Handtops, UMPC - OQO Linux Installation & Configurati

02/13/05 + jarango

This topic is intended to serve as an information repository about Linux installation and configuration on the OQO. I start by reporting my experiences and sharing my configuration. The idea is that we share installation and configuration information, report issues and provide solutions. Also important is that we limit the discussion on installation/configuration issues and solutions and not stray to other things.

Jesus Arango
jarango at cs dot arizona dot edu

---------------- Summary ---------------------

I have installed debian with good results. Other people would have you believe that "it just works" out of the box but this is not true. Here is a summary:

- kernel version >= 2.6.10 highly recommended. Trackstick will not work with previous versions.

- trackstick: works. you need kernel >= 2.6.10 and use the 'i8042.noloop' kernel parameter. Will not work with kernels < 2.6.10. The credit here goes to "Milan" ... Thanks.

- X11 works with a little tweaking. My XF86Config-4 is posted below. Resolution needs to be 800x480 and a corresponding modeline needs to be added to the Monitor section. Video device is "siliconmotion" but I am using "vesa" because I could not come up with a modeline that would work properly with the "siliconmotion" driver. If you have a working modeline for the "siliconmotion" please share it with us.

- cosole output: works but you need the vga=0xf05 kernel parameter. Without this parameter the bottom of the display will be blank.

- WiFi: Works, buggy, only works exporadically, could not reproduce working results. If you have this working reliably than please let us know how. This is an Atmel AT76C505A USB WiFi. There are two third party drivers available. The kernel source also has an Atmel drivers but it seems to me that it does not support USB devices. I would recommend first trying the driver at link Before compiling add the vendor/product ID of the OQO wifi device to the file ~/src/includes/usb/config.h. "lsusb" will report that the vendor/product ID is 0x1557/0x0002. The driver's site says that if you are running a 2.6 kernel than you need to apply a pacth (available on the website) to the kernel source before compiling the driver. I would like to add that as of version 2.6.7 this patch is no longer needed. There is another driver available at link To use this driver you also need to install the firmware from link Before compiling you need to add the vendor/product ID to ~/at76c505a-rfmd2958.c.

- stylus: I suspect this works but I have put minimal effort into this. Here is what I know: It is a wacom device accesible through /dev/ttyS0 (serial port) and you need an "InputDevice" section for it in your XF86Config-4. See link Milan reported on another topic that he has the wacom working and perhaps he could share the configuration with us.

---------------- Notes on Debian Installation -----------------

I installed Debian by first doing a minimal install with the netinstall CD then compiling and installing the WiFi driver to do the rest of the installation through my wireless network.

You should get the latest copy of the netinstall CD from link I first tried to use a few-months old netinstall CD and the installation program would not even complete the booting sequence. You will also need the first full CD of the debian distro (sarge-i386-1.iso) to install gcc, make, patch, wireless-tools, bzip2. You need bzip2 to untar the kernel sources that you will need to compile the WiFi driver. Be aware that some external CD drives will not boot. I used a Plextor PX-716UF. I used a USB jumpdrive to copy the WiFI and kernel sources to the OQO. Just plug it in and "mount /dev/sda1 /mnt"

------------ XF86Config-4 ------------------

Section "Files"
FontPath "unix/:7100" # local font server
# if the local font server has problems, we can fall back on these
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/Type1"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/CID"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "GLcore"
Load "bitmap"
Load "dbe"
Load "ddc"
Load "dri"
Load "extmod"
Load "freetype"
Load "glx"
Load "int10"
Load "record"
Load "speedo"
Load "type1"
Load "vbe"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "keyboard1"
Driver "keyboard"
Option "CoreKeyboard"
Option "XkbRules" "xfree86"
Option "XkbModel" "pc104"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "mouse1"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Protocol" "PS/2"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "device1"
# Driver "siliconmotion"
Driver "vesa"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "monitor1"
HorizSync 30-92
VertRefresh 50-85
Option "DPMS"
Modeline "800x480" 40 800 864 928 1088 480 481 484 509 +HSync
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "screen1"
Device "device1"
Monitor "monitor1"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "800x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "layout1"
Screen "screen1"
InputDevice "keyboard1"
InputDevice "mouse1"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection

07/07/05 + pbookman

nuoqo said: "Makes the Wacom function much better and speech recognition is great with the mic on the OQO.

Anyone else tried Tablet PC 2005?"

Where did you get the Wacom drivers? The drivers supplied by OQO don't appear to work.

07/13/05 + moshen

The linux drivers or windows drivers?

10/08/05 + werner

My 01 works rather nicely under Gentoo Linux, and it also seem to
feel much happier :-)

A few comments and questions:

- the keyboard controller seems to get in the way of generating
Shift-PgUp (Shift-Fn-Up) under X11. I usually get a KP9, even
if I change the NumLock state with numlockx. Is there a
work-around for this ?

- is there a way to avoid the "Lock" state of the shifting keys
(Shift, Ctrl, Fn, Alt) ? Sticky alone would be ideal, but also
no special treatment at all would be okay (then the sticky
mode would be done in software).

- NFS over Ethernet stalls with the default rsize/wsize of 4 kB.
Setting them to 1 kB helps. I assume it's the Ethernet
controller losing back-to-back frames. (I've had other 10 Mbps
gear on the same port without problems, so it seems to be the
OQO, not my switch.) Is there a better fix for this ?

BTW, the 01 product spec doesn't say that the Ethernet is only
10 Mbps (or FE slowed down by USB 1 ?), and there is no
indication in the 01+ spec whether this has changed in any way.

- DPMS power down doesn't turn off the backlight. Is there a
way to do this ?

- if a USB keyboard is connected at system boot time, the OHCI
gets confused, and, e.g., the Ethernet isn't detected. I wonder
if this is a BIOS or a kernel bug ...

- if I install LILO (22.7) on the MBR, the BIOS thinks this isn't
a valid MBR. You'd think BIOS writers were a bit more careful
these days :-)

- is there a Bluetooth driver ?

- I wonder how many people hate the upside-down numeric keypad :-)

I'm using a 2.6.13.3 kernel, with an otherwise regular 2005.1
Gentoo.

Oh, and is this actually still the "official" Linux on OQO thread ?

Thanks,
- Werner

12/21/05 + eichin

I've got my 01+ running fine (upgraded to ubuntu "breezy" without too much trouble, although they did botch parts of the X upgrade.) Tablet works fine, I couldn't find any advice on bluetooth, but then noticed that this was because it all *just works* out of the box so there wasn't anything special to do for the oqo :-)

The one thing I'm missing is how to enable the external VGA port on the docking cable. Just doesn't show up. Hitting FN-L from linux just gives me
atkbd.c: Unknown key pressed (translated set 2, code 0x66 on isa0060/serio0).
atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes 66 <keycode>' to make it known.
which I suppose I could trap and use to tell X something... but what? Any ideas?

12/23/05 + eichin

Further experimentation did get me 1280x1024 external under linux... but only if I booted with the monitor plugged in, there was no way that I found to switch screens without rebooting. (also needed the siliconmotion driver to get that resulotion, couldn't get VESA to do better than 1024x768.) Still looking...

12/24/05 + moshen

Look at the oqodisptool utility at: link it will let you switch displays without rebooting. There are more patches (and an autoswitch modification) that I will post when I get a chance.

Moshen

01/01/06 + eichin

sweet! oqodisptool worked as advertised. now I need to tweak my X config to play nice, but half of that is probably rereading your examples... Thanks again.

02/02/06 + rgodinez

I've installed Molinux 2.0 (2.6.12-9 kernel) (www.molinux.info) which is an Ubuntu-based distribution made for local government of Castilla-La Mancha region in Spain, and it is made by HispaFuentes, an important free software services enterprise here, in Spain.
I've followed instructions in link and link but some things are different in 01+ .

- I've found that ethernet has changed from 01 (1557:0002) to 01+ (1557:7720). Which is the chipset used in 01+ ethernet adapter?
- the Xorg siliconmotion driver does not need to be recompiled, only correct Modeline, HorizSync and VertRefresh are needed.

02/10/06 + rgodinez

According to moshen ethernet has changed in 01+ to an ASIX 88772 USB 2.0 network adapter. It takes
advantage of the new USB 2.0 controller in 01+.

I've found driver source asix.c in kernel source drivers/usb/net for kernel 2.6.14 .
But I still haven't tried it.

Stay tuned.

02/23/06 + ischwore

I formally owned an OQO 01 and was able to get Ubuntu 5.04 "Hoary Hedgehog" installed and fully functioning following Moshen's directions at link

Recently, I purchased an OQO 01+ and attempted to install Ubuntu 5.10 "Breezy Badger" on it. Unfortunately, the Ubuntu install program was unable to detect my ethernet port. However, I continued with the install anyway. When the install completed, Ubuntu loaded fine however I did not have ethernet support. Unfortunately, Moshen's directions require the use of apt-get, which requires a connection to the Internet. Therefore, I am not able to get my OQO 01+ fully functioning.

Reading one of the posts above from rgodinez, it seems the ethernet hardware has changed from the OQO 01 to the OQO 01+. This is likely the cause of my problems.

Has anyone else experienced this problem?
Does anyone have a potential solution or workaround so I can get ethernet support?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Perhaps moshen could shed some light on this.

Thanks.

edited: Feb 23 2006 + fil

You can download the entire apt directory and burn a DVD.

Then you simply point the /etc/apt/sources.list apt pointers to file:/whatever/[DVD containing the ubuntu-apt directory]

You can e-mail moshen for an updated Ubuntu install for the 01+. I'm sure he and OQO support would be interested to know that the 01 install guide does not work for the 01+ install and Ethernet drivers. His e-mail address is in the linux install guide you linked above.

Recent Blog: Apple iPhone Switch

02/24/06 + victorgv

check out link create dvd and you will not need network to install evereything. i did that on oqo 1 using firewire drive.

03/10/06 + anthonyb

I have to install Red Hat vrsion 9 over the weekend (if I get my usb cdrom drive).

Does anyone have any experience with Red Hat 9 on the OQO. Do things work such as wifi, mouse, etc.

Recent Blog: Smartercase with ultra clip for OQO

03/21/06 + wenid

I've just installed Ubuntu Breezy Badger on my OQO 01+ in a dual-booting configuration with Windoze XP. I've still got some work to do since I've just finished the base install, but I've been writing up what I did so I thought I'd post the link here link
I used a modified netboot installer (which is available for download via the above link), so you don't need a CD/DVD drive, but you do need some sort of wireless access to the Internet (at least until I add a module to support the wired Ethernet, if that's even possible).

04/06/06 + wenid

A few updates

- The write-up mentioned in my previous post now runs to several pages, but is still incomplete and it currently contains some minor errors and inconsistencies. I don't know when I'll have time to fix these and finish it off.

- I have a working driver for the docking cable's Ethernet port. It's just the asix driver from the kernel source tree, as mentioned above by rgodinez/moshen. Adding the OQO's vendor & device ID's is a simple matter. Just find the following lines (lines 911 through 914 in my 2.6.15.4 version of this file)

}, {
// ASIX AX88772 10/100
USB_DEVICE (0x0b95, 0x7720),
.driver_info = (unsigned long) &ax88772_info,

then make a second copy of these lines and edit the middle two lines as follows

}, {
// ASIX AX88772 10/100 in OQO model 01+
USB_DEVICE (0x1557, 0x7720),
.driver_info = (unsigned long) &ax88772_info,

- I've added a "get" function to oqodisptool. It just prints "internal" or "external" on standard output to indicate the currently active display. I also made a few minor fixes and changes in the existing code. A tarball including a pre-built executable is available at link

- I've spent some time recently getting my OQO to suspend to RAM and resume properly. Everything seems to be OK, but I haven't tested it all properly yet. It's still a work in progress, but I've put up a tarball in case anyone is interested. link

More later...