Report on installing Gentoo Linux on a Uniwill 755IA

lspci from 2.6.11:
0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE/PE DRAM
Controller/Host-Hub Interface (rev 03)
0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE/PE Host-to-AGP
Bridge (rev 03)
0000:00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M)
USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
0000:00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M)
USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
0000:00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M)
USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02)
0000:00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB2 EHCI
Controller (rev 02)
0000:00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801 PCI Bridge (rev 82)
0000:00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL (ICH4/ICH4-L) LPC Interface
Bridge (rev 02)
0000:00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82801DB (ICH4) IDE Controller (rev 02)
0000:00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) SMBus
Controller (rev 02)
0000:00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM
(ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 02)
0000:00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97
Modem Controller (rev 02)
0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon R250 Lf
[Radeon Mobility 9000 M9] (rev 01)
0000:02:03.0 CardBus bridge: O2 Micro, Inc. OZ6912 Cardbus Controller
0000:02:0a.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. IEEE 1394 Host
Controller (rev 80)
0000:02:0c.0 Ethernet controller: National Semiconductor Corporation DP83815
(MacPhyter) Ethernet Controller


Video:  Proprietary ATI drivers (fglrx) work well
Sound:  intel8x0 alsa driver gives no problems
LM-Sensors: max1617-i2c-0-4c shows CPU / Board temps
PCMCIA:  Works flawlessly at least with prism54 wireless card
USB 1&2:  No problems, ehci_hcd,uhci_hcd drivers on linux 2.6
Firewire: Untested
Ethernet: natsemi driver works great
Modem: With slmodem works fine, tested in several countries with success

ACPI is usable, I have scripted the lid shut event to run hibernate (swsusp2)
which works nearly flawlessly.  Occasionally I get a "could not write a chunk
of the data" or some similar message but that's mainly because my swap file is
too small.

I've had some keyboard issues, but nothing too serious.

All in all a most satisfactory notebook for Linux.

-Matt Steven 
2005-03-28


Update: 2005-10-02

Some problems have come up when the notebook is unplugged from the AC
and plugged back in.  The entire system locks up hard.  Will update 
if I find out why or how to fix it.  This doesn't happen under windows
2000, so it must be a driver issue.  Please send advice to matthew at 
the matts org domain if you have any.

Update: 2005-10-07

I've isolated the problem to the cpufreq-* drivers.  If you use frequency
scaling at all while in battery mode and reconnect power you will have a 
full system lock up.  Even if you unload all scaling drivers before plugging
back in.

I think the main issues are these:

1. You must exit battery mode with the same frequency that you entered it in.  
So this means you are out of luck for using dynamic scaling, and that you 
must always set the frequency manually to a lower level BEFORE you 
disconnect AC power.  Most annoying.

2. If you scale down the frequency while in battery mode, even if you put 
it back to the same frequency it was at before you disconnected from AC you 
will get a lock up, so don't do it.  You must set freq before disconnecting
manually.


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Bios and windows drivers can be found at
http://www.uniwill.com/UserDownload/N755IA/N755IA.php