Skip to main content

Mandriva 2010.0 on the HP Mini 1120NR


I finally got tired of the frustration of trying to learn Ubuntu on the Mini and also annoyed that HP failed to update their version of it so that I could use my EVDO modem (which quit working after their most recent update). It's not that Ubuntu is bad, I'm just used to doing things on Mandriva/Fedora/RedHat systems.

What prompted me to make the change was the realization that I was not using the Mini because I disliked the default OS. And it was slow, slow, slow.

The Mini I have is the 1120NR with the following hardware:

$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GME Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03) 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GME Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02) 00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 02)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 02) 00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 02) 00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 02) 00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e2)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 02) 00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) IDE Controller (rev 02) 00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 02) 01:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g (rev 01) 02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8040 PCI-E Fast Ethernet Controller

I was unable to install Mandriva 2010.0 from a USB-CDROM drive (after beginning, it reported that there was no CDROM drive!), so I created a bootable flash drive with the appropriate files from the install DVD and did a "hard disk" install.

The only problems were the wireless device and sound.

The wireless device, a Broadcom, BCM4312 needed a special kernel module that was not available on the install DVD, so I used a wired ethernet connection to install the full Mandriva repository and then enabling the wireless device was no problem.

Sound worked after subsequent OS updates were made.

The built-in camera and my USB EVDO modem work as expected.

Booting with acpi_osi="Windows 2006" eliminated ACPI errors.

I used tmpfs for /tmp (16GB SanDisk drive) and eliminated all syslog
writes. I do have syslog info sent to vt12, but is it possible to
increase the buffer? Once the info scrolls off the screen, it is gone.

I'm using the icewm desktop and added the PLF version of freetype (it has
the patented rendering stuff enabled); X looks great-- I get about 250fps from the Intel video chip . The system now boots faster and responds faster, so I'm very happy.

NOTE: Mandriva had been updated to 2010.2 adding support for the soundcard and a special -netbook kernel version, but Mandriva 2011.0 was a disaster and consumer versions of Mandriva have been supplanted by Mageia.  Now that Mandriva 2010.2 has gotten a little old, I'll be updating to Mageia3 since Mageia has matured enough.

UPDATE: Running Mageia6 with no issues.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

DOS4GW.EXE Version 2.01a and Alternative DOS Extenders

DOS4GW.EXE The Tenberry DOS extender DOS4GW.EXE was used by many early DOS games. I still enjoy playing many of these games and DOS4GW.EXE is usable with DOSBox , so they can be played on Linux. However, the version of DOS4GW.EXE that was included with the game was whatever was current at the time. The most recent version that includes many bugfixes that possibly affected the games when used with DOSBox have been fixed in the latest version, 2.01a. It's not free at US$49, but you can downloaded it here . Simply substitute it for whatever version of DOS4GW.EXE your game provided and enjoy the bug-fixed goodness. Tenberry also makes a "high-performance" "pro" version of DOS4GW.EXE, but it costs $300. I think that they could sell quite a few of these to hobby users (since, you know, DOS is dead) for US$5. Open Souce to the Rescue There are better performing, free and Open Source alternatives available and worth a look. DPMI Explained Let's unders...
1 comment
Read more

Return to Castle Wolfenstein for Modern Linux

Return to Castle Wolfenstein is a first-person shooter originally released on November 19, 2001. The game, like many other classic games, is available at GOG.com and costs only US$5.99. iortcw for Linux Don't bother with old and crusty Linux binaries offered by idsoft; they are problematic and it's painful to use them on a modern Linux. Fortunately for us, there are more modern GPL-licensed Linux binaries available for 32- and 64-bit systems as well as high resolution textures packages. The project at GitHub provides source code that can also be compiled for MS Windows using MinGW. iortcw for Windows and Mac You can download pre-compiled binaries for 32- and 64-bit Linux, MS Windows and Mac from here . Let's put our files in /usr/local/games/rtcw . As root, extract the downloaded .ZIP file for your architecture to  /usr/local/games/rtcw . All we are missing are the game data files. I purchased them from GOG.com. The game installer downloaded from GOG.com can be ...
1 comment
Read more

Unpack those .EXE game files from GOG.com (Plus other un-packers)

I just came upon innoextract today. I have many of the wonderful games from GOG.com, some of which have native Linux Clients. Before now, I've had to use PlayOnLinux or Crossover to install these for use with WINE, then add the Linux client. InnoSetup as a way to create an installer to install the games on Windows.  Daniel Scharrer has created innoextract to allow the unpacking of those archives on a non-Windows platform. The website provides information on using innoextract , but this information from the page is very useful: GOG.com Installers GOG.com installers with a 2.x.x version number on the download page or in the filename use InnoSetup 5.5.0 and cannot be extracted by innoextract 1.2 and older. Older installers use InnoSetup 5.2.3 and usually have no version in the filename. Some GOG.com multi-part installers with version 2.1.x or higher use RAR archives (renamed to .bin) to store the game data. These files are not part of the InnoSetup installer and require...
1 comment
Read more