Compal FL90 and GNU/Linux

I will give here the instructions that will be directly described on this machine, I assume it will work the same on the Compal FL 91. As well as the commissioning instructions, these instructions are tailored to the Mandriva Linux distribution, specifically version 2008.

It's not hard to set up, and with the help of this tutorial, even a blonde and maybe a Spartan + a Slavist can do it. Personally, I had two main goals:
to make the keys easy and modifiable to use after the actual commissioning, to integrate it into the system in a sensible way and not by some nasty hack.
So I'll be making the top five keys operational, one side key and seven keys that control the player
The sleep and brightness keys work, I haven't addressed the WIFI (as long as it's transmitting), I don't know how the monitor switching works (the monitor output works otherwise), the others work too, I guess they are hardware solved.
The big mute button and mute via Fn send the same code=> they behave as one button.
So the commissioning is therefore related to X's.

some basic concepts:

• scancode - codes sent directly from the keyboard
• keycode - key number, differs for console and X's
• key - physical button

required programs or packages:

• keyutils - program package
• showkey - will show console keycode , with s switch will show scancode
• setkeycodes - maps scancodes to console keycodes
• xmodmap - maps keycodes to keys in X
• xev - shows X keycodes and X key names

A picture with a description of all the keycodes in that order:

From my research I found out, that most of the buttons are already mapped to keycodes, except for the two buttons labeled WOW (which stands for "Laughing Out Loud") and the left one with the wire.
I found their scancode using "showkey -s" and mapped them to my chosen keycodes (they must be bigger than some 120) using a script I have a link to in rc.local :

#setkeycodes scancode keycode
setkeycodes e079 179
setkeycodes e076 176
setkeycodes e075 175
setkeycodes e004 204

By running xev and pressing the keys, I found their keycodes for X.

Now you can manually map a spec button to a key.
e.g.: xmodmap -e 'keycode 178=a' ; then the key to launch the web browser will type a.
You need to map special keys to keys that are defined. Their list is in the file "/usr/include/X11/keysymdef.h" -definition of common keys and in the file "/usr/share/X11/XKeysymDB" -definition of multimedia keys .

Now you need to define a new keyboard. You will only need to define the multimedia part. In the file "/usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/inet", where the multimedia part of the keyboard is defined, I added the following code:

I had a pretty big error in the following block, part of the code was not treated by the browser as text but as an XHTML tag. The bit with the pointy gingers was missing :-O

partial hidden alphanumeric_keys
xkb_symbols "compal_FL90" {
   key <I76> { [ WYSetup ] };

   key <I32> { [ XF86WWW ] };
   key <I6C> { [ XF86Mail ] };
   key <I08> { [ XF86Video ] };
   key <EISU> { [ XF86AudioRecord ] };

   key <I20> { [ XF86AudioMute ] };
   key <I2E> { [ XF86AudioLowerVolume ] };
   key <I30> { [ XF86AudioRaiseVolume ] };
   key <I22> { [ XF86AudioPlay, XF86AudioPause ] };
   key <I24> { [ XF86AudioStop, XF86Eject ] };
   key <I10> { [ XF86AudioPrev ] };
   key <I19> { [ XF86AudioNext ] };
   key <I2D> { [ XF86KbdLightOnOff ] };

};

The keyboard needs to be added to a suitable place in the file "/usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/xorg" e.g.:

      compal_FL90 \
    

  Compal FL 90 laptop keyboard
    

     compal_FL90 Compal FL 90 laptop keyboard
   

Now all you have to do is select "Compal FL 90 laptop keyboard" in the KDE Control Center in the keyboard layout instead of "general 104-key".
Using the xev program, you can verify that the key name appears instead of the NoSymbol.
Now all you have to do is assign functions to the keys, some programs already have them assigned.
I myself have assigned mute and classicity controls in Kmix, playback buttons and amarok, and I assigned the top five, using the KDE control center, to programs.

Also, the "/etc/X11/xorg.conf" file can be modified to, so that the modified keyboard will be loaded directly when the X-server starts, and it won't have to be set up in KDE. Excerpt of the modified part of this file:

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier "Keyboard1"
    Driver "kbd"
    #Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
    Option "XkbModel" "compal_FL90"
    Option "XkbLayout" "us"
    Option "XkbOptions" "compose:rwin"
EndSection

This commissioning procedure is particularly useful because, because even when you switch keyboards, the multimedia buttons still work. Note: when I updated 8.2.2008, the files with this setting were overwritten :-), so I had to write it again

The volume and mute buttons would probably be better mapped hard into the system, so that the controls don't depend on KDE starting up.

I will also point out that the left special button with the wire, works only when power is connected. I guess it's because in Windows it's designed to control power, so I guess the guys in China figured it shouldn't do anything without power.

I found out that Radio multimedia key generates scancode e004 and WIFI/BlueTooth HW Kill Switch scancode e071. But neither button is mapped to a keycode. It would probably be useful to map the button hardcoded into the system, then it could control the WIFI as well, which is disabled for the average user. On the WIFI switch, the hardware disables WIFI and bluetooth.

It would also be nice to make the diode in the big mute button work.

I did a BIOS upgrade. I decided to boot from USB. I was going to post the whole flash here, but it was too big to post on the web, but you could make a much smaller version. But I suppose any BIOS upgrade will somehow manage.

I recommend adding a line to the file: "/etc/pm/config.d/unload_modules"

SUSPEND_MODULES="iwl4965"

You can test the WebCam by using the kicker or the command:

mplayer -tv driver=v4l2:width=640:height=480:device=/dev/video0:fps=30:outfmt=yuy2 tv:// noaudio

WIFI works much better with kernel 2.6.24-laptop-0.rc5.1mdv and 2.6.24-laptop-0.rc6.1mdv.
There is no longer a need to eject a module from the kernel occasionally, e.g. when shutting down and switching it back on or when the WIFI does not want to associate.
WARNING with kernel 2.6.24-laptop-0.rc6.2mdv and newer, I have noticed a malfunction with WPA.

Hibernation (putting to sleep on disk) works much better now except I don't know what it is. My kernel 2.6.24-laptop-0.rc6.1mdv nVidia driver version 169.07

Hibernation

uvcvideo: Failed to query (1) UVC control 2 (unit 0) : -71 (exp. 26).
uvcvideo 6-2:1.1: resume error -5
Restarting tasks ... <6>usb 2-1: USB disconnect, address 3 done.

suspend_device(): usb_suspend+0x0/0x40 [usbcore]() returns -32
Could not suspend device 6-2: error -32
Some devices failed to suspend
Restarting tasks ... done.

SUSPEND_MODULES="iwl4965 ehci_hcd uhci_hcd"

I added a line to the "/etc/hddtemp.db" file, which is a little disk database:

"ST9120823AS" 194 C "Seagate Momentus 7200 120GB S-ATA-II 8MB 2.5"  NCQ"

With kernel 2.6.24.2-laptop-3mdv, the wifi signal quality seems to be much better

2008 February 22

chown root:root path/compal-laptop-control
chmod +s path/compal-laptop-control

battery
ac
button
fan
video

acpi_cpufreq
cpufreq_stats
cpufreq_powersave
cpufreq_conservative
cpufreq_ondemand

compal-laptop

nvram
sdhci

Because putting to sleep on disk works, I hibernate instead of shutting down, so I decided to remap the shutdown button to hibernate.
I remapped the shutdown call in "/etc/acpi/events/power" to the hibernation call "/etc/acpi/actions/pm-fallback-hibernate"
The file looks like this:

#!/bin/sh
/usr/bin/pm-has-power-policy || /usr/sbin/pm-hibernate

2008 March 7

I have found that the laptop, if I put it to sleep in RAM, will wake up when the battery is almost dead.
One night at home I put the laptop to sleep in RAM, the battery still had about 1/3 power but the laptop didn't last until morning. I just expected it to wake up and then (as I have defaulted) put to sleep to disk .

2008 March 16.

• For both the custom compiled kernel and the distribution kernel, the nvidia driver does not work via dkms
  you need to recompile it manually and edit "/etc/modprobe.d/nvidia.conf" (note: the contents of this file are important for nvidia dkms)
• This kernel only has alsa 1.0.15 in mandriva we have 1.0.16, which is after all a bit better for this laptop
  =>dopatch your alsa; which I have functionally verified.
• It doesn't include the compal-laptop module; no problem to compile.
• Does not contain the uvcvideo module; no problem to compile it.
  Mplayer won't play it, but it works in Skype and Kopete.

2008 March 21.

2008 April 1

2008 10 April

I upgraded to Mandriva 2008.1
PS: I'm upgrading on the fly ;-).
I recommend to at least have the harddrake service running at startup.

2008 12 April

I've tested a patch that will make it possible to use the touchpad with the synaptics driver in Xks. The touchpad is probably synaptics (I don't even know if anyone else makes them), but it works by default in "emulation mods". You can get data from the touchpad in so called absolute mode and then process and evaluate it freely.
This is how we turn on absolute mode:

echo -n 0x16> /sys/bus/serio/drivers/psmouse/serio1/reg_10

synclient -m 1

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier "Touchpad"
    Driver "synaptics"
    Option "Protocol" "auto-dev"
    Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
    #shared memory e.g. for Ksynaptics setup
    #Option "SHMConfig" "on"
    #speed
    Option "MinSpeed" "0.50"
    Option "MaxSpeed" "3.0"
    Option "AccelFactor" "0.07"
    #distance between taps
    Option "MaxTapMove" "60" #40

    #interval touch and release
    Option "MaxTapTime" "180"
    
    Option "SingleTapTimeout" "50"
    Option "MaxDoubleTapTime" "160" #160
   
# Option "LockedDragTimeout" "400"
#
    #pressure for pressing
    Option "FingerLow" "50"
    Option "FingerHigh" "125"
    
    Option "LeftEdge" "10"
    Option "RightEdge" "415" #400
    #max 448
    #setting the field for the movement of the cursor
    #!CAUTION leave a space for scrolling!
    Option "TopEdge" "50"
    Option "BottomEdge" "330"
    #max 350
    #turn on scrolling
    Option "VertEdgeScroll" "on"
    Option "HorizEdgeScroll" "on"
    #scroll generation offset
    Option "HorizScrollDelta" "25"
    Option "VertScrollDelta" "15"
   
    #UpDownScrollRepeat
    #LeftRightScrollRepeat
    #scroll speed
    Option "CircularScrolling" "on"
    #three=Right Edge =>I have to start on the right edge-this is the most logical option
    #double=Top Right Corner
    #4 Bottom Right Corner -I hardly ever get there by accident
    Option "CircScrollTrigger" "4"
    Option "CircularPad" "on"
   ## Option "Coasting" "on"
   ## Option "CircScrollDelta" "100"
   
    # Option "VertTwoFingerScroll" "on"
    # Option "HorizTwoFingerScroll" "on"
    # Option "HorizScrollDelta" "100"
    # Option "VertScrollDelta" "200"

    # edge used for normal movement
    Option "EdgeMotionUseAlways " "on"
    #Finger pressure at which minimum edge motion speed is set.
    Option "EdgeMotionMinZ" "80"
    Option "EdgeMotionMaxZ" "125"
    #Slowest setting for edge motion speed.
    Option "EdgeMotionMinSpeed" "1"
    Option "EdgeMotionMaxSpeed" "3"

EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
    ................
    InputDevice "Touchpad" "SendCoreEvents"
    ......................
EndSection

If you set up a generic keyboard with 105 keys in KDE, you will find that the WOW buttons are mapped as well. (if you are still using a script to assign the keycodes to the scancodes) (Only they are mapped to different ones than I mapped them to)
And in xorg.conf you can set:

 Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
 

I commented the script to make the SD-MMC reader work-> OK.
I cancelled ejecting the USB-related module from the kernel before sleeping-> OK.
I don't use pulse audio.

The temperature of the WIFI card is given by this file: /sys/class/net/wlan0/device/temperature
and it has to be converted to Celsius :-). It's given in kelvins, so just subtract 273 and you've got celsius.

Contents of /etc/pm/config.d/unload_modules:
SUSPEND_MODULES="iwl4965 uvcvideo uhci_hcd ehci_hcd"

I added the following to /etc/modprobe.conf:
options usbcore autosuspend=1

in patch 2.6.25-mm1 for vanilla kernel it is incorporated: LED patch for wifi with iwl* module, compal-laptop module, elantech module for touchpad.

From my tests, I found that the DVD-RAM non-functionality is due to a drive defect, which all of them have from the factory, unfortunately I have not yet been able to find another firmware to flash the drive with. My drive was in a clown that I bought in the fall of 2007. The drive is a Lite-On labeled SSM-8515S, but I don't know if they sell it under another designation. It contains the GS09 firmware, which is the latest on the manufacturer's website.

2008 24 June

I mapped a key to the WIFI. Added a line to the ~/.xbindkeysrc file:

"xset dpms force off"
XF86KbdLightOnOff
 

I added the position_fix=0 parameter to the soundbox, which makes ALSA restartable.

2008 22 September

KDE4 and Nvidia:
Command: "nvidia-settings -a InitialPixmapPlacement=2 -a GlyphCache=1" improves runtime

In xorg.conf in the card section:
Option "OnDemandVBlankInterrupts" "True" - power saving - prevents waking from sleep on nvidia.

Sometimes it happens to me that when I do experiments with X-cams about the driver then the games don't work, recompiling/installing the driver on the graphics always helped.

video recording from webcam:

mplayer -tv driver=v4l2:width=640:height=480:device=/dev/video0:fps=18:outfmt=yuy2 \
	tv:// -vo yuv4mpeg:file=/tmp/out.avi
 

mplayer -tv driver=v4l2:width=640:height=480:device=/dev/video0:fps=30:outfmt=yuy2 \
	tv:// -vo jpeg:outdir=/tmp

2008 December

I upgraded to Mandriva 2009.0 in November.
The module for WIFI is now using iwlagn. This module probably doesn't need to be unpatched at sleep.
It seems that putting to sleep in RAM works a bit again. Sleep to disk works 100%.
VLC didn't work for me, so I used the one from mdv2008.1.
Now the status light works for WIFI as well.
I'm still patching the Elantech touchpad driver.
I used a slightly newer version of the laptop-control module. Since version 0.2.8 it can control battery charging version 0.3.0 is completely redesigned.
I'm lazy to switch to KDE4 anyway, so far it's too unstable and sometimes slow for me, but it's usable now. The keyboard can be added to KDE4 using the /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/xorg.xml file.

<model>
<configItem>
<name>compal_FL90</name>
<description>Compal FL 90 laptop keyboard</description>
<vendor>Compal</vendor>
</configItem>
</model>

After the update got me around the booting problem, after booting at about 70% a black screen appears. At first I (and others) attributed this to a HW glitch.
This problem disappeared at 98% after entering the footer parameter. I did not observe this problem until I updated the kernel and had the default post-installation thus 2.6.27-desktop-0.rc8.2mnb
I also wanted to test the linux-2.28-rc7 kernel, but the graphics driver wouldn't compile (I assume due to the new graphics card memory code), so I left it alone.
Sometimes I get the webcam not working after boot (not that I use it).
Or the system also prints the following on boot:

hub 1-0:1.0: Cannot enable port 2.  Maybe the USB cable is bad?
hub 1-0:1.0: Cannot enable port 2.  Maybe the USB cable is bad?
hub 1-0:1.0: unable to enumerate USB device on port 2

Bus 007 Device 001: ID 0000:0000

Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001

Kernel 2.6.27.7-0.uc2mnb, which is in main testing boots fine without the noapic parameter.
It already includes the Elantech module, but it doesn't work with the current setup, I guess there is some change.
I compiled a newer compal-laptop module with modified permissions.
No need to use "echo -n 0x16> /sys/bus/serio/drivers/psmouse/serio1/reg_10", it already does that by itself (even in previous use). To make the touchpad work as synaptics, I patched an older version of Elantech in.

2009 Autumn

chmod 666 /sys/class/backlight/compal-laptop/brightness
chmod 666 /sys/devices/platform/compal-laptop/bluetooth
chmod 666 /sys/devices/platform/compal-laptop/wlan
chmod 666 /sys/devices/platform/compal-laptop/charging_level

echo 10 > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_ratio
echo 5 > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_background_ratio

echo 40 > /proc/sys/vm/swappiness

November 11, 2009

Upgrading Mandriva 2009.1 to 2010.0 was essentially seamless. I was careful to upgrade only from 64bit sources. And I uninstalled everything 32bit before the upgrade

The only problem I had was that the desktop didn't boot properly. And since I didn't want to delete the whole setup, I successfully found out that I just deleted the file ~/.kde4/share/config/plasma-desktop-appletsrc

After the update I back installed: AdobeReader, wine,skype, realplayer (libgdk_pixbuf2.0_0 library needed) and memcoder and ffmpeg from PLF.

July 30, 2010

Amazingly seamless upgrade to Mandriva Linux 2010.1 . Everything works including putting it to Disk and RAM.
In the test clean install, the official NVidia driver that is in the distribution would not install for me, but it was enough to turn off X and uninstall nouveau in the console and then set it up normally e.g. via drakx11, to use the proprietary NVidia driver.

current status

February 2013

I finally got around to upgrading the system on my Compal FL90 laptop. From Mandriva 2010.2, which slowly stopped evolving starting with the already unfinished 2011 version, I decided to switch to Mageia. I also tried Mageia 1, but finally got around to migrating with Mageia 2, which is a perfect follow-up to Mandriva. As for Compal FL90, since the HW is no longer new, the functionality is still the same - i.e. seamless. Of course, putting to sleep to Disk and RAM works as well.

For the compal-laptop module, I switched to version 0.2.10, which has different control files. wifi:

/sys/devices/platform/compal-laptop/rfkill/rfkill1/state

/sys/devices/platform/compal-laptop/rfkill/rfkill2/state

Mageia 2 and Mageia 3 with no problem

May 2014

chmod 666 /sys/devices/platform/compal-laptop/charging_level
chmod 666 /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness
#wifi
chmod 666 /sys/devices/platform/compal-laptop/rfkill/rfkill0/state
#bluetooth
chmod 666 /sys/devices/platform/compal-laptop/rfkill/rfkill1/state

Compal FL90 Quality Assessment

I am of the opinion that the best indication of quality is, is when the device has been running trouble-free for significantly longer than the warranty period. It's 2014 and so I can safely say that the Compal FL90 laptop I bought in 2007, was/is quality.

Laptops have much more frequent failures than desktops and as the laptop has become a consumer product, the quality goes down that much more. Most problems stem from poor device design, poorer operating conditions, and poor or no maintenance. Often laptops have problems with the strength of the hinges holding the display or the display cracks, especially if the laptop is handled carelessly. Also, some components on the motherboard come off, this is solved by throwing the laptop away or, if it's still worth the cost, replacing the entire motherboard. Replacing a faulty and often cheap component would be enough.
A bad and unstable laptop chassis is always a problem.

The Compalu FL90 has worked without a problem for 5 years and these or any other problems have not appeared. After that time, some problems did eventually occur. Fortunately, they could be solved so the laptop continues to serve.
The first problem was with the GeForce 8600M GT graphics card, which had been in service for a long time, but eventually the problem from the production of defective graphics with the G86 core became apparent. Fortunately, the graphics card is in a separate slot of the MXMII standard, so there is no problem to replace it. However, I preferred to choose another graphics card with a chip from ATI, which was manufactured without any defects and you can find graphics with ATI that are compatible with the laptop.
In order to replace it with a graphics card with ATI, the Compal FL90 had to be modified, but it wasn't a big problem.
I didn't address the driver for the other graphics card in any major way, after the first boot with a different graphics card, the GNU/Linux distribution Mageia 3 installed the opensource driver itself. For example, the game UrbanTerror works with this driver. I had to adjust the Mplayer settings, which I had previously set to use the Nvidia graphics card to decode video. So I stuck with the opensource driver. So I became an ATI user without realizing it any more.

Due to frequent use, the disk started to go bad, so I decided to replace it. As a replacement for a Seagate 120GB 7100rpm I chose a second-hand Western Digital 320Gb 5400rpm drive. The drives are of very poor quality these days, so on that occasion I switched to the BTRFS filesystem, which has new modern capabilities, to handle disk problems and preserve valuable data.
It was necessary to fix the backlight cable that was broken in the pandas, at the same time I fixed another cable in the hinge.
I had to replace the keyboard. Because I spilled wine on it while submitting a high work output and after cleaning the laptop, the keyboard didn't work right.
The funny sad thing though was, that KM czech (the website used to be www.vbi.cz) sent me an English keyboard for the price of a Czech one :-@. At the same time I bought memory from them to have 4GB RAM instead of 2GB. But their salesmen, playing the naysayers, recommended me to use the faster one, which they assured me the Compal FL90 would support, I didn't think so, but I paid extra. In the end, it turned out I should have trusted myself because the memory runs at the same frequency as the cheaper one. They refused to replace the keyboard and even downgraded me to the price of the English keyboard version, which was much cheaper. Replacing or lowering the price of the memory didn't do anything for them either. So rather than waste my time with them, so I transferred the Czech keys from the original battered Czech keyboard to the new English keyboard. The webcam, which I just got working anyway to test it out, but I don't use it otherwise, I guess it doesn't work. I probably accidentally used it once when I was flashing Freerunner. or the wrong cable to it... :-/.
The LCD may not have perfect colors, but what do you want from a laptop. The display hasn't deteriorated over time. I just noticed a small line of a few partially damaged pixels on one side, that appears with a light background.

current status