• Initial Installation

• Wireless Setup

• Alsa Setup (sound)

• Xwindows Setup

• Hardware Compatability

• CPU Throttling 

• Things to do

• Modem Setup

Initial Installation

After booting from the gentoo 2005.0 livecd follow the  gentoo handbook for 2005.0 at  http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/2005.0/index.xml
You will need to have the realtek nic hooked up to the net until you have the kernel compiled and have installed the atheros drivers.
When you are ready to compile your kernel make sure that you have enable the following.

Power management options (ACPI, APM)  --->         [*] Power Management support                 ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) Support  --->                         [*] ACPI Support                                 <*>   AC Adapter                                 <*>   Battery                                 <*>   Button                                 <*>   Fan                                 <*>   Processor                                 <*>     Thermal Zone Device Drivers  --->         ATA/ATAPI/MFM/RLL support  --->                 <*>         ATI IXP chipset IDE support         Networking support  --->                 Ethernet (10 or 100Mbit)  --->                         <*>   RealTek RTL-8139 PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter support                 Wireless LAN (non-hamradio)  --->                         [*] Wireless LAN drivers (non-hamradio) & Wireless Extensions         Input device support  --->                 <M> Event interface         Character devices  --->                 <*> /dev/agpgart (AGP Support)                         <*>   ATI chipset support                 [*] Direct Rendering Manager (XFree86 4.1.0 and higher DRI support)                         <*>   ATI Radeon         Graphics support  --->                 [*] Support for frame buffer devices                         [*]   VESA VGA graphics support                         <*>   ATI Radeon display support                 Console display driver support  --->                         [*]   Video mode selection support                                 <*> Framebuffer Console support                                         [*]   Select compiled-in fonts                                                 [*]     VGA 8x16 font         Sound  --->                 <*> Sound card support                         USB support  --->                 <*>   OHCI HCD  support // Enable this.                 <*>   EHCI HCD (USB 2.0) support // Enable this.

Also It is very important to disable the following
 

Input Device Support --> [ ] Provide Legacy /dev/psaux device USB support --> < >   UHCI HCD (most Intel and VIA) support  // Do not enable this. ATI is not VIA or Intel

I had trouble with my keyboard working until I removed the UHCI usb drivers.
You may wish to enable under Device-drivers -->Sound --> Alsa --> PCI the atiixp module but I opted to use the alsa-driver from portage as it should be more up to date.
I am currently using a 2.6.11-r5  gentoo-sources kernel. the config I am now using is here.

Wireless Setup

After I finished the install I added net-wireless/madwifi-driver ~x86 to /etc/portage/package.keywords so that I could install the masked madwifi drivers for the builtin atheros wifi adapter. To setup the wireless nic do the following.

emerge madwifi-driver emerge wireless-tools cp /etc/init.d/net.eth0 /etc/init.d/net.ath0 modprobe ath_hal modprobe ath_pci modprobe wlan echo "ath_hal" >> /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6 echo "ath_pci" >> /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6 echo "wlan" >> /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6

To use the wireless adapter do

iwconfig ath0 essid any iwconfig ath0 key off iwconfig ath0 channel 6 /etc/init.d/net.ath0 start

substitute your appropriate settings as needed.

now add the net.ath0 init script to your startup
rc-update add net.ath0 default
also you will need to modify /etc/conf.d/net and add lines for ath0 like you edited for etho during the installation.
If you plan to use the wireless nic exclusively then you might want to remove eth0 from your startup.
rc-update del net.etho default

Next be sure to emerge hotplug and coldplug they will load needed modules automatically.

Alsa setup

I don't use the kernel alsa drivers instead I use the alsa-driver package. The module is snd_atiixp. Use the gentoo Alsa guide at
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/alsa-guide.xml

X setup

If you haven't already done so emerge either kde , gnome or the window manager of your choice.
below is the contents of my xorg.conf file. This is a pain to do but if you copy and paste what I have here then you should have a good starting place
To start X in dual-head mode, type the following
startx -- -layout Dual

xorg.conf

Section "Module"         Load        "dbe"       # Double buffer extension         SubSection  "extmod"                 Option    "omit xfree86-dga"   # don't initialise the DGA extension         EndSubSection         Load    "type1"         Load    "freetype"         Load    "synaptics"         Load    "glx"         Load    "dri" EndSection Section "Files"         RgbPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"         FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/misc/"         FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/TTF/"         FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/Speedo/"         FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/Type1/"         FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/CID/"         FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/"         FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/"         FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/local/" EndSection Section "ServerFlags" EndSection Section "InputDevice"         Identifier "Keyboard1"         Driver "kbd"         Option "AutoRepeat" "500 30"         Option "XkbModel" "pc101"         Option "XkbLayout" "us" EndSection Section "InputDevice"         Identifier "Mouse2"         Driver "mouse"         Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"         Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2"         Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5" EndSection Section "InputDevice"         Identifier "Mouse1"        Driver "synaptics"         Option "Device" "/dev/input/mouse0"         Option "Protocol" "auto-dev"         Option "LeftEdge" "1900"         Option "RightEdge" "5400"         Option "TopEdge" "1900"         Option "BottomEdge" "4000"         Option "FingerLow" "25"         Option "FingerHigh" "30"         Option "MaxTapTime" "220"         Option "MaxTapMove" "220"         Option "VertScrollDelta" "100"         Option "MinSpeed" "0.02"         Option "MaxSpeed" "1.28"         Option "AccelFactor" "0.01000"         Option "SHMConfig" "on" EndSection Section "Monitor"         Identifier  "Monitor0"         VertRefresh 31.5-79         HorizSync 30-90         Option "DPMS" "enable" EndSection #Dual Screen Section "Device"         Identifier "Card0"         Driver "radeon"         Option "RenderAccel" "true"         Option "AGPFastWrite" "true"         Option "MonitorLayout" "LVDS, TMDS"         Option "CRT2Position" "LeftOf"         Option "CRT2HSync" "40-83"         Option "CRT2VRefresh" "50-75"         Option "MergedFB" "true"         Option "MetaModes" "1024x768-1024x768"         BusID "PCI:01:05:0"         BoardName "ATI Radeon D7" EndSection #Laptop Section "Device"         Identifier "Card1"         Driver "radeon"         Option "RenderAccel" "true"         Option "AGPFastWrite" "true"         Option "PageFlip" "true"         BusID "PCI:01:05:0"         BoardName "ATI Radeon D7" EndSection #Dual Screen Section "Screen"         Identifier  "Screen0"         Device      "Card0"         Monitor     "Monitor0"         DefaultDepth 24         Subsection "Display"                 Depth 24                 Modes "1280x800" "1024x768"                 Virtual 2048 768                 Viewport 0 0         EndSubsection EndSection #Laptop Section "Screen"         Identifier  "Screen1"         Device      "Card1"         Monitor     "Monitor0"         DefaultDepth 24         Subsection "Display"                 Depth 24                 Modes "1280x800" "1024x768"         EndSubsection EndSection Section "ServerLayout"         Identifier  "Laptop"         Screen "Screen1"        Option "OffTime" "10"         InputDevice "Mouse1" "CorePointer"         InputDevice "Mouse2" "SendCoreEvents"         InputDevice "Keyboard1" "CoreKeyboard" EndSection Section "ServerLayout"         Identifier  "Dual"         Screen "Screen0"         Option "OffTime" "10"         InputDevice "Mouse1" "CorePointer"         InputDevice "Mouse2" "SendCoreEvents"         InputDevice "Keyboard1" "CoreKeyboard" EndSection Section "dri"         Mode 0666 EndSection

Hardware Compatability

Other Hardware	Work / Doesn't work
Modem	Thanks to Terry Schindler It is now working, see below.
Media reader	doesn't work;  lspci lists it as an ENE Technologies device. I can't find any working driver in a goolge search of this device
Firewire	Should work but untested
Alps touchpad	works!!   I had a tough time making this work, see the above kernel compile info. disable legacy /dev/psaux and compiling evdev as a module were crucial to making this work for me. I also made ps/2 mouse a module as a precaution but don't know if that was necessary. Update: I just installed a program called ksynaptics that makes tweaking the synaptics touchpad a lot easier. It is not yet in portage but can be downloaded from http://qsynaptics.sourceforge.net
S-Video out	Supposedly doesn't work without a special ati utility. I have never needed s-video yet so haven't tried to get it to work.

CPU throttling  (speedstep)

I have cpu throttling working, now battery life is much better. To do this enable these drivers in the kernel.  Power Management -> CPU Frequency  scaling -> cpu frequency scaling ,  also set as modules all of the different governors  (ie: powersave,  userspace, ondemand.)
Once you have booted with the new kernel you need to add the following to /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6
p4_clockmod
cpufreq_powersave
cpufreq_ondemand
cpufreq_userspace

Next emerge cpufreq_utils
cpufreq-set can be used to set the frequency or the governor used.
I find ondemand works well for me.
cpufreq-info will list the current state of cpu.

Modem Setup

I recieved a nice email from Terry Schindler with information on setting up the modem. Here is what he had to say.

In the kernel config, just enable:

Device Drivers -> Sound -> Alsa -> PCI Devices -> ATI IXP Modem

Device Drivers -> Networking Support -> PPP (point-to-point protocol)
support

Then:

emerge slmodem
emerge pppconfig
rc-update add slmodem default

The slmodem will create the /dev/ttySL0 device.  Using pppconfig will
create a profile for the pon script.  I didn't even have to change the
default /etc/conf.d/slmodem file.

The slamr module is not needed.

Thanks Terry!

Things To Do

• I tried to make suspend to ram / suspend to disk work. It crashed when you try to suspend. I have since read that even when it is made to properly suspend that it will seldom resume properly so I doubt if I will work on that much more.
  

• Get the ATI supplied drivers working (currently using the xorg radeon driver with opengl so not a high priority).
  

Credits

I found the following page for setting up an A65 laptop to be a good starting place for my A70 setup.
http://www.linux-on-laptops.com/hosted/tsa65.html

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