Linux on the MSI S270

This page is based on Bodo von der Heiden's MSI S270 Page (German). Another source of information was Basile STARYNKEVITCH's page

I try to collect all necessary informations to work around known problems. The assumption is that you have a x86_64 version of SuSE Linux installed; if you have a different version (Debian, e.g.), things should work just as well.

I've now installed SuSE 10.1 on the machine (from scratch), updated the list, and removed problems that don't occur with this version. Unlike SuSE 10.0, the installation went through without problem. If you want solutions for problems of the past, here's the old version of this page.

I've then updated the machine to SuSE 10.2, which worked without any flaw (except that ATI was a bit late to provide the Xorg 7.2 driver).

WLAN

Problem: The INPROCOMM IPN2220 doesn't have a native Linux driver.

Solution: Download the Windows x64 driver (found on Planetamd64).

The following is very SuSE-specific. To include this driver into the Yast2 configuration framework, open up the "Network Card" configuration in the "Network Devices" section. You'll see the WLAN module as unconfigured and unidentified entry (it was identified in SuSE 10.0). Select it and click on "Configure". Change the type to "Wireless". Under "Advanced"->"Hardware Details", set "Module Name" to ndiswrapper.

The remaining settings then should work like any other WLAN card - you need an ESSID, an authentication method, and the key. I used the ndiswrapper from SuSE, this seems to work. I now use the network manager as well, and managed to get into WEP and WPA protected WLANs (by knowing the key, for sure, aircrack doesn't work with ndiswrapper).

Proprietary ATI driver

Problem: 3D disabled with the free driver (too unstable yet to be useful).

Solution: Install ATI's proprietary driver.

• Go to ATI's driver download section
• Click on "Linux Drivers and Software"
• In the "Linux x86_64" part, select "Motherboard with ATI Graphics"
• Click on the link called "ATI Proprietary Linux x86_64 Driver for XFree86 X.Org Version 8.32.5" (the version will change in future, for sure)
• Download the Driver Installer.
• generate a package for SuSE 10.2 with sh ./ati-driver-installer-8.32.5-x86_64.run --buildpkg SuSE/SUSE102-AMD64 (version number will change).
• Install the generated package with rpm -i file.
• Use sax2 to configure the card. It will recognise fglrx, when available.

It looks like you have to create an account at this site to successfully download the driver - otherwise you'll only download a HTML page which tells you that you aren't allowed to download the driver.

This is my xorg.conf. I added the following line to the Display section to set the right screen size:

  DisplaySize  260 162

To turn on the VGA output properly, select "clone" mode in Sax2, and set the second screen to 1024x768 or 1280x768 - apparently, the card has two modes, one low res, and a high-res, and the native format is in between, so either you have 1280x800 on your virtual display, and then you can only select up to 768 lines, or you have more, and then even 1920x1200 will work for the external screen.

Fortunately, 1024x768 is the native format most projectors support. You might want to use KRandRTray to change the resolution on the fly when you give a presentation.

SD-Card Reader

Problem: Log file reports "unknown device Bay1Controller" when inserting a SD-card.

Solution: Use the sdricohcs driver. This is experimental code right now, and working quite slow, but nonetheless, it's working.