Installing Debian on Fujitsu-Siemens Esprimo V6515

Last updated: 2011-12-01

Debian Squeeze

Today upgraded from previously described Lenny instalation to Squeeze. Smooth upgrade (first changed in /etc/apt/sources.list from lenny to squeeze, then apt-get update, then apt-get install apt then apt-get update and finally apt-get dist-upgrade. So, here’s updated status.

General Hardware Specifications of Fujitsu Siemens Esprimo V6515 on Debian Squeeze:

Hardware Components	Status under Linux	Notes
Intel(R) Pentium(R) Dual CPU T3400 @ 2.16GHz	Works	No special procedure required during installation. 64 bit
15.4″ Display, 1280×800 pixels	Mostly works	Works, problems with brightness control – see solution below.
Nvidia GeForce 8200M	Works	Works (with binary driver).
2GB RAM	Works	512 MB is used by graphic card; there was 1GB added by shop – it has 1GB by default.
Hard Drive 160GB	Works	No special procedure required during installation
Integrated Network Card (nVidia Corporation MCP79 Ethernet)	Works	No special procedure required during installation
DVD drive	Works	No special procedure required during installation
Wireless card (Atheros Communications Inc. AR242x 802.11abg)	Works	Works.
Battery	Works	No special procedure required during installation
Sound card	Works	Works.

This laptop is operating under Kernel version: 2.6.32-5-amd64 from Debian repository.

Volume control keys work, brightness control keys work with:

echo "options video brightness_switch_enabled=0" > /etc/modprobe.d/video.conf

Debian Lenny

And this is previous situation (I leave it to keep history):

General Hardware Specifications of Fujitsu Siemens Esprimo V6515 on Lenny:

Hardware Components	Status under Linux	Notes
Intel(R) Pentium(R) Dual CPU T3400 @ 2.16GHz	Works	No special procedure required during installation. 64 bit
15.4″ Display, 1280×800 pixels	Mostly works	Works, problems with brightness control – see solution below.
Nvidia GeForce 8200M	Works	Works with 3D acceleration – binary driver from unstable (see below).
2GB RAM	Works	512 MB is used by graphic card; there was 1GB added by shop – it has 1GB by default.
Hard Drive 160GB	Works	No special procedure required during installation
Integrated Network Card (nVidia Corporation MCP79 Ethernet)	Works	No special procedure required during installation
DVD drive	Works	No special procedure required during installation
Wireless card (Atheros Communications Inc. AR242x 802.11abg)	Works	Doesn’t work on default 2.6.26, works after upgrade to 2.6.32 from testing.
Battery	Works	No special procedure required during installation
Sound card	Mostly works	Works, but had some problems with too quiet sound. Tested just build-in speakers.

This laptop is operating under Kernel version: 2.6.32.6

Basic Installation of Debian

Installed from custom Debian Lenny liveCD (64bit)
Installed with debootstrap (fastest way for me) on ethernet cable (wireless doesn’t work at this point).

Unresolved issues

Special keys on keyboard don’t work.
Brightness keys works, but not in a predictable, comfortable way by default. Solution: Workaround:

echo "5" > /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness
echo "options video brightness_switch_enabled=0" > /etc/modprobe.d/video.conf

Configuration Files

Added to /etc/modules:

cpufreq_ondemand
cpufreq_conservative
cpufreq_powersave
cpufreq_userspace
acpi-cpufreq
freq_table
cpufreq_stats

/etc/default/cpufrequtils:

ENABLE="true"
GOVERNOR="ondemand"
MAX_SPEED=2167000
MIN_SPEED=1000000

More Specific Information

cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor       : 0
vendor_id       : GenuineIntel
cpu family      : 6
model           : 15
model name      : Intel(R) Pentium(R) Dual  CPU  T3400  @ 2.16GHz
stepping        : 13
cpu MHz         : 2167.000
cache size      : 1024 KB
physical id     : 0
siblings        : 2
core id         : 0
cpu cores       : 2
apicid          : 0
initial apicid  : 0
fpu             : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level     : 10
wp              : yes
flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush
dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good
aperfmperf pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm lahf_lm
bogomips        : 4333.20
clflush size    : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes   : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual

lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: nVidia Corporation Device 0a83 (rev b1)
00:00.1 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation Device 0a88 (rev b1)
00:03.0 ISA bridge: nVidia Corporation Device 0aae (rev b2)
00:03.1 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation Device 0aa4 (rev b1)
00:03.2 SMBus: nVidia Corporation Device 0aa2 (rev b1)
00:03.3 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation Device 0a89 (rev b1)
00:03.5 Co-processor: nVidia Corporation Device 0aa3 (rev b1)
00:04.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation Device 0aa5 (rev b1)
00:04.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation Device 0aa6 (rev b1)
00:06.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation Device 0aa7 (rev b1)
00:06.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation Device 0aa9 (rev b1)
00:08.0 Audio device: nVidia Corporation Device 0ac0 (rev b1)
00:09.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation Device 0aab (rev b1)
00:0a.0 Ethernet controller: nVidia Corporation MCP79 Ethernet (rev b1)
00:0b.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation Device 0ab5 (rev b1)
00:10.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation Device 0aa0 (rev b1)
00:15.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation Device 0ac6 (rev b1)
00:16.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation Device 0ac7 (rev b1)
00:17.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation Device 0ac7 (rev b1)
00:18.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation Device 0ac7 (rev b1)
02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation Device 086f (rev b1)
05:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR242x 802.11abg Wireless PCI Express Adapter (rev 01)

Installation

Won’t be very helpful here, as I installed from Lenny LiveUSB (64 bit, my own) via debootstrap (Knoppix 5.1 had problems with starting). Installation without problems (on ethernet cable). First I wanted to have Lenny there, but some hardware required newer kernel…

Drivers

Graphic card (Nvidia 8200M)

Works on nvidia binary drivers from Lenny with 3D acceleration.

After upgrading to 2.6.32.6 kernel (see wireless card), packages: nvidia-glx, nvidia-kernel-source – both version 190.53-1 from unstable had to be backported (dowloaded sources with wajig source , then compiled). Otherwise module assistant can’t build package (kernel too new). Then works.

NOTICE: On Lenny it started at full brightness, after upgrade it starts on the lowest brightness. Special keys doesn’t work (see special keys).

NOTICE: Haven’t tested advanced functions like CUDA (packages were build but didn’t even try to install them), just 3D acceleration (glxinfo | grep -i direct gives Yes).

NOTICE: Version 195.36.24 which now is present in testing/unstable is more problematic:

Unmet build dependencies: debhelper (>= 7.4.16~) dkms (>= 2.1.1.1) ia32-libs (>= 20090804)

Will check how to resolve this and describe it when it’s done.

Ethernet card

00:0a.0 Ethernet controller: nVidia Corporation MCP79 Ethernet (rev b1)

Just works well on Lenny kernel and after upgrade.

Wireless card

05:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR242x 802.11abg Wireless PCI Express Adapter (rev 01)

Doesn’t work on Lenny kernel, but works well after upgrade to 2.6.32.6 (vanilla 2.6.32.6 with kernel config from Lenny, make oldconfig, make-kpkg –initrd kernel_image).

NOTICE: Backported wicd (great network manager IMO) from testing. Builds without problem.

Special keys

Don’t work, at least not as they should. After holding brightness up key nothing seemed to happen, but sometimes screen flickered. It found out, that holding for a longer time (random, about 30 seconds) makes brightness a step higher. PITA

Brightness can be changed by inserting values to a file:

echo "5" > /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness

Values 0-7 are valid.

Other keys (like sound control) seems not to work.

NOTICE: Found some directions how to get it work (e.g. noapic parameter passed to kernel on boot), but had no time to test it yet. Will be updated.

Sound

Sound worked, but was very quiet on Lenny, so decided to upgrade (backport) alsa (driver, base). Also modified /etc/modprobe.d/sound After this, I found speaker option in mixer and noticed, that it was (almost?) muted. Can’t tell now if the option was present in Lenny and I just missed it, or if it appeared after upgrade. Anyway, works.

Frequency scalling

I use ondemand all the time, as it seems to be the best option for me (cool and quiet when speed is not needed, good performance when needed). Works on Lenny with those settings:

Added to /etc/modules:

cpufreq_ondemand
cpufreq_conservative
cpufreq_powersave
cpufreq_userspace
acpi-cpufreq
freq_table
cpufreq_stats

then installed cpufrequtils

With this config in /etc/default/cpufrequtils:

ENABLE="true"
GOVERNOR="ondemand"
MAX_SPEED=2167000
MIN_SPEED=1000000

The end

This is not my notebook, and Debian runs there only as secondary system, so I didn’t spend much time on testing (mostly – just installed). Will update data as I have time to test this notebook more. If you have any comments please let me know.

You may also find helpful information on page describing Lenny on FS Esprimo V6505 (Polish only, use translator) – different hardware, but many things are the same and this description helped me a lot. There’s also notice on that page, that Ubuntu 9.10 works perfectly with this hardware – same can be here, but haven’t tested.