Arch Linux

BadPotato

Member

Registered: 2008-08-28

Posts: 4

Re: Arch on Asus EEE 901

does anyone success to use OSS on the zeneee-git kernel ??

Actually on my eeepc 901 the sound work correctly with the udev, but arch said: unable to find any sound device, on boot. Then i'm unable to do any alsaconf and then modules are'nt correctly loaded

what's the problem, if the sound still work? you may said... So arch cant play sound from youtube on firefox and another video on vlc, in same time (example)... any "sound mix" can be a problem, etc...

the actual zeneee kernel, is very great!! please continue

ps: sorry for my poor english (an another one )

ungraven

Member

Registered: 2008-10-23

Posts: 6

Re: Arch on Asus EEE 901

I am having some cooky problems with my eee 901 and Arch.

I basically followed the Wiki and this thread and had my 901 set-up beautifully. Sure I never got Wicd working consistently, but using netcfg has sufficed.
Basically, my set-up is zen-eee kernel, lxde, openbox and slim.

This all happened after I upgraded to xorg 7.4. There may have been other updates around the same time or so that caused the problems but I have a feeling it's related to xorg.
I followed the guides for xorg 7.4, but in my 3+ years using linux, and mainly gentoo, I've never come across anything so weird.

Now to the problem:

I boot to slim login screen all fine. Sometimes my trackpad works, sometimes not, but recently it hasn't worked at all.
I log in, and because I have no trackpad I'll go Alt-F2 to launch the "run" box. However instead of doing that like it should it switches to virtual terminal 2.
If I Alt-F7 back to X and try to alt-tab, it'll alt tab between openbox, lxde and something else I can't remember.
The hardest thing about this problem is reproducing anything as you'll see below.
Sometimes when I Alt-F7 to go back to X, everything will work as it should, except for the trackpad and capslock issues, but at least further pressing of Alt-F2 etc will actually open the "run" box as it should.
The other major problem is typing.
I'll be typing a word and all of a sudden it's like caps lock is on. Hitting the caps-lock key does nothing at all. So I have to type everything holding down shift, except non-alphabet chars. And just as suddenly seconds or hours later it'll just revert mid-word to how it should behave.

After I upgraded to xorg 7.4, other than the swedish locale I forgot to change from the .fdi file on the wiki and this thread, everything worked fine, but since then it has just randomly broken so many times I am at a complete loss as to what to do.
I did change it to UTF-8 in the .fdi files, but as I said, it did work correctly for a time so I don't think that is the problem.

Here are my xorg.conf, and .fdi files:

/etc/X11/xorg.conf

Section "ServerLayout"
        Identifier      "ArchLinux"
        Screen          "Screen0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
        Identifier      "Device0"
        Driver          "intel"
        Option          "XAANoOffScreenPixmaps" "true"
        Option          "AccelMethod"           "XAA"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
        Identifier      "Screen0"
        Device          "Device0"
EndSection

/etc/hal/fdi/policy/10-keymaap.fdi

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<deviceinfo version="0.2">
  <device>
    <match key="info.capabilities" contains="input.keymap">
      <append key="info.callouts.add" type="strlist">hal-setup-keymap</append>
    </match>

    <match key="info.capabilities" contains="input.keys">
      <merge key="input.xkb.rules" type="string">base</merge>

      <merge key="input.xkb.model" type="string">keyboard</merge>
      <match key="/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/computer:system.kernel.name" string="Linux">
        <merge key="input.xkb.model" type="string">evdev</merge>
      </match>

      <merge key="input.xkb.layout" type="string">us</merge>
      <merge key="input.xkb.variant" type="string" />
      <merge key="input.xkb.options" type="string">ctrl:nocaps</merge>
    </match>
  </device>
</deviceinfo>

/etc/hal/fdi/policy/9-x11-elantech.fdi

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<deviceinfo version="0.2">
  <device>
    <match key="info.capabilities" contains="input.touchpad">
      <match key="info.product" contains="Elantech Touchpad">
        <merge key="input.x11_driver" type="string">synaptics</merge>
        <merge key="input.x11_options.SHMConfig" type="string">on</merge>
        <merge key="input.x11_options.MaxSpeed" type="string">1.08</merge>
        <merge key="input.x11_options.MinSpeed" type="string">0.75</merge>
        <merge key="input.x11_options.Emulate3Buttons" type="string">on</merge>
        <merge key="input.x11_options.VertTwoFingerScroll" type="string">1</merge>
        <merge key="input.x11_options.HorizTwoFingerScroll" type="string">1</merge>
        <merge key="input.x11_options.TapButton1" type="string">1</merge>
        <merge key="input.x11_options.TapButton2" type="string">2</merge>
        <merge key="input.x11_options.TapButton3" type="string">3</merge>
        <merge key="input.x11_options.LockedDrags" type="string">11</merge>
      </match>
    </match>
  </device>
</deviceinfo>

So, to summarize:
No working trackpad. Absolutely nothing about it works.
Keyboard suddenly jumps between having capslock on and off with capslock key having no effect.
Hitting Alt-F2 usually takes you to a virtual terminal instead of "run" box.

The capslock issue still affects the virtual terminal.
I'm running a fully up-to-date non-testing/unstable Arch, pretty much how the 901 Wiki says to do things.

I didn't want to spam with useless logs etc, but I can post any anyone asks for.
And I have completely re-installed the lxde virtual package.

***Edit***
Sometimes it just switches for no apparent reason between opening the "run" box, or switching to virt terminal when pressing Alt-F2. E.g., I boot up computer, log into slim, no mouse so I alt-f2. It'll go to virtual terminal and I'll Alt-F7 back to lxde. Now alt-F2 will open "run". I launch sakura, and afk.
I come back 10 minutes later. I go to type in sakura but all the keys do weird things. I'm only minimally familiar with vi keyboard shortcuts but it feels like it's using those or some other programs'. Like hitting "i" or something will close the sakura window. All the keys seem to do not what they're supposed to.

And this is my xinitrc file:

export LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8
export LANGUAGE=en_US.UTF-8
export LANG=en_US.UTF-8

#xscreensaver -no-splash &
(sleep 3 && conky) &
#vncserver &
asusosd &
#(sleep 3 && conky) &
exec startlxde
#exec awesome

Last edited by ungraven (2009-01-02 05:27:38)

cimh

Member

Registered: 2009-01-01

Posts: 3

Re: Arch on Asus EEE 901

Evening all. First post to the Arch community. I have been running a thread over on eeeuser about boot times. http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=53719

On my small sample only 3 distros have managed sub 30s times measured from switch on to usable desktop these are: Arch, debian (sid&lenny) and Xandros. No one so far has reported a sub 30s boot with a 901. This might just be the small sample or perhaps 701 are faster to boot?

I am currently running ubuntu with lxde and getting a boot time of 40s but I have the arch image on a usb and I am tempted to try it.

I know lots of people measure boot times in different ways but we found switch on to desktop the most practically valid I'd be interested in your results with Arch on the 901 also what difference does the zen kernel make.

for purposes of comparison we need to know what display managers you are using and any major tweaks.

CIMH
901 eeebuntu previously xandros, debian lenny, ubuntu 8.04, puppy 4.1.1, Crunchbang.
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key= … soS7P4S6Ow

big_gie

Member

Registered: 2005-01-19

Posts: 637

Re: Arch on Asus EEE 901

Hi cimh, I had a 901 a month ago with Arch on it and a custom kernel (same thing as Arch's kernel, but needed modules are compiled in the kernel). It booted really fast, I think under 30s. I'm running almost nothing on it. I removed almost everything from LXDE (the desktop, panels, etc.), and run compiz instead of openbox and cairo-dock.

I think it was booting under 30s. I can't proove it though. I had to return it because of a faulty battery. Now I have the 1000 which I cloned the 901 installation. I'll install bootchart or something similar to see how fast it boot!

cimh

Member

Registered: 2009-01-01

Posts: 3

Re: Arch on Asus EEE 901

Hi Big_gie  Times on 1000 are also useful it is pretty much the same hware. I prefer the switch on to desktop time rather than the bootchart as that doesnt start till the bios is sorted so it doesnt count the same thing. So does compiz manage windows? I thought openbox was as fast as they get - I always associate compiz with eye candy but I have a lot to learn.

cimh
901

qdiesel

Member

Registered: 2008-05-19

Posts: 61

Re: Arch on Asus EEE 901

here is my bootchart. It doesn't show full kdemod3 loading time though.

Shodan

Member

From: Finland

Registered: 2008-08-25

Posts: 30

Re: Arch on Asus EEE 901

From powerbutton press until usable Openbox desktop: 22 seconds
Using zen-kernel and boot-booster partition.

edit: looks like it was 23 seconds after all
bootchart image: http://e.imagehost.org/0227/eee-bootchart.png

Last edited by Shodan (2009-01-03 10:47:06)

cimh

Member

Registered: 2009-01-01

Posts: 3

Re: Arch on Asus EEE 901

From powerbutton press until usable Openbox desktop: 22 seconds.

wow I'm impressed that disproves my theory that 901s are slower than 700s - any idea about what gains zen gave you?

cimh

Robertek

Member

From: Czech Republic

Registered: 2007-06-02

Posts: 165

Website

Re: Arch on Asus EEE 901

Hi, I got some questions about zeneee 2.6.28.

Im working on that now, but I will not post it untill it is stable enough. I suggest for everyone that dont want to brake things up, to stay with 27.
Later I will add the package to repo but dont update the repo (to leave it here only for testing)

1) Im switching to eeepc-laptop and thus also I had updated the acpi-eee901.
2) Elantech doesnt work ok right now, I will have to find some updated patch.
3) There is no eee module for ..28, so Im porting/merging it to eeepc-laptop.
4) I have reworked the kernelconfig from stock arch, and removed unnecessary stuff and tweak it more to intel atom. So the kernel will be little bit bigger, but I hope we will replace many more modules that are unusable on eee.

Ashren

Member

From: Denmark

Registered: 2007-06-13

Posts: 1,229

Website

Re: Arch on Asus EEE 901

Thanks for the update Robertek. Looking forward to the 2.6.28 package. Your effort is much appreciated.

---

Use LVM2!

XMobar/XMonad - Click Workspaces :: Blog about Linux (mostly) :: Script for repetitive scrotting :: ISC DHCP Git Hooks

Robertek

Member

From: Czech Republic

Registered: 2007-06-02

Posts: 165

Website

Re: Arch on Asus EEE 901

So I have ported the eee module, you can test this package.

http://robertek.brevnov.net/files/linux … pkg.tar.gz

Note that I have used mainly the stock arch config so you need to update your mkinitcpio-zeneee.conf to have pata and filesystems (and autodetect suggested)

Please test and try to make elantech work.

acpi will be packed later.

kugar

Member

Registered: 2008-12-14

Posts: 5

Re: Arch on Asus EEE 901

I'm using 2.6.27-zen3eee but I noticed that there are no ipv6 modules. Could it be possible to include that in future packages ?

lovechii

Member

Registered: 2008-12-26

Posts: 4

Re: Arch on Asus EEE 901

Thanks Robertek

tehabe

Member

Registered: 2008-10-14

Posts: 82

Re: Arch on Asus EEE 901

2) Elantech doesnt work ok right now, I will have to find some updated patch.

At first it didn't work with X. But when I changed the HAL fdi file from "input.touchpad" to "input.mouse" it worked again.

3) There is no eee module for ..28, so Im porting/merging it to eeepc-laptop.

Why do you use the eee module, isn't there a newer one available with better hardware support?

4) I have reworked the kernelconfig from stock arch, and removed unnecessary stuff and tweak it more to intel atom. So the kernel will be little bit bigger, but I hope we will replace many more modules that are unusable on eee.

Do you still use the external atl1e module? And what about the problem I had with an external DVD drive and those symlinks in /dev. Any ideas about that? Can anybody even reproduce this behavior? Those damn symlinks are the reason why I'm currently using the stock kernel.

Well, and because I wanted to use ext4. :-)

Lazer

Banned

Registered: 2007-08-02

Posts: 111

Re: Arch on Asus EEE 901

I have an external DVD drive and it's working just fine (but I did not try burning a disc yet, only reading). Can you explain yout problem?

tehabe

Member

Registered: 2008-10-14

Posts: 82

Re: Arch on Asus EEE 901

I have an external DVD drive and it's working just fine (but I did not try burning a disc yet, only reading). Can you explain yout problem?

I use the udev 135 from testing, since then it doesn't work with the zenee kernel.

Mu

Member

Registered: 2009-01-07

Posts: 3

Re: Arch on Asus EEE 901

I'm using udev-135-1 from core, and my external DVD works fine (read/write CD/DVD), but only when I use device /dev/sr0, not /dev/dvd or /dev/cdrom. Udev didn't associate my external DVD with /dev/cdrom or /dev/dvd. Maybe it's better to change some udev rules, but I just re-configure mplayer, gxine and grafburn - it's enough for me.

tehabe

Member

Registered: 2008-10-14

Posts: 82

Re: Arch on Asus EEE 901

I'm using udev-135-1 from core, and my external DVD works fine (read/write CD/DVD), but only when I use device /dev/sr0, not /dev/dvd or /dev/cdrom. Udev didn't associate my external DVD with /dev/cdrom or /dev/dvd. Maybe it's better to change some udev rules, but I just re-configure mplayer, gxine and grafburn - it's enough for me.

Yes, that is the problem. The symlink of /dev/dvd etc. pp leads to /dev/cd/dvd-2... and those links are broken. With the stock kernel it works perfectly, with the zen kernel it doesn't.

mentalo

Member

Registered: 2009-01-07

Posts: 4

Re: Arch on Asus EEE 901

Hello,

i haven't read the whole thread because it is sooooo long. But the search didn't gave me any results.
I want to use Roberteks zeneee-kernel, but i have an lvm and encrypted root on my 901

60mb /boot
rest lvm with 1 encrypted root-partition over whole drive

it boots without problems with standard kernel. But with zeneee I get directly after grub:
Error 13: Invalid or unsupported executable format.

Can support for this be added to the kernel or do I just have to change my configs?

Thanks, mentalo

D-Locked

Member

Registered: 2008-08-22

Posts: 33

Re: Arch on Asus EEE 901

Hello,

i haven't read the whole thread because it is sooooo long. But the search didn't gave me any results.
I want to use Roberteks zeneee-kernel, but i have an lvm and encrypted root on my 901

60mb /boot
rest lvm with 1 encrypted root-partition over whole drive

it boots without problems with standard kernel. But with zeneee I get directly after grub:
Error 13: Invalid or unsupported executable format.

Can support for this be added to the kernel or do I just have to change my configs?

Thanks, mentalo

The zen-eee901.install file in the kernel's package contains the following lines :

  echo ">>> MKINITCPIO SETUP"
  echo ">>> ----------------"
  echo ">>> If you use LVM2, Encrypted root or software RAID,"
  echo ">>> Ensure you enable support in /etc/mkinitcpio.conf ."
  echo ">>> More information about mkinitcpio setup can be found here:"
  echo ">>> http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Mkinitcpio"

So you probably need to enable the appropriate hooks in /etc/mkinitcpio-zeneee.conf then rebuild the kernel with :

mkinitcpio -c /etc/mkinitcpio-zeneee.conf -k 2.6.27-zen3eee -g /boot/zeneee.img

Be sure to read http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Mkinitcpio

mentalo

Member

Registered: 2009-01-07

Posts: 4

Re: Arch on Asus EEE 901

yes, thank you, you were right.

but now a new problem came up. when i want to enter my root-pw, it fails and i just get the following message:

device-mapper: table: 254:2 crypt: Error initializing ESSIV hash
device-mapper: ioctl: error adding target to table
device-mapper: ioctl: device doesn't appear to be in the dev hash table.

i had encrypted the device with "--cipher aes-cbc-essiv:sha256 --key-size 256"

any idea how can i solve the problem with the essiv-hash?

EDIT: used kernel is zen-eee901-4G package
i googled a bit around, and it seems that there is an kernel patch needed. but i dont really get the point, what to do...

Last edited by mentalo (2009-01-07 18:41:22)

Mu

Member

Registered: 2009-01-07

Posts: 3

Re: Arch on Asus EEE 901

Yes, that is the problem. The symlink of /dev/dvd etc. pp leads to /dev/cd/dvd-2... and those links are broken. With the stock kernel it works perfectly, with the zen kernel it doesn't.

Is it critical important for you? Why? Which programs can't work without those symlinks?

tehabe

Member

Registered: 2008-10-14

Posts: 82

Re: Arch on Asus EEE 901

Yes, that is the problem. The symlink of /dev/dvd etc. pp leads to /dev/cd/dvd-2... and those links are broken. With the stock kernel it works perfectly, with the zen kernel it doesn't.

Is it critical important for you? Why? Which programs can't work without those symlinks?

That is not the point, of course I can enter my house via the backdoor but I don't want to. I want to fix my frontdoor especially for guests. Who maybe only can enter the backdoor when they get a detailed map to it.

fluppet

Member

Registered: 2007-12-23

Posts: 11

Re: Arch on Asus EEE 901

has anyone attemted to use the new rt2x00 drivers yet?

big_gie

Member

Registered: 2005-01-19

Posts: 637

Re: Arch on Asus EEE 901

has anyone attemted to use the new rt2x00 drivers yet?

Not yet. It does not seems ready enough. I'm following the thread though: http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com/phpBB/vi … f=5&t=4200