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Linux on the L2D-series Laptop by Asus

About
If you're just looking for a list of things that are known to work or not work, have a look at Timon Schroeter's site. If you want to know how to optimize Linux for your Laptop, read on.
history of this document
15.Dez.04 Removed everything related to kernel 2.4, because 2.6 is definitely the choice for this notebook.
20.Jan.04 new config -- now supporting kernel 2.6 and 2.4. I strongly recommend using 2.6 though, all the drivers we need are in the official kernel all of a sudden.
8.Nov.03 new config -- now making use of the synaptics driver to get those scroll-buttons of the touchpad working.
5.Sep.03 kernel 2.4.22 ships with the acpi4asus-module. Just download the userspace-daemon and you can finally use all the Fn-Keys of your laptop.
1.: Download all neccessary software
precondition: You already installed a Linux-Distribution on your laptop (hopefully Debian ;-)).

downloads:
  1. Download the 2.6.11.2 kernel-source from kernel.org and extract it to /usr/src/linux.
  2. Download the precompiled sis_drv (and sis_dri, if you want 3D Support) for your version of XFree from Thomas Winischhofer's site and extract the contents as described in it's README. If you're using debian, use Thomas' apt repository instead, it makes things very compfortable.
  3. Install the alsa-base and alsa-utils packages (version 0.9!) from your distribution.
  4. Download my kernel-config for kernel version 2.6.11.2 and save it as /usr/src/linux/.config
  5. Download my XF86Config-4 file.
  6. Download the acpi4asus source so you can compile the userspace-daemon needed to make use of all the additional keys on your laptop.
2.: Compiling a properly configured Linux - kernel
building the kernel:
  1. Apply my config of the kernel (did you save it correctly?) by running 
    make oldconfig
    within /usr/src/linux
  2. Build and install the kernel by running 
    make clean bzImage modules modules_install install
    within /usr/src/linux
  3. Make sure, lilo or grub is configured and installed correctly to boot the new kernel. You should pass this parameter to the kernel (lilo-style):
    append="video=sisfb:mode:1024x768x16,mem:12288 hdb=scsi"
    (the hdb=scsi part is only neccessary, if you have got a laptop with CD-R/RW drive and want to burn CDs.)
3.: Configuring XFree86
XF86Config-4:
  1. Take my config-file as a startingpoint and add eventual keyboards or mice, you use. Take special care _not_ to delete the 
    Option "NoYV12" "true"
    or you will loose proper function of the XVideo-Extension on both LCD and TV.
  2. My file is of little use, if you want to configure Xinerama for dual-head (LCD+VGA) mode. Have a look at Thomas Winischhofer's site again for an example-config for this.
using the s-video-out:
  1. With my Config you can use this command to start a (probably second) xserver on tty8, that uses s-video-out 
    startx -- :1 -layout tv
4.: Configuring acpi4asus
compiling the daemon:
  1. extract the source-file and chdir to the subdir "asus_acpid".
  2. run "make" and "make install" to compile and install the program.
starting the daemon:
  1. make sure, the acpid - package from your distribution is installed, asus_acpid won't work without acpid.
  2. edit /etc/init.d/acpid or your similar distribution-specific startup-script and add this line to the start-section (after the acpid gets started, of course):
    asus_acpid -e /var/run/acpid.socket
    warning: the name of the socket may vary between distributions, too.
configuring the silver keys
  1. create a directory "~/.asus_acpi" and then copy the contents of the "samples"-subdir of the acpi4asus-source to it.
  2. edit the just copied scripts, so they start the programs you would like to be started by the silver keys on your laptop.
Links
General Linux/Laptop pages: Other user's documentation: Software for Asus-Laptops
 

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