Linux on the Jetbook 7050 Series

• 24Feb1999, 22:20/ The beginning. Been running this laptop for a couple weeks now with no further troubles (past the broken IDE subsystem and tweaked CD on the first try (thanks, UPS) and a minorly annoying dead pixel that I don't plan on messing with).

I installed Stampede Linux. It's still quite early and I would definitly not recommend it for new (or newer) users of Linux. Try a CD-ROM based on Red Hat instead so that you do not need the PCMCIA functionality during installation (which is quite a trick indeed).

The 7050 and 7053 use the Trident 9385 video chipset paired with 2mb of video ram. I suggest you run it at 16bpp color (the highest possible with 2mb). The touchpad is a standard PS/2 mouse. The tap=click reaction is done in the pad and doesn't require any special configuration considerations. I also suggest you turn on Emulate3Buttons. X11 without a middle button is kind of painful.

The XF86Config file is not overly difficult to set up for the panel, but it can be a bit of a hassle since the panel will work only in one mode: 1024x768. My current config is here if you want to have something to start with.

I've run both 2.0.35/36 and 2.2.0/1 kernels. Everything should work fine. The only option you should watch out for is CONFIG_APM_CPU_IDLE. Enabling that option in your config WILL cause your laptop to hang on boot. I see no way around it. A /usr/src/linux/.config for 2.2.0ac5 is here.

• Linux on Laptops: a large list of resources for Linux users on laptops
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• Linux PCMCIA Information: Central site for the PCMCIA package
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