Notebook ASUS M6B00 (M6R) and Linux CentOS 5.x

This page describes installation of CentOS 5 on notebook ASUS M6B00 (M6R). The system has just been installed and is not yet fully configured. The text will be updated soon.

Contents

1. Installation media

The system was installed from DVD CentOS 5.1 and immediately upgraded to version 5.2.

The system was installed on an empty disk. After the installation was completed, my home directory was copied onto it. In order to preserve my password and ID, the relevant lines were copied from the backup of files /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow, /etc/group, /etc/gshadow.

2. Display and graphical card

The display and graphical card were automatically recognized and optimal resolution was set.

3. Touchpad

The touchpad was correctly detected and configured as a two-button mouse with emulation of the third button. The middle buttons are used for scrolling. I do not like such mode, I prefer the layout that I used earlier with configuration obtained from Jan Kasprzak. This is my patch file: xorg.conf.patch.txt.

4. Sound card, ethernet, USB

All interfaces are correctly detected and configured.

5. WiFi Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG

WiFi is not detected during installation. The driver can be compiled but WiFi does not work either. The instructions advise to install the latest hotplug script. DO NOT DO IT! After its installation part of the system ceases to work. I have not manage to find the way how to undo this disaster and use partially functioning system. I am afraid I will have to erase the disk and install everything from the scratch again. The driver can be found on Intel® PRO/Wireless 2200BG Driver for Linux

6. HAL

HAL daemon automates hardware connection. In the older version HAL does what it wants to do, therefore it used to be the first daemon that I switched off. Nowadays it is quite obedient. Moreover, it is an important tool for accepting messages from a battery. It is therefore advisable to keep HAL running.

7. Hibernation, suspend

Explanation of hibernation and suspend can be found eg at the page How to suspend and hibernate a laptop under Linux.

Both functions are easily accessible from the Gnome menu. The hibernate function is pretty fast, resume is equally fast and reliable. The suspend function is fast too but I did not managed to wake my notebook up, only power off worked.

8. Gnome configuration

After installation I copied my old home directory but kept /root created during installation. Gnome thus worked correctly if I was logged on as root but Gnome panels were broken if I worked as an ordinary user. Most probably Gnome cannot cope with a configuration file created by a very old version moreover if it was copied after installation. It seems to be sufficient to erase ~/.gconf directories of all users. Gnome will then create the default configuration.

9. Gnome applet

Gnome automatically installs applet for power management that allows you to configure various events. I proved hibernation when battery is critical. I found that even a good battery can die so quickly that power management is not able to do anything and the power just fails. Take seriously warnings saying that the battery is low and never rely upon automatic hibernation!