Laptop with docking station installation

[guitarist]

So, I am a complete n00b, but just got through my FIRST successful Gentoo installation from Stage1 right into KDE <pauses for applause....>, but that was on a desktop, so now I am thinking of moving on to greater things. I have a Dell laptop with docking station etc. If I install Gentoo on it, how would I manage the boot process depending on whether it is docked or not?

Let's see if I have learnt anything so far - I would guess that I would need either:

- 2 different kernels with the relevant NICs/hardware etc. compiled in, then use Grub to dual boot; or

- 1 kernel with all the relevant hardware compiled in. (Hmmm, I guess building one kernel would be better)

but - Having gone through the Xf86config process, I would imagine that the two different video adapters, two different keyboards, two different mice (mouses?) (glidepad vs. PS2 mouse) could cause major headaches.

I seem to recall that Xf86config doesn't mind having more than one video adapter in, if that is correct does the same hold true for other hardware?

Would hotplug simply detect that I have extra hardware when I boot while docked and therefore X would use the correct hardware? After seeing how manually intensive Gentoo has been so far I would be surprised if this is the case

Thanks in advance for your answers.

Ian

[hbmartin]

You'll need to give us a more details...
Is your dock a 'port extender' more or less?
Or does it have it's own integrated video/sound/networking controllers?
How does it connect to your laptop?

Harold

[guitarist]

Thanks for the reply. It is a full docking station that the laptop goes into with all its own built-in cards (sound, video, CD docking port etc.). It connects to the laptop through a large connector (proprietary I would guess) on the back of the laptop. As I said earlier it is a Dell.

Anybody ever done this? Help would be appreciated.

TIA

[toberonenz]

I use a Dell port replicator which only really adds a network card.
I use different /etc/conf.d/net and X11 scripts that I append a d or l onto to distinguish and link one or the other when booting via an init script I developed that detects what type the network card is. I also use it to start different services like pcmcia, ntp etc

You could do something similar
I'm am investigating the possiblity of hot docking vi acpi which is the only thing that doesn't work for me at the moment. (This excludes suspend to disk, I haven't been game enought to try it!)

[corefile]

can you post your init script, I'd like to see if it will work for me. I can change what I need to, but need a starting point

[toberonenz]

can you post your init script, I'd like to see if it will work for me. I can change what I need to, but need a starting point

Here it is

Code: Select all

#!/sbin/runscript

# Script to determine if laptop is docked or not
# 
# test if docked by testing for the docking station network card in the pci table

setup_env(){
	TESTSTRING="3c905C"
	lspci | grep $TESTSTRING > /etc/docked
	POWER=`cat /proc/acpi/ac_adapter/AC/state | tail -c9`
}

start() {
	setup_env
if [ "$POWER" == "off-line" ] 
then 
	echo "powersave" > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor
fi
if [ -s /etc/docked ]
then
	ebegin "Laptop is Docked. Starting associated services"
	ln -sf /etc/conf.d/net.d /etc/conf.d/net
	ln -sf /etc/X11/XF86Config-4.d /etc/X11/XF86Config-4
	#ntpdate timekeeper #Time sync with network
	/etc/init.d/cupsd start 
	/etc/init.d/fcron start
	eend 0
else
	ebegin "Laptop is not Docked. Starting associated services"
	ln -sf /etc/X11/XF86Config-4.l /etc/X11/XF86Config-4
	ln -sf /etc/conf.d/net.l /etc/conf.d/net
	/etc/init.d/pcmcia start #Start PCMCIA services (Modem, ethernet card)
	eend 0
fi

}

stop() {
if [ -s /etc/docked ]
then
	ebegin "Stopping docking services"
	ln -sf /etc/X11/XF86Config-4.l /etc/X11/XF86Config-4
	ln -sf /etc/conf.d/net.l /etc/conf.d/net
	rm -f /etc/docked
	eend 0
fi
}

As you will see I detect whether I am docked by searching for the docking station network card. For hotdocking I think I will need to do something else.

tobz

[corefile]

cool thanks for the script.

FYI I found this project while researching this issue. Might want to check it out.

http://hprofile.sourceforge.net/


-paul