Installing Ubuntu 6.10 on AOpen1557gls

Last updated: [31 October 2006]

General Hardware Specifications of AOpen1557gls:

Hardware Components	Status under Linux	Notes
Pentium M 745 (Dothan) Processor, 1.8 GHz	Works	No special procedure required during installation.
wxga 1400x1050 tft Display	Works	No special procedure required during installation.
ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 with 128 MiB ram	Works	No special procedure required during installation for 2D. For 3D acceleration you must install the fglrx driver from ATI which is available in the Ubuntu repositories and easy to do following the procedure at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BinaryDriverHowto/ATI
1.0 GiB, RAM, 2DIMMs	Works	No special procedure required during installation
100 GB Ultra ATA Hard Drive	Works	No special procedure required during installation
Integrated Network Card	Works	No special procedure required during installation
Internal 56k Modem	Unknown, never tested	unknown
DVD-RW Drive	Works	No special procedure required during installation
Internal miniPCI Intel ipw2200 wireless b/g	Works	No special procedure required during installation
Lithium-Ion Battery	Works	No special procedure required during installation
internal Sound Card	Works	No special procedure required during installation

This laptop is operating under Kernel version 2.6.17-10-generic from the Ubuntu repositories.

Basic Installation of Ubuntu:

Why to use Ubuntu: there are several good reasons. First, it was EASY!! I also love the Ubuntu philosophy of "Humanity to Others" as well as its dedication to FLOSS. The Ubuntu forums are easily the best web forums I have even seen--people are good to neophytes, the atmosphere is kind, gentle and truly helpful--perhaps not quite as technically proficient overall as the Gentoo forums, but you won't see anyone bashing newbies--the staff won't stand for it. (Disclosure: I am a moderator in those forums...username: matthew)
Obtaining Ubuntu is easy. Go to the main Ubuntu web site. If you can't download it, they will even mail out installation disks for free anywhere in the world.
Installing is a piece of cake. For more info, put the installation disk in the drive and follow the instructions. There are helpful menus and a great installer. I originally installed Ubuntu 5.04 (Hoary Hedgehog) and used that from April 2005 to October 2005. It worked adequately first time from boot, except had to use vga=771 flag **this is no longer necessary starting with 6.06 (Dapper Drake). I then switched to Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy Badger). I tried to update from 5.04 using apt-get upgrade as I had done easily on my desktop but I had a lot of customization in my laptop's setup and just couldn't make everything work. Then I tried to do a fresh install and everything went flawlessly. All my drivers were there and everything worked well from the beginning...it was even better than 5.04. For the move to 6.04 I used apt-get dist-upgrade after updating my /etc/apt/sources list with the more recent Dapper repository list. With 6.10 I went with a fresh install since I had a hard drive die right around the same time. Installation was completely painless and quick.
Sound works well with no special procedure required during installation
PCMCIA works well with no special procedure required during installation
USB works well, with complete plug'n'play with no special procedure required during installation
Touchpad works well with no special procedure required during installation
Can read/write cd's well with no special procedure required during installation.
Viewing/reading/writing DVD's works well with no special procedure required during installation other than following this wiki guide: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats
Powersaving and processor speedstep features work well with no special procedure required during installation

Setting up additional features for Ubuntu

Under Ubuntu 5.04 I needed to upgrade ipw2200 firmware and driver from original that shipped with the release as they were version 0.19 which worked, but were just barely adequate. I had to upgrade manually to the newest Intel drivers and firmware. With 5.10 the latest drivers are included. I did re-install the firmware as I had a bit of trouble with losing my connection. This fixed it. I also wanted to use WPA and so I had to install wpa_supplicant. Info on how to install these is available here. With 6.06 and above it is even easier. I suggest reading this forum thread for more info.
Someone suggested installing the package "lineakd" from the Ubuntu repositories to enable the hardware buttons on left of keyboard. This worked perfectly.
I can use the dual-display capability via the ATI driver noted above. I did need to install the "fglrx-control" package available from the Ubuntu repositories using apt-get or synaptic. To run this from a terminal type the command "fireglcontrolpanel". So far I have only tested the clone display option using a video projector. I can not set different display resolutions for the two outputs, though so I either have to reset the laptop's display to 800x600 to match the projector or just put everything that needs to be projected in the right place on my laptop screen. I haven't tested the "extend desktop" option.

(Potentially) Unresolved issues

With the ATI driver version 8.28.08 installed and working I have not yet tried to get sleep to work but hibernation works perfectly.
On 5.04 I needed to enable dma for all drives to function at full speed capability, on 5.10 it was enabled automatically and works measurably better/faster than it did under 5.04. With 6.04 I just dist-upgraded so nothing was needed. Nothing was needed with a fresh install of 6.10.
Internal card reader does not work
I haven't tested the Irda port. I have been told that this method will get it working. If/when I test it out I will post an update.
Hardware buttons above the keyboard for audio do not work
I have not tested the firewire port

More Specific Information.

Here's the output of lspci for those that want a little more specifics

0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 82855PM Processor to I/O Controller (rev 21)
0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82855PM Processor to AGP Controller (rev 21)
0000:00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
0000:00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
0000:00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 03)
0000:00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB 2.0 EHCI Controller (rev 03)
0000:00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801 PCI Bridge (rev 83)
0000:00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82801DBM LPC Interface Controller (rev 03)
0000:00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82801DBM (ICH4) Ultra ATA Storage Controller (rev 03)
0000:00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) SMBus Controller (rev 03)
0000:00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03)
0000:00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 03)
0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV350 [Mobility Radeon 9600 M10]
0000:02:05.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401 100Base-T (rev 01)
0000:02:06.0 Network controller: Intel Corp. PRO/Wireless 2200BG (rev 05)
0000:02:09.0 CardBus bridge: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c476 II (rev ac)
0000:02:09.1 CardBus bridge: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c476 II (rev ac)
0000:02:09.2 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C552 IEEE 1394 Controller (rev 04)

Contact Information and bottom-line thoughts

Overall I am very pleased--the configuration issues I have encountered have been minor, and there were fewer with 5.10 than there were with 5.04, and now still fewer with 6.04 and 6.10. Also, any necessary solutions to vital needs have all been on the Ubuntu forums (where I go by the nickname "matthew") or the Ubuntu wiki (where I go by the nickname "matthew5") or the irc channel #ubuntuforums on irc.freenode.net (where I also go by the nickname "matthew5" when I am there, which isn't all that often). If you have any specific questions, come to the Ubuntu Forums and send me a private message.

Links:

This laptop is sold as a barebones directly from AOpen. Also, there are companies buying it, configuring it with hardware according to their specs, and reselling it.
Here's a link to a Picture of the laptop.
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