Asus F3T

From Gentoo Linux Wiki

[edit] Asus F3TAS Specification

• Processor & Cache Memory: AMD Turion™ 64 Mobile Technology,TL-50/52/56/60 (35W, 1.6-2.0GHz, 512KB-1MB L2 Cache)
• Chipset: NVIDIA C51MV/MCP51
• Main Memory: DDR2 667MHz SDRAM, 2x SO-DIMM socket expandable to 2GB
• Display: 15.4" WXGA/WXGA+/WSXGA+
• Video Graphics & Memory: nVidia GeForce Go7600 256Mb
• Hard Drive: SATA 100/120/160 GB
• Optical Drive: DVD Super Multi: 5X/8X/4X/8X/4X/24X/10X/24X/8X
• Card Reader: MMC/ SD/ Mini-SD/Memory Stick/ MS Pro/ MS-Duo/MS-Pro-Duo
• Fax/Modem/LAN/WLAN:
  • Intel® High Definition audio modem
  • 10/100/1000 LAN
  • 802.11a/b/g
  • Bluetooth® V2.0+EDR
• Built-in Camera: 1.3M Megabyte Pixels
• LED Status Indicator:
  • Power-on/Suspend
  • Battery Charging/full/low
  • Wireless indicator
  • Bluetooth Indicator
• Interface
  • 1 x Headphone-out jack
  • 1 x Microphone-in jack
  • 1 x Line-in Jack
  • 1 x RJ11 Modem jack for phone line
  • 1 x RJ45 LAN Jack for LAN insert
  • 4 x USB 2.0 ports, 1x IEEE 1394 port
  • 1 x TV Out (S-Video)
  • 1 x Express Card
  • 1 x VGA Port
  • 1 x DVI port
• Hot keys:
  • Instant launch Keys:
    • Instant Fun PLUS
    • Power4 Gear +
    • Email
    • Internet
    • Touchpad Lock
    • Splendid
  • Function Keys:
    • Fn+F1 Suspend switch
    • Fn+F2 Wireless (Bluetooth) switch
    • Fn+F3 E-mail
    • Fn+F4 Internet
    • Fn+F5 Brightness down
    • Fn+F6 Brightness up
    • Fn+F7 LCD on/off
    • Fn+F8 LCD/CRT switch display
    • Fn+F9 Touch Pad lock
    • Fn+F10 Volume on/mute
    • Fn+F11 Volume down
    • Fn+F12 Volume up
    • Fn+Space Power 4 Gear+
    • Fn+C Splendid (not printed)
• Audio:
  • Built-in Intel® High Definition audio compliant audio chip
  • SoundBlaster Pro Compatible
  • Built-in stereo speakers (1.5W)
• Keyboard: 19 mm full size 88key with MS-Windows function keys, 2.5mm travel
• Battery Pack & Life:
  • Li-Ion 6 cells: 4800mAh, 3S2P, 53.28WHrs
  • Li-Ion 9 cells: 7200mAh, 3S3P, 79.92WHrs
• AC Adapter:
  • Output: 19 V DC, 90W
  • Input: 100 — 240V AC, 50/60Hz universal
• Dimension & Weight:
  • 365 x 269.5 x 28-40.5 mm
  • 2.95kg (6 cell battery)
• Security:
  • BIOS Booting / HDD User Password Protection and security lock
  • Kensington lock hole
  • Trusted Platform Module

[edit] What works and what doesn't

 00:00.0 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Host Bridge (rev a2)
 00:00.1 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 0 (rev a2)
 00:00.2 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 1 (rev a2)
 00:00.3 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 5 (rev a2)
 00:00.4 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 4 (rev a2)
 00:00.5 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Host Bridge (rev a2)
 00:00.6 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 3 (rev a2)
 00:00.7 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 2 (rev a2)
 00:02.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation C51 PCI Express Bridge (rev a1)
 00:03.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation C51 PCI Express Bridge (rev a1)
 00:04.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation C51 PCI Express Bridge (rev a1)
 00:09.0 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation MCP51 Host Bridge (rev a2)
 00:0a.0 ISA bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP51 LPC Bridge (rev a3)
 00:0a.1 SMBus: nVidia Corporation MCP51 SMBus (rev a3)
 00:0b.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP51 USB Controller (rev a3)
 00:0b.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP51 USB Controller (rev a3)
 00:0d.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation MCP51 IDE (rev a1)
 00:0e.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation MCP51 Serial ATA Controller (rev a1)
 00:10.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP51 PCI Bridge (rev a2)
 00:10.1 Audio device: nVidia Corporation MCP51 High Definition Audio (rev a2)
 00:14.0 Bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP51 Ethernet Controller (rev a3)
 00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
 00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
 00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
 00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
 01:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications, Inc. Unknown device 001c (rev 01)
 04:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation G70 [GeForce Go 7600] (rev a1)
 05:01.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd Unknown device 0832
 05:01.1 Generic system peripheral [0805]: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 19)
 05:01.2 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd Unknown device 0843 (rev 01)
 05:01.3 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev 0a)

 Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
 Bus 001 Device 002: ID 05e1:0501 Syntek Semiconductor Co., Ltd
 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000

BIOS: F3TAS.223 (DSDT table fix is required for linux < 2.6.24)
ACPI: Works (DSDT table fix is requires for linux < 2.6.24)
Audio: Works (alsa-driver >= 1.0.14-rc3 or linux >= 2.6.21)
Video: Works (nvidia-drivers)
USB: Works
Keyboard hotkeys: Works (acpi4asus >= 0.32 or linux >= 2.6.21)
Wifi: Works (madwifi-ng >= 0.9.3)
Ethernet controller: Works (forcedeth)
FireWire: Works
PCMCIA: Never tried
SDcard reader: Works (with MMC block device driver compiled in your kernel look for /dev/mmcblk0)
Bluetooth: Works (to avoid problems update bios to F3TAS.217 version at least)
Webcam: Works (syntekdriver >= 1.0)
Integrated modem: looks like working, use slmodem (x86_64: use "slmodemd --alsa hw:0,6" command to start modem)
DVD drive: Works with problems (see below)

[edit] BIOS

• F3TAS.213 -- all special buttons are known to work, but there is a serious problem with bluetooth (not recommended)
  
• F3TAS.217 -- bluetooth was fixed, increase brightness button (Fn+F6) does not work with linux < 2.6.24, first mention about Linux in DSDT code :-)
  
• F3TAS.223 -- increase brightness button (Fn+F6) does not work with linux < 2.6.24 (recommended, DSDT table fix is required for linux < 2.6.24; see ACPI section below)
  
• F3TAS.224--F3TAS.226 -- suspend/resume does not work well, increase brightness button (Fn+F6) does not work with linux < 2.6.24 (not recommended)
• F3TAS.228 -- suspend/resume was fixed (recommended, tested with linux-2.6.26)

[edit] ACPI

The DSDT table of this notebook is not compatible with linux < 2.6.24, as result Fn+F6 button does not work at all on such kernels. There are two possible solution for a problem:

• use linux >= 2.6.24 (recommended)
• fix DSDT table manually according to this post, then patch your kernel to support DSDT loading from initramfs. Build and install modified kernel, then put modified DSDT to initramfs.

The fixed DSDT table can downloaded from ACPI site.

[edit] DVD

TSSTcorpCD/DVDW TS-L632D has problems with ATA sleep (or ATA suspend?) when media is inserted. That can cause slowdown or even lockups. If system behaves weird try issuing hdparm -w /dev/hdc

Things look better with AS99 firmware (original f/w version for F3T is AS05)

[edit] Wireless

See the Atheros 5xxx article.

[edit] Power saving (tickless, powertop)

TODO

[edit] kernel configuration

requirements:

• linux kernel: 2.6.27-rc6 or above
  
• forcedeth patch (TODO, see details here)
  

[edit] PowerTOP

see PowerTOP