[Debian-eeepc-devel] installing on eeepc 1001HA

[Ben Armstrong]

John,

On Wed, 16 Dec 2009 10:59:48 +0000
John Vodden <eexjav at nottingham.ac.uk> wrote:
> Here is a quick write-up of my experience getting the EEE-1001HA to work;
> it wasn't entirly straightforward.  Hopefully some of this information
> will be useful to other people with this netbook. Apparently some versions
> of this model come with linux pre-installed but I couldn't find any for
> sale (and would have re-installed anyway...)

Thanks for this info.  Would you mind putting it in our wiki?  It
should go into http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEeePC/Models ... all you 
need to do is register and you'll be able to add the page yourself.

> The networking for this device requires atl1c (wired) and rt3090 (wireless)
> kernel modules.

A new wifi chipset!  Fun.

> Neither of these exist on the lenny installer so a net
> install is not an option. I created a boot usb-stick following the
> instructions on the wiki. 
> http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEeePC/HowTo/InstallUsingStandardInstaller 

Yes, that's a reasonable approach.
 
> I had to modify the procedure as boot.img creates a small filesystem on the
> usb stick which doesn't have space for the entire disk1 iso. I had to mount
> the img as loop, copy the contents to a filesystem occupying the whole
> stick and then run syslinux to make it bootable. This is more or less the
> procedure described here 
> http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/wiki/index.php/Install_to_USB_From_within_Linux

That's a useful trick that should be noted as a variant for hardware
such as yours in the InstallUsingStandardInstaller page.

> 2. WIRELESS
> The sid image didn't contain rt3090 and there is a lot of talk on the
> internet about problems with the rt3090 module. I chose to compile
> my own 2.6.32 as this has the module included (albeit in staging)
> rather than try to patch 2.6.31.

Are you sure the rt2860 won't work here? See:

http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel/893100

Just be sure you have firmware-ralink installed (from non-free).

> I now see that there are several
> 2.6.32 related packages in the sid package list so I don't know if one
> of those would have done.

I see.  Well, please test using the rt2860sta driver in the 2.6.32
kernel and let us know.

> The biggest problem I had with this wireless was the fact that I
> prioritized getting wifi to work above bothering with acpi scripts. I was
> trying to get wifi to connect whilst the wifi wasn't switched on (no blue
> light.) After installing the eeepc acpi scripts and turning on the wireless
> I could see wireless networks with "iwlist scan" and connect to them with
> network-manager.

Well, actually ACPI should have nothing to do with wifi with recent
kernels.  You should have CONFIG_RFKILL=m and CONFIG_RFKILL_INPUT=y as
Debian kernels do, and then wifi toggling should "just work".

> It still seems a little temperamental using iwconfig
> directly and I have yet to try wicd.

Yes, that's the way it is with rt2860sta.  See
http://wiki.debian.org/rt2860sta

> 3. REMAINING ISSUES
> ACPI is still a bit odd but I think this is something to do with my
> home-compiled kernel.

Quite possibly.  I strongly advise, therefore, you try the Debian
kernel.

> With the standard 2.6.26 everything seems to work and
> I can toggle the wireless but can only connect with ndiswrapper.

Bleargh.  Yeah, in 2.6.26 it was not using rfkill, but rather the
eeepc-specific wlan toggle.  I really wouldn't use such an old kernel
with such a new model.

> Under
> 2.6.32 I can't probe eeepc-laptop (module exists but reports no such
> device, works with normal kernel.) There is discussion here
> http://dev.iksaif.net/issues/13 that sounds similar but I haven't had time
> to read that thoroughly enough to decide if it is relevant. Fortunately if
> I turn wireless on under 2.6.26 the state persists between boots so I can
> use the 2.6.32 driver.

Might be related, yes.  And there seems to be a simple workaround here
you could try:

http://dev.iksaif.net/issues/13#note-39

But really, I do think you should try the stock Debian sid 2.6.32
kernel first.

> Disable touchpad button doesn't work (when acpi does) but I haven't
> investigated this yet.
> 
> The one occasion I accidentally tried to suspend caused a hang, but I
> haven't investigated this either.

Yes. Known/as-yet-unresolved issue with rt2860, already reported
upstream (but I don't have a reference to it handy).

Ben
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