ASUS Eee PC 1005HA

From Gentoo Wiki
Jump to:navigation Jump to:search


The Asus Eee PC 1005HA is a laptop manufactured by Asus in 2009. It features an Intel Atom N280 with 1GB of RAM (upgradable to 2GB), a 160GB hard disk, and a Mobile Intel 945ME Express with 250MB of VRAM. Some versions of the laptop had an Intel Atom N270.

This article supplements the Gentoo Linux x86 Handbook with specific information regarding the Eee PC 1005HA.

Kernel configuration is based on the sys-kernel/gentoo-sources-3.0.6.

Choosing the right install medium

As the Eee PC 1005HA does not have a CD/DVD drive, the easiest way to install Gentoo is using a LiveUSB. Follow the instructions given in the Gentoo Linux LiveUSB HOWTO.

The ath9k module that ships with the gentoo-minimal disk image has not been compiled with PCI support, which means wireless networking is not available during install. As a Gentoo install is dependent on a network connection, either install over ethernet (atl1c driver is supported), use another distro to install (e.g. System Rescue CD), or recompile the ath9k module for a custom LiveUSB.

To boot from a LiveUSB press Esc as the machine powers on, then select the appropriate device from the list presented. If Boot Booster is enabled (see later), first enter the BIOS configuration by pressing F2 as the machine powers on, then exit without saving changes by pressing F10, then press Esc as described previously.

Partitioning

Follow the guidance on partitioning as given in the handbook, with the following exception to enable Boot Booster:

Boot Booster

The Asus Eee PC 1005HA features a technology called Boot Booster, which can reduce boot times by a few seconds by caching the results of the POST on the hard disk. When partitioning the internal hard disk, create a 16MB primary partition of type EFI (0xEF). The location on the disk is unimportant but the partition must be a primary one. The system does not boot using the EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface), but rather uses the partition type to identify which partition to read/write the cache.

The example fdisk output below shows a 100MB boot partition, a 16MB EFI partition (for Boot Booster) a 2GB swap partition and a ~147GB partition for the rest of the system.

root #fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581808 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xde0404c0

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *        2048      206847      102400   83  Linux
/dev/sda2          206848      239615       16384   ef  EFI (FAT-12/16/32)
/dev/sda3          239616     4433919     2097152   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda4         4433920   312581807   154073944   83  Linux

Boot Booster must also be enabled in the BIOS configuration.

Hardware

CPU

The CPU is an Intel Atom N280 (or N270 on some revisions).

KERNEL Processor support
Processor type and features --->
    [*] Symmetric multi-processing support
    Processor Family (Intel Atom) --->
    ...
    (2) Maximum number of CPUs
    [*] SMT (Hyperthreading) aware nice priority and policy support
    ...
    [*] Machine Check / overheating reporting
    [*]   Intel MCE features
    ...
    <*> /dev/cpu/microcode - microcode support
    [*]   Intel microcode patch loading support

To update the processor microcode, install sys-apps/microcode-ctl.

root #emerge --ask sys-apps/microcode-ctl

The microcode patch will be lost at each reboot, but the init script can reload it.

root #/etc/init.d/microcode_ctl start
root #rc-update add microcode_ctl boot

In this example, the microcode is updated from version 0x212 to 0x218.

root #dmesg | grep microcode
[    0.250287] microcode: CPU0 sig=0x106c2, pf=0x4, revision=0x212
[    0.250302] microcode: CPU1 sig=0x106c2, pf=0x4, revision=0x212
[    0.250433] microcode: Microcode Update Driver: v2.00 <tigran@aivazian.fsnet.co.uk>, Peter Oruba
[   11.330007] microcode: CPU0 updated to revision 0x218, date = 2009-04-10
[   11.335961] microcode: CPU1 updated to revision 0x218, date = 2009-04-10

Graphics

The GPU is a Mobile Intel 945ME Express. Follow the instructions in the Intel article.

Ethernet

The Ethernet card is an Atheros AR8132.

KERNEL Gigabit Ethernet
Device Drivers --->
    [*] Network device support --->
	[*] Ethernet (1000Mbit) --->
            [M] Atheros L1C Gigabit Ethernet Support

Wireless

The wireless card is an Atheros AR9285 (PCI-Express).

KERNEL Wireless support
[*] Networking Support --->
    -*- Wireless --->
	<*> cfg80211 - wireless configuration API
        ...
        <*> Generic IEEE 802.11 Networking Stack (mac80211)

Device Drivers --->
    [*] Network device support --->
        [*] Wireless LAN --->
	    [M] Atheros Wireless Cards --->
                [M] Atheros 802.11n wireless cards support
                    [*] Atheros ath9k PCI/PCIe bus support

Sound

The sound card is a Realtek ALC269 (Intel ICH7 Family).

KERNEL Sound card support
Device Drivers --->
    <M> Sound Card Support --->
        <M> Advanced Linux Sound Architecture --->
            [*] PCI Sound Devices --->
		[M] Intel HD Audio --->
                    [*] Build Realtek HD-audio codec support

See also the ALSA guide.

Webcam

KERNEL Webcam support
Device Drivers --->
    [M] Multimedia Support --->
        [M] Video For Linux
	...
        [*] Video Capture Adapters --->
            [*] Autoselect pertinent encoders/decoders and other helper chips
	    ...
            [*] V4L USB Devices --->
                <M> USB Video Class (UVC)
                [*]   UVC input events device support

ACPI, LEDs and hotkeys

KERNEL
Device Drivers --->
    [*] X86 Platform Specific Device Drivers --->
        <M> Eee PC Hotkey Driver

Bluetooth

Bluetooth is provided by a Broadcom BT-253, connected using USB. Follow the instructions given in the Gentoo Linux Bluetooth Guide.

TouchPad

The TouchPad is a Synaptics PS/2 TouchPad.

KERNEL TouchPad support
Device Drivers --->
    Input device support --->
        <*> Mouse interface
        ...
        [*] Mice --->
            <*> PS/2 mouse
              [*] Synaptics PS/2 mouse protocol extension

Enable two-finger scrolling in X:

FILE /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-synaptics
Section "InputClass"
	Identifier "Touchpad"
        Driver "synaptics"
        MatchIsTouchpad "on"
	Option "VertTwoFingerScroll" "true"
	Option "HorizTwoFingerScroll" "true"
        Option "EmulateTwoFingerMinZ" "40"
        Option "EmulateTwoFingerMinW" "5"
EndSection

Keyboard

Configuration for the keyboard in X (adjust as required):

FILE /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/30-keyboard
Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "Keyboard"
	Driver "evdev"
        Option "XkbLayout" "us"
        Option "XkbModel" "asus_laptop"
	Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
        Option "XkbVariant" ",qwerty"
        MatchIsKeyboard "on"
EndSection