Debian GNU/Linux on ASUS A3N
Introduction: why Debian GNU/Linux?
First, what is Debian?
Debian is a free operating system (OS) for your computer. An operating system is the set of basic programs and utilities that make your computer run. Debian uses the Linux kernel (the core of an operating system), but most of the basic OS tools come from the GNU project; hence the name GNU/Linux.
Debian GNU/Linux provides more than a pure OS: it comes with over 18733 packages, precompiled software bundled up in a nice format for easy installation on your machine.
−http://www.debian.org
- Debian keeps up a social contract according to which:
- Debian will remain 100% free, its development will follow the Debian Free Software Guidelines and it will involve the whole community. Nonetheless Debian will continue supporting also non-free works.
- The Debian development will be guided by two priorities: users and Free Software.
- Debian development community will not hide problems.
therefore, in my opinion, Debian is an ethically-correct distribution.
- Debian, since 1993, has gathered a lot of experience, which is useful in its activity.
- Debian is stable.
- Debian supports a lot of hardware architectures.
- Debian repositories can count over 18733 available packages.
- Debian is available in three different flavours (stable, testing, unstable) depending on user's preferred stability to update ratio. This proves that for Debian the user should be the centre of its operating system and the computer.
The computer is not an intelligent machine that helps stupid people, on the contrary it is a stupid machine which works only into intelligent people's hands.
−Umberto Eco
- Debian is also a huge community of volunteers, which contributes to its improvement.
- Finding help on the web is simple. Actually Debian is rather widespread (also because of the most important Debian-based distribution, Ubuntu) and a lot of documentation is available.
- Debian is the best way to learn how to use the GNU/Linux operating system, at any level, from beginner to advanced user.
Specifications
cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor : 0 vendor_id : GenuineIntel cpu family : 6 model : 13 model name : Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1.50GHz stepping : 8 cpu MHz : 1500.000 cache size : 2048 KB fdiv_bug : no hlt_bug : no f00f_bug : no coma_bug : no fpu : yes fpu_exception : yes cpuid level : 2 wp : yes flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss tm pbe up est tm2 bogomips : 3002.13 clflush size : 64
lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor to I/O Controller (rev 02) 00:00.1 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor to I/O Controller (rev 02) 00:00.3 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor to I/O Controller (rev 02) 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device (rev 02) 00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device (rev 02) 00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03) 00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 03) 00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 03) 00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 03) 00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev 83) 00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 03) 00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) IDE Controller (rev 03) 00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03) 00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 03) 01:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10) 01:04.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection (rev 05) 01:05.0 CardBus bridge: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c476 II (rev ac) 01:05.1 CardBus bridge: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c476 II (rev ac) 01:05.2 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C552 IEEE 1394 Controller (rev 04)
lsmod?
free -m
total used free shared buffers cached Mem: 495 341 154 0 12 112 -/+ buffers/cache: 216 279 Swap: 251 0 251
Installation
My favourite Debian GNU/Linux version is the testing one, codenamed “Lenny”.
I downloaded a businesscard daily CD image (20 to 50MB), which contains Debian installer's latest version. The daily netinst and businesscard CD images for i386 architecture can be found here: http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/daily-builds/daily/arch-latest/i386/iso-cd/.
Check in the machine BIOS' settings (by pressing F2 key at startup) if the optical drive is the default boot device. If everything is ok, the CD should be read before Windows boots, when the computer is powered on.
At the beginning, when Debian CD requires user input to proceed with the installer, you can type install for the text-based installer, installgui for the graphical version of the installer, expert for expert-mode installation or expertgui for expert-mode plus graphical installer. I chose installgui.
The laptop comes with Windows preinstalled and the following partition table:
| Partition name | Filesystem | Size | Free space | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RECOVERY | FAT32 | 1.86GB | 519MB (27%) | hidden partition |
| C: | NTFS | 32.46GB | 28.89GB (89%) | system partition |
| D: | NTFS | 21.57GB | 21.50GB (99%) |
Before installing Debian, I reinstalled the original operating system on a 50GB NTFS partition and I resized the RECOVERY partition. Therefore I have a dual-boot system, that allows to switch from Windows to Debian GNU/Linux. Although Debian requires at least 5GB of free disk space in order to install a complete desktop environment, my Linux ext3 partition (hda3) is only 4,2GB large. As you can see from the output below, I created a 248MB swap partition, too.
fdisk -l /dev/hda
Disk /dev/hda: 60.0 GB, 60011642880 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7296 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/hda1 1 192 1542208+ 1b Hidden W95 FAT32 /dev/hda2 * 193 6719 52428127+ 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/hda3 6720 7264 4377712+ 83 Linux /dev/hda4 7265 7296 257040 82 Linux swap / Solaris
df -h
Filesystem Size Used Free Use% Mounted on /dev/hda3 4,2G 2,8G 1,2G 71% / tmpfs 248M 0 248M 0% /lib/init/rw udev 10M 112K 9,9M 2% /dev tmpfs 248M 0 248M 0% /dev/shm /dev/hda2 50G 45G 5,9G 89% /mnt/hda2
You can choose which software to install. In the software selection step my choices were the following:
√ Desktop environment − Web server − Print server − DNS server − File server − Mail server − SQL database √ Laptop √ Standard system
The installer looks for an active ethernet connection, in order to download the selected package collections from the Debian mirror you chose. In this case the ethernet device works out of the box.
What does work
| Processor and cache memory | Intel Pentium M 715A, 1.50GHz, 400MHz FSB, 2MB L2 cache | CPU frequency scaling works out of the box. You can verify it by running CPU frequency scaling monitor applet. While acpid was already installed, the powersaved package needed to be added. |
|---|---|---|
| Chipset | Intel 855GM + ICH4-M | |
| Main memory | 512MB DDR 266MHz, 2 x SO-DIMM socket, expandable to 1GB | |
| Display | 15.0” XGA active matrix color TFT LCD | The display supports 1024×768, 800×600, 640×480 screen resolutions. If lower resolution modes are not available, you should appropriately edit the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file, or run dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg in a terminal. |
| Video graphics and memory | embedded Intel 855GM VGA, 64MB shared memory | Refer to Video section for 3D activation. |
| Hard drive | 60GB 4200rpm IDE UltraATA/100, 2.5” (6.35 x 0.95cm, W x H) | |
| Optical drive | DVD-Dual (DVD-R/RW: 4x/2x, DVD+R/RW: 4x/2.4x, DVD: 8x, CD-R/RW: 24x/10x, CD: 24x) | CD/DVD burning works out of the box. |
| Modem/fax | integrated 56K V.90 AC 97 S/W | Test pending. |
| LAN | integrated PCI 10/100BASE-TX | Works out of the box. |
| WLAN | IEEE 802.11b/g Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG, 54.0Mbps | Detailed configuration in Wireless section. |
| LED status indicator | Power-on/suspend Battery charging/full/low Storage device access Capital/scroll/number lock E-mail in box Wireless indicator | See Hotkeys and LEDs section. |
| Ports | 1 x type II PCMCIA slot 1 x SD/MMC/MS/MS PRO card reader 1 x IrDA 1 x IEEE 1394 port 1 x headphone-out jack 1 x microphone-in jack 1 x line-in jack 1 x RJ45 LAN jack 1 x RJ11 modem jack 4 x USB 2.0 ports 1 x EPP/ECP parallel port (D-sub 25-pin) 1 x VGA port (D-sub 15-pin) | Test pending. |
| Instant launch hotkeys | Power4 Gear+ Internet Touchpad lock | Have a look at Hotkeys and LEDs section. |
| Function keys | Fn+F1 suspend switch Fn+F2 wireless switch Fn+F5 brightness down Fn+F6 brightness up Fn+F7 LCD on/off Fn+F8 LCD/CRT display switch Fn+F10 volume on/mute Fn+F11 volume down Fn+F12 volume up Fn+Ins number lock on/off Fn+Del scroll lock on/off | Number lock, scroll lock, display on/off and brightness keys work out of the box, even without asus-laptop module. For further information go to Hotkeys and LEDs section. |
| Audio | AC 97 S/W with 3D effect and full-duplex SoundBlaster Pro Compatible Built-in stereo speakers (1W) Built-in microphone | Works out of the box with alsa-base and alsa-utils packages. |
| CD player keys | More information in Hotkeys and LEDs section. | |
| Keyboard | QWERTY 89 keys | |
| Touchpad | Synaptic | Works out of the box. For touchpad lock button, see Hotkeys and LEDs section. |
| Battery pack | A42-A3, Li-Ion, 14.8V, 4400mAh Charging time: 4h/2.5h (system on/off) to 95% | After one year, battery life is still 3-3½ hours. |
| AC adapter | Input: 100-240V AC, 1.5A, 50-60Hz Output: 19V CC, 3.42A Universal | |
| Size and weight | 32.8 x 28.8 x 2.7cm (W x D x H), 2.75kg |
Configuration
Video
3D support
3D support can be activated through libgl1-mesa-dri installation.
You can test if 3D support is enabled by running glxgears in a shell.
AIGLX + Compiz
This howto works great: Debian AIGLX + Compiz HOWTO
Wireless
The Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG device can connect to a 802.11b/g wireless network with WEP/WPA security.
Luckily free drivers are available for this network device.
This configuration depends on network-manager, network-manager-gnome, gnome-keyring and gnome-keyring-manager packages in a GNOME environment.
wireless-tools and wpasupplicant packages must be installed. If not, type in a shell:
apt-get install wireless-tools wpasupplicant
You have to download the latest firmware files (v3.0) from the following website: http://ipw2200.sourceforge.net/firmware.php
Then extract them in /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware (that's my case) or /lib/firmware.
Check that network-manager applet is running, otherwise it must be started:
nm-applet --sm-disable
Now the ipw2200 module should be restarted, in order to refresh the wireless device recognition:
rmmod ipw2200 && modprobe ipw2200
The network applet should detect any wireless network and prompt for the security settings and password, which will be stored by gnome-keyring.
Reference: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=263136
