IslaNegra.net. Computers, Free Software...and me.: Running Debian GNU/Linux in the Asus F6V laptop.

Introduction.

In this report we'll analyze the full process of install Debian GNU/Linux in the Asus F6V laptop computer.

I hope this data can be useful to other laptop users, so this information has been submited to the following web pages:
tuxmobil.org and linux-on-laptops.com.

Hardware.

This is the summary of the hardware features of the Asus F6:

Type	Name
CPU	Intel Duo P7350 a 2 GHz, Chipset Centrino2 Montevina, Mobile Intel® PM45 Express
Graphic Card	ATI Mobility Radeon HD3470 con 256MB
Screen	13.3" WXGA Color-Shine, 1280×800, 61Hz
Hard Disk Drive	2.5" 9.5mm SATA, 250GB, 5400rpm
Optical Disk Drive	5.25" , 12.7mm DVD Super Multi
Ethernet	RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
Wireless	Intel® Wireless WiFi Link 5100 ABGN,
Sonido	Intel HDA, Alsa
Bluetooth	Built-in Bluetooth™ V2.1+EDR
Touchpad	Compatible Synaptics

Software.

Installing Debian Lenny.

The first thing it was to install Debian Lenny following the basic steps showed in the Debian Installation Guide.

Well, we have running the basic sytem, we are in the command prompt, with 100 GB assigned with LVM2 (Logical Volume Manager).

But we have a lot of problems to solve yet.

These are: The sound system, the ATI Radeon graphic card and the WIFI networking.

Very important problems moreover if we are talking about a laptop computer.

So I decided to upgrade my system to the unstable Debian version (Sid) and I tried to solve by hand all these problems.

Software.

Upgrading from Lenny to Sid.

We must follow these steps:

1.- Update and run pending apt-get changes.

# apt-get update && apt-get upgrade

2.- Upgrade from the Stable version "Lenny" to Testing “Squeeze”.
We have to edit the /etc/apt/sources.list file.


deb http://ftp.rediris.es/debian/ testing main non-free contrib
deb-src http://ftp.rediris.es/debian/ testing main non-free contrib
deb http://security.debian.org/ testing/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ testing/updates main contrib non-free

# apt-get dist-upgrade

3.- Upgrade from Testing "Squeeze" to Unstable "Sid".
We must run the same process, and edit /etc/apt/sources.list file


deb http://ftp.rediris.es/debian/ unstable main non-free contrib
deb-src http://ftp.rediris.es/debian/ unstable main non-free contrib
deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian/ unstable main non-free contrib
deb-src http://http.us.debian.org/debian/ unstable main non-free contrib

# apt-get dist-upgrade

Video.

The package xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd version 1.2.1-2 works well with the graphic card ATI HD3470 and ...XWindows runs at the end!.

sources.list

 deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ sid main non-free contrib
deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ sid main non-free contrib

debian-kernel.

If we want that the Intel 5100N WIFI card runs, it's necessary a kernel version >= 2.6.27.

In Debian standard the last version that we have available now is 2.6.26.

It's not enough!.

We need a more modern version, so we must include in our sources.list file:

deb http://kernel-archive.buildserver.net/debian-kernel/ trunk main

The kernel installed was: linux-image-2.6.28-1-686 2.6.28-2~snapshot.12850

# uname -a
Linux walle321 2.6.28-1-686 #1 SMP Thu Feb 19 02:24:16 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux

WIFI. iwlagn.

Now, with linux kernel support, it's easy run the kernel module iwlagn following the steps included in wiki-debian

Multimedia.

We must include the following entry in our sources.list file:

deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org/ sid main

Sound: Alsa.

It's necessary a updated and modern version of the alsa-base package like 1.0.19.dfsg-3. Alsa sound system works.

I list here my alsa-base file:

/etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base
options snd-usb-audio index=-2
options snd-usb-usx2y index=-2
options snd-usb-caiaq index=-2
options snd-cmipci mpu_port=0x330 fm_port=0x388
options snd-pcsp index=-2
options snd-hda-intel model=3stack-6ch-dig