How to gently force your Compaq to run Linux

From...

July 11, 2000
Web posted at: 10:41 a.m. EDT (1441 GMT)

by Nicholas Petreley

(IDG) -- I got rid of my Toshiba notebook computer a while back because I wasn't giving formal presentations very often. That's all I'd ever used it for. Most conferences have islands of publicly available computers for reading and responding to email. I use my handy Palm V for most everything else I need, so I don't take a notebook to a show anymore unless I have to give a presentation. You see, I hate notebook computers. I resent having to lug a 7-pound machine across the country.

However, I had to give a presentation on Linux-based Web development tools at PC Expo this year, and I have a few more presentations scheduled in the next few months. So I gave in and bought another notebook: I picked up a Compaq Presario 1600 floor model. (Yes, I know you can get the cute, light Sony VAIO to run Linux, but the CD-ROM drive wasn't available locally and I needed a laptop immediately.)

After spending two days getting Linux to run, all I can say is, what was I thinking? I know from experience that the most troublesome hardware for Linux comes from Compaq. Over the past several years, I have been able to install Linux quickly on just about any hardware -- from IBM laptops to bizarre no-name home-brew computers. But I've always had trouble getting Linux to run on a Compaq. Call it bad luck. Call it Compaq's fault. I don't know which, but it's the truth.

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This notebook was no exception. The first thing I tried to install was Caldera 2.4. Everything went fine except for the XFree86 configuration. The Compaq wouldn't recognize the Trident Cyberblade i1 video, and I couldn't get the video to work with any of the Trident settings when I chose them manually. Red Hat 6.1 was no better.

I found one Internet site where someone said he had solved his video problems on the same notebook model by moving to XFree86 4.0. I could have installed XFree86 4.0 on Caldera 2.4 or Red Hat 6.1. But Mandrake 7.1 comes with XFree86 4.0, and I'd been itching to try Mandrake 7.1 anyway. So I installed Mandrake. Eventually.

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I suspect the problems I encountered were caused by the fact that I'd burned my own copy of Mandrake 7.1 onto Memorex CD-Recordables. The Compaq DVD drive seemed to have problems reading those disks, so certain packages failed to install at first. It took a couple hours and numerous retries, but I managed to get everything installed, including XFree86 4.0. Unfortunately, XFree86 4.0 by itself didn't solve the display driver problem.

My wife, who is the ultimate Internet search engine, turned up a great "Linux on Laptops" site. That page points to Linux configuration tips and details for a long list of notebook computers, including a URL for XFree86 configuration on the Compaq Presario 1600. I downloaded the configuration file for XFree86 4.0, installed it, and tweaked a couple of settings, and it worked. You can also get a configuration file for XFree86 3.3.6 at the same page, but that file didn't work for me.

The sound card in the Compaq 1600 was a Sound Blaster-compatible chip set from VIA Technologies. Mandrake 7.1 automatically detected the card and configured it, but the driver wouldn't load. I took a wild guess based on the error message and enabled the MIDI capabilities of the laptop. The sound driver loaded then, but it wouldn't work. After a little digging I found out that the Linux 2.2.16 kernel changed this driver significantly. So I downloaded the 2.2.16 kernel and tried it. Finally the sound worked.

Unfortunately, the Compaq 1600 had a WinModem. A Linux driver exists for that particular Lucent chip set, but it is a binary-only driver that is precompiled for the Linux 2.2.12 kernel. It didn't load with my 2.2.16 kernel, and I dislike WinModems enough that I didn't want to go back to a 2.2.12 kernel just to use this one. I still have an ActionTec DataLink 33.6 Kbps PC Card modem left over from the dawn of time, so I'll have a way to dial out -- if I can only find the dongle for that thing.

Finally, as far as I can tell, the Compaq 1600's DVD capabilities are currently useless on Linux. Some experimental drivers are out there, but I don't have the time or inclination to play with them as yet. I doubt if I'll get time to watch a DVD on a trip, but I left a minimal Windows partition on the machine just in case.

All work and no play

My experience confirms many of the complaints people have about Linux, and it seems to testify to the superiority of Windows at the desktop. I admit that Linux lacks some of the features you get in Windows, such as support for DVDs, WinModems, and the secret random crash generator that I can never seem to get Windows to uninstall.

I won't count installation problems against Linux in this case, because Windows has the unfair advantage of being preinstalled. Given a week to work out the details, I am certain I could come up with an installation process that would make everything work on this laptop -- even the WinModem. Then someone could create an installation image that could be used to preinstall Linux on other Compaq 1600 laptops.

In Linux's favor, I can install it as many times as I want on this laptop, and in any configuration I want. In contrast, this laptop comes only with the infamous Windows recovery disk. You can't install Windows from scratch while retaining your data and applications. You can only restore the laptop to its original state, sans data and applications.

But the comparison is moot. The fact is that I must install Linux myself and go through the trials detailed above. Therefore, the question is: would I still run Linux on this laptop if I didn't work for Caldera Systems and write for a Linux magazine?

The answer is: yes, I would. This model has a 500 MHz Pentium III and 64 MB of RAM, yet it still can barely get out of its own way when it's running Windows 98 SE. I shudder to think of what running Microsoft Office 2000 would be like on this thing. Yet this notebook performs extremely well running Linux, the Icewm window manager, Applixware Office, the PostgreSQL database server, and the Java-based Lutris Enhydra Web application-development tools. All at once. I bumped it up to 128 MB of RAM after a week, just so that I could comfortably run Star Office 5.2 in place of Applixware at times, but I'm not sure that doing so was necessary.

The bottom line is, I'm impatient about speed and responsiveness, and I am intolerant of crashes -- so Windows is not a choice for me on any laptop. I don't blame Windows fans if they disagree, or if they claim that getting Linux working to their satisfaction is not worth the trouble. But I can't help but wonder if Windows fans would feel the same after using a machine for a couple of years without a single crash. You get spoiled on stability after a while. If you haven't tried it, I highly recommend it.

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