Debian GNU/Linux on Medion MD95345 (aka MIM 2090)

Reference : Medion MIM 2090 / MD 95345

- Chipset : Intel i800 GME
- Processor : Celeron 1.6 Ghz
- Memory : 1024 Mo DDRAM II
- Video XGA 15'' 1024x768
- Hard disk : Seagate ST9100823A 100Go , speed 5400
- Ethernet adapter Realtek RTL-8169
- Sound card 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW AC97 compliant
- Integrated 56k modem AC'97 Modem
- 3 USB 2.0 EHCI/UHCI ports
- 1 IEEE 1394 FireWire OCHI port
- 1 PCMCIA Texas Instruments
- Graphics Intel i915
- CDR-RW DVD burner PIONEER DVR-K14L
- Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection

The package also include a PCMCIA DVB-T tuner denoted by
Philips Semiconductors SAA7134 . Not tested yet nor read any success story
but there is some hope:
http://www.linuxtv.org/pipermail/linux-dvb/2005-May/thread.html#1851
See also http://linux.bytesex.org/v4l2/saa7134.html and http://gentoo-wiki.com/HARDWARE_saa7134 .

This page relates my experience in installing Linux on this computer.
I have already installed Linux on several computers, including laptops, but I must confess this one was a hard one, due to a recent hardware and perhaps to a buggy BIOS.
I have bought this computer on July 2005 for about 1160 € , this seems to bee a
low price for such a config.
At this time, i did not get the best from the graphics chipset, but it is sufficient for my work and watching DVD's and DivX's.

Installation notes

Step 1: Install
- Boot with a weekly build iso , erase Windows, install a 2.4 kernel and reboot

Step 2: Install a recent kernel
- edit /etc/apt/sources.list to point to sid
- be sure the ethernet network works
- install kernel-image-2.6.11-1-686 ,kernel-headers-2.6.11-1-686
(or rather kernel-source-2.6.11-1-686: it will be usefull later), gcc, gcc-3.3
- be sure that the symlink /usr/bin/gcc points to gcc-3.3 and not to gcc-4.0
- edit /boot/menu.lst and replace root=/dev/hda1 by root=/dev/sda1 for the 2.6.11 kernel
- reboot with 2.6.11

Be carefull: there seems to be a bug in grub package; each time you install a new kernell, he replaces /dev/sda* by /dev/hda* in the first section of /boot/grub/menu.lst, so you have to edit it manually.

Step 3: Wireless
- install package ipw2200-source and wireless-tools, compile modules with
"module-assistant a-i ipw2200"
- Download the fimware 0.19 http://ipw2200.sourceforge.net/firmware.php and copy the files to /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware .
- activate the wifi card by typing Fn-F1
- modprobe ipw2200 and you are in !
- configure the wifi
At next reboot, hotplug with automatically load ipw2200

Step 4: enable the dvd (!)
At this time, the dvd is not seen by the kernel, because the PC as a Intel 82801FBM (ICH6M) SATA Controller, and the support of SATA under Linux is not yet perfect.

First solution : add the following lines to /etc/mkinitrd/modules
ide-generic
ata_piix
sd_mod
and regenerate the initrd by mkinitrd -o /boot/initrd.img-2.6.11-1-686 .
(Make a copy of the initial file, just in case)
At reboot, you have your hard disk at /dev/hdd , but DMA can not be enabled,
because the drived is managed by the generic IDE driver which does know nothing about DMA.

Second solution : (taken from http://irbs.sourceforge.net/toshiba-a80-laptop-debian-howto-en.html )

Change in file '/usr/src/kernel-source-2.6.11/include/linux/libata.h'

this

#undef ATA_ENABLE_ATAPI /*define to enable ATAPI support*/

#undef ATA_ENABLE_PATA /*define to enable ATAPI support in ..*/

change to

#define ATA_ENABLE_ATAPI

#define ATA_ENABLE_PATA

Put IDE GENERIC option to N

Go into kernel dir

cd /usr/src/kernel-source-2.6.11

and compile and make a package

make-kpkg –revision 01 –initrd kernel_image

install the generated package

dpkg -i /usr/src/kernel-image-2.6.11_01_i386.deb

You can also download my .config
At next reboot, the wireless eth1 may become eth2 in case the module for network under firewire 1394 is loaded. The DVD drive is attached to /etc/sr0.

Step 5: Into the hell of X !

Install the xorg packages from debian.
The correct driver is i810.

If you then startx with a reasonable configuration, it is possible that you get a black screen.I finaly found that this occurs when I attempt do load DRI.
At first,I took a 2.6.11 kernel + the last snapshot from http://dri.freedesktop.org/snapshots/ , precisely
http://dri.freedesktop.org/snapshots/i810-20050718-linux.i386.tar.bz2
Expand , cd to dripkg , type ./install and it will compile and install all the stuff.
Whatever you do, the DRI driver does not load because of a version conflict.
Now, I simply use a 2.6.12 kernel and take care not load DRI.

You can find here my xorg.conf file .

The WinModem
Works with slmodem and proprietary driver slamr.
apt-get install sl-modem-daemon sl-modem-source
Untar the source file, enter in the kernel source directory
make-kpkg modules_image builds sl-modem-modules-2.6.12.3_2.9.9d-2+1.03_i386.deb
just have to do dpkg -i ../sl-modem-modules-2.6.12.3_2.9.9d-2+1.03_i386.deb
Configuration:

I added to /etc/modules
slamr # perhaps not necessary
ppp_async
ppp_deflate

and to /etc/hotplug/blacklist
snd_intel8x0m

(This is to prevent the Alsa driver from trying to manage the modem.)

I added SLMODEMD_DEVICE=slamr0 to /etc/default/sl-modem-daemon
(perhaps not necessary)

and got the following /etc/wvdial.conf from http://apocalyptech.com/linux/nc6120/

[Dialer Defaults]
Modem = /dev/ttySL0
Baud = 57600
Init1 = ATZ
Init2 = ATQ0 V1 E1 M1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
Init3 = AT+MS=34
ISDN = 0
Modem Type = Analog Modem
Phone = xxx-xxxx
Username = xxxx
Password = xxxx
Carrier Check = no

Bios
The Bios comes from Insyde Software
System Bios: 1.00A
EC Bios : 1.01
There is a more recent version of the Bios (1.02) on the homepage of Medion
http://www1.medion.de/downloads/download.pl?id=2778&type=treiber&filename=biomim2090.exe
but I did not succed in flashing the BIOS under freedos or DOS6, always getting an error.
If you try such a risky experience, this page may help:
http://www.nenie.org/misc/flashbootcd.html .

Some more:
Some Linux users reported that the Pioneer dvd burner is buggy
See http://www.unfug.org/~link/md95300.html and the discussion
http://lists.debian.org/cdwrite/2005/01/threads.html#00059
here is the patch for growisofs growisofs.patch .
I generated a debian package that you can find here .

Find here the output of lspci -vv .

Questions or suggestions are welcome !

My email: Olivier dot Garet at univ-orleans dot fr

Last modification: 04 august 2005