This laptop is a rebrand of the
Compal
ACL10.
For other laptops, see Linux on
laptops. Another instance of this type with linux on it can be found
here
The brand Jewel and the model from Compal are no longer current (duh, five years old!).
I got the laptop mostly to use it as a tv-out video box and for normal desktop work on a desk which should normally be computer-free. In general Linux works fine at first glance, but it took some effort to get more of the hardware to work, since the chipset (i845MP) is not that well supported yet. The nVidia graphics works fine, but only after installing the proprietary driver from nVidia. Powercontrol is not supported yet (should probably change soon in the kernel 2.4.21, when it comes out) and I haven't managed (or tried very hard) to get the smartmedia slot operational. The IEEE1394 works, but I would not want to depend on this, since the plug is flaky.
The most annoying thing about the laptop is the very loud fan.
| Software | Version | Remarks |
|---|---|---|
| Kernel | 2.6.20 | I'm not sure, kubuntu kernel |
| pcmcia-cs | ? | PnP support on |
| alsa sound | ? | mandrake uses alsa |
| nVidia Driver | ? | I'd rather have an open source driver, but this works very well |
| Feature | Status | Remarks |
|---|---|---|
| Sound | OK | i810_audio, ac97_codec |
| USB 1.1 | OK | Just works (needed for mouse) |
| Video nVidia GeForce4 420 Go | OK | Needs proprietary driver, also TV-out (XF86Config-4) |
| Power Management | OK? | ACPI can show me battery status and AC adapter |
| PCMCIA slots | OK | just works |
| ATA UDMA | Maybe | Not tested, no more resource collision in recent kernels (2.4.21-preX) |
| IEEE 1394 Firewire | Bad hw | I've tried this with a panasonic mini-dv cam, it works, but the design of the plug is vulnerable to breaking and doesn't fit a normal 4pin connector. |
| PCtel modem | Untested | I've found a driver for this device, but I haven't tested it (I have broadband) |
| Smartmedia | No driver | Although the specs are available, no linux driver is |
I currently use Kubuntu 7.04 (feisty) on the laptop.
The reason I bought this particular laptop was that I did not want to get a windows license with the purchase. I tried to get a Dell, IBM, fujitsu-siemens, but all of them are under the control of microsoft's license contracts. I bought this laptop in 2002, but the brand is no longer available. This model appears to be exactly the same as the Compal ACL10, which is also no longer findable.
This will contain a list of hardware features and getting it supported on the laptop. I will focus on the parts that don't (yet) work perfectly, so this may look like a tough laptop to get going, it's actually not very hard. However there are a few bits that may hold off some people from buying this machine at this time (mainly ACPI and IDE UDMA support).
A thing you should note about this laptop is that it's quite free of legacy hardware support. That means that it doesn't take PS2 keyboards or mice, only USB. The powercontrol of the laptop is also completely incompatible with previous systems (see ACPI Section). It does have a few cool features like:
The output of lspci:
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 82845 845 (Brookdale) Chipset Host Bridge(rev 04) 00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82845 845 (Brookdale) Chipset AGP Bridge (rev 04) 00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801CA/CAM USB (Hub #1) (rev 02) 00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801CA/CAM USB (Hub #2) (rev 02) 00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801BAM/CAM PCI Bridge (rev 42) 00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82801CAM ISA Bridge (LPC) (rev 02) 00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82801CAM IDE U100 (rev 02) 00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corp. 82801CA/CAM SMBus (rev 02) 00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corp. 82801CA/CAM AC'97 Audio (rev 02) 00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corp. 82801CA/CAM AC'97 Modem (rev 02) 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV17 [GeForce4 420 Go] (rev a3) 02:00.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. IEEE 1394 Host Controller (rev 46) 02:01.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C (rev 10) 02:04.0 CardBus bridge: O2 Micro, Inc. OZ6933 Cardbus Controller (rev 01) 02:04.1 CardBus bridge: O2 Micro, Inc. OZ6933 Cardbus Controller (rev 01) 02:06.0 System peripheral: Toshiba America Info Systems: Unknown device 0804 (rev 02)
See cat /proc/pci, lspci -v, lspcidrake or lspci-vv for a more verbose output.
Simply works once you install the drivers from nVidia, but to get it to really sing, you need some configuring in the XF86Config-4 file...
When you are installing a linux distribution, don't expect too much and don't install something you feel should work, but doesn't. As long as you have some console or maybe even fb graphics, that's enough until you get the nVidia drivers
On this laptop, you will probably want to run a custom kernel, so better get the tarballs (.tar.gz) and read the relevant section in nVidia's documentation, it's very complete!
Of course, you'll want MPlayer to view all kinds of video formats
see this thread for some helpful hints in setting up tv-out and nvidia. I haven't tried this yet.
I seem to have some success in getting for example KDE to show the status of the battery/AC-adapter. The main thing is to turn off APM support completely in the kernel. I even noticed that when on batteries, it switched to powersafe policy and when on AC-adapter it switched to performance.
Your best bet is to try Andrew Grover's ACPI driver development code. This is really not terribly stable and doesn't work with KDE (3.0) battery meter.
Another interesting development is CPUfreq, which might be able to reduce the laptop's power consumption when it isn't that loaded or when it should be carefull with the amount of used power (battery powered mode). Note that I haven't tried this yet, because I mostly use the laptop at home and close to an AC power source.
Another subject is sleep/hibernation modes of the laptop. I have no idea whether this is supported at all in linux, nor a clue how to set it up if it is.
I posted a message to the linux kernel mailinglist once to find out more about the problems I was seeing with this laptop. One of them was a problem with device 00:1f.1 having resource collisions. This apparently results in the IDE UDMA support to be unavailbable. This will of course significantly impact disk performance until it is fixed.
There is currently no support for this hardware, but documentation is
available at:
http://www.toshiba.com/taec/components/Datasheet/TC6371AF--020122E_R1.8.pdf
and
http://216.239.53.100/search?q=cache:www.toshiba.com/taec/components/Datasheet/TC6371AF--020122E_R1.8.pdf
Also, a post archived at:
http://linux.toshiba-dme.co.jp/ML/tlinux-users/1700/1739.html
This is from the reply to the posting on linux-kernel mailinglist
It works, but the hardware connector is flaky by design. The connector pins are unsupported, so if you miss the openings in the cable connector, you can/will damage the connector in the laptop. When I managed to put it in correctly, it did work using kino and my recent panasonic mini-dv cam.
I don't think a recent linux will have a problem with this anymore
Apparently some versions of this laptop have a built-in wireless LAN option. I have a button which switches a LED on and off, but I don't have the wireless mini-PCI device Janne (see comments) found. For wireless lan I had to get myself a pcmcia card...