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Kernel 2.6.35 released and running on fit-PC2
Last Sunday, Linus Torvald released Linux kernel 2.6.35. Because I've just upgraded my "fit-PC2" to Ubuntu 10.04, I was courageous to compile the new kernel on this tiny Atom driven computer.
This took several hours because I was to lazy to deselect most of the features in the kernel.
I was a little surprised that the initrd wasn't build during installation of my build linux-image debian package. I had to copy manually the postinst script for the initramfs:
cp /usr/share/kernel-package/examples/etc/kernel/postinst.d/initramfs \
/etc/kernel/postinst.d/
The kernel is working. But there is one strange message during booting the kernel. It seems not to hurt the system but anyway:
pci_root PNP0A08:00: address space collision: host bridge window
[mem 0x000c0000-0x000dffff] conflicts with reserved [mem 0x000d0000-0x000fffff]
fit-PC2 running with psb ("poulsbo") driver in Ubuntu 10.04
In my first post about my "fit PC 2", I mentioned my problems with the GMA 500 graphics and the closed source driver by Intel (iegd). Recent iegd version doesn't work with up-to-date X.org-server 1.7 in Ubuntu 10.04.
Today, I tried it again because of a post in the "fit-PC2" forum. User "fly" describes the steps you have to follow to use the psb ("poulsbo") driver with Ubuntu 10.04 on the "fit-PC 2". The following steps is only a copy of his howto:
- Install Ubuntu 10.04
- Install latest updates (will be done automatically if you use the GUI upgrade tool)
-
Add ppa:gma500 repository
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gma500/ppa && sudo apt-get update
-
Install patched poulsbo drivers
sudo apt-get install poulsbo-driver-2d poulsbo-driver-3d poulsbo-config -
Use Compulabs xorg.conf
wget -c "http://fit-pc2.com/download/ubuntu/files/xorg.conf"
sudo mv xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf - Reboot
Unfortunately, the screen was black after the reboot and the keyboard didn't work :-(
My solution was the following:
- login via SSH on the running fit-PC2 with the black screen. Of course you should enable the sshd before upgrade!
-
rebuild the psb driver for the new running kernel 2.6.32-24-generic:
dpkg-reconfigure psb-kernel-source - Reboot
Now the 2D works perfectly for my needs. Only with audio I was fighting a short time, and suddenly it worked. Unfortunately I don't know why :-(
Tiny "fit-PC 2" Replacing Old Desktop PC
Recently I bought a "fit-PC 2" from CompuLab to replace my desktop PC at the Weltcafé reception. The predecessor was a Fujitsu Siemens computer from 2003 which replaced itself for a short time my VIA Epia EN1200.
I made a photo of these three computers and I measured approximatley the power consumption. And it's really estonishing: the tiny "fit-PC 2" is the fastest of it all and consumes only about 10 W even during watching youtube-videos.
Inside the metal box is working a single core Intel Atom Z530 with Hyper Threading at 1.6 GHz. It's equipped with 1 GB DDR2-RAM, a Samsung 250GB hard disk and even a RaLink RT3090 wireless card. There is only a HDMI-output but CompuLab includes a HDMI-DVI connector. With my DVI-VGA adaptors I cannot see any analog output but I don't need it at all.
The "fit-PC 2" comes preinstalled with Ubuntu 9.10. Of course, I tried to upgrade immediately to current Ubuntu 10.04 but afterwards the graphic output was slow and my special resolution (1440x900) failed :-(
Reason for this is the Intel Graphics inside: a GMA 500. For this you need the Intel Embedded Graphics Driver (iegd) for X.org. But this driver is closed source and it's not available yet for xorg-server 1.7 which is used in Ubuntu 10.04.
So, I had to reinstall Ubuntu 9.10 which was quite easy: download desktop ISO-image, write it with unetbootin on a USB-memory stick, boot and install. And now I'm waiting for Intel and follow the "fit-PC 2" forum for a release of Ubuntu 10.04 for "fit-PC 2".
I like this tiny device. It's sufficiant fast for my needs, it's silent (you only here the hard disk a little bit), has low power consumption and it's perfect small.
I bought my device from in Germany from SH EDV Vertrieb for 406 EUR including VAT and shipping to Germany.
Here is a /proc/cpuinfo for people like me googleing for it:
ab@ab-fit:~$ cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor : 0
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 28
model name : Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU Z530 @ 1.60GHz
stepping : 2
cpu MHz : 800.000
cache size : 512 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 2
core id : 0
cpu cores : 1
apicid : 0
initial apicid : 0
fdiv_bug : no
hlt_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 10
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic mtrr pge mca cmov pat
clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe nx constant_tsc
arch_perfmon pebs bts pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3
xtpr pdcm movbe lahf_lm tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority
bogomips : 3191.90
clflush size : 64
power management:
processor : 1
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 28
model name : Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU Z530 @ 1.60GHz
stepping : 2
cpu MHz : 800.000
cache size : 512 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 2
core id : 0
cpu cores : 1
apicid : 1
initial apicid : 1
fdiv_bug : no
hlt_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 10
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic mtrr pge mca cmov pat
clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe nx constant_tsc
arch_perfmon pebs bts pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2
ssse3 xtpr pdcm movbe lahf_lm tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority
bogomips : 3191.94
clflush size : 64
power management:
Install Linux ISO-Images onto USB Drive Using unetbootin
Some time ago I read an article about unetbootin. As I had very often the pain to install Linux on CF-card or USB-drive, I bookmarked it for the next adventure.
Yesterday, I had to use it the first time. It's already in debian-testing (version 408-1). Only some short notes about using it:
- let root (and other users) popup programs on your desktop:
xhost +
- start as root:
unetbootin
- plug in your USB-drive
- select a distribution/live system. I tested:
- Xubuntu
- Slax - download and install the iso-image with unetbootin
- take the USB-drive to the computer you want to boot and HOPE, it will be able to boot from USB
Luckily my J8F9-Board _sometimes_ likes booting from USB. I didn't understand why it most of the time ignores the BIOS setting. But now it's running again with Xubuntu 9.10.
Using xorg geode driver on Jetway J8F9
![The Jetway J8F9 working in a box at weltcafe-dresden.de in Dresden, Germany](typo3temp/pics/923b9fb13a.jpg "The Jetway J8F9 working in a box as public internet access in <a href="http://www.weltcafe-dresden.de/">Weltcafe Dresden</a>, Germany")
- The Jetway J8F9 working in a box as public internet access in Weltcafe Dresden, Germany
![The Jetway J8F9 working in a box at weltcafe-dresden.de in Dresden, Germany](uploads/pics/j8f9_energy_saving_weltcafe_k.jpg "The Jetway J8F9 working in a box as public internet access in <a href="http://www.weltcafe-dresden.de/">Weltcafe Dresden</a>, Germany")
After the Xubuntu upgrade to 8.10, I wanted to use the geode xorg driver to launch the xserver. But this didn't worked as in 8.04. Before spending too much time to find a working solution, I decided to upgrade to Xubuntu 9.04 using the xorg-1.6 server and xorg-geode-2.11.1 driver.
Again with 9.04 the fbdev driver worked fine but the geode driver startet with 800x600 instead of WXGA (1440x900). I tried a lot to force the driver to use another resolution. But no success. Then I added the Option "NoPanel" "true" and ... it worked! But like Martin-Eric wrote on the xorg-driver-geode mailinglist, it's prefered to not add any options to the xorg.conf. And indeed: in my BIOS there is a menu to choose CRT and/or Panel. After setting it to CRT, it works with the default xorg.conf! Great!
Being happy to use the geode driver another problem occurred: The active button of dialog boxes and some tabs in programs had black boxes as background. Not very useful with black text on it. There seems to be a bug but unfortunately nobody has time to fix it :-(
There are two workarounds:
- add the Option "MigrationHeuristic" "greedy" to the Device section of your xorg.conf. This disables parts of the accelleration.
- use a different theme in Gnome. MurrinaStormCloud (the default) is quite slow. Human doesn't work either. I use Xfce-b5 at the moment. But there remains still some strange effects but this is not so important