# Ifl 90

## stewart_butler

I'm new to Gentoo (as will no doubt prove obvious soon enough), although I am fairly familiar with other (binary) linux distributions.

Following various guides, I have almost everything on my laptop (a Sager NP2090 / Compal IFL90) working, with one problem and one mystery.

The problem is that for the life of me I cannot get the 4965AGN wireless working. I am aware that it is supposed to be built into the kernel, and I have in fact repeatedly attempted to remake the kernel with iwlwifi support built in, according to the guides located in the Gentoo wiki. I have /boot/kernel symlinked to the actual kernel (/usr/src/linux/arch/x86/bzimage), so I know that the new kernel IS being used when I reboot, but for some reason the modules mac80211 (tried both built into kernel _and_ as a module) and iwl4965 (same as before) give the error "FATAL: Module ____ not found."

Before someone asks, I have already installed the microcode, and I even attempted to install the iwlwifi directly from the masked ebuilds.

The mystery I mentioned before is for anyone who has a Compal IFL90: when I 'cat /proc/mtrr', the second entry listed is "uncachable." I have been given to understand that this prevents my Nvidia card from using 2D acceleration, and that it must be repaired in the BIOS. There are no BIOS options relating to this. Does anyone have a fix?

The first problem is the real one; the second is just a curiosity. 

Thanks for your time.

Stewart

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## NeddySeagoon

stewart_butler,

Welcome to Gentoo.

What does 

```
uname -a
```

 say about your kernel ?

The date/time shown is the build date and time of the running kernel. Is it what you expect.

The path you quote *Quote:*   

>  (/usr/src/linux/arch/x86/bzimage)

  for the kernel is missing an element, I trust thats a typo in your post.

```
modprobe -l
```

lists all of the modules available for the current kernel.

The make menuconfig search shows

```
  │ Symbol: IWL4965 [=n]                                                                   │  

  │ Prompt: Intel Wireless WiFi 4965AGN                                                    │  

  │   Defined at drivers/net/wireless/iwlwifi/Kconfig:1                                    │  

  │   Depends on: NETDEVICES && !S390 && PCI && MAC80211 && WLAN_80211 && EXPERIMENTAL     │  

  │   Location:                                                                            │  

  │     -> Device Drivers                                                                  │  

  │       -> Network device support (NETDEVICES [=y])                                      │  

  │         -> Wireless LAN                                                                │  

  │           -> Wireless LAN (IEEE 802.11) (WLAN_80211 [=y])                              │  

  │   Selects: FW_LOADER 
```

Check that you have all the Depends on: items correctly selected 

That chipset seems to have a lot of optional extras too.

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## stewart_butler

uname -a >> Linux weltall 2.6.24-gentoo-r7 #18 SMP Fri May 9 13:44:50 EDT 2008 i686 Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T7700 @ 2.40GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

You are correct, I forgot the '/boot/' element of the kernel path; it was a typo.

modprobe -l yields:

/lib/modules/2.6.24-gentoo-r7/alsa-driver/acore/snd-pcm.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.24-gentoo-r7/alsa-driver/acore/snd.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.24-gentoo-r7/alsa-driver/acore/snd-rtctimer.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.24-gentoo-r7/alsa-driver/acore/snd-timer.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.24-gentoo-r7/alsa-driver/acore/snd-page-alloc.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.24-gentoo-r7/alsa-driver/acore/snd-hwdep.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.24-gentoo-r7/alsa-driver/acore/seq/snd-seq-device.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.24-gentoo-r7/alsa-driver/acore/seq/snd-seq.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.24-gentoo-r7/alsa-driver/pci/hda/snd-hda-intel.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.24-gentoo-r7/kernel/drivers/telephony/phonedev.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.24-gentoo-r7/kernel/drivers/scsi/scsi_wait_scan.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.24-gentoo-r7/kernel/fs/romfs/romfs.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.24-gentoo-r7/kernel/fs/ocfs2/ocfs2.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.24-gentoo-r7/kernel/fs/ocfs2/cluster/ocfs2_nodemanager.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.24-gentoo-r7/kernel/fs/ocfs2/dlm/ocfs2_dlmfs.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.24-gentoo-r7/kernel/fs/ocfs2/dlm/ocfs2_dlm.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.24-gentoo-r7/kernel/fs/minix/minix.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.24-gentoo-r7/kernel/fs/gfs2/gfs2.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.24-gentoo-r7/video/nvidia.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.24-gentoo-r7/block/truecrypt.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.24-gentoo-r7/misc/svgalib_helper.ko

As for the make menuconfig search, the only item I cannot locate in the dependencies is the !s390 portion ; do you know how I am supposed to activate it?

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## stewart_butler

Fixed it.

I don't know where the problem was, so I used genkernel to rebuild it. Lazy of me, but it fixed the wireless configuration problem, so I'm happy.

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## NeddySeagoon

stewart_butler,

The ! in front of !s390 means that the s390 option must be off.

S390 is a range of IBM mainframes, so I expect they don't have wireless or the driver is not tested there.

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## stewart_butler

I thought that might be the case, but as it wasn't working properly with the option off, I was looking to see if it actually was a requirement.

Also, when I was searching for it in the kernel, it appeared to indicate that it was involved in some kind of hardware encryption driver, so as that made some sense I tried looking into it.

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## gir_doom

I recently got a Sager NP2090. From what I am reading I am a bit less experienced with Linux that you, so would you mind either link slapping me to the howto's that you used, or mind writing an overall howto? Also would you mind posting you working kernel config?

Any Help is appreciated,

Gir

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## stewart_butler

Haha, welcome to the party. Since you're browsing a Gentoo forum, I'll take a wild guess that you're trying to configure using Gentoo.

My solution may not be the most ideal, but it seems to work well enough. The primary difference between what I did and what you normally do is that I compiled support for the network card in genkernel.

You do this by navigating to your /usr/src/bin directory (assuming, of course, that you followed the Gentoo installation docs, the quick-install guide at  http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gentoo-x86-quickinstall.xml works fine for this) and typing (as root) the command 

```
 genkernel --menuconfig all 
```

, activating the kernel modules as described at http://gentoo-wiki.com/HARDWARE_ipw3945#iwlwifi. After this, just follow the rest of the instructions on the page for configuration &c.

If you run into any problems, post again here or send me a PM. I'll send you a private message with my email as well.

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## NeddySeagoon

Team,

No need to be shy with the techie stuff, if you post it to the forums other can benefit, or chip in to help out

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## stewart_butler

Understood; I didn't mean to imply that. What I meant was that I don't always receive these notifications so it would be better to ask me directly by email any questions that arise so that I can post my thoughts here. Email gets to me faster than messages through the forums do.

stewart

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## stewart_butler

By request, I'm posting several configuration files to give anyone running into trouble a jump start.

I can verify that it is working on MY IFL90 (Sager NP2090), but cannot guarantee anything for anyone else. I also cannot verify whether or not any of this configuration puts you at security risk (I'm on a private network so I'm relatively safe) so use it at your own risk.

Just remember, your mileage may vary. 

If this needs reposting, simply leave a message; I should get it.

http://rapidshare.com/files/114757319/config_info.tgz.html

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## gir_doom

Interesting article today.

Basically it looks like OCZ is rebranding the Compal IFL90 (Sager NP2090) as their 15.4" DIY Gaming Notebook. No news on pricing or release date (later this year). The way I see it, the more people that have this notebook the more people that will be likely run linux (and hopefully Gentoo) on it.

Link to article:

http://www.dailytech.com/OCZ%20Announces%20154%20DIY%20Gaming%20Notebook/article11776.htm

Gir

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