Running Linux on my Asus X5DC Laptop

Ubuntu 10.10 - sis671 driver

2010-11-29T12:50:00.000Z

Hi Everyone,

Sorry I haven't posted anything for ages! I know your all looking for a SiS driver for Ubuntu 10.10. I haven't upgraded to 10.10 yet, but I am planning to (this week!) so I expect to resolve the lack of support for ASUS Laptop as soon as I upgrade....Watch this space in the coming week....I will post as soon as I have news.!!!!

sis67x driver for Ubuntu 10.04

2010-05-04T14:26:00.001+01:00

Well as promised, I have uploaded the latest sis671 driver for Ubuntu 10.04.

This driver has been modified to support 1360x768 on ASUS X5DC. xorg.conf file needs the option "ASUSX5DC" to force the screen size.

The files can be downloaded from here:

http://www.4shared.com/dir/33545876/5b3a8e4/sharing.html

To install to follow the instructions below:

unpack the files:
tar xjf Asusx5dc-ubuntu10.04-sis671-64bit.tar.bz2 (for 32-Bit version substitute download Asusx5dc-ubuntu10.04-sis671-32bit.tar.bz2)

sudo bash (enter password when prompted)

then copy the files:

cp sis671_drv.* /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers

modify/create new /etc/X11/xorg.conf file. (A sample xorg.conf is available from the link above)

then type the following:

echo blacklist vga16fb > /etc/modprobe.d/backlist-vga16fb.conf

update-initramfs -u

when complete, reboot.

IF YOU WANT TO COMPILE FROM SRC. Download Asusx5dc-ubuntu10.04-sis671-src.tar.bz2

unpack:

tar xjf Asusx5dc-ubuntu10.04-sis671-64bit.tar.bz2

sudo bash

cd xorg-driver-sis671-0.9.1/

./autogen.sh --prefix=/usr

make

make install

best of luck!

upgrade from 9.10 to 10.04

2010-05-04T08:33:00.000+01:00

well it's been awhile since I last posted on my blog (sorry been really busy!).

Anyway, this is just a quick post to let you all know that I have upgraded my os to Ubuntu 10.04 LTS over the weekend (it was a complete disaster - but more on that later!)

I just wanted people to know that I will be posting a new sis671 driver, that will work on Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid) later this week!

Latest on sis672 driver

2010-03-12T12:07:00.002Z

I have been running the 2d sis67x linux driver at 1360x768 for awhile now, and it appears to be stable.

I have been receiving a lot of requests to provide the driver & src code, so I am uploading them to the following location (available by end of today!):

http://www.4shared.com/dir/33545876/5b3a8e4/sharing.html

It should be noted that the driver was specifically changed to support ASUS X5DC Laptop with 1360x768 resolution....although it may work with others (I can't confirm that!) - but would be happy to here from users that get it running ok.

I have included a copy of my xorg.conf file that shows you the options set on my ASUS X5DC.

if thoses that require instructions on how to install the 64-bit binary you need to :

tar xjf Asusx5dc-ubuntu910-sis671-64bit.tar.bz2

then copy the files (sis671_drv.la , sis671_drv.lai , sis671_drv.so) to /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers

modify/create new /etc/X11/xorg.conf file & restart X.

NOTE: I haven't had a chance to modify the driver to read EDID from file, but to be honest...it looks a bit like a non-runner because the EDID information is incorrect anyway. I am going to look at creating an option in the sis driver to override the EDID information for special cases (when I get time!)

converting wubi to dedicated linux partition

2010-02-27T20:43:00.000Z

Over last weekend, I decided that I wanted to ditch Windows 7 in favour of linux. But, I didn't really want to re-install from scratch and I had previously installed Ubuntu in the windows partition using wubi.
Although it did get a bit hairy for a while (at one point I was unable to boot into the Wubi or the dedicated partition). So, I decided I should share the experience I had and hopefully help others avoid the problems I had.

Firstly, I needed to create some partitioned space, I was going to resize the partitions using gparted, but I didn't like the way that the current Windows Partitions were defined so, I rebooted and booted Windows 7 and before making changes to the partitions I copied the Ubuntu directory from D:\ to C:\ then I deleted the partitions I didn't want (leaving C:\ intact). I recreated a new smaller partition for drive D:\ and then copied the everything c:\ubuntu to d:\ubuntu.

I rebooted and then tried to boot into my linux wubi install. The Grub menu loaded and I selected the default option at which point Grub reported that the kernel wasn't loaded......WHAT - NOOOO!! I rebooted again and at the grub menu, I selected edit line option to see what the configuration was.....the boot options were configured to boot from /dev/sda5 whereas after re-partitioning the buntu image was on /dev/sda3. After changing the options to reflect /dev/sda3 ubuntu booted fine.

Not wanting to loose everything, I decided to backed up the entire wubi install to a USB HDD using tar.

After linux had booted I used Gparted to create 3 new partitions:

A 10 GB (ext3 format) partition to use as root (/),
A ~3 GB (equal to RAM size) (swap format) partition to use as swap, and the rest a (ext3 format) partition to use as /home.

After creating the partitions I mounted the home partition to /media/home and used rsync to copy the /home to the new partition.

rsync -avx /home/ /media/home

To avoid the hassle of manually reinstalling all the packages again I used the command:

dpkg --get-selections > selections.dpkg

I popped in my ubuntu install CD and rebooted...The ubuntu install started and at the partitioning stage I selected the "manual" option (making sure to specify the appropriate correct partition for each of the mountpoints for root (/) home (/home) and swap. I also made sure that the format partition option was un-ticked.

I also made sure that I ensured that the account name was the same as the one I configured for my wubi install.

After the installation was complete and I booted into the dedicated linux partition, configured my Internet connection and then loaded the Synaptic package manager & selected "read markings" from file menu; I loaded the selections.dpkg file that I created earlier and began to download the packages/updates.

The packages started to install but something went wrong and the process stopped.   I rebooted & the new dedicated linux partition wouldn't load (it seemed to freeze on boot up).

I rebooted and tried to boot the original wubi install, but that seemed to fail too...So I used the install CD selecting the option to try Linux without installing.

I mounted the root partition from my new install to a temporary mountpoint and then connected the USB HDD that had the tar backup on it.   I then used the tar command to restore the backup.tar file but excluded restoring the /home, /boot & /proc directories.

tar xvf /media/disk1/backup.tar --exclude /boot --exclude /home --exclude /proc

after the restore I shutdown, removed the CD and booted grub to the new dedicated partition.   everything appeared to boot fine, so I opened a terminal session and type df

the output from df showed that the home directory was loop0 device???? i had forgot the exclude /etc when restoring the tar, meaning the /etc/fstab file from my original wubi install was loaded....

I modified the /etc/fstab file to reflect the device partitions and mount-points for my install:

/dev/sda5       /               ext3    loop,errors=remount-ro 0       1
/dev/sda6       none            swap    loop,sw         0       0
/dev/sda7       /home ext3 nodev,nosuid 0 2

I rebooted & everything was fine.........

I re-ran the package manager and everything was up to date. After checking that the system was stable, I rebooted into Windows 7 and remove the wubi install. (I think I will leave Windows 7 in place for another week just in-case!)

Configuring Mobile Broadband E160 Modem in KDE

2010-02-11T16:29:00.002Z

Configuring E160 Modem on Ubuntu 9.10 was fairly straight forward, but there are a couple of gotchas.

Plugin the modem into a usb port then write run KnetworkManager from the K Menu (applications>utilities) then , right click on the Network Icon in the system tray and selecting Manage Connections.

Click on the Mobile Broadband tab, then click add button:

Name the connection, and fill in your provider details. In the example below its Virgin Mobile.

Make sure you tick on the Connect automatically button.

Now, click the PPP tab and make sure you un-tick the authentication option, then click-on the OK button.

The configuration should now be complete & your mobile broadband should connect.

Upside down webcam

2010-02-11T12:16:00.003Z

Suffering from upside down Webcam?

Well your not the only one. It appears that its a common problem!

Some manufacturers mount the webcam upside down...In Windows the software detects the problem and flips the image automatically. Linux handles the problem differently. Most (but not all) Linux software that makes use of the webcam via a a collection of userspace libraries called libv4l.

libv4l adds a thin abstraction layer on top of video4linux2 devices. The purpose of this layer is to make it easy for application writers to support a wide variety of devices without
having to write separate code for different devices in the same class.

If your webcam is running upside down, download the latest libv4l. Then run your webcam app with following proceeding it: LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so

For example, if you want to run Kopete instant messenger you would run:

LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so kopete

if your webcam is still upside down then you should run the following commands:

lsusb > lsusb.log
dmidecode > dmi.log

then email Hans de Goede (hdegoede@redhat.com) explaining you have a webcam with upside down image and attaching the two log files you have just created (lsusb.log & dmi.log).

Hans will update libv4l and send instructions back on how to install it.

For ASUS X5DC users, I have already asked Hans to update so this should work(thanks Hans!)

You can download the new version here: http://people.fedoraproject.org/~jwrdegoede/libv4l-0.6.5-test.tar.gz

1. Install
===========

Howto install and test libv4l depends on your system. There are
different instructions for if you have a 32 bit system or a 64 bit system.
which is using multilib. A 64 bit system without multilib is the same as
a 32 bit system.

To find out what you have do:

ls -d /usr/lib64

If this command gives a "No such file or directory" error, use the Non multilib instructions, if the second command is successful, you have multilib, to find out which version (dubbed Fedora and Ubuntu multilib, because those are the most well known examples, do):

ls -d /usr/lib32
If this command gives a "No such file or directory" error, use the Fedora multilib instructions. If this command succeeds use the Ubuntu multilib instructions. Note the ubuntu multilib instructions also apply to gentoo.

Non multilib instructions:
-------------------------------
tar xvfz libv4l-0.6.5-test.tar.gz
cd libv4l-0.6.5
make PREFIX=/usr
sudo make install PREFIX=/usr

Fedora Multilib instructions:
-----------------------------------
Basic 64 bit install:
tar xvfz libv4l-0.6.5-test.tar.gz
cd libv4l-0.6.5
make PREFIX=/usr LIBDIR=/usr/lib64
sudo make install PREFIX=/usr LIBDIR=/usr/lib64

If you also want to use 32 bit apps (such as skype), you
will need to have the 32 bit libc headers installed, on Fedora
this can be done like this:
Fedora 10-: "sudo yum install glibc-devel.i386"
Fedora 11: "sudo yum install glibc-devel.i586"
Fedora 12+: "sudo yum install glibc-devel.i686"
Then do:
make clean
make PREFIX=/usr CFLAGS=-m32 LDFLAGS=-m32
sudo make install PREFIX=/usr

Ubuntu Multilib instructions:
-----------------------------------
tar xvfz libv4l-0.6.5-test.tar.gz
cd libv4l-0.6.5
make PREFIX=/usr
sudo make install PREFIX=/usr

If you also want to use 32 bit apps (such as skype), you will need to have the 32 bit libc headers installed, on Ubuntu this can be done like this:

sudo apt-get install libc6-dev-i386

On gentoo this can be done like this:
sudo emerge -v app-emulation/emul-linux-x86-compat

Then do:
make clean
make PREFIX=/usr CFLAGS=-m32 LDFLAGS=-m32 LIBDIR=/usr/lib32
sudo make install PREFIX=/usr LIBDIR=/usr/lib32

2. Testing
========

You have a chance that your webcam app use libv4l or have an appropriate script starting it. In that case you don't have to do anything. Just run the application. This is the most common situation with Ubuntu and Fedora packages. If your problem remains unsolved, then your app might not use libv4l.

In that case start the application from a terminal like this:

Non multilib:
----------------
LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so

Note on Ubuntu sometimes skype is using a wrapper script, so if skype
does not work try:
LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so skype.real

Fedora multilib:
--------------------
For 64 bit applications (almost all apps):

LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib64/libv4l/v4l1compat.so

For 32 bit applications (you only need it for proprietary softwares, which don't have a 64 bit version, like skype):

LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so skype

Ubuntu multilib:
--------------------

For 64 bit applications (almost all apps):

LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib64/libv4l/v4l1compat.so skype

For 32 bit applications (you only need it for proprietary softwares, which
don't have a 64 bit version, like skype):

LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib32/libv4l/v4l1compat.so skype

Note on Ubuntu sometimes skype is using a wrapper script, so if skype does not work try:
LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib32/libv4l/v4l1compat.so skype.real

Great news on SIS672 X Driver!

2010-02-11T09:02:00.002Z

I have managed to get the SIS671 driver working by making some changes to the source code & re-compiling it! I am now running at 1360 x 768. Not quite the maximum resolution (1366x768) but hardly detectable...

I have created a new Special Timing option for the ASUSX5DC. I then edited, xorg.conf and under device section I placed the following parameter:

Option "SpecialTiming" "ASUSX5DC"

I need to do a bit more work to the source before it is ready for release(I will be asking for the SIS671 Driver to be patched); in the meantime, if you have a ASUS X5DC and you would like a copy of the driver for test purposes, I am happy to provide a copy! Just leave a comment against this blog or email me, and I will send you a copy.

I have also extracted the EDID information from Windows 7 Registry and beginning to decode it. I hope to modify the SiS driver to read the EDID information directly from a file, enabling anyone to port EDID Information from Windows Registry... Useful if a manufacturer used the Microsoft's Windows - Custom EDID option, when configuring the screen driver.

Why is my screen resolution only 800x600?

2010-02-10T23:59:00.001Z

I finally managed to get Ubuntu installed, only to find that the screen resolution was only 800x600 stretched across 15.6” Wide-screen LCD Panel.....but why and how can I resolve it?

Well, before I investigated to much, I decided configure the wireless adapter and download all the updates (maybe that will fix it anyway!).

Luckily, Ubuntu was able to detect the wireless card without intervention. So, it was just a matter of configuring the adapter in the GNOME Windows Network Manager.

The updates were detected automatically as soon as I connected to the internet; I downloaded and applied them. I also decided I wanted to install KDE - I loaded the package manager and selected the KDE Desktop packages; After completing KDE package installs, I rebooted to see if the screen was any better-but it wasn't :(

Given that the updates hadn't resolved my screen resolution problem, I checked the /var/log/Xorg.0.log file and found that the VESA Driver had been loaded rather the a 3D graphics driver from a manufacturer. I knew from the specs that laptop that I had a Mirage 3+ SiS672 graphics adapter, so I looked in the /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers directory for a SiS driver.

It was there, so why isn't it detected?

Since, its not detected by default - I decide that its worth trying to force it in xorg.conf. I navigated to /etc/X11 but the xorg.conf is missing???

what that can't be right...well yes, it turns out that Ubuntu 9.10 X configuration is automatic, and by default the xorg.conf file doesn't exist, but if you create one, Xorg will read it!

So I created a new xorg.conf file in /etc/X11 with the following lines:

Section “Device”
Identifier "Card0"
Driver "sis"
VendorName "Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS]"
BoardName "771/671 PCIE VGA Display Adapter"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

I saved the file and rebooted. Ubuntu booted again but this time in text mode. I logged in and checked /var/Xorg.0.log. The SiS driver failed to detect the graphics adapter....

I edited the xorg.conf file again and changed the details to VESA driver, so at least I would have X-Windows running until I could find a solution.

I Replaced the existing device parameters and configuring some additional parameters to control the monitor and screen settings. My xorg.conf now looks like this:

Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
Driver "vesa"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Configured Monitor"
Option "DPMS"
HorizSync 28-107
VertRefresh 43-90
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Monitor "Configured Monitor"
Device "Configured Video Device"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

After changing xorg.conf, at the command line I typed: kdm

X-Windows started and I was presented at the graphical KDE logon screen, and this time it looked better because the resolution was now 1024x768. But it still looks Cr*p because its still stretched.

I visited ubuntu forums again and started searching for a solution. What I found wasn't good....

SiS Graphic Adapters are one of the least supported video adapters in linux because SiS Corp hadn't released a 3D Graphics Driver, although there was a 2D driver it was old and not supported or updated by SIS. Luckily, some open source developers had been maintaining a 2D driver so at least it is possible to run in full resolution....right? well for some users yes! but not for everyone..(Or at least not me!)

After reading through a number of threads on SIS671/SIS672 Adapter problems, I found a couple of links to different SIS Drivers that may sort the problem, but not only did I have the problem of finding the driver, I had an added problem of finding a 64-bit version; however, I managed to find two drivers, one called SIS671 and the other called Sisimedia - both of which had be re-compiled for Ubuntu 9.10 64-bit. Now taking no chances I downloaded both of them...

I also found a blog from Barros Lee a developer at SiS corp. in the blog he stated that he had written a 3D driver for SIS672 and it was ready for release, the blog was quite old, but I decided it maybe worth contacting Barros directly to find out how I can obtain a copy.

I fired off an email to him and then got back to trying out the drivers I had downloaded....

Sadly, I tried both drivers and neither worked, although they did detect the adapter, the Xorg failed because it couldn't find a valid mode to run......Xorg.0.log reported that the “mode pool empty”

I continued to investigate what was wrong, often googling and looking for clues as to the problem.

Then, I receive an email from Barros, but he says that SiS corp wouldn't let him release the driver and that it was a few years old now and wouldn't work with later versions of Xorg. He also says that he is unable to send me a copy because End users need to contact there Manufacturers to obtain it, but he was only aware of one Manufacturer that had permission to use it.

I contacted ASUS tech support, but they were unable to help and don't support Linux.

I continued to look for a solution and discovered some errors/warnings in Xorg.0.log that leads me to believe that the problem is that the driver is unable to obtain EDID information from the Flat Screen, the messages were:

(WW) SIS(0): Could not find/read video BIOS
..
..
(--) SIS(0): Detected SiS307LV video bridge (Charter/UMC-1, ID 7; Rev 0xe1)
(--) SIS(0): No CRT1/VGA detected
(--) SIS(0): Detected LCD/Plasma panel (max. X 0 Y 0, pref. 0x0, RGB24)
..
..
(==) SIS(0): Min pixel clock is 10 MHz
(--) SIS(0): Max pixel clock is 340 MHz
..
..
(WW) SIS(0): Mode pool is empty
(EE) SIS(0): **************************************************
(EE) SIS(0): ERROR:
(EE) SIS(0): No valid modes found - check VertRefresh/HorizSync
(EE) SIS(0): END OF MESSAGE
(EE) SIS(0): **************************************************

Given, the messages, particularly the ones that said, failed to read BIOS & Detected LCD/Plasma panel but with 0x0 resolution. I ran the command ddcprobe and confirmed that Ubuntu is unable to read the EDID information from the monitor...

I spent the next few days trying to find a solution to reading EDID information....before deciding that I will have to resort to scanning the sis672 driver source code to get a better understanding of what's going on.....

Receiving my New ASUS X5DC laptop & Installing Ubuntu 9.10

2010-02-10T21:30:00.001Z

At 15:45 on 25 Jan, I placed an order at http://www.mobiles.co.uk for a new contract mobile phone for £30 per month, the deal was for Nokia 6303 phone on orange network and came with 1200 any-time minutes + 500MB Internet, not only that, it came with a FREE ASUS 15.6” HD Laptop!!!

By 1pm on the 26 Jan - I had received the phone & new laptop. Yes....of course I unwrapped the mobile and stuck it on charge but my interest wasn't on the phone, it was on the ASUS Laptop :)

I unwrapped the laptop, installed the battery, switched it on and booted Windows. The laptop came pre-installed with Windows 7 64-Bit Home Premium, after a little play I decided to install Ubuntu 9.10 – leaving Windows 7 in place, so I could flip between them until I decided if I wanted to migrate back to Windows after running Ubuntu for the couple of years on my old laptop...

I didn't want to mess with the partitions, so I opted to install Ubuntu using Wubi.

Wubi allows you to install ubuntu onto existing Windows partitions.

I downloaded that latest 64-bit Ubuntu 9.10 iso and burnt it to CD.

Rebooted Windows 7, logged in and started the Ubuntu Installation by inserting the disk and following the on-screen instructions. The Wubi installation completed and the laptop rebooted.

The laptop booted into the Ubuntu installation and everything was going great, at the end of the installation Ubuntu rebooted and that's when my problems began....

I selected ubuntu from the boot menu and was presented with rescue: grub> prompt. I rebooted Windows 7 and connected to the internet and immediately visited http://ubuntuforums.org. After searching the forum threads for a couple of minutes, I came across other users experiencing the same problems – but it wasn't long before I found a post that explained what the problem was....

It appears that there is a bug in Grub 2 that prevents files on an NTFS partition being read if the aren't on the first 4GBs of the disk and the solution is to download wubildr and save it “C:\” replacing the existing one. For anyone experiencing the same problem, you can download a new copy of Wubildr here

After installing wubildr. I was able to boot ubuntu for the first-time and proceeded to load X-Windows, the first thing that stuck me was how bad the screen looked. My next post will explain why....

Welcome to my blog

2010-02-09T22:51:00.000Z

Just a quick post to say welcome to my blog.

Over the coming days/weeks I will be post details of my experiences of installing & configuring Ubuntu 9.10 64-bit on a Asus X5DC Laptop.

The aim is to impart useful information about the hardware configuration and drivers required to build a fully functioning Laptop.