Hi,

I am trying to install Slackware 10.2 on a Dell Inspiron 1300 laptop.

I have done a basic install and am using the bareacpi.i kernel - 2.4.31.

The installation fine but when booting the laptop it would freeze running rc.hotplug I rebooted and then booted up from the install disk again, mounted /dev/hda1 at /mnt. Then 'chroot /mnt' and made the rc.hotplug non-exectuable with 'chmod -x'

Now the laptop boots up and I can now login. Added 'modprobe b44' to rc.modules.

Am on the machine now online, so no problems there.

My problem is with attaching USB devices. When I boot up, this is my output from lsmod:

root@slacker:~# lsmod
Module Size Used by Not tainted
soundcore 3396 0 (autoclean)
pcmcia_core 39172 0
ntfs 51232 1 (autoclean)
ide-scsi 9392 0
b44 13644 1
agpgart 45508 0 (unused)
root@slacker:~#

This is the output from lspci:
root@slacker:~# lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/PM/GMS/910GML Express Processor to DRAM Controller (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Class 0403: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) PCI Express Port 4 (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #2 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #3 (rev 03)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #4 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev d3)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FBM (ICH6M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 03)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) IDE Controller (rev 03)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX (rev 02)
02:03.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)
root@slacker:~#

I can 'modprobe usbcore' and modprobe 'usb-storage' but if I try 'modprobe usb-uhci' or 'modprobe uhci' it hangs the machine.

Here are the contents of the drivers folder in the kernel modules:

root@slacker:/lib/modules/2.4.31/kernel/drivers/usb# ls
CDCEther.o.gz dabusb.o.gz ibmcam.o.gz pegasus.o.gz se401.o.gz usbcore.o.gz vicam.o.gz
acm.o.gz dc2xx.o.gz kaweth.o.gz powermate.o.gz serial/ usbkbd.o.gz w9968cf.o.gz
aiptek.o.gz dsbr100.o.gz kbtab.o.gz printer.o.gz storage/ usblcd.o.gz wacom.o.gz
audio.o.gz emi26.o.gz konicawc.o.gz pwc.o.gz stv680.o.gz usbmouse.o.gz
auerswald.o.gz hid.o.gz mdc800.o.gz rio500.o.gz tiglusb.o.gz usbnet.o.gz
brlvger.o.gz host/ microtek.o.gz rtl8150.o.gz ultracam.o.gz usbvideo.o.gz
catc.o.gz hpusbscsi.o.gz ov511.o.gz scanner.o.gz usb-midi.o.gz uss720.o.gz
root@slacker:/lib/modules/2.4.31/kernel/drivers/usb# cd storage
root@slacker:/lib/modules/2.4.31/kernel/drivers/usb/storage# ls
usb-storage.o.gz

Now I guess they are freezing perhaps because there is no usb-uhci or uhci modules that I can see.

Am looking for any advice on how people got their Dell laptop to recognize their USB drives. What additional modules do you think I need?

Many thanks

These modules are under /lib/modules/2.4.31/kernel/drivers/usb/host.
Run dmesg to see if there is anything wrong. Also consider upgrading your kernel to 2.6.x

Thanks.

Aha. Found them. Thanks for that. Running DMESG doesn't show anything wrong. When loading the modules it reports it:

usb.c: registered new driver usbdevfs
usb.c: registered new driver hub
Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
usb.c: registered new driver usb-storage
USB Mass Storage support registered.

Am just trying to upgrade to the new 2.6.16 kernel and see how that goes. Thanks!!

Hmm. Upgraded to 2.6.16 and added it as an additional option in lilo. Now when I boot with the 2.6.16 kernel, the screen is just blank, but it does appear to be doing something. Lots of disk activity.

I did read on another post with debian about a similar issue, but as that machine was set to run level 5 and launch KDE, it would eventually go and start KDE and you could then see the screen contents. Up until then it was blank.

I might try logging in anyway and see what happens.

Booting from the 2.4.31 kernel still runs fine.

Any ideas?

You mean the screen gets blank right after you select the kernel to boot from lilo? If that's the case check your lilo.conf for the line: "vga = ..." and change it to "vga = normal" to see if it works. Don't forget to run lilo after any changes you make in lilo.conf.

Thanks for that. I think I left some stuff out when compiling the kernel. Using vga=normal works fine. However when using the 2.6.16 kernel my eth0 has stopped working. It is a Broadcom. I load it with modprobe b44. That goes OK but 'dhcpcd eth0' fails to acquire an address. I'm sure I added it as a module when compiling the module.

The networkworks fine under kernel2.4.31

I have a Dell Inspiron 6000 working with a 2.6.15 kernel. I actually compile B44 into the kernel: "CONFIG_B44=y" in /usr/src/linux/.config. I'm not sure if this is actually necessary or if loading it as a module is also possible -- but this works for me. I think B44 may still be 'experimental', so you could check to make sure you have "CONFIG_EXPERIMENTAL=y".

Further to this - i found that if i use #make xconfig to build 2.6.15 i do not get any option to selct VESA frame buffer - only plain frame buff console support..
if i use #make menuconfig i get 'VESA frame buffer' -
I had the very same problem on a Dell inspiron 700m with 2.6.15 untill i set up in menuconfig.
Now i got the pengiun and 1024x768