Gateway 4520GZ Laptop

These are my experiences with getting the above mentioned laptop to run the Linux OS. Specifically, I am trying to get Knoppix/Debian to work correctly. For more Linux on laptops, please visit TuxMobil - Linux on laptops, PDA's and mobile phones.

Kernel config

Most of the stuff is compiled in, and I'll probabley change some things in the future. However, this config file should do it for most people.
Linux 2.6.9 Config file

Review and Installation Notes

The computer is fairly nice with the notable quality of being light (5.5 lbs) and small (1.1 in. thick). It has a nice snappy keyboard (but possibly fragile) and the overall case seems to be pleasantly simple (contrast this to the latest wave of Dell laptops). The battery life so far has been around 3.5 - 4 hours of normal use, which includes compiling stuff for me. The laptop generally doesn't get very hot (usually around 45 C) and feels more or less comfortable on my lap. Unfortunately, the screen is only 1024x768, but I found that I generally don't mind too much. The screen can be surprisingly bright and surprisingly dim. The built in sound pretty much sucks. The speakers are actually under the keyboard and it has a fairly muted quality. Overall, I'd say I'm happy with this computer. Oh, one more weird thing... when I close the lid and open it again, I usually inadvertently lift the front of the laptop since most of the weight is in the back. Of course the first things I had to do when I bought this machine was install Linux on it. So I first used Knoppix and QTParted to resize the NTFS partition to about ten gigs. Having a 60 gig hd, I thought I could spare ten. Really the whole process of installing and configuring the laptop was way too easy. I had running Linux the way I wanted it to in just a few hours. That may seem like a long time for some people, but I remember spending days with Alison's laptop...
I used a version of Knoppix called "Kanotix". The few differences between Kanotix and vanilla Knoppix is that Kanotix uses GRUB by default. Other than that it should be an issue to just use Knoppix. Knoppix saw almost everything from the get go, so it should just be a matter of inserting the CD and doing a harddrive install.

Ethernet and Wireless

This computer came with an integrated card... The integrated wireless card is an Intel 2200BG. Intel either has or is making an native driver for Linux. I was lazy and just used ndiswrapper instead. I loaded the driver found on the Windows partition and everything pretty muched worked. However, when I do an "ndiswrapper -l", it keeps complaining that it there is no hardware associated with the driver. Performing a "ifconfig -a" does however list the device correctly as "wlan0". Go figure. It seems to work ok.

PCMCIA

This laptop comes with one PCMCIA slot. I've been able to get this to work (at least it works when I stick an Orinoco card in it). I had some problems initially, but it was mainly Knoppix's fault. For some reason, whenever I inserted my card, the cardmgr was loading the incorrect driver. I fixed the issue in the Xconfig file by deleting some lines that mentioned "prism2" modules, and then everything worked just fine. Obviously if you actually use a prism2 card once in a while, you may want to do something else.

Graphics card

This laptop comes with Intel's Extreme Graphics integrated card with 32mb shared memory. Once again, no real problems. Knoppix configured the graphics card just fine with accelerated 3D. I'm getting about 600 fps on glxgears on default window size. You won't be playing DoomIII on this thing, but it should suffice for trivial 3D graphics like some screen savers. Perhaps if I use Intel's proprietary driver, I can make it go faster, but really I don't have a lot of motiviation.

Sound

I had to turn off "External Amplifier" to get sound working.

DVD/CDRW

I'm pretty sure this things works. I haven't burned a CD or watched a DVD yet, but I have transferred some files from a CD.

Touchpad

Currently I am using the Synaptics touchpad driver with the XFree86 4.3 module. Everything works as expected. Unfortunately, the touchpad doesn't have a convenient button to turn off the stupid touchpad. I usually just QSynaptics, but still, it's quite annoying.

ACPI

ACPI is working just fine for the most part. I can read the temperature, battery life, etc. CPU frequency seems to be working using Intel's Speedstep. The function keys also seem to work for the most part. I can the screen dimmer or brighter. Really the only thing I can't do is put the laptop to sleep correctly. Trying to get S3 to work usually complains that the EHCI device (USB 2.0) can't be suspended properly. Since I have the module compiled in the kernel, I haven't really been able to test it without that module loaded. However, when I try to do S3 with Knoppix's default kernel, the computer goes to sleep ok, but doesn't quite manage to wake up :P Other than that, I think S4 (hibernate) works. When it wakes up however, 3D seems to be broken and I think the clock gets all screwed up...

Broken or Untested

I know for sure that the Smart media card reader doesn't work in Linux. When you insert a card, cardmgr can see the card just fine, but doesn't what the hell to do with it. The specifications for the card readers aren't quite open yet, but we can all hope... I also haven't actually done anything with the modem. I assume it works, but I have no idea when I'll actually use the thing.