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From: Ivan Alameda on 11 Apr 2008 04:24
Hi to all:

I want to ask if some of you can help me trying to configure properly my
Linux system... any help will be as a present for me, so thanks in
advance!

Last agoust I bought a new computer, not so special requirements as long
is for programming and for being a personal server. That computer have
integrated integrated components for Video, Sound, Wifi and LAN.

I cant configure the video device, as long seems computer are
recognizing a standard VGA driver wich give me no so good resolutions
(no panoramics one) and a bad behavior when switching several times from
GUI to text virtual console (it crash some way and I need to restart
if wants to use GUI again). With sound device is a bit best, in Ubuntu
7.04 its recognized more than ok, but in Debian Etch something strange
happends, sounds is really really really low (seems somthing is wrong
when recognizing sound card). Lan and Wifi devices dosent work...

Seems I need to wast some hours configuring each device, but I have no
idea where to find valid drivers for it, and how to do that... Any hing
about will be wellcome, as long I really would like to have my computer
working and not need to come back to that game called windows ;-)

Here is the list of components I have, any idea, please tell me:

Video: Intel GMA 3000.
Audio: RealTek ALC 883.
Wifi: Asus Wifi-AP Solo
Lan: Attansic L1 PCIE Gigabit LAN Controller

Thanks in advance for any help!

From: Aragorn on 11 Apr 2008 08:22
Ivan Alameda wrote:

> Hi to all:
>
> I want to ask if some of you can help me trying to configure properly my
> Linux system... any help will be as a present for me, so thanks in
> advance!

I'll see what I can do... ;-)

> Last agoust I bought a new computer, not so special requirements as long
> is for programming and for being a personal server. That computer have
> integrated integrated components for Video, Sound, Wifi and LAN.

Okay... Some of that might work and other stuff probably won't - or at
least, not "out of the box". You may need to hunt for proprietary drivers
for some stuff, which may typically not be included in the freely
downloadable distribution due to licensing reasons.

> I cant configure the video device, as long seems computer are
> recognizing a standard VGA driver wich give me no so good resolutions
> (no panoramics one) and a bad behavior when switching several times from
> GUI to text virtual console (it crash some way and I need to restart
> if wants to use GUI again).

Okay, first of all, if you start X11 - the graphical interface - manually,
then there normally is no need to reboot if you want the GUI again.
However, most newbies seem to prefer having their system start up in GUI
mode, which is a source for problems when your GUI is not configured
correctly.

Most likely, you are using a framebuffer driver, which basically means that
all your 3D rendering etc. is handled in system RAM and by your main CPU
via software emulation, instead of by the video hardware. This will of
course seriously limit your options for refresh rates, video resolution,
screen dimension ratios, colordepth and most definitely anything that has
to do with OpenGL.

Quite often, a framebuffer driver for X11 is chosen by the distribution by
lack of the proprietary driver, because the framebuffer device works with
most video hardware. Now, I don't know much about Intel video hardware,
but if I were you I'd check on Intel's website to see whether they're
offering a GNU/Linux driver. If they do, then it'll probably be free (as
in free beer) but proprietary, which means that it'll - again, probably -
not be free (as in freedom of speech).

> With sound device is a bit best, in Ubuntu 7.04 its recognized more than
> ok, but in Debian Etch something strange happends, sounds is really really
> really low (seems somthing is wrong when recognizing sound card). Lan and
> Wifi devices dosent work...

By "low", I take it you mean the volume? Well, it may just be that Debian
Etch defaults to a lower mixer setting - some distributions even (used to)
default to a muted setting. You should be able to manually adjust the
settings and/or unmute the output, and save the new settings.

I would advise you to read up on ALSA, which is most likely what your
distribution is using to drive your soundcard - there is also OSS but its
use has been deprecated for a while already on GNU/Linux systems with a
kernel of the 2.6 generation. I'm not sure but I even believe OSS is no
longer actively being maintained - ALSA can emulate OSS behavior, though.

> Seems I need to wast some hours configuring each device, but I have no
> idea where to find valid drivers for it, and how to do that...

The hardware manufacturer's website is always a good start. And just for
future reference, I would also advise you to check whether the hardware is
supported in GNU/Linux and to what degree, so as to rule out any surprises
afterwards.

The upstream Linux kernel as distributed by Linus Torvalds via kernel.org is
always pretty up-to-date in terms of hardware support, but typically
distributions use a slightly older kernel, i.e. the official kernel from
Linus as was available at the time the distribution's current release
entered development, subsequently added with distribution-specific patches.

Still, these kernels are considered recent and will support the bulk of the
hardware in existence out there today. However - and as I have already
come to mention higher up in this reply - there is certain hardware for
which there is no "native" driver in the official Linux kernel source tree,
because the hardware manufacturer has not opened up the specs for that
particular hardware and refuses to provide its drivers as GPL'ed source
code - nVidia is such a manufacturer, for instance.

This means that at best, certain drivers are developed by the GNU/Linux
developers - kernel and X.Org - by reverse-engineering the hardware. These
drivers are by far not as feature-full or complete as the manufacturer's
own drivers, but at least they are free (as in freedom) and they are
available out of the box.

Commercially sold distributions such as Mandriva, RedHat and SuSE typically
come with the manufacturer's own non-free drivers, but most distributions
don't pack those in their freely downloadable versions because it would
technically be illegal to do so, even though these drivers themselves are
freely downloadable from the hardware manufacturer's website.

Debian is a "politically correct" GNU/Linux distribution and tries to avoid
drivers (or other software) that are not licensed as Free Software. Ubuntu
is based upon Debian, and thus largely follows the same philosophy in terms
of drivers. As such, with those distributions, you will have to get the
binary-only drivers from the hardware manufacturer's website yourself -
there will typically be instructions on how to install them - and you may
need to do the same thing for Flash browser plug-ins, Sun's Java Runtime
Environment and the Windows-typical audio and video codecs.

Another factor that may be of importance - I'm not actually that familiar
with the two distributions you've named - is whether you're using a 32-bit
or a 64-bit distribution, as certain proprietary software - Adobe's Flash
plug-ins and standalone Flashplayer, for instance - only comes in a 32-bit
version. As such, the browser that you would use such plug-ins with must
itself also be 32-bit. It is perfectly possible to run a 32-bit browser on
a 64-bit operating system, but you can't run a 64-bit browser with 32-bit
plug-ins, since those plug-ins require the shared libraries to be 32-bit as
well.

> Any hing about will be wellcome, as long I really would like to have my
> computer working and not need to come back to that game called windows ;-)
>
> Here is the list of components I have, any idea, please tell me:
>
> Video: Intel GMA 3000.

Don't know that one, but from the version number I'd say it's pretty new and
pretty high-end - I could be wrong here, of course. As such, it probably
needs some proprietary driver from Intel.

> Audio: RealTek ALC 883.

I believe that should be well-supported.

> Wifi: Asus Wifi-AP Solo

Most WiFi stuff is a pain in the buttocks on GNU/Linux. Apart from the
Atheros- or Orinoco-based wireless LAN chipsets, you typically need a
proprietary driver from the manufacturer to get it working, and only very
few WiFi manufacturers will offer Linux drivers for their hardware.

There is however a workaround. You can use /ndiswrapper/ to load and run a
binary Windows WiFi driver into the Linux kernel. It's a little tricky to
set up, though, so I would advise reading the manual. ;-)

> Lan: Attansic L1 PCIE Gigabit LAN Controller

Don't know that one either, but chances are that it's supported via a driver
for another brandname. It all depends on what chipset that adapter card
uses, and the Linux kernel does come with a lot of LAN drivers for various
connection types.

However, as a heads-up, just as with WiFi, not all manufacturers offer free
- as in freedom - drivers for their LAN adapters, so caution is required.

> Thanks in advance for any help!

Hope this was useful... ;-)

--
Aragorn
(registered GNU/Linux user #223157)
From: ERACC on 11 Apr 2008 11:09
On Fri, 11 Apr 2008 10:24:44 +0200, Ivan Alameda wrote:

> Lan: Attansic L1 PCIE Gigabit LAN Controller

See this reply at www.linuxquestions.org:

http://preview.tinyurl.com/3rkhaj

Found using this AltaVista search:

http://preview.tinyurl.com/5rnjj3

Gene (e-mail: gene \a\t eracc \d\o\t com)
--
Mandriva Linux release 2007.1 (Official) for i586
Got Rute? http://www.anrdoezrs.net/email-2546588-42121?isbn=0130333514
ERA Computers & Consulting - http://www.eracc.com/
Preloaded PCs - eComStation, Linux, FreeBSD, OpenServer & UnixWare
From: Darren Salt on 11 Apr 2008 10:24
I demand that Aragorn may or may not have written...

> Ivan Alameda wrote:
[snip]
>> Last agoust I bought a new computer, not so special requirements as long
>> is for programming and for being a personal server. That computer have
>> integrated integrated components for Video, Sound, Wifi and LAN.

> Okay... Some of that might work and other stuff probably won't - or at
> least, not "out of the box". You may need to hunt for proprietary drivers
> for some stuff, which may typically not be included in the freely
> downloadable distribution due to licensing reasons.

>> I cant configure the video device, as long seems computer are recognizing
>> a standard VGA driver wich give me no so good resolutions (no panoramics
>> one) and a bad behavior when switching several times from GUI to text
>> virtual console (it crash some way and I need to restart if wants to use
>> GUI again).
[snip]
> Quite often, a framebuffer driver for X11 is chosen by the distribution by
> lack of the proprietary driver, because the framebuffer device works with
> most video hardware. Now, I don't know much about Intel video hardware,
> but if I were you I'd check on Intel's website to see whether they're
> offering a GNU/Linux driver.

I wouldn't. I'd just install a new-enough xf86-video-intel.

[snip]
>> With sound device is a bit best, in Ubuntu 7.04 its recognized more than
>> ok, but in Debian Etch something strange happends, sounds is really
>> really really low (seems somthing is wrong when recognizing sound card).
>> Lan and Wifi devices dosent work...
[snip]

"etchnhalf" should help with audio and networking (there's a 2.6.24 kernel
there): add etch-proposed-updates to your sources.list, but be careful about
what you install. OTOH, I don't see anything that would help with the video
problems; you might want to upgrade to lenny or use recent Ubuntu. Either
way, you want xserver-xorg-video-intel.

>> Seems I need to wast some hours configuring each device, but I have no
>> idea where to find valid drivers for it, and how to do that...

[snip]
> Another factor that may be of importance - I'm not actually that familiar
> with the two distributions you've named - is whether you're using a 32-bit
> or a 64-bit distribution, as certain proprietary software - Adobe's Flash
> plug-ins and standalone Flashplayer, for instance - only comes in a 32-bit
> version. As such, the browser that you would use such plug-ins with must
> itself also be 32-bit. It is perfectly possible to run a 32-bit browser on
> a 64-bit operating system, but you can't run a 64-bit browser with 32-bit
> plug-ins, since those plug-ins require the shared libraries to be 32-bit as
> well.

You've not seen nspluginwrapper. :-)

[snip]
>> Here is the list of components I have, any idea, please tell me:
>> Video: Intel GMA 3000.

> Don't know that one, but from the version number I'd say it's pretty new
> and pretty high-end - I could be wrong here, of course. As such, it
> probably needs some proprietary driver from Intel.

No; just open-source. Though it's possible that it may need xf86-video-intel
2.2.x rather than 2.1.x; I don't know.

>> Audio: RealTek ALC 883.
> I believe that should be well-supported.

Intel HDA, I think.

>> Wifi: Asus Wifi-AP Solo

> Most WiFi stuff is a pain in the buttocks on GNU/Linux. Apart from the
> Atheros- or Orinoco-based wireless LAN chipsets, you typically need a
> proprietary driver from the manufacturer to get it working, and only very
> few WiFi manufacturers will offer Linux drivers for their hardware.

No idea about this one, but I have a suspicion that Atheros may be relevant.

[snip]
>> Lan: Attansic L1 PCIE Gigabit LAN Controller

> Don't know that one either, but chances are that it's supported via a
> driver for another brandname. It all depends on what chipset that adapter
> card uses, and the Linux kernel does come with a lot of LAN drivers for
> various connection types.

Chances are that it's another Realtek chip. If it is, it's almost certainly
supported.

[snip]
--
| Darren Salt | linux or ds at | nr. Ashington, | Toon
| RISC OS, Linux | youmustbejoking,demon,co,uk | Northumberland | Army
| + Lobby friends, family, business, government. WE'RE KILLING THE PLANET.

No matter what they're talking about, they're talking about money.
From: Scott Alfter on 11 Apr 2008 16:30
In article <GFILj.31034$5o5.3033(a)newsfe15.ams2>,
Aragorn <aragorn(a)chatfactory.invalid> wrote:
>Another factor that may be of importance - I'm not actually that familiar
>with the two distributions you've named - is whether you're using a 32-bit
>or a 64-bit distribution, as certain proprietary software - Adobe's Flash
>plug-ins and standalone Flashplayer, for instance - only comes in a 32-bit
>version. As such, the browser that you would use such plug-ins with must
>itself also be 32-bit. It is perfectly possible to run a 32-bit browser on
>a 64-bit operating system, but you can't run a 64-bit browser with 32-bit
>plug-ins, since those plug-ins require the shared libraries to be 32-bit as
>well.

nspluginwrapper works pretty well for handling Flash in 64-bit Firefox on my
AMD64 boxen:

http://gwenole.beauchesne.info/projects/nspluginwrapper/

I think I've also heard somewhere that 64-bit builds of Konqueror can run
32-bit plugins directly, but I don't have any direct experience with that.

_/_
/ v \ Scott Alfter (remove the obvious to send mail)
(IIGS( http://alfter.us/ Top-posting!
\_^_/ rm -rf /bin/laden >What's the most annoying thing on Usenet?

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