HardwareSupportMachinesLaptopsPackardBell

Revision 19 as of 2006-09-12 17:38:14

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Notes on installation and compatibility of Ubuntu with Packard Bell laptop computers.

Summary

Make

Model

Install ?

Not works ?

Comments

Ubuntu Release

Date

Packard Bell

Easynote R1100

Yes

boot: vga=771 pnpbios=off acpi=force; ath wireless antenna switch via "rfswitch"

Dapper

12 Sept 2006

Packard Bell

Easynote R3400

No

Needs to be installed via Breezy CD then an upgrade to dapper. Due to an 8254 timer issue on the IO-APIC you'll need a custom boot parameter to boot dapper: noapic nolapic acpi=off. cpu is AMD Mobile Sempron 3000+ 1.8Ghz

Dapper

1 Sept 2006

Packard Bell

Easynote R3400

Yes

All features in testing.

Boots without customizations. All other features seem to be working properly. cpu is AMD Mobile Sempron 3000+ 1.8Ghz

Edgy

1 Sept 2006

Packard Bell

Easynote R3450

Yes

Needs boot parameter: vga=771 noapic, otherwise doesn't boot. Modem untested. cpu is AMD Mobile Turion 64 model ML-30 - 1.6 GHz

Breezy

07 Aug 2006

Packard Bell

Easynote R3280

Yes

in process

Needs boot parameter: vga=771 noapic, otherwise doesn't boot. cpu is AMD Mobile Turion 64 model ML-28 - 1.6 GHz

Breezy

08 Feb 2006

Packard Bell

Easynote 3300

Yes

Needs nolapic boot parameter, otherwise doesn't boot. Modem untested. Additional info: chipset is sis740, cpu is AMD XP-M 2600+

Warty

Packard Bell

Easynote A series

Yes

Centrino Wireless

Only issue so far is the Centrino Wireless: hardware shows up fine but HWaddr is 00:00:00:00:00:00, hence I can't set it in my router's MAC filtering.

Packard Bell

Easynote M5262

Yes

Details below

21-Dec-2005

Packard Bell

Easynote A5560

Yes

Resume with ndiswrapper.

Celeron M. Linksys wireless. Details below.

Hoary

18-Aug-2005

Details

Packard Bell Easynote R3400

Type

Info

Breezy

Dapper

Edgy

CPU

Mobile AMD Sempron(tm) Processor 3000+ - 1.8 GHz

Yes

Yes

Yes

RAM

512MB SO-DIMM (standard store configuration)

-

-

-

HDD

60GB HGST (Hitachi/IBM) IC25N060ATMR04

Yes

Yes

Yes

Optical

DVD±RW DL NEC ND6500A 8x ±SlimWriter Slimline

Yes

Yes

Yes

Display

Wide screen TFT 15,4" WXGA: 1280x800

Yes

Yes

Yes

Video

ATI Radeon XPRESS 200M 5955 (PCIE)

Yes

Yes

Yes

Ethernet

ALi Corporation M5263 - 100BASE-TX/10Base-T Fast Ethernet MAC

No[#breezynic *]

Yes

Yes

Wifi

RaLink RT2500 802.11g Cardbus/mini-PCI (Billionton)

untested

Yes

Yes

Firewire

Texas Instruments PCI4510 IEEE-1394 Controller

untested

Yes

Yes

Modem

Smart Link 56K Modem (Billionton MDC56S-I)

untested

Yes

No[#edgymodem *]

Audio

ALi Corporation M5455 PCI AC-Link Controller Audio Device

Yes

Yes

Yes

Master card kernel

ATI Technologies Inc RS480 Host/PCI Bridge

Yes

acpi=off noapic nolapic[#dapper8254 *]

Yes

USB

ALi Corporation USB 1.1 Controller (rev 03)

Yes

Yes

Yes

USB

ALi Corporation USB 2.0 Controller (rev 01)

Yes

NO![#dapperusb2 *]

Yes

Breezy notes Anchor(breezynic)

  • Breezy will by default detect the wrong tulip module as the network card module. remove this module rmmod tulipdownload the uli526x module from http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=83710&page=2 (second post on second page). Follow the details in the post to get the module unpacked and installed properly.

Dapper notes

  • Dapper Livecd will only boot with the boot parameters noapic nolapic acpi=off

  • Dapper Livecd Installation crashes during finalizing installation stage prior to configuring grub leaving a unusable system.

Anchor(dapperusb2)

  • Plugging in USB devices will "freeze" the system. Unplug usb device and the system will become available again after 30 seconds. Advice: blacklist the echi-hcd module. This is the usb2 module which causes all the trouble. USB1.1 is the only way to go if you're set on using Dapper.

Anchor(dapper8254)

  • Dapper kernel 2.6.15-(all versions) have issues with the ATI chipsets. Kernel will say "8254 timer not connected on IO-APIC". This is a known kernel issue for the 2.6.15 range. It's fixed in 2.6.16 (requires manual building) and 2.6.17 (Ubuntu Edgy). workarround: boot with boot parameters noapic nolapic acpi=off.

  • Installation advise: Install Breezy and upgrade to Dapper, it's the only way to get it working.

Edgy notes Anchor(edgymodem)

  • 2006-09-02 sl-modem-source does not compile against current 2.6.17-6-k7 kernelsource.
    • Edgy is still under construction, so it might change before it's final release.

Packard Bell Easynote R3450

  • Installation boot only with the parameter vga=771 noapic

  • Installation: 1280x800 resolution needs to be set manually in xorg.conf

Packard Bell Easynote R3280

  • Installation boot only with the parameter vga=771 noapic

  • Installation: Only automatic network configuration failed
  • Others: in process

Packard Bell Easynote M5262

  • Generally a smooth install and good user experience: ethernet connection, DVD drive, etc, all good
  • Touchpad and USB mouse work fine in tandem
  • Not yet got built in card reader working
  • Problems linking external monitor (but also in WinXP)
  • Problems linking digital camera (Fuji Finepix 1400) but may be camera issue
  • After booting, X sometimes displays a blank white screen and needs to be restarted with Ctrl-Alt-Backspace to access GDM

Packard Bell Easynote A5560

  • Smooth installation, manual partition to keep recovery parition.
  • Kept recovery partition so my sister can go back to Windows, should she want to. (Brand new laptop - didn't let her even try Windows.)
  • Wireless Linksys card "INPROCOMM IPN 2220" not working. Fixed with ndiswrapper:
  • WXGA not detected automatically. Fixed with 855resolution:

    • Download and install Debian package from: http://www.debian.or.jp/~kmuto/855resolution/

    • $ sudo vi /etc/default/855resolution
      • MODE=3c
      • XRESO=1280
      • YRESO=768
    • $ sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg
    • $ sudo /etc/init.d/855resolution start
    • $ sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart
  • Wireless not working after resume from hibernate, computer hangs if I try to enable it.
  • Haven't testet DVD burning and card reader yet.

CategoryLaptop