DebianOn is an effort to document how to install, configure and use Debian on some specific hardware. Therefore potential buyers would know if that hardware is supported and owners would know how get the best out of that hardware. The purpose is not to duplicate the Debian Official Documentation, but to document how to install Debian on some specific hardware. If you need help to get Debian running on your hardware, please have a look at our user support channels where you may find specific channels (mailing list, IRC channel) dedicated to certain types of hardware. |
Models covered
MSI M635
Sub-models (Targa Traveller 826T is a European rebrand of this model) :
- Video card: ATI Mobility Radeon X700 (128MB RAM) with external VGA/S-Video connect
- Screen size: 15.4" wide LCD (Native resolution 1280x800 WXGA
- Sound: Onboard ATI IXP SB400 AC'97 controller
- Ethernet: Onboard Realtek RTL8139 100Mbps NIC
- Wireless: Onboard Inprocomm IPN 2220
- 80GB PATA HD, 1GB PC3200 RAM, 16xDVD-RW
- Modem: ATI SBS400 chipset modem
- Onboard Flash card reader, PCMCIA card slot, Bluetooth adapter
Overall Status
Core Components |
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Boot Standard Kernel: |
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LAN network card: |
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Detect CD/DVD: |
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Detect hard drives: |
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Extra Features |
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CPU Frequency Scaling |
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Hibernation |
[?] |
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Sleep / Suspend |
[?] |
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Xorg |
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- OpenGL |
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- Resize-and-Rotate(randr) |
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Switch to External Screen |
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Mouse |
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- Built-in (Trackpoint) |
[-] |
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- Built-in (Touchpad) |
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Modem |
[?] |
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Wireless/Wifi |
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Keyboard's Hotkeys |
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PCMCIA Card slot |
[?] |
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IEEE 1394 |
[?] |
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Bluetooth |
[?] |
Legend :
= OK ; Unsupported(No Driver) ; = Error (Couldn't get it working); [?] Unknown, Not Test ; [-] Not-applicable
= Configuration Required; = Only works with a non-free driver and or firmware
Important Note
Initial install was on a model using BIOS version 2.81 and both Lenny and a Windows Vista install were hard-locking whenever network access was attempted over PCI (Ethernet or wireless) on both i386 and x86_64. This did not occur with 2.4 kernels and earlier Windows versions. Reverting to version 2.70 BIOS resolved these issues, but causes a 30 second delay on POST if USB external hubs/storage devices are attached. For Targa-branded machines this BIOS version is not available via Targa support, but the MSI version can be successfully flashed onto Targa-branded machines at your own risk. For Targa models sold in Germany in 2005 (model name Traveller 826WS, serial no. starting with C27), the BIOS version v5.50 for Targa Traveller 826W also remedies the network problem.
Configuration
Display
- The ATI Mobility Radeon X700 is correctly detected and the laptop panel's native resolution of 1280x800 used by default. If you have an external monitor connected to the VGA port it will sometimes be detected as the default display and the laptop panel will remain off. It is best to disconnect any external displays during installation and initial configuration to avoid this.
The default free drivers work well, but ATI's fglrx drivers from the /non-free repository seem to provide better 3D performance.If these are installed and an external monitor used, the two monitors seem to appear as one large desktop to xrandr (e.g extending the desktop to an external 1280x800 monitor will result in a resolution of 2560x800 appearing in GNOME's Screen Resolution tool. This doesn't seem to affect performance, but means that the only practical way to alter the external monitor's resolution is by using the aticonfig command-line tool and restarting X. Correct installation of the fglrx driver can be confirmed by:
$ fglrxinfo OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc. OpenGL renderer string: ATI MOBILITY RADEON X700 OpenGL version string: 2.1.8304 Release
- and a quick benchmark:
$ fgl_glxgears Using GLX_SGIX_pbuffer 3249 frames in 5.0 seconds = 649.800 FPS 3522 frames in 5.0 seconds = 704.400 FPS 3586 frames in 5.0 seconds = 717.200 FPS 3574 frames in 5.0 seconds = 714.800 FPS
Audio
- The onboard ATI SB400 AC'97 audio works without any configuration needed, using the snd_atiixp kernel module. Performance is quite good for an onboard sound chip but you may have to tweak the PCM volume levels as they need to be set quite high to get any reasonable output.
Mouse
- Both the touchpad and external USB mice work well by default.
Power Management
- Hibernation hasn't been tested on Lenny yet, but has been reported working on other Linux distros. Occasionally when doing a shutdown or reboot the laptop will go into a suspended state instead of powering off or entering the reboot cycle. It hasn't been determined if this is a hardware or OS issue. Apart from having to do a manual restart using the power button there seems to be no side effects from this.
Laptop panel brightness doesn't seem to be adjustable by any regular method, such as the utilities provided in the gnome-power-manager package. A small utility called s270control can be used to control screen brightness settings. It works well even though it isn't specifically designed for the M635.
Wired Ethernet
The Realtek RTL8139 10/100Mbps NIC works well and is supported by the kernel. During startup, you may see a warning about the 8139cp kernel module not supporting this card, but the kernel will then use the 8139too module. This is a harmless warning.
WiFi
No Linux drivers are available for the Inprocomm IPN2220 WLAN card. Using the ndiswrapper-utils package with MSI's Windows drivers provides a working solution for i386. For x86_64 installations, even Windows drivers are hard to find and this hasn't been tested yet. Some models come with an MSI6855B WLAN card instead of the above. This is untested.
Modem
- Modem is part of ATI's IXP200 chipset. Untested, but appears to be recognized and has kernel support.
Bluetooth
- Supported, but untested.
PCMCIA
- Supported, but untested.
Flash card reader
- Supported, but untested.
IEEE 1394 (Firewire)
- Supported, but untested.
System Summary
lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon Xpress 200 (RS480/RS482/RX480/RX482) Chipset - Host bridge [1002:5951]
00:02.0 PCI bridge [0604]: ATI Technologies Inc RS480 PCI-X Root Port [1002:5a34]
00:13.0 USB Controller [0c03]: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 USB Host Controller [1002:4374]
00:13.1 USB Controller [0c03]: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 USB Host Controller [1002:4375]
00:13.2 USB Controller [0c03]: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 USB2 Host Controller [1002:4373]
00:14.0 SMBus [0c05]: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 SMBus Controller [1002:4372] (rev 10)
00:14.1 IDE interface [0101]: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 IDE Controller [1002:4376]
00:14.3 ISA bridge [0601]: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 PCI-ISA Bridge [1002:4377]
00:14.4 PCI bridge [0604]: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 PCI-PCI Bridge [1002:4371]
00:14.5 Multimedia audio controller [0401]: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 AC'97 Audio Controller [1002:4370] (rev 01)
00:14.6 Modem [0703]: ATI Technologies Inc SB400 AC'97 Modem Controller [1002:4378] (rev 01)
00:18.0 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration [1022:1100]
00:18.1 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map [1022:1101]
00:18.2 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller [1022:1102]
00:18.3 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control [1022:1103]
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon Mobility X700 (PCIE) [1002:5653]
02:03.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ [10ec:8139] (rev 10)
02:04.0 CardBus bridge [0607]: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c476 II [1180:0476] (rev ac)
02:04.1 CardBus bridge [0607]: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c476 II [1180:0476] (rev ac)
02:04.2 FireWire (IEEE 1394) [0c00]: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C552 IEEE 1394 Controller [1180:0552] (rev 04)
02:09.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Linksys, A Division of Cisco Systems [AirConn] INPROCOMM IPN 2220 Wireless LAN Adapter (rev 01) [17fe:2220]
lsusb
lsusb -v | grep -E '\<(Bus|iProduct|bDeviceClass|bDeviceProtocol)' 2>/dev/null
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 Bus 002 Device 005: ID 0db0:6855 Micro Star International Bluetooth Device bDeviceClass 224 Wireless bDeviceProtocol 1 Bluetooth iProduct 2 (Bus Powered) Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub bDeviceClass 9 Hub bDeviceProtocol 0 Full speed (or root) hub iProduct 2 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub bDeviceClass 9 Hub bDeviceProtocol 0 Full speed (or root) hub iProduct 2
USB Host controllers entries (without OHCI, UHCI, EHCI) are removed too.
Resources
Attachments
Some configuration files and sample outputs.
Useful Links
Credits