it's also a good idea to relalise that 'it doesn't crash under winxp' is information that you cannot use to asses any hardware stability.

linux for instance generally tries to use all available memory pretty extensively. does XP do that as well ?

try using memtest and tell us what happens when plugging etc..

I know there was som bugs with older BIOS and powermanagement, and booting from batterymode, maby there is some problems with that bios and linux?
Try the new bios and see..

and what if the flash fails ? dead laptop ? I can report the BIOS version I use. I never flash anything unless I am 100% sure recovery is possible. goiven the lack of doumentation of the Amilo D1840W, can't say if there is any option to recover from a failed flash.

am I the only one who thinks the docs are useless ? no tech docs at all.


regarding the BIOS and a good working SuSE 9.1:

it's v 1.03; the setup util inside has v02.54

as a sidenote, dmidecode reports several things but this is better info :

BIOS Information Block
Vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
Version: 1.04C
Release: 01/14/2004
BIOS base: 0xF0000
ROM size: 448K
Capabilities:
Flags: 0x000000007B8BDE90

hmm, I've flashed my bios many times, currently now I have AMI bios v1.06
and BIOS v1.06, The 1.06 bios is not listed at the download page for FSC,
only the 1.05(?) bios.

Had no problems when i flashed my bios. And it solved some problems I had when starting from batterymode.

problem is that _if_ it fails, your system's dead. I never have any failed flashes on my routers but I do know several people who killed MoBo's due to a failed flash. I known several hundred people who killed their speedtouch home modems etc etc.

it's dangerous and if not needed, don't do it.

I indeed only see 1.05c or something along that line.

it's a complete bootable iso if I see right.

I flashed the bios, problem fixed

ahh cool. tell us what version you had and what version you flashed.

regarding the SD card reader, O2 has drivers available for the 2.4 kernel -- they are in the process of making it open source afaik.

at least that's good news.

I had
v. 1.04c system bios
v. 1.03 kdc

flashed it up to:
v. 1.05c system bios
v. 1.04 kdc

not any actuall problem for me, i work with laptops and hardware, the only way to recover a broken bios is to borrow a bios from a mainboard that is just the same as your mainboard, boot up, replace the bios with the broken one, flash it correctly, or use an eeprom-writer, replace and boot up again.. broken bios fixed..

in his case he flashed, it worked

regarding o2 drivers, that is just nice, nice to see someone that is supporting linux

the hardware swap while runnign is something that many cases will end up in a dead board. not something you'd want.
in any instance, I always opt for a board with recovery jumper.
in the case of the board in the D1840W: there is no information at all. no cmos reset, how to change memory etc. the technical manual seems non existant..

thx for the report. I just tried. I first was zwondering why I didn't see anything on the CD but that's probably because I was not looking at the boot section.

I thought ok -- let's flash. went ok and also have 1.04/1.05c now.

the only problem I saw, the runnign time left in kismet 596523m8s stays. oh well.

Any update on this laptop? got the ir to work? o2 drivers (what is the site for 02?), dvd-burn?

just came back from a weekend away w/ family.

the o2 drivers are specific for some versions of debian, rh or suse. they sid they are working on open source to get the driver work.

o2micro.com is the place to be.

I received an FTP site to fetch files but it has an user/pass in it so you'd better mail them yourself.

ir -- not tried yet

dvd burn -- I'll try to think of it to test a burn tomorrow after finishing some work.

oww. what the heck. just before I go and lay in bed w/ my girlfriend, let;s growisofs !

growisofs -Z /dev/hdc=/opt/track.iso

on a philips dvd+rw gives me a working copy of the above mentioned track.

ok, I asked if I could give away information about the cardslot reader-stuff.

here you go :

the original writer asked me to model the following information :

first of all I'd like to say that these are beta binaries and may not function in all systems.
You can post "info@o2micro.com" if required as a contact.

This driver package supports
Redhat Linux 8.0
Redhat Linux 9.0
Turbolinux 8.0
SuSE Linux 9.0
Mandrake Linux 9.2
Debian Linux 30r2

Currently they only have kernel 2.4 binaries. Theyare investigating releasing
open-source but are very busy and there is no set release date. Here is
the download link to the 2.4 binaries.


ftp://scrdriver:scrdriver@209.19.104..._122_Linux.zip

hope this helps for people who happen to run 2.4.xx kernels.

and .... I installed suse 9.2 over 9.1

the laptop mode works much better now. 9.2 works even better than 9.1; no need to change anything. just poped in the dvd, started the update..
cool isn't it ?



what's less cool is the fact hat Fujitsu-Siemens doesn't want to refund the not-used windows and MS works unless I send the laptop away to germany to flash a bios. the cost for sending and back is for my account. also the work they do has to be paid by me. this would leave me with the following sum:

insured delivery and send-back of laptop : approx 240 eur. back from FSC: 95 eur minus 37.50 for the flashing. leaves me with an additional 180 eur difference that I have to pay because I refuse to run a non-functional operating system.

one thing: next time no FSC anymore. my own company (6 people) has decided not to buy anything anymore, not even to customers.

ACER does refund, not much, but they are easier... (well, so far.. ;-)