3.2. HP hardware supported by Linux

The latest version of XFree86 is the 3.3.6, available from our mirror.

To use the MGA G100 AGP card, with a version of XFree86 before the 3.3.2 one, you have to use an option in the file XF86Config : Option "no_accel".

Section example :

Section "Device"
[...]
      VendorName "Matrox"
      VideoRam 4096
      Option "no_accel"
EndSection

The maximum resolution supported by vthis chipset in frame-buffer mode is 800x600 in 16 bpp (vga=0x315 in /etc/lilo.conf)

This chipset is also supported by XFree 3.3.6 with the Mach64 driver and a patch available at http://www.staikos.on.ca/~staikos/tp1460/XFMa64-Rage-Thinkpad.patch.

A precompiled X server is available at this address : http://www.0wned.org/XFMa64-Rage-Thinkpad.tar.gz.

To use a Cirrus Logic GD 5465 AGP card, with a version below Xfree86 3.3.3, you have to use an option in the file XF86Config : Option "xaa_no_color_exp".

Section example :

Section "Device"
[...]
       Identifier "CL-GD5465"
       VendorName "Cirrus"
       BoardName  "GD5465"
       VideoRam   2048
       Option     "xaa_no_color_exp"
EndSection

Some users who had problems with the support of this chipset were more satisfied with the use of the "sw_cursor" option.

Specifications of that card should be consulted on Elsa web site. This card is equiped with an hardware OpenGL accelerator. Under Linux, there is an OpenGL compatible layer called Mesa. This layer begins to support hardware accelerators, and among them the 3DLabs chipset which is on Elsa Gloria cards.

• Elsa web site

• OpenGL web site

• Mesa web site

This card is only supported from the 3.3.6 version of XFree86. Nevertheless, even in that version, this is a preliminary support, which isn't as stable as the Frame Buffer mode.

On the other hand, to be able to install a RedHat 6.1 version, you should do that in text mode, because the server provided (3.3.5) doesn't support this card.

If you have a dual-boot system, booting first on Windows, and initialize the card through its driver seems to improve the oprations then under Linux (warm reboot).

(Informations provided by Frédéric Dubuy <>, Anne-Marie Mahfouf <> and Jean-Bernard Chaffardon <>)

These cards are only supported with a specific X server XFCom_i810/5 downloadable in both format RPM or tar.gz and a complementary module for the kernel agpgart, downloadable in both format SRPM or tar.gz (old).

Detailed documentations on the installation are provided at http://www.linux-france.org/article/x/GuideIntel810/book1.html and ftp://download.intel.com/support/graphics/intel815/release_linux.pdf

To summarize, once the X server installed, the module compiled and installed, it's sufficient to modify with the following parameters the file /etc/X11/XF86Config :

Section "Device"
[...]
      Identifier "i810"
[...]
EndSection

[...]
Section "Screen"
[...]
      Driver "svga"
      Device "i810"
[...]
EndSection

You have to note that the agpgart module provided by Intel should replace the one delivered in the kernel so that it works. You then have to reinstall it, particularly when a kernel update occurs.

This card is only supported with a specific X server downloadable at ftp://ftp.s3.com/pub/s3/desktop/395/395_xf86_1011.tar.gz

For the installation, please read the following document

To use the Frame Buffer mode, please consult the following documents https://medasys-digital-systems.fr/linux/framebuffer.html and https://medasys-digital-systems.fr/mirror/linux/LDP/HOWTO/Framebuffer-HOWTO.html.

The latest version of the ncr53c8xx driver is available from the reference site.

To use the D6692A card, you need to use a 2.1.122 kernel at least. Previous kernels didn't handled correctly the shared IRQ between the network and SCSI parts of the card. In particular, a standard RedHat 5.2 version doesn't allow to the network part to be supported. You have to update your kernel with a recent one (preferably 2.2.17) and the distribution with the complementary packages needed.

The latest version of the 3c59x driver is available from the reference site.

There is also a version provided and supported by 3Com, available at http://support.3com.com/infodeli/tools/nic/linuxdownload.htm.

There are also other drivers available at ftp://ftp.scyld.com/pub/network/test/3c59x.c and http://www.uow.edu.au/~andrewm/linux/#3c59x-bc.

This card is supported by kernel 2.2.17 and upper.

The chipset 2EM (Vendor id: 125d - device id: 1978) is supported in 2.2.14 kernel and upper. Version 3 (Vendor id: 125d - device id: 1998) on the other side isn't supported for the moment, except in the commercial software Open Sound System . The latest version of the ESS Maestro driver is available from the reference site.

The latest version of the AD1816 driver is available from the reference site.

For Visualize workstations, it's recommended by HP to put in /etc/conf.modules :

alias sound ad1816
pre-install sound /sbin/insmod sound dmabuf=1
options ad1816 io=0x500 irq=5 dma=0 dma2=3 ad1816_clockfreq=33000
alias midi opl3
options opl3 io=0x388

The Alsa project has for primary goals to develop drivers to support sound cards in Linux, being fully compatible with current OSS drivers, bringing more functionalities and supporting more hardware.

All the information on this project, as well as sources under the GPL license, are available from their home page http://www.alsa-project.org

RPMs for RedHat 6.2 and Turbo Linux 6.0 distribution are available at the address http://hp-linux.org/aau/alsa

These models are delivered with MS-DOS only, in order to have a Linux Machine at the best price.

These models are delivered ready to be installed with Turbo Linux, in order to have a Linux Machine at the best price (2 CDs + 30 days of support).

On that machine, the Bios doesn't give the right amount of memory which is in the machine to Linux. You need to use a line such as append="mem=xxxM" at the begining of /etc/lilo.conf where xxx is your RAM in MB.

The support of "big size" IDE disks (for example, 27 GB disks provided for the XU 800) on these machines needs a kernel 2.2.15 at least.

If you intend to use both the sound chipset and a PCMCIA card in this laptop, in order to avoid conflicts at input/output ports level, you'll have to modify the file /etc/pcmcia/config.opts to change the line 6 to

include port 0x300-0x4ff, port 0x1000-0x17ff

Some users had to apply the same tric for their Omnibook 4150 with success.

Integrated modem and network cards are not supported under Linux (ESS ES56CVM-PL and Accton EN2242).

In order to use the native SCSI controler you need to disable in the Bios the option "Reserve PCI Bus Numbers", in the menu PCI Device Setting. (Indication of GILLYNN COUCH)

In order to use the native SCSI controler you need to desactivate in the Bios the "reserver PCI Bus #s", in the menu PCI Device Setting. The PS/2 system doesn't work correctly with a RedHat 6.1 or 6.2 distribution. In order to correct that you need to either put the machine in MPS 1.1, in the BIOS, or use a kernel above 2.3.47 in MPS 1.4 mode. The network card doesn't work correctly with the kernel of the RedHat 6.2 distribution.

In order to use the native SCSI controler you need to desactivate in the Bios the "reserver PCI Bus #s", in the menu PCI Device Setting.

Intel BX Chipset (Memory Bus at 100 MHz) is supported by kernels above 2.0.34/2.1.103.

Coppermine 0.18 µm technology - 256 kB synchronous cache - Intel i820 Chipset

Attention, the XF86_SVGA server works correctly with this mother board embedded version only above XFree86 3.3.5, due to the use of different frequencies (In particular, use the updates for RedHat 5.2/6.0).

Creation of a custom RedHat Boot disk

To be able to boot with the RedHat 5.1 boot disk, and to have the support of the 3C905B-TX card, you need to do the following :

# Log as root. Go in the home directory  (~root)
#cd ~
# Put there the 3c59x.c source module for the 3Com card
#ncftp ftp://ftp.medasys-digital-systems.fr/pub/linux/networking/drivers/3c59x.c
# Compile it
#gcc -DMODULE -D__KERNEL__ -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -O6 -c 3c59x.c `[ -f /usr/include/linux/modversions.h ] && echo -DMODVERSIONS`
# put the RedHat 5.1 floppy boot disk in the drive
# you have to copy the initrd.img file from the floppy disk  
#mcopy a:initrd.img /tmp
# then uncompress it  
#gzip -cd /tmp/initrd.img > /tmp/initrd.ext2
# Mount the "file" filesystem thus obtained  
#mount -t ext2 /tmp/initrd.ext2 /mnt/floppy -o loop
# uncompress the modules provided  
#gzip -cd /mnt/floppy/modules/modules.cgz > /tmp/modules.cpio
# extract the modules  
#cd /tmp ; mkdir modules ; cd modules ; cat /tmp/modules.cpio | cpio -i
# Copy the new updated module for the 3Com card  
#cp ~/3c59x.o .
# recreate the compressed cpio file  
#ls | cpio -o | gzip -c9 > ../newmodules.cgz
# replace the modules by their update  
#cp ../newmodules.cgz /mnt/floppy/modules/modules.cgz
# unmount the "file" filesystem  
#umount /mnt/floppy
# compress the "file" filesystem  
#gzip -c9 /tmp/initrd.ext2 > /tmp/initrd.img
# copy it on the floppy disk  
#mcopy /tmp/initrd.img a:

The LH4 doesn't seem to work correctly when not in Raid. Even with the latest Bios available at the time of the test (16.00), the problem remains. If you desactivate the Raid management, during the boot, the ncr53c8xx driver in Linux detects 4 controlers instead of 2 and boot doesn't end. To avoid that, you have to activate the Raid in the Bios and use each of the disk in Raid0 mode, which is quite the same as the solution without Raid at all.

These cards are equiped with an AMI Megaraid chipset and may support the following Raid levels : 0, 1, 3, 5, 10, 30 and 50. Some NetRaid cards, as well as the chipset integrated on the LH3 and LH4 mother boards are supported by recent version of the Linux kernel (2.0.36/2.2.17 typically - don't use 2.0.37/38).

For the RedHat 5.2 distribution, it's not possible to install the system on this type of controler, because it's not detected by the installation program. You have to use a specific floppy disk . This floppy disk should be used as input to the rawrite tool, for example. It works for systems with less than 1 GB of memory.

For the RedHat 6.0 distribution, you have to manually declare the existence of this card as a supplementary SCSI adapter, in order to use it directly during the installation. The megaraid driver isn't automatically detected.

To avoid strange messages during the boot printed by the megaraid driver, it's necessary to recompile it with the option -DHP.

For the RedHat 6.1 distribution, the megaraid driver provided by the kernel does support on ly the first logical drive. In order to obtain the others, please recompile a 2.2.17 standard kernel.

You have to note that the integrated card of the LH3/4 realises a software parity checks and performs thus less efficiently than the NetRaid daughter cards. On the other side, LH3000/6000 are equiped with an integrated card doing hardware checks.

In the fourniture of the driver provided by AMI there is a Raid management tool megamgr, usable within Linux, and equivalent to the tool included in the software embedded on the controler. It's downloadable from http://www.ami.com/support/prodsearch.cfm?InpProdID=17

In case of problem, a version is available there.

These cards are equiped with a StrongARM Chipset and correspond to the Adaptec card AAC-3642. A driver should be available during the 3 last monthes of year 2000.

To desactivate processors on a Linux server, you need to give an option during the boot to the kernel such as :

Lilo boot: linux maxcpus=3

where the number of processors given in option is less by one of the number of processors wanted. For example, here we activate 4 processors.

To use a High Availability Custer under Linux, you need to use additional software, such as :

• RSF-1 (Commercial)

• Linux-HA project (free) and ext3