[gentoo-dev] IGP 320M, Radeon, and laptops

[Eric Sammer <eric@ineoconcepts.com>]

All:

I recently picked up an HP ZE4420 laptop (AMD XP-M 2200 proc, 256ram, 
40gig hd, Radeon Mobility) - a nice box for a decent price (approx 
$750USD post rebates). I checked out all the hardware and chipsets as I 
know this drill well. The one thing I missed was the flurry of emails 
about the IGP 320M chipset and hte host of problems that seem to follow 
it. For all Gentoo'ers, here's some info that should be helpful should 
you pick one of these very cool, yet very-sorta-not-really-supported 
laptops.

1. Read this wonderful reference: http://c133.org/ze4420/index.php
This guy / girl fought through all of the tough stuff and figured it 
out. Even better, he / she did it with Gentoo so it's more than 
applicable in our case(s).

2. Get the Synaptics touchpad drivers / patches for the kernel. Trust me.

3. Forget the half fixes you find - update to kernel 2.6 series. If 
you're not comfortable building your own kernel, read some HOWTOs, ask 
some people for help, but make sure you learn it. It is NOT worth 
fighting with the 2.4 series as the IGP 320M will beat you into 
submission. The 320M is listed and supported enough to get a box that 
doesn't lock up when you start X (neat eh?). (PS: Read this for 2.6 info 
if you're a kernel compile newbie type: 
http://kerneltrap.org/node/view/823 )

4. Follow the chipset selections for the misc hardware (audio, ethernet, 
etc.) and make sure you use ALSA. It's even easier now that ALSA is part 
of the 2.6 kernel.

While I'm sure this seems really out of the blue and wildly off topic, 
finding accurate and *timely* information (i.e. not old patches for 2.4 
kernels that don't apply) on the IGP 320M and this laptop in particular 
was extremely difficult. If anyone has any questions, I'm always more 
than happy to help.

Here's to hoping this helps some poor soul with a 4420 or 320M...
-- 
Eric Sammer
eric@ineoconcepts.com
http://www.ineoconcepts.com


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