Linux on MSI MS-1012 (S260)
Changelog
2006-2-2: Initial version.
Introduction
The MSI MS-1012 notebook is a white box version of MSI S260. White box means that it is sold as a bare bone and you equip it with the components you like. I have bought this laptop from rjtech.com and installed the following parts: CPU Pentium M 740 1.73 GHz, 1 GB DDR 400MHz RAM, CD-RW/DVD-ROM, 60GB HDD, and Intel PRO/Wireless 2100 mini-PCI card (802.11b). The assembly is not difficult if you have little bit of patience and follow the installation guide. The advantage of assembling a laptop yourself is obviously the freedom to choose the components, for example, I equipped the laptop with a hard drive and a wireless card that I had lying around. Furthermore, you can save money by building your laptop, I paid total below $1100 while equivalent notebook would have cost me at least $200 more at that time. Last, but not least, you can choose Linux-compatible components.
The Linux distribution installed on this is Sorcerer, where everything is compiled from the source code. However, most of the information provided in this howto will also apply to any other Linux distribution.
Compatibility Matrix
| Subsystem | Compatibility | Driver(s) | Comments |
| Graphics | Yes | i915 |
|
| Sound | Yes | ALSA snd_intel8x0 |
|
| Ethernet | Yes | 8139too |
|
| Wireless | Yes | ipw2100 | Proprietary firmware necessary. |
| CD-RW/DVD-ROM | Yes | ide |
|
| USB | Yes | uhci_hcd, ehci-hcd |
|
| IEEE1394 | Yes | ohci1394, ieee1394 |
|
| Bluetooth | Untested | ||
| Card Reader | Untested | ||
| Modem | Untested |
Specifications
- Installed Intel Pentium M 740 1.73 GHz CPU. Supported CPUs
are Intel Pentium M with 533 MHz or 400MHz FSB and 2MB L2 cache
(Dothan 90nm), and Celeron M with 1 MB L2 cache. Supported
processor speeds 1.60 GHz - 2.13 GHz (533 MHz FSB) or 1.30 GHz
- 2.10 GHz (400 MHz FSB).
cat /proc/cpuinfoprovidesprocessor: 0vendor_id: GenuineIntelcpu family: 6model: 13model name: Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1.73GHzstepping: 8cpu MHz: 1729.715cache size: 2048 KBfdiv_bug: nohlt_bug: nof00f_bug: nocoma_bug: nofpu: yesfpu_exception: yescpuid level: 2wp: yesflags: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss tm pbe nx est tm2bogomips: 3462.75 - 12.1" WXGA Active Matrix TFT display (1280x800)
- Intel 915GM ("Alviso-GM")/ICH6-M integrated graphics
- Memory: 2 memory slots expandable to 2 GB using SO-DIMM (200-pin/2.5V) devices. Supports DDR333 or DDR400 SDRAM modules in sizes of 256 MB, 512 MB and 1 GB. Installed a single 1 GB DDR400 module.
- 2.5" (9.5mm) IDE 60 GB hard disk drive (5400/4200 RPM drives supported)
- Internal CD-RW/DVD-ROM Combo drive (8x DVD-ROM, 24x CD-R, 24x CD-RW, 24x CD-ROM). Optional DVD+/-RW Double Layer drive.
- Card reader: 3-in-1 MMC, SD, MS flash card slot
- Integrated AC'97 V.92/56K fax/modem
- Integrated Realtek RTL8101L 10/100 Mb Ethernet card, built-in Bluetooth
- Option for mini-PCI Wi-Fi card: Manufacturer suggests Intel® PRO/Wireless 2200BG (802.11bg) or Intel® PRO/Wireless 2915ABG (802.11abg). Installed Intel® PRO/Wireless 2100 (802.11b).
- One PCMCIA 2.1 Type II slot (Ricoh R5C593)
- Sound: Integrated AC'97 Realtek ALC655
- ALPS touch pad
- 3x USB 2.0 and 1x IEEE1394 (Firewire) ports
- Dimensions: 11.92" x 8.85" x 1.10" (WxDxH). Weight: 4.4 lbs with 8 cell High Capacity Battery.
Output from the lspci command:
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile
915GM/PM/GMS/910GML Express Processor to DRAM Controller (rev
03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile
915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile
915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW
(ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #1 (rev 04)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW
(ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #2 (rev 04)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW
(ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #3 (rev 04)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW
(ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #4 (rev 04)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge
(rev d4)
00:1e.2 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation
82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev
04)
00:1e.3 Modem: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6
Family) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 04)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FBM (ICH6M) LPC
Interface Bridge (rev 04)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW
(ICH6 Family) IDE Controller (rev 04)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6
Family) SMBus Controller (rev 04)
01:03.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
01:04.0 CardBus bridge: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c476 II (rev ac)
01:04.1 CardBus bridge: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c476 II (rev ac)
01:04.2 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C552 IEEE 1394
Controller (rev 04)
01:09.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless LAN
2100 3B Mini PCI Adapter (rev 04)
Kernel
At the time of writing this howto, kernel version 2.6.14.2 with this configuration was installed on the laptop. The kernel was patched with software suspend version 2.2-rc12 to enable suspend to disk, then I added fbsplash and vesa-tng for enriching the boot process by displaying messages and animations (see the Gentoo fbsplash HOWTO for more details).
Notes:
- The CPU throttling allows to drop frequency down to 600 MHz. For the control of CPU frequency, I use the cpufreqd daemon.
- Enable ACPI and almost every option under it. You will need it, trust me.
- SCSI emulation of cdrom drive is deprecated since
approximately kernel 2.4.21. In fact, the
ide-scsidriver does not work anymore. However, theidedriver works perfectly, even burning CDs although you may need to pass optiondev=/dev/hdcto cdrecord. - Enable IEEE1394. You will need ohci1394, ieee1394 and sbp2 modules at least.
- Enable wireless network option in the kernel configuration.
Drivers for the Intel PRO/Wireless 2100 card are under
development by the ipw2100 project. Since
kernel version 2.6.15, the driver has become part of the kernel
code. Apart from the ipw2100 driver, you will also need
proprietary firmware which can be found on the ipw2100
project's web pages. Download the firmware and place in, for
example,
/lib/firmwareand adjust accordingly the FIRMWARE_DIR variable in/etc/hotplug/firmware.agent. - ALSA
snd_intel8x0driver works fine with the laptop's sound card. Note that the sound is muted after you install the driver. - Use the
8139toofor the integrated ethernet card.
X11 Configuration
XFree86 4.5.0 including DRI works with the i915 driver and the configuration is rather straightforward as you can see from my XF86Config-4 file.
In order to take advantage of the advanced ALPS touch pad capabilites, download and install the Synaptics touchpad driver. My preferred configuration of the synaptics driver, as stored in the /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 file, is
| Section "InputDevice" | ||
| Identifier | "TouchPad" | |
| Driver | "synaptics" | |
| Option | "Device" | "/dev/input/mouse0" |
| Option | "Protocol" | "auto-dev" |
| Option | "LeftEdge" | "1700" |
| Option | "RightEdge" | "5300" |
| Option | "TopEdge" | "1700" |
| Option | "BottomEdge" | "4200" |
| Option | "FingerLow" | "25" |
| Option | "FingerHigh" | "30" |
| Option | "MaxTapTime" | "180" |
| Option | "MaxTapMove" | "220" |
| Option | "VertScrollDelta" | "100" |
| Option | "MinSpeed" | "0.09" |
| Option | "MaxSpeed" | "0.18" |
| Option | "AccelFactor" | "0.0015" |
| Option | "SHMConfig" | "on" |
| EndSection |
Detailed explanation of all the options can be found in the
Synaptics' man page: man synaptics.
Disclaimer
Although the provided information is accurate to my knowledge, there are no guarantees whatsoever. Keep in mind that it is your laptop and your responsibility only.
