Deutsche Version (german version)

Updates

1. Feisty Fawn
2. Gutsy Gibbon
3. New: Hardy Heron (13.10.2008)
4. BIOS Versions
5. OpenSuse 10.3

Display:	17" 1440 x 900 Pixel (WXGA+ TFT) - Glare Type This display is a glare type display. Ubuntu 6.10 is recognizing it correctly in 1440x900.
Graphics card:	Nvidia GeForce 7600 Go - 256 MB This NVIDIA graphics card uses the 'nv' Driver from XOrg. For better 3D graphics you could use the 'nvidia-glx' closed-source package which you can install from the repositorys.
Disc drive:	DVD Double Layer DVD DL±RW/CDRW The build in (no bay mount) drive is able to burn DVD±R(W) and CD-R(W) blanc CD/DVDs. DVD-Ram is not supported. The speed is 4x for DVD±R and 24x for CD-R. The tray is a little bit unfirm. You should use both hands to change/insert CD/DVDs.
Card reader:	4in1 (MMC/SD/Memory Stick (Pro) ) The card reader is supported by kernel 2.6.17. I only have SD Cards so I only could test these. But in diffrent tests I could not find any problems. Update: I've tried SDHC cards - didn't work for me! From the user FraGezeichen out of the Ubuntuusers Forum (german) I've heard that momorysticks are working, too but Memory Stick Pro is under Edgy not functional Annotation: I do not have any memory stick. So I could not test if they work under newer system than Edgy.
Interfaces:	USB 2.0 (4x), Bluetooth, IEEE 1394 Firewire (4pin) USB is working out of the box and with no problems. The bluetooth module is recognized and seems to work to. Because I don't have any firewire device I could not test this. Update:I've received an Email from Elmar S. who has used Firewire with his Sony Camcorder. He says firewire is working out of the box. Thanks Elmar for this info!
Ethernet:	10 MBit/s, 100 MBit/s, 1000 Mbit/s The Ethernetinterface (testet with 100 MBit/s) is recognized and if you got an dhcp server you got internet out of the box!
Wireless LAN:	Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG WLAN (802.11a/b/g) WLAN is provided by a closed source module from Intel. This is included in the Restricted Kernel package which is also needed for the closed source nvidia driver. Everything works fine - the only thing to do is to provide WEP/WPA Keys. I'm using the 'g' standard with WPA encryption. For WPA you have to do some settings by hand. Note: With Feisty there should be the new network manager which will handle WPA in its interface. There is also a little switch on the front of the notebook which is for switching WLAN and Bluetooth off.
Sound:	SoundBlaster-Pro und MS-Sound compatible The soundcard is working out of the box with one problem: front control is leveling the headphone and headphone is leveling the speakers... And connecting a headphone is not recognized and the sound from the speakers isn't mutet. I've made a bug entry on this on launchpad: Bug #71737 There is a little volume leveler on the left side of the notebook but it does not work. FraGezeichen thinks it could be that this is also a problem with the not correct ALSA config. But it could be that the linux driver is not recognizing this leveler at all - don't know... Annotation: All this Problems could be solved unter Hardy! How to do this you could find under Hardy Heron.
Batteries	The batterie is recognized by the ACPI interface. The level is shown in Gnome and KDE. I'm able to work for two hours while using wlan and CD drive.
Keyboard	It is a good feeling to use this keyboard. There is a good to feel pressure point (?) if you press a key. There is also a number pad. Only bad point is that there are some keys which are smaller than others like the Point, right shift and some others. But with some training I could use this keybord with less/no problems.
Buttons	There are four buttons in front of the display. Three of them could be modified to start what ever program you want. The last one is directly wired with a slow down function which dosen't seem to work under Linux or I didn't notice this... Under Win XP Home I do not see any reaction, too.

At the boot up the Notebook shows this warning message: 'XXXXXX XXXXXX PCI: Cannot allocate resource region XXX'. This seems to be a Kernel Bug which is discriped on Launchpad in Bug #56376. There seems to be no problems. Only the boot time takes a little bit longer than normal...

Update: This bug is gone with hardy.

The system fan is running all the time. But I hear mostly nothing of it while working. From time to time it runs a little bit faster and the noise grows but only for one or two seconds. I think that the harddrive makes more noise than the fan...

Some diskussion in german about the notebook, remote control and SLAX as multimedia dristibution could be found on FraGezeichens bulletin board: www.k4um.net.

Upgrade to Feisty Fawn

Some days ago I've made the upgrade to Feisty. Not everything went well so here are the (little) problems I've encountered...

While the upgrade process there was no error but at the end something went wrong: Sound was dead!
I've searched in Launchpad but can't find any solutions. Only one commend helped a little. I should try to add this to /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base:

After that I've got sound back but only on my headphones! After little experimenting I found this config which works better:

But this is not perfect! I can 'hear' the harddrive on read/write access.

I've heard from Fragezeichen and Elmar that they both had no problems with sound! And they both have got the same Notebook! At the time of the upgrade I've used BIOS V1.15! Fragezeichen and Elmar used V1.17! That could be the probelm but I'm not sure...

Second problem was that with the closed source NVIDIA driver Compiz had no window frames. You could change this behavior in /etc/X11/xorg.conf with this entry in the 'SCREEN' section:

Third problem was that if you are running compiz you see nothing inside java applications! Only a white screen apears.

You could find a solution on Launchpad on this. You only have to add this to /etc/enviroment:

Besides of these I've encountered no other problems so that I can say it is no big problem to upgrade to feisty!

Gutsy Gibbon

Gutsy Gibbon, the new Ubuntu Version 7.10 arrived on 2007-10-18.

I've made a fresh install, no upgrade, because I thought that I could have damaged something while trying to get sound working with Feisty.

But I was slightly disappointet when sound dosen't work with Gusty either.

Of course I tried to get sound working with Gutsy and tried some tipps from Launchpad and from my Feisty experiences and had found a comment from Markus (see german comments).

You have to insert in /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base this line of code:

After a reboot you should activate all Options in the (gnome/kde) mixer and raise all levler. Than there should be sound.

Thanks to Markus, I think his tipp has'nt worked for me under Feisty because of my own ALSA build.

Sorry, but it doesn't work anymore! Sound is dead on Speakers, headphone works. I've switched back to model=auto for now...

There are no more problems in Gutsy. Or better I know about none. OK, Compiz sometimes show a grey window bar on active windows but it works well. So this is only cosmetic...

The Problems with Compiz and Java I had with Feisty are gone.

Hardy Heron

No problems known. Only the sound bug is still there on a fresh install.

But there is a way to get it all to work. You only have to enable

in /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base .

After adding this Sound works great for some weeks now! The little wheel for adjusting the volume is also working now!

BIOS Versions

Ship with V1.14

Updates:

BIOS Flash V1.15 - AMILO Xi 1526 / Xi 1546

BIOS Flash V1.17 - AMILO Xi 1526 / Xi 1546

BIOS Flash V1.20 - AMILO Xi 1526 / Xi 1554

BIOS Flash V1.22 - AMILO Xi 1526 / Xi 1554

BIOS Flash V1.23 - AMILO Xi 1526 / Xi 1554

BIOS Flash V1.25 - AMILO Xi 1526 / Xi 1554

There are no know problems besides that Elmar reports a problem with V1.20. The Fans are going to full speed under Linux!

I've have installed the V1.22 now - could not notice any problem!

OpenSuse 10.3

These days I received a Mail from Thomas in which he tells me that OpenSuse 10.3 work without any Problems on the Amilo Xi1526.

I think somebody will find this info useful!

Cause I do not have OpenSuse installed please do not ask me for help with it.

Because my english isn't the very best please inform me about errors at amilo `a t´ egnur `d o t´ de. If you got further questions it is now possible to add comments to this review. Use the Link 'Kommentar hinzufügen' below or you can write an E-Mail, too. I will try to answer them.

NO SPAM please!!

www.tuxmobil.org
And on Linux on laptops

Last edit: 2008-10-14