The Gateway 400SD4 Laptop
(or otherwise known as Syncro)

Alrighty, have some background on this. I felt the need for a laptop, and considering at home, the only machines that run windows are my Mom's machine, and my sisters, I've taken a liking to the linux OS. So, when I finally got my little child here, she got a fresh install of Gentoo.

Here's some stats to maybe help the random searcher to find me.

Processor : Pentium 4 2.60Ghz (I dont think it's a P4-M)
Memory: 512MB of RAM (Max of what the board can take)
Hard Drive: 40GB (Max of 60, but that's a 200$ upgrade from Gateway)
Video Card: ATI M6-P LY (or otherwise known as the Mobility Radeon 7000)
Ethernet: Intel EtherExpress Pro PCI (eepro100)

MiniPCI Slot: Going to be getting an Orionoco Card (Love that monitor mode)
Audio (Soundcard): ESS1988 (alsa driver maestro3)

To start out, Gentoo is a very nice system with a package system that is similar to BSD's ports system. However, some of the packages needed to make this thing work are outdated. I'm looking to file bugreports for version bumps.

If you find any of this information useful, please think about sending a couple of bucks my way (or you can send me a postcard too...)

Alrighty, here's the fun part. Diving deep into this install.. here's what we have according to lspci

System lspci output
0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 82845 845 (Brookdale) Chipset Host Bridge (rev 05) 0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82845 845 (Brookdale) Chipset AGP Bridge (rev 05) 0000:00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801CA/CAM USB (Hub #1) (rev 02) 0000:00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801BAM/CAM PCI Bridge (rev 42) 0000:00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82801CAM ISA Bridge (LPC) (rev 02) 0000:00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82801CAM IDE U100 (rev 02) 0000:00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corp. 82801CA/CAM SMBus Controller (rev 02) 0000:00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corp. 82801CA/CAM AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 02) 0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon Mobility M6 LY 0000:02:02.0 CardBus bridge: O2 Micro, Inc. OZ6912 Cardbus Controlle 0000:02:03.0 Multimedia audio controller: ESS Technology ES1988 Allegro-1 (rev 12) 0000:02:04.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8180L 802.11b MAC (rev 20) 0000:02:05.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments TSB43AB21 IEEE-1394a-2000 Controller (PHY/Link) 0000:02:08.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corp. 82801CAM (ICH3) PRO/100 VE (LOM) Ethernet Controller (rev 42)

System lspci output

0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 82845 845 (Brookdale) Chipset Host Bridge (rev 05)
0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82845 845 (Brookdale) Chipset AGP Bridge (rev 05)
0000:00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801CA/CAM USB (Hub #1) (rev 02)
0000:00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801BAM/CAM PCI Bridge (rev 42)
0000:00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82801CAM ISA Bridge (LPC) (rev 02)
0000:00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82801CAM IDE U100 (rev 02)
0000:00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corp. 82801CA/CAM SMBus Controller (rev 02)
0000:00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corp. 82801CA/CAM AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 02)
0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon Mobility M6 LY
0000:02:02.0 CardBus bridge: O2 Micro, Inc. OZ6912 Cardbus Controlle
0000:02:03.0 Multimedia audio controller: ESS Technology ES1988 Allegro-1 (rev 12)
0000:02:04.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8180L 802.11b MAC (rev 20)
0000:02:05.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments TSB43AB21 IEEE-1394a-2000 Controller (PHY/Link)
0000:02:08.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corp. 82801CAM (ICH3) PRO/100 VE (LOM) Ethernet Controller (rev 42)

Processor:

With it being a Pentium 4, which means it has frequency control by default. Most XEON core's also have this same feature, so keep that in mind if you ever have a XEON laptop.

[TODO: Put dmesg output here]

In the kernel configuration, I enabled both CONFIG_X86_P4_CLOCKMOD and CONFIG_X86_SPEEDSTEP. On boot, as you can see, SpeedStep doesn't actually load(see dmesg), but Clockmod does.
If you're looking for it in your kernel config, it's under Processor Type and Features --> CPU Frequency Scaling -> Processor Drivers.

So you're asking, why do you want to throw on Freqency scaling? Battery Life! It's a known fact that the slower the processor is running (plus other factors), the more battery you save. You'll want to emerge in [linkit] cpufreqd [/linkit], as for this is going to be doing the most of the changes.

I've noticed that with cpufreqd, that the system gets laggy after awhile. I dont know if this is a bug with cpufreqd, or it's because my system is no longer running at 2.60Ghz, but at 600Mhz.

Figure 1.1 – 'cpufreqd -D -V7' output while AC is plugged in.
scan_system_info(): battery present - 95 – on-line get_cpu(): CPU usage = 4. get_running_programs(): read 64 processes get_running_programs(): freed 0 structs get_rule_hits(): hits for conservative: 6 get_rule_hits(): hits for lo_cpu_boost: 2 get_rule_hits(): hits for hi_cpu_boost: 2 get_rule_hits(): hits for AC_on: 8 get_rule_hits(): checked 64 processes get_rule_hits(): hits for dvd_watching: 6 find_valid_rule(): necessary hits: 8 find_valid_rule(): name AC_on, hits: 8, necessary: 8

Figure 1.1 – 'cpufreqd -D -V7' output while AC is plugged in.

scan_system_info(): battery present - 95 – on-line
get_cpu(): CPU usage = 4.
get_running_programs(): read 64 processes
get_running_programs(): freed 0 structs
get_rule_hits(): hits for conservative: 6
get_rule_hits(): hits for lo_cpu_boost: 2
get_rule_hits(): hits for hi_cpu_boost: 2
get_rule_hits(): hits for AC_on: 8
get_rule_hits(): checked 64 processes
get_rule_hits(): hits for dvd_watching: 6
find_valid_rule(): necessary hits: 8
find_valid_rule(): name AC_on, hits: 8, necessary: 8

Figure 1.1.5 - /proc/cpuinfo – AC on also.
Processor : 0 vendor_id : GenuineIntel cpu family : 15 model : 2 model name : Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.60GHz stepping : 7 cpu MHz : 2592.527 cache size : 512 KB fdiv_bug : no hlt_bug : no f00f_bug : no coma_bug : no fpu : yes fpu_exception : yes cpuid level : 2 wp : yes flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm bogomips : 5164.23

Figure 1.1.5 - /proc/cpuinfo – AC on also.

Processor : 0
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 15
model : 2
model name : Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.60GHz
stepping : 7
cpu MHz : 2592.527
cache size : 512 KB
fdiv_bug : no
hlt_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 2
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm
bogomips : 5164.23

Mind you, that you're probably not going to see this much information, unless you specifically request it by using the commandline that I posted. In my config right now, I have it scanning every 30seconds, because I noticed the 'laggyness' that was posted earlier. In contrast, here's the output of cpufreqd after I gank my AC adaptor (mind you, this is the *default* cpufreqd installation provided by Gentoo.

Figure 1.2 – 'cpufreqd -D -V7' after AC power pull
scan_system_info(): battery present - 97 – off-line get_cpu(): CPU usage = 4. get_running_programs(): read 61 processes get_running_programs(): freed 0 structs get_rule_hits(): hits for conservative: 14 get_rule_hits(): hits for lo_cpu_boost: 10 get_rule_hits(): hits for hi_cpu_boost: 10 get_rule_hits(): hits for AC_on: 0 get_rule_hits(): checked 61 processes get_rule_hits(): hits for dvd_watching: 14 find_valid_rule(): necessary hits: 8 find_valid_rule(): name conservative, hits: 14, necessary: 8 set_policy(): 0%0%33%performance - profile name: lo_boost. main_loop(): profile set "lo_boost" for rule "conservative".

Figure 1.2 – 'cpufreqd -D -V7' after AC power pull

scan_system_info(): battery present - 97 – off-line
get_cpu(): CPU usage = 4.
get_running_programs(): read 61 processes
get_running_programs(): freed 0 structs
get_rule_hits(): hits for conservative: 14
get_rule_hits(): hits for lo_cpu_boost: 10
get_rule_hits(): hits for hi_cpu_boost: 10
get_rule_hits(): hits for AC_on: 0
get_rule_hits(): checked 61 processes
get_rule_hits(): hits for dvd_watching: 14
find_valid_rule(): necessary hits: 8
find_valid_rule(): name conservative, hits: 14, necessary: 8
set_policy(): 0%0%33%performance - profile name: lo_boost.
main_loop(): profile set "lo_boost" for rule "conservative".

Figure 1.2.5 -- /proc/cpuinfo after AC cord was pulled.
processor : 0 vendor_id : GenuineIntel cpu family : 15 model : 2 model name : Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.60GHz stepping : 7 cpu MHz : 648.106 cache size : 512 KB fdiv_bug : no hlt_bug : no f00f_bug : no coma_bug : no fpu : yes fpu_exception : yes cpuid level : 2 wp : yes flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm bogomips : 1291.00

Figure 1.2.5 -- /proc/cpuinfo after AC cord was pulled.

processor : 0
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 15
model : 2
model name : Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.60GHz
stepping : 7
cpu MHz : 648.106
cache size : 512 KB
fdiv_bug : no
hlt_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 2
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm
bogomips : 1291.00

Notice how the cpu Mhz changed. I instantly go from a 2.60Ghz laptop to a 600mhz beast! But my other machine is a P3-650 running Gentoo... so it's not that bad of a drop for me. [todo... any more here, I think I covered everything pretty well]

Modem:

Okay, here's the biggest pain in my ass this unit has given me. The modem inside of this unit is a Askey branded modem. Now, I've done tech support for a small local ISP, so you think that I should be able to figure out what this thing runs... right? WRONG! I was pissed off at syncro for a couple of nights because of this.. just ask the girlfriend who's been kind and compassionate throughout this whole journey with it (Love you babe!)

lspci output
0000:00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corp. 82801CA/CAM AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 02)

Gateway – Modem Specs

Alright, simply, go to Smart Link's site, click support, and then find the 2.9.7 drivers. Smart Linux Driver Download or click here to get the ones that I downloaded. I'd like to note that you would probably also want to grab the initilization strings, as for the linux version will consistantly try to go for V.90 even after numerous failed handshakes. Compile and go... because I had hotplug, it automatically inserted into my kernel, you can use /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.4 to have them load on boot. To make it work, you would have to spawn a shell, and then run slmodemd (have to figure out how to daemonize it)

My Modem strings are: AT+MS=34,0 .. which basically are for only allow V34BIS (33.6), due to where I live and the condition of the phone lines.

Audio

under gentoo, it was easy, remember to module 'Sound Card Support' in your kernel, and leave the rest unchecked, unmoduled, etc... then run the following

ALSA_CARDS='maestro3' emerge alsa-driver alsa-utils alsa-lib

I noticed with the Gentoo distribution that i'm running at the time of writing (2.4.20-gaming-r10), when I reload Gnome, the left stays muted until I fiddle with the master.. I have to pin that down and submit a bug accordingly.

Found this useful.. send a couple bucks my way!

Comments? Questions? Issues? star@extremepcgaming.net