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Linux on a Higrade Notino A1300/Asus A1300A laptop

I'm now running redhat 9 so if you're using redhat 9 go here

This page is no longer maintained as I'm running redhat 9 but I'll leave the information up in case it helps.

I have installed SUSE 7.3/8.0 and currently have RedHat 8 on my Higrade Notino A1300 (rebadged asus A1300A) laptop. Not everything works (i.e. the modem) but the majority of hardware works well. The best reference for installing linux on this series of laptops is to visit Alf Martone's site. That site tells you pretty much everything you need to know. I'll just note down my RedHat 8 experiences here. Feel free to mail me at if you need any help.

Hardware

  1. DVD - Works fine, but I needed to enable scsi emulation so it's recognised by cdrecord. Change /dev/cdrom and /dev/dvd symbolic links to point at /dev/sr0. Next add hdc=ide-scsi to the append section in lilo.conf and run /sbin/lilo. Also add "options ide-cd dma=1" to modules.conf to enable dma for the dvd drive. RedHat init scripts take care of loading the ide-scsi kernel module.
  2. Modem - It's a winmodem and does not work yet. It's supposed to be HAMR5600 compatible but I've tried the drivers and they segfault when loaded. Motorola supply SM56 drivers which don't work.
  3. Psion Dacom Gold Card V34 Fax Modem - PCMCIA services detects this and makes it available via /dev/ttyS2. Works great.
  4. SIS630 Graphics card - Works but you need to visit Thomas Winnischoffer's site to get 3D acceleration working. Thomas has done a lot of work on this driver and I have dri working with the latest redhat 2.4.18 kernel. Use Thomas' precompiled binaries for XFree 4.2.1.
  5. Network card - Works fine.
  6. HP 7200e CD Writer plus - Not working with the current RedHat kernel. I have raised a bug with RedHat. Does normally work by doing (as root) modprobe paride, modprobe epat and modprobe pg. cdrecord will then see the burner as a scsi device.
  7. Lexmark Z11 - I only managed to get good results using CUPS and an upgraded driver from SomSom and Christian Kornblum's site. Compile and install the driver by following the instructions on the sites. Then go here and generate a cups ppd file. Save the file and copy it into the /usr/share/cups/model/Lexmark directory. Open the URL http://localhost:631/admin and add the Z11 printer. Make sure you select the CZ11-SomSom driver from the printer list.
  8. Aries Scanit 4800 Pro scanner - This is a re-badged Plustek scanner and works. You need to get the driver from this site and install as per the instructions. Then launch xsane with the following command so that it uses the correct driver. 'xsane plustek:/dev/pt_drv'
  9. Zip 100 Parallel - Works fine.
  10. Olympus D-230 camera - Works great. Add the following line to /etc/fstab. "/dev/sda1 /mnt/camera auto noauto,user,exec 0 0". Then add "/sbin/modprobe usb-storage" to /etc/rc.modules.
  11. Creative WebCamGo Plus - No chance.
  12. Oregon Scientific DS3868 Webcam/Digital Camera - Working fine. Automatically recognised by the kernel as a stv680 device and is assigned /dev/video0. Gnomemeeting/xawtv etc can then all use it. Pictures can be downloaded using gtkam but you have to do 'rmmod stv680' before gtkam will recognise and talk to the device.

Software

  1. RedHat8 Menus - I really like RH8 but I think the menu layout is unintuitive. As no menu editor is supplied with RH8 you have to hack the menu files by hand. I've consolidated the preferences, system tools and system settings menus so that preferences and system tools appear under the system settings menu. I also got rid of the extras menus and they now appear in the top level menus. Here's a screenshot. You can download the modified files here. Copy them to /etc/X11/desktop-menus. Make sure you back up the old files first.
  2. Pilot Conduits - RedHat8 has the Gnome Pilot Conduits applet missing from the control center. Download this file and save it to /usr/share/gnome/apps/Settings (That's where I put it, but there's probably a more appropriate place). The applet will then appear in the control center.
  3. Mozilla - Go here and download the latest mozilla rpms with xft support. Makes mozilla fonts look superb.
  4. Apt4RPM - Go here and download apt4rpm. Once installed do "apt-get install synaptic" and manage your packages with ease.
Note that this information is provided as is. Use it at your own risk.