Frequently asked Linux-specific questions about the Compaq Contura Aero
- Authors:
- Ali Albayrak <albayrak@helsinki.fi>
Harald.T.Alvestrand@uninett.no (HTML and maintaining)
- Purpose:
-
This FAQ is written in order to be useful for those Aero users
who are installing or already using Linux system with their Aero.
- Disclaimer:
-
The authors take no responsibility for the correctness or
completeness of any information in this FAQ, and will take no legal
responsibility for any damage caused by
using the information presented in this FAQ.
- Copyright:
- Copyright (c) 1995-1996 Ali Abayrak and Harald T. Alvestrand
Reproduction in whole or in part for any purpose is allowed,
provided proper attribution is maintained.
For DOS-related subjects, and subjects not related directly to Linux,
you might find the answer in
another Aero FAQby Renee Roberts <Renee@cup.portal.com>, or at
Philip Wilk's Aero page (by <pwilk@garnet.berkeley.edu>), or
Reed Wade's OS overview for info on what OSes run on the Aero.
More generic info on laptops and Linux can be found at Kenneth
Harker's Linux Laptop home page.
Table of Contents
1. Technical features
2. Why doesn't the floppy drive work?
3. Why doesn't the floppy drive work after a SUSPEND?
4. Why doesn't the trackball work with Selection?
5. I can't access the setup of the Aero
6. Why can't I boot from the floppy drive?
7. How long does the battery last?
8. ROMPAQs? (or why don't Fn+F6 and Fn+F7 work)
9. How can I use PCMCIA cards under Linux?
10. What should I use for an X configuration?
11. My clock stops when I press Suspend
12. Does the DOS emulator run?
13. Where can I get other info about the Aero?
14. What expansions are available for the Aero?
15. Why doesn't the disk stop?
16. Why is the BogoMips rating so low?
17. I bought 20 Mbytes of memory, but only see 16 of them?
Ongoing investigations
The floppy driver
The following is picked from
tsx-11.mit.edu:/pub/linux/packages/laptops/laptop-survey
From: ..................................... Ali Albayrak <albayrak@helsinki.fi>
Laptop Make and Model: .................... Compaq Contura Aero 4/25
CPU.speed, type, upgradeable.to: .......... 25MHz, i486SX/SL, -
Disk size, type, upgradeable.to: .......... 84 MB / 250 MB, IDE 2,5" slim
RAM size, type, upgradeable.to: .......... 4 M, ?, 12 MB
Screen size, type: ........................ 8" (mono LCD) VGA
Max battery life while running linux: ..... < 4 h
Weight with battery: ...................... 1,6 kg
PCMCIA number of slot, type, bridge chip: . 1, Type II CSSI 2.01, -
Mouse, Track Ball (location), etc.: ..... PS/2 type, trackball right-front
Docking capability: ....................... yes, very cheap
Power conservation: ....................... APM, works under Linux
Misc neat stuff: .......................... - smaller than A4 sheet!
........................................... - floppy optional but recommended
........................................... - a bit noisy hard-disk
........................................... - excellent keyboard
........................................... - small power-adapter
........................................... - very Linux-compatible despite
........................................... PCMCIA-floppies and other
........................................... weird stuff
Linux Version: ............................ 1.0 (Slackware 1.2.0)
X386 (color, gray) monitor specs: ......... ?
Networking (dlink/pcmcia modules): ........ ?
From: Harald "T." Alvestrand <Harald.T.Alvestrand@uninett.no>
Laptop Make and Model: Compaq Aero 4/33C
CPU speed, type, upgradeable to: 33MHz, 486SX, no upgrade
Disk size, type, upgradeable to: 250 MBytes, 170 MB possible
RAM size, type, upgradeable to: 8 MBytes, 4M default
Screen size, type, upgradeable to: 8" passive matrix color LCD, no upgrade
Battery type (lithium-ion,NiMh,NiCd): NiMH
Max battery life while running linux: Approx 2-3 hours
Weight with battery: 1.9 kgs
PCMCIA number of slot, type: 1, type II
PCMCIA bridge chip (intel, cirrus, databook, etc.): intel
Mouse, Track Ball (location), Pen, IBM thingy, etc.: Trackball lower RH corner
Docking capability: No, expander does only ext. screen and so on
Power conservation: APM BIOS support
Misc neat stuff: Keyboard up against screen (Apple layout)
Linux Version: 1.1.20
Networking (parallel/portable/pcmcia modules): Working on it - SLIP at the moment
X386 (color, gray, chipset) monitor specs: X386 1.2.2 VGA_16 at 640x480
Compaq corp. has put out a Web server; the info on the Aero, with lots
of pictures, is here.
As usual, the stuff you really want to know is missing...
Anyway, the official picture is here.
There's a picture
of the motherboard there too!
More tech info, garnered from various sources:
- The CPU is an INTEL SXJ. The SXJ has a 16-bit external bus, while
maintaining the 32 bit bus internally. Info from
dreid1@agt.alta.net (Dave Reid). Speed is 33 MHz for the color
model, 25 MHz for the B/W model. No upgrades available.
- The 250 MB disk is a QUANTUM DAYTONA 256A, 244MB w/98KB Cache,
according to my Linux bootup messages. It claims "MaxMult=64",
anyone who has tried the disk speedup patches that take advantage
of this - please mail me!
- The PCMCIA controller is a VLSI 82c146, which is a bit strange,
since that
chip does not support DMA, according to Mike Mori
<mtmori@rahul.net>. Otherwise, it seems just like an Intel
i82365.
- The display is powered by a Tseng Labs ET4000 with 256K RAM, no
expansion possible, according to Denis Cheong
<dcheong@rand.lab2.ecel.uwa.edu.au>; checked by "speedcom" from
the Landmark System Speed Test v2.00. XF86_SVGA refuses to
recognize it, but DOSEMU seems to start with this info.
- You can see the chip layout on
Gebhard Markus' Aero page; he also has more info.
Linux doesn't love PCMCIA floppy controllers yet.
To get it to work:
- Have the floppy plugged in at startup
- Remove /dev/fd0, and replace with a symlink to fd0H1440. This
defeats autodetection of formats, which failed.
- DO NOT use suspend mode (see next question)
1. [Q] Why my floppy drive does not work after I have suspended the machine
and then waked it up?
[A] You have to enable option "Power ON in PCMCIA slot when
suspended" from the setup
(main menu):Power Management:More
Now drivers from the drive won't dissappear but however power
is consumed more while machine is suspended.
META A.A.: I have to check if details of this are correct
This was the experience of Ali M. Abaryak. Later (Oct 95), David L. Johnson
<dlj0@lehigh.edu> reported that he couldn't get it to
work. Perhaps it doesn't work after all.
[Q] Why my trackball does not work properly when I run Selection
(the program that allows Cut&Paste in virtual consoles)?
[A] Aero's trackball is PS/2 compatible and in some versions of
Selection there has been bug in PS/2 support. Following patch
for version 1.5 is picked from sunsite.unc.edu and is written by
<hjl@nynexst.com>:
H.J.
-----
*** mouse.c.orig Thu Jun 17 19:11:04 1993
--- mouse.c Fri Feb 11 20:56:26 1994
***************
*** 154,160 ****
{ 0xe0, 0x80, 0x80, 0x00, 3 }, /* MMSeries */
{ 0xe0, 0x80, 0x80, 0x00, 3 }, /* Logitech */
{ 0xf8, 0x80, 0x00, 0x00, 5 }, /* BusMouse */
! { 0xcc, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 3 } /* PS/2 */
};
static void
--- 154,160 ----
{ 0xe0, 0x80, 0x80, 0x00, 3 }, /* MMSeries */
{ 0xe0, 0x80, 0x80, 0x00, 3 }, /* Logitech */
{ 0xf8, 0x80, 0x00, 0x00, 5 }, /* BusMouse */
! { 0xc0, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 3 } /* PS/2 */
};
static void
***************
*** 209,216 ****
return -1;
}
! if (mtype != P_BM && mtype != P_PS2)
{
ms_setspeed(9600, mbaud, cflag[mtype]);
ms_setspeed(4800, mbaud, cflag[mtype]);
ms_setspeed(2400, mbaud, cflag[mtype]);
--- 209,224 ----
return -1;
}
! switch (mtype)
{
+ case P_BM:
+ break;
+
+ case P_PS2:
+ write (mfd, "\364", 1);
+ break;
+
+ default:
ms_setspeed(9600, mbaud, cflag[mtype]);
ms_setspeed(4800, mbaud, cflag[mtype]);
ms_setspeed(2400, mbaud, cflag[mtype]);
***End-of-patch***
******************
If you have installed LILO to a partition (typically by specifying
boot=/dev/hda2 in /etc/lilo.conf, and making that partition "active"
using FDISK), the problem doesn't appear.
If you have got LILO installed into your master boot record
you must uninstall it from hard disk, add setup partition
to LILO or boot with diagnostics diskette of Aero.
META A.A.: I'm not sure about that BIOS date, because I got
one version of May 94 and it hasn't got this option.
META A.A.: Someone should upload the image of diagnostics diskette
somewhere in Net (I would also need it ...))
4. [Q] Why my PCMCIA floppy-drive doesn't boot?
[A] To be able to boot your machine from floppy-drive your BIOS
must be dated 7. March 1994 or later. Contact your Compaq
dealer for upgrade.
5. [Q] How long you can operate with one charge (NiCa battery)
[A] If you don't use any Advanced Power Management options
less than 2 hours. With suitable APM options on up to
4 hours.
- [Q]
- Aero's Fn+F6 and Fn+F7 keys does not do what they should.
- [A]
- This happens with some newer BIOS upgrades. If you have
upgraded your BIOS from diskette of Compaq Care you can find
backup of your older BIOS from that diskette. Just boot
the machine with the diskette and follow the instructions.
Of course you should do this only if your previous BIOS
did not have this problem.
I am using BIOS 7th of March 94 and you might find it from
ftp.compaq.com.
NOTE: The BIOS upgrades for the Aero are available by FTP from
www.compaq.com;
the documentation is NOT set up for easy parsing, but the latest seems to be the
one called
sp1992.exe,
with documentation in
sp1992.doc
according to
the
listing (May 15)
Other numbers that seem to be BIOS upgrades are sp1487.exe,
sp1331.exe, sp1291.exe, sp1073.zip, s0946.zip,
sp0896.zip, sp0762.zip and sp0723.zip.
I downloaded all the PAQs to an UNIX box and checked them out:
- sp0723.zip (10 March 94) contains the string
"Version 486S_0307.94"; this is probably the March 7 version that
Ali uses.
- sp0762.zip (20 April 94) contains the string
"Version 486S_0416.94"; this is probably the one I (Harald) am running
(delivered with the machine); it works fine.
- sp0896.zip (30 August 94) contains the string
"Contura Aero (486S_0608.94)"; this is probably the one
that gave trouble with APM (see below).
- sp0946.zip (06 October 94) contains the string
"Contura Aero (486S) (06/08/94)"; this
would seem to be the same as the previous one.
- sp1073.zip contains the string
"Version 4S_110194 Rev A 720 KB Media"
- sp1124.exe (note the change in format!) contains the string
"Compaq ROMPaq Firmware Upgrade for the Contura Aero
Ver. 011995"
- sp1291.exe claims to be a 14 Jun 95 system ROM.
- sp1331.exe claims to upgrade the Aero to a July 19, 1995 System
ROM.
- sp1487.exe claims to upgrade to a 7 Dec 95 system ROM. It
supersedes sp1331.exe.
According to Ali Abaryak, the BIOS dated June 8, 1994 did not work at
all well together with the Rothwell APM patches, so he has gone back
to the March 7 version.
According to kikutani@ams.co.jp (Kikutani Makoto), the Aero refused to
suspend with sp1124.exe on APM-BIOS 0.5 and 1.2.8 until he undefined
the APM_IGNORE_USER_SUSPEND in drivers/char/apm_bios.c
According to John G. Myers <jgm+@CMU.EDU>, the sp1331 ROMPaq
allowed him to hibernate/restore while running X on Linux 1.3.57,
which did NOT work without an external monitor on the 06/94 BIOS.
The PCMCIA controller is a VLSI clone of the Intel 82365 chip.
David Hinds' PCMCIA drivers work great with this chip; I (HTA) use
version 2.5.6 currently (Nov 28 1994); the latest and greatest is
available from cb-iris.stanford.edu
The following cards are known to work in the Aero with Hinds' PCMCIA package:
- D-Link DE-650 Ethernet card
- Megahertz XJ1144 modem
NOTE: The floppy controller will STOP working when you start
up the cardmanager!!!!!!!!!
For more general PCMCIA information, look here; there
isn't much, really.
For the Aero 4/33C, the following X configuration seems to work under
XFree86 2.1 with the
VGA_16 server. The SVGA server will not work!
(Or rather, it works, but only in 300x200 mode with 256 colors. Nice
for playing DOOM in, but not terribly useful for ordinary work)
A config file for XFree86 3.1 is here.
The same file will work for both color and mono Aero.
# Standard stuff - modify to taste
RGBPath "/usr/X386/lib/X11/rgb"
FontPath "/usr/X386/lib/X11/fonts/misc/"
FontPath "/usr/X386/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/"
FontPath "/usr/X386/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo/"
FontPath "/usr/X386/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/"
FontPath "/usr/X386/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/"
# Also standard
Keyboard
AutoRepeat 500 5
ServerNumLock
# This is important - remember to make /dev/mouse be a link to ps2aux,
# or have major 10, minor 1
ps/2 "/dev/mouse"
Emulate3Buttons
# This is the important part. The "virtual" size is my personal taste;
# having both fvwm and the X server do "virtual" large screen confused the
# hell out of me!
VGA16
Virtual 640 480
Viewport 0 0
Modes "640x480"
VGA2
Virtual 800 600
ViewPort 0 0
Modes "640x480"
# The clock (28.322) is the important part.
ModeDB
"640x480" 28.322 640 680 720 864 480 488 491 521
Since this machine supports the APM BIOS, the solution is simple:
Apply Stephen Rothwell's PCMCIA patches, found on tsx-11 in the
pub/linux/packages/laptops/apm
directory. Note that you need the 0.3 version for kernels 1.1.47 and
above; the 0.2 version stopped working somewhere in the 1.1 track.
The current version is 0.5 according to
Stephen's home page. Note
that for kernels after 1.1.83, and for recent PCMCIA versions, you
need the 0.5 version.
Since kernel version 1.3.46, the APM drivers are part of the standard
Linux kernel; there's a separate utility kit available for doing
things like showing the battery status on screen.
Now the machine will detect the resume event, and reset the clock from
CMOS.
I (HTA) have managed to get the DOS emulator (version 0.53pl2) running in
text mode with no trouble.
Graphics mode seems to work too - but
to bring it up in graphics mode on a 4/33C caused a brilliant orange
line across the screen while starting, and took quite a while.
The lines I tried were:
- video { vga console }
works great for text mode
- video { vga console graphics }
seemed to hang the DOS session
- video { vga console graphics chipset et4000 memsize 256 }
This one runs fine in graphics mode after about 10 seconds'
startup time and a lot of beeping! Civilization still hangs,
however.
There is a mailing list called "aero@cs.utk.edu"; you
write to aero-request@cs.utk.edu for any list handling; the list is
handled by a human being.
The list is archived too, but I've forgotten the location.
The list is not dedicated to Linux.
The following options are known:
- You can get a breakout box for connecting an external monitor,
keyboard and so on. A picture, courtesy of Reed Wade, of what's
inside it is available in GIF and
JPEG format
if you have the patience for it; they are 470 and 319 Kbytes,
respectively, and the source is in Tennesee.
Approximate price USD 40.
- A larger base unit does the same thing, but also gives you an
extra battery charger for charging batteries out of the
machine; approximate price USD 100.
- Compaq sells 4 and 8 MByte memory modules; Kingston Memory has
a 16 MByte memory module, which gives you a potential of 20
MByte total.
- Several people have installed hard disks of up to 800 MBytes
in the Aero. The max disk height is 12.7 mm; the current
largest disk seems to be from IBM. This will void the Compaq
warranty, of course, since it is not a Compaq supported upgrade.
- Extra batteries; standard pack around USD 60, enhanced (NiMH
around USD 100.
All prices are ballpark estimates garnered from random postings;
they seem to vary wildly by supplier, distance from California, phase
of the moon and so on.
- [Q]
- Why does the disk start immediately when it attempts to stop to
conserve power?
- [A]
- This question has multiple levels:
- When the disk stops, it sends an interrupt to the
kernel. The kernel logs this event, which naturally
wakes up the disk. One solution is to tear out the
ENTIRE contents of the unexpected_hd_interrupt routine
in linux/drivers/block/hd.c
- A particular problem with the Conner disks used in the
250 MB Aeros is that they wake up when you query it for
status. Apparently, the Linux drivers do this fairly
frequently. No solution found to this problem yet!
From a 33 MHz 486DX, you expect a BogoMips rating around 16.
As observed by kikutani@ams.co.jp (Makoto Kikutani), the rating for
the Aero 4/33C is:
- around 16 when booting from floppy
- around 8 when booting from LILO (on MBR or partition)
- around 16 when booting from loadlin WITHOUT floppy card
inserted
- around 8 when booting from loadlin WITH floppy card inserted
This is observed both on 1.0.9 (no patches) and 1.1.5x with the
Rothwell APM patches. Other people have reported to makoto that no
such slowdown is observed on the 4/25 (the black-and-white machine).
When you press Suspend and Resume, the BogoMips rating goes up to around 16 again! (test with the BogoMips program).
Conclusion: The CPU starts in "slowed" mode to conserve power.
Patching the init routine to call do_busy does NOT help.
Actually, Ali Abaryak has found that this is a BIOS problem; if you
downgrade your machine to the March 6 BIOS version (SP0723.ZIP), you
will get the faster clock speed always.
Several people have bought the Kingston Memory 16 Mbyte upgrade memory
for the Aero, making it have 20 Mbytes total.
Some report that the Linux box sees only 16 Mbytes.
There are two answers:
- Javier Hernandez <fjherna@ibm.net> reports that adding
the line "mem=20416K" makes Linux see the memory; adding
"mem=20MB" created problems (he saw PPP hangups; I saw a machine
crash).
- Under DOS, a BIOS upgrade is required in order to get access to
the full 20 MB of memory. That might help Linux too. (NOTE: This
has not been verified yet!)
This is a list of ongoing investigations into the internals of Linux
on the Aero; any information on these is appreciated!
I (HTA) am trying to make the floppy driver work. So far, it depends
on 3 things
- The VLSI PCMCIA controller supports DMA. Unfortunately, there
is no documentation for it, so Dave Hinds cannot write it into
the PCMCIA drivers. (The Intel chip it emulates doesn't).
- The floppy drivers need to be taught that a floppy controller
can go away and come back. I think I have patches for the
"coming back" stuff, but it's hard to test them without 1).
Alain Knaff will probably take these patches when they are tested.
I (Harald) now have programming information on the VLSI chip (which
seems rather incomprehensible to me); info on the floppy card is
welcome! (the card's CIS claims that it
is a CANON floppy card; just ignore the "compaq" label on the outside)
Also - a floppy note of interest: If the component number of your floppy
starts with 01, hot swapping does NOT work under Windows. If it is
a higher number, it does. Compaq at least at one time would replace
the floppy with a newer model free of charge.
Harald.T.Alvestrand@uninett.no
Last modified: Mon Oct 6 09:18:12 1997