Fedora Core 4 on Asus Z63A

by Christine M. Joseph
contributed in part by Herman Sheremetyev

last updated: September 15, 2005

The following is my experience of installing and troubleshooting Fedora Core 4 (FC4)on the Asus Z63A. This laptop is a modified version of the Asus W3 series (W3A), the most notable difference being the type of screen it uses, among other things. Because of the alterations in the model, there hasn't been much in the way of documentation on this particular machine just yet, so I figured I should create something.


TABLE OF CONTENTS

- General Information

- Hardware Specifications

- Hardware Status Grid (What's working and what's not)

- Config files: xorg.conf

- Specific Modifications

- Summary


GENERAL INFORMATION

I purchased my Z63A in June 2005 at GenTech PC. They customize their laptops so I had the option of getting it without an OS (huzzah for no Windows tax!). They also gave me a free carrying bag with it (get whatever perks you can). Compared to comparable hardware that is out there, the Asus Z63A is a good compromise for what many people would look for. It is relatively light in size (4.8 lbs without the DVD drive and the battery attached), a nice 14.1" widescreen LCD and jam packed with nice little hardware features. The trick, as always, is getting it work well with Linux.

My preferred choice at the moment of distros is Fedora Core 4.  Everyone has a preference; I like FC. At some point, I will test this computer with other popular distros like Ubuntu, Gentoo, Debian and so on. But for the moment, let's just see what quirks we discover in FC4.

HARDWARE SPECIFICATIONS

The following are the specifications for my notebook:

14.1" XGA (1280x768) TFT Display Widescreen
Intel(R) Pentium (R) M processor - 1.60 GHz (730) Sonoma 533MHz Front Side Bus, 2MB L2 Cache
60GB Samsung HD 5400rpm 9.5 mm
1 x 512MB DDR-2 533
8X DVD-RW +/- DVD-RW (DL) (Toshiba Samsung)
Intel (R) Mobile 915GM/GMS/910ML Express Graphics Controller
Internal WiFi - Intel (R) PRO/Wireless 2915ABG MiniPCI Adapter
1 - PCMCIA slot : Intel 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW PCI Express Port
3 - USB2.0 Ports
1 - IEEE1394 DV Port
1 - SVideo Out Port
1 - Microphone
1 - Speaker
1 - 4-in-1 Media Card Reader (Ricoh RL5c476)
1 - Ethernet port : Marvell Technology Group 88EE8001 Gigabit Ethernet Controller (Asus)
1 - Phone jack (modem)
1 - Monitor Out interface (15-pin)
1 - IrDA Infrared Port
Full size desktop keyboard (not the mini ones that are out there)
Standard TouchPad Mouse (uses Synaptic settings)

There are also hot keys on either side of the keyboard. On the left side, there are CD Player keys (cd power, rew, stop, play/pause and ff). These work independently of Linux and is meant to work when your computer isn't even booted. It DOES work.

The second set of hot keys on the right side of the keyboard are customizable. They are defined for "run -- any program", "bluetooth -- toggle on/off", "internet -- any browser program", "wifi - toggle on/off" and "touchpad -- toggle on/off". Of course, these are definable ACPI settings. See the section for Specific Modifications for more on setting these.

The Function Keys (F1-F12) are also customizable. They are pre-defined for:

- Fn+F1 Suspend enable
- Fn+F2 Wireless LAN on/off switch
- Fn+F5 Brightness down
- Fn+F6 Brightness up
- Fn+F7 LCD on/off switch
- Fn+F8 LCD/CRT display switch
- Fn+F10 Mute
- Fn+F11 Volume down
- Fn+F12 Volume up
 
Good specifications can be found at this site (AGearNotebooks) and this is a general data sheet.

HARDWARE STATUS GRID

The following is a grid is pretty self-explanatory. It also includes comments on the status. This is the current status on each device either at the initial install or after some tweaking had been done. The comments will define which.

DEVICE STATUS COMMENTS
DVD-RW+/- Drive OK Plays CDs and burns to all fine.
PCMCIA Slot Not Tested Not tested.
WiFi OK This required additional device drivers in order to work properly. This is completely defined in the Specific Modification section. This has only been tested as B/G, not A. It should work though.
NOTE: WiFi works fine with kernel 2.6.12+. IPW2200 module added. (7/25/05)
Ethernet OK Works fine at FC4 install. 
Modem Not Tested Not tested.
USB 2.0 ports OK Works fine at FC4 install. Tested with an external hard drive and a flash drive.
SVideo Out Not Tested Not tested.
Monitor Out Currently testing Currently testing.
LCD Screen
1280x768		 OK Does not work at correct resolution at FC4 install. This required an intensive amount of work to get the screen configuration to the right setting, including a BIOS update. See the Specific Modification section for further instructions and information.
Mic/Speaker OK Works fine at FC4 install.
IrDA Currently testing Currently testing.
4-in-1 Media Card Reader Does not work Currently there is no driver information for the Ricoh RL5C476 reader. There is no support for it at this time. use
TouchPad OK Works fine at FC4 install.
IEEE1394 (DV) Currently testing Currently testing. It is detected, but not 100% sure it works yet.
Function Keys F1-12 In Progress Some keys work at FC4 install with unusual quirks; most do not. They must be defined using ACPI settings.
Battery Management OK Works fine at FC4 install. Detects removal from AC power source and correctly notes battery power remaining.
Speakers OK Works fine at FC4 install. It just requires adjusting the volume; it is very low on install.
Suspend to RAM OK Works fine at FC4 install.


CONFIG FILES: XORG.CONF

Here is my xorg.conf file.

SPECIFIC MODIFICATIONS

LCD SCREEN
Summary:

To get the LCD to work at the correct resolution of 1280x768 is somewhat tricky. First, you need to make sure you have at least BIOS version Z63A0503G. The next step is to download the latest i915 drivers from http://dri.freedesktop.org/snapshots/. The version I installed was i915-20050621-linux.i386.tar.bz2 but there have been several releases since so get the latest available. Once you get the driver, untar and follow the directions inside to install it. The last thing you need to do is get the 915resolution tool to alter your VBIOS so that it reports 1280x768 as a usable resolution. According to some reports this may no longer be necessary with latest Xorg drivers (as of Xorg 6.8.3 supposedly) but the drivers I installed still required it.

Flashing the BIOS:

The first thing is obtaining the BIOS image file. If your machine already has 0503G or later installed you can obviously skip this step altogether. Otherwise go to the Asus download site and find the latest BIOS available for the z63a. The next step is actually installing it on your laptop. There are a few ways to do this, all of them requiring either DOS (FreeDOS is ok) or Windows. If you are already dual booting and have Windows on the machine Asus makes a BIOS flash utility you can use. This isn't the case for me so booting DOS is the other alternative. You can install DOS on a separate partition or boot it from a floppy or USB stick or possibly even use netboot. I won't go into the details of making a DOS boot floppy here as that information can already be found in many places online. Just make sure to put the aflash2.exe utility (also available from Asus) and the unzipped BIOS image on your DOS floppy and run aflash2 when you're at the A:\ prompt.

WARNING: Do not, under any circumstances, interrupt the BIOS flash process!!! If you do you will be left with an unusable machine and will need to RMA your motherboard.

X and Kernel drivers:

Installing the latest i810 X drivers and i915 kernel DRI drivers is required if you're dealing with a standard Fedora Core 4 install. Download the latest i915 tarball from http://dri.freedesktop.org/snapshots/, unpack it and follow the directions inside to install it. It should go smoothly without any errors.

i915resolution tool:

The last thing necessary to get the screen resolution of 1280x768 in X is to download i915 resolution from http://www.geocities.com/stomljen/ and run it before starting X. I added to the following line to my /etc/rc.local to make sure it gets run every time the laptop boots:

/usr/local/sbin/i915resolution 58 1280 768

This tool alters the settings in the VBIOS so that it reports 1280x768 as a usable resolution. Without it, the X driver doesn't know that this resolution is available.

Conclusion:

That's it, all you have to do now is add 1280x768 to your xorg.conf and start X. You can use my xorg.conf for reference.

WIRELESS ADAPTER - INTEL PRO/WIRELESS 2915ABG (For Kernel versions prior to 2.6.11)

The WiFi adapter is a Intel PRO/Wireless 2915ABG (supporting 802.11 a/b/g) and the driver needed for it to run properly are located at:

http://ipw2200.sourceforge.net/

You will need to not only download the driver, but the firmware as well.  Install the firmware first, then the driver. There are extremely detailed instructions for this process at the site and in the downloaded files.

Users of kernel 2.6.12 and later should have no problems with WiFi; the ipw2200/ipw2200 firmware has been added to kernel specs.

SUMMARY

I will endeavor to keep this page up to date as I continue to get everything working on this laptop. In the meantime, the forum I've created may end up serving as a better long-term solution for issues with this laptop, particularly for other distributions. Thanks for visiting.

-- return to linux on z63a forum --
-- return to koneko pavilion --

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