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Installing Debian Linux Testing (Jessie) on MSI GS60

Models covered
MSI GS60

Sub-model options : MSI GS60 Ghost Pro-066
- Intel Core i7 4710HQ (2.50GHz) - Video card: NVIDIA ?GeForce GTX 970M 6GB
- Screen size: 15.6" 1920x1080
- Wireless card: Killer N1525 Combo (2 x 2 ac)
- Disk and Ram size, optical device: 16GB Memory 1TB HDD 256 GB (128 GB M.2SATA x 2 RAID 0) SSD
- Other options, like fingerprint reader, bluetooth...

Overall Status

Core Components

[ATTACH]

Boot Standard Kernel:

{OK}

LAN network card:

{OK} in Jessie

Detect CD/DVD:

[-]

Detect hard drives:

{i}

Extra Features

CPU Frequency Scaling

[?]

Hibernation

[?]

Sleep / Suspend

[?]

Xorg

[?]

- OpenGL

[?]

- Resize-and-Rotate(randr)

[?]

Switch to External Screen

[?]

Mouse

- Built-in (Trackpoint)

[-]

- Built-in (Touchpad)

[?]

Modem

[-]

Wireless/Wifi

{X}

Keyboard's Hotkeys

[?]

Legend :
{OK} = OK ; {X} Unsupported(No Driver) ; /!\ = Error (Couldn't get it working); [?] Unknown, Not Test ; [-] Not-applicable
{i} = Configuration Required; X-( = Only works with a non-free driver and or firmware

Important Notes

Special instructions for PXE

I used Debian netboot and PXE to run the installer as the laptop doesn't have a CD drive, and I don't have any external USB drives.

You have turn off secure boot in the BIOS. Otherwise the PXE loader will complain about that the boot image is not signed: "Invalid signature detected check secure boot policy in setup". The only keys it recognizes are from Microsoft.

Also, the default image for Debian netboot only works on older BIOSes and isn't right format for new UEFI systems. So, replace pxelinux.0 with the AMD 64 efi image: debian-installer/amd64/bootnetx64.efi

I used an Ubuntu system running tftpd-hpa to serve the boot image, and a router running DD-WRT to configure dhcp for PXE. The rest of the netboot install worked according to the documentation.

SSD Setup

The laptop has two SSDs and comes with RAID0 set up in the BIOS so they appear as one drive. However, grub doesn't support booting a RAID0 device, according to some posts I found. I was able to mount the disks and configure the partitions etc. from the installer, but grub would refuse to install with an error like, "disk mduuidxxxxxxxx not found". Eventually, I just gave up and deleted the RAID array in the BIOS.

Ethernet

The network card driver isn't included in the Debian stable installer, however the driver in testing works fine during install.

Configuration

Display

Audio

Mouse

Power Management

WiFi

Modem


System Summary

lspci

00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor DRAM Controller [8086:0c04] (rev 06)
00:01.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor PCI Express x16 Controller [8086:0c01] (rev 06)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation 4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:0416] (rev 06)
00:03.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor HD Audio Controller [8086:0c0c] (rev 06)
00:14.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family USB xHCI [8086:8c31] (rev 05)
00:16.0 Communication controller [0780]: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1 [8086:8c3a] (rev 04)
00:1a.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family USB EHCI #2 [8086:8c2d] (rev 05)
00:1b.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset High Definition Audio Controller [8086:8c20] (rev 05)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #1 [8086:8c10] (rev d5)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #3 [8086:8c14] (rev d5)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #4 [8086:8c16] (rev d5)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #5 [8086:8c18] (rev d5)
00:1d.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family USB EHCI #1 [8086:8c26] (rev 05)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation HM87 Express LPC Controller [8086:8c4b] (rev 05)
00:1f.2 RAID bus controller [0104]: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile SATA Controller [RAID mode] [8086:282a] (rev 05)
00:1f.3 SMBus [0c05]: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller [8086:8c22] (rev 05)
01:00.0 3D controller [0302]: NVIDIA Corporation Device [10de:13d8] (rev a1)
04:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Qualcomm Atheros Killer E220x Gigabit Ethernet Controller [1969:e091] (rev 13)
05:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Qualcomm Atheros Device [168c:003e] (rev 20)

lsusb

lsusb -v | grep -E '\<(Bus|iProduct|bDeviceClass|bDeviceProtocol)' 2>/dev/null

Bus 004 Device 005: ID 1770:ff00  
  bDeviceClass            0 (Defined at Interface level)
  bDeviceProtocol         0 
  iProduct                1 MSI EPF USB
      (Bus Powered)
  (Bus Powered)
Bus 004 Device 002: ID 8087:8000 Intel Corp. 
  bDeviceClass            9 Hub
  bDeviceProtocol         1 Single TT
  iProduct                0 
  bDeviceClass            9 Hub
  bDeviceProtocol         0 Full speed (or root) hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
  bDeviceClass            9 Hub
  bDeviceProtocol         0 Full speed (or root) hub
  iProduct                2 EHCI Host Controller
Bus 003 Device 003: ID 0cf3:3004 Atheros Communications, Inc. 
  bDeviceClass          224 Wireless
  bDeviceProtocol         1 Bluetooth
  iProduct                0 
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 8087:8008 Intel Corp. 
  bDeviceClass            9 Hub
  bDeviceProtocol         1 Single TT
  iProduct                0 
  bDeviceClass            9 Hub
  bDeviceProtocol         0 Full speed (or root) hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
  bDeviceClass            9 Hub
  bDeviceProtocol         0 Full speed (or root) hub
  iProduct                2 EHCI Host Controller
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
  bDeviceClass            9 Hub
  bDeviceProtocol         3 
  iProduct                2 xHCI Host Controller
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 046d:c05a Logitech, Inc. M90/M100 Optical Mouse
  bDeviceClass            0 (Defined at Interface level)
  bDeviceProtocol         0 
  iProduct                2 USB Optical Mouse
      (Bus Powered)
  (Bus Powered)
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
  bDeviceClass            9 Hub
  bDeviceProtocol         1 Single TT
  iProduct                2 xHCI Host Controller

USB Host controllers entries (without OHCI, UHCI, EHCI) are removed too.

Resources

Attachments

Some configuration files and sample outputs.

Credits

Sarah Fortune (me@sjf.io)


CategoryLaptopComputer