Ubuntu 7.04 on Averatec 2370 – a failure for now

The following post should applied to Linux Mint 3.0 as well. I attempted to run Ubuntu 7.04 on an Averatec 2370 and it turned out mostly OK, but several essential functionality did not work.

Dual Core Support	Pass
CPU Scaling	Pass. Can run at 1.67Ghz unlike in Vista
Display-Open Source Drivers	Requires editing to the xorg.conf to get 1280×800
Display-Proprietary Drivers	Requires editing to the xorg.conf to get 1280×800
Audio	Pass
Hard Disk	Pass
Optical Drive	Pass
Ethernet	Pass
Wireless	Requires downloading and compiling of open source drivers
Modem	Not detected
SD Card	Pass
Suspend to RAM	Failed. Cannot be made to work without kernel upgrade
Suspend to Disk	Pass

Display – Open Source Drivers

Ubuntu correctly identified and install the open source nv drivers. However, the screen defaults to 1024×768. To fix the probem, all you need to do is to add the resolution “1280×800″ to the Modes line in the file /etc/X11/xorg.conf.

In your display section, change the line in xorg.conf:

Modes            "1024x768"  "800x600"  "640x480"

with

Modes            "1280x800"  "1024x768"  "800x600"  "640x480"

Save the file and reboot the computer. You should be able to set the resolution to 1280 x 800 from the menu System->Preferences->Screen Resolution Preference. Note that PCLinuxOS 2007 actually detected the screen properly.

Display – Proprietary Driver

The proprietary Nvidia drivers can be activated from the menu System->Administration->Restricted Driver Manager. Mines failed to install until I updated the system. You need to add the following line to your Section “Device”.

Option "DynamicTwinView" "False"

The option needs to be set or the Nvidia driver will read the refresh rate incorrectly. For more info, see this launchpad entry.

Wireless

The Ralink RT73 chipset in the laptop actually has an open source driver, but unfortunately, the version that comes with Ubuntu 7.04 does not work. I downloaded the source for the latest RT73 Next Generation driver, but I was unable to compile it because it require a particular options to be compile into the Kernal. Frankly, I am not going to compile a new kernal.

Suspend to RAM

Currently, when you suspend to RAM, it puts the laptop into a coma that you cannot return from. There appears to be no way to get suspend to RAM to work. None of the distro I have tried will correct this issue. Users who want this feature will have to wait until they fixed the problem in future versions of the kernal.

Hope for the future

Just as an experiment, I upgraded to Ubuntu Gusty Gibbon and notice that wireless actually started working though it was still pretty unstable. Various post indicated that ACPI support is improving, though suspend to RAM still does not work. One of the nice things about Linux is that even though the OS does not work on your machine today, it may work in the future when they release future versions. In contrast, if your machine does not work with Vista today, it will not work with Vista tomorrow or ever.