Linux on an N-30N3 Laptop

I managed to install Debian Woody (upgraded to Sid) onto my new (but used) Trillium N-30N3 laptop computer today. Of course, after doing some research, I see now that this is simply a rebranded generic laptop which seems to be distributed by many companies (Compal, Acer, Fujitsu, etc).

I didn't have to do anything fancy to trick it or anything. It uses the tulip network module and the savage video module.

The laptop works fine with kernel 2.4.18, the default on Debian Woody's bf24 option, but if I install the newer 2.6.5 or 2.6.6 kernel, I get random lockups, and predictable lockups if I press Fn+Up or Fn+Down to change the brightness. Even just sitting idle, it will lock up sometimes. I don't know if I missed an option, or if ACPI is screwing it up or what. If you can help, please email me (see below).

I have DMA enabled on both my hard drive, and my CD-RW/DVD-ROM combo. The only thing that doesn't seem to work is setting multicount on the hard drive. Still, transfer rates of about 20MB/sec isn't bad.

I am using ACPI for power management support, and the only real issue so far seems to be that the battery status applet for Gnome starts off at about 98% and says that I'm using AC power, regardless of what I'm actually using. If I plug in the AC adapter or unplug it, the status seems to perk up and tell the truth.

I did have an issue with PCMCIA and IRQ sharing, and since this is totally new to me, I just uninstalled the pcmcia-cs package... Since I don't have any PCMCIA cards, this really isn't a priority at this time.

The only other issue so far is that if I press the Fn key along with F5, it seems to lock up the system and I can't do anything. However, if I plug in the S-Video cable to a TV, I think it will simply switch output to the S-Video port. I did try it once during the install process, but I wasn't able to switch back to the LCD.

I haven't tried getting any extra buttons to work yet, but the volume control seems to be hardware-based, and therefore works regardless.

I will be adding more detail to this report as I discover it. If you want more information about anything, email me: dolson@icculus.org.

Update: I do not own this laptop anymore. You can take this page and improve on it if you like. I donate the page to the public domain.

cpuinfo

processor       : 0
vendor_id       : GenuineIntel
cpu family      : 6
model           : 11
model name      : Intel(R) Celeron(TM) CPU                1300MHz
stepping        : 1
cpu MHz         : 1293.715
cache size      : 256 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 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 mmx fxsr sse
bogomips        : 2547.71

lspci

0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8605 [ProSavage PM133]
0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8605 [PM133 AGP]
0000:00:04.0 CardBus bridge: O2 Micro, Inc. OZ6933 Cardbus Controller (rev 01)
0000:00:04.1 CardBus bridge: O2 Micro, Inc. OZ6933 Cardbus Controller (rev 01)
0000:00:07.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 [Apollo Super South] (rev 42)
0000:00:07.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
0000:00:07.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 1a)
0000:00:07.4 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 [Apollo Super ACPI] (rev 40)
0000:00:07.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 50)
0000:00:0d.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments TSB43AB22/A IEEE-1394a-2000 Controller (PHY/Link)
0000:00:10.0 Communication controller: Lucent Microelectronics LT WinModem (rev 02)
0000:00:11.0 Ethernet controller: Accton Technology Corporation EN-1216 Ethernet Adapter (rev 11)
0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: S3 Inc. 86C380 [ProSavageDDR K4M266] (rev 02)