisson, crazy-bee): Just to get out of the confusion, could you guys line-up the things that (still) don't work and/or the parts you haven't tried using yet.?

Does the Dell or the Acer meet your expectations (in comparison to WinXP and the producer specs)?

In Europe the Dell seems far more expensive for almost the same specs. A logical consequence of not being able to buy refurbished laptops, of not having (shipping) access to all those specialised computerbuyer sites on the net, of having the need for European standards in power supply and telecom, etc... I guess. Any reactions to that?

Greetz, have phun with all ur new thingies

[arthur1968]

Hi there,

Just joined 5 minutes ago...

My first post is about my current situation with a SAMSUNG X10 XTC1600 CENTRINO laptop

After spending EURO 2,600 on a brand new SAMSUNG X10 XTC1600, I have found out (the hard way) that installing a Linux distro is "off limits".

These are the results of different attempts:

SUSE 8.1 PRO After the first 2-3 screens, laptop restarts
without any reason
It keeps doing this indefinitely, and installation
obviously never moves on

MANDRAKE 9.1 After installation is finished (no problems at all)
the summary screen shows the X System as
NOT configured

ANY configuration chosen at this point makes
the screen go wild (and the system to hang, I
guess)

LYCORIS 46 Installation of packages takes about 5 times
longer than on my slower desktop machine.

After the whole thing seems to be finished, the
system hangs and nothing happens.

LINEX 3.0 RC1 Installation screen freezes after some 25 mins.

KNOPPIX 3.2 HD Everything works right up to firstboot. When
startup messages are shown, system freezes
with syslog.

The really funny thing is, Knoppix 3.2 without
a HD install. worked perfectly

The graphics card?:

nVidia GeForce 420 Go 32M

BTW, ALL distros recognize the card correctly.



The monitor?:
Not even the best hardware listing tools manage to identify my monitor: it simply comes up as unknown, or as an odd 'NVD100'


I've already "googled" the web for this, and have carefully read the links mentioned above, but NO LUCK

Can anyone help?.

Cheers,

Arthur

[Jacobs]

sorry man .. but I second taskara..

People told Linux will never run on a TCPA-equipped system.
But I installed successfully Gentoo on a Centrino, that make me think:

1) Centrino may not have such chip.
2) People lied.
3) The chip works in a different way.

IBM declared the presence of a "secure chip" on its centrinos.
Other vendors say nothing.
Intel directive speak something about mobile & security chip starting
from second quarter 2003, but never on Banias/Centrino.

Meanwhile I'm very happy with my new Acer TM 803LCi.

I have a Thinkpad X31 with that TCPA Secure chip (or however they call it - btw there is a difference between Palladium (Microsoft thing) and TCPA) and the thing is that you can enable/disable the chip in the BIOS. To make it work in Windows you have to download some IBM software for it which I haven't tried yet.

So there should be no way how this can influence you linux distro (if disabled).

[Lycander]

I'm surprised no one mentioned the fact that Pentium Ms have 1 MB on-die L2 cache which means, according to benchmarks, it beats even 2+ GHz desktop P4s!!! It's so wonderful that there are efforts to make desktop systems using Pentium M chips.