Linux on ASUS DigiMatrix

Preface

This is a survey about Linux related hardware features of the ASUS DigiMatrix.
For instance, I haven't be able to make all the hardware present in the box working... Waiting for You ! ;-)

Cyril Lacoux <clacoux@easter-eggs.org>

Table of contents

Pictures
News
Digimatrix forum (outertrack.com, by Conor Hunt)
General Hardware Data
   Processor
   Hard Disk
   Survey PCI Devices
   Memory
   Monitor
Hardware and system configuration
   Distribution
   Kernel
   Bootsplash
   Video Card
   Network Card
   WIFI Card
   Audio Card
   IEE1394 (Firewire)
   Usb
   SmartCard Reader
   Sensors
   Tuner/FM Card
   Remote Control
Software
Frequently Asked Questions
Disclaimer
Document License
Credits & Links

News

2005/01/27 : New kernel (version 2.6.10)
Patches :
  • hand made patch to had support of tuner card.

    changes :
  • Added remote control support
  • Added wireless support

    2004/07/09 : Wifi card is working


    2004/07/09 : New kernel (version 2.4.26)
    Patches :
  • i2c v2.8.4
  • lm_sensors v2.8.6
  • current snapshot of saa7134 driver (from bytesex.org)
  • current snapshot of sisfb driver (from http://www.winischhofer.net)
  • Linux Progress Patch (from http://lpp-themes.sourceforge.net/)

    changes :
  • Added Wireless support
  • Re-added multiple lun support for SCSI devices (for 7-1 card reader)

    2004/05/01 : Debian packages
    Debian user's, simply add :
    deb http://people.easter-eggs.org/~yack/digimatrix/debian ./
    into your sources.list to download kernel packages.

    2004/05/01 : New kernel (version 2.4.26)
    Patches :
  • i2c v2.8.4
  • lm_sensors v2.8.6
  • current snapshot of saa7134 driver (from bytesex.org)
  • current snapshot of sisfb driver (from http://www.winischhofer.net)
  • Linux Progress Patch (from http://lpp-themes.sourceforge.net/)

    changes :
  • Replaced vesafb by sisfb since I don't use bootsplash anymore
  • Activated PS/2 mouse support as requested by Pascal Brisset

    2004/03/12 : Digimatrix forum is open.
    Many thanks to Conor Hunt who set it up.

    Hi there,

    [...]

    The only thing I felt your page was lacking was a discussion area to
    talk about the digimatrix. I had some space on a webhost so I set a
    discussion board up. If you are interested you could link to this from
    your website and it could be used for discussion about the digimatrix
    and for discussion on running linux on it. I can make you an admin on
    the discussion board if this sounds interesting?

    http://outertrack.com/digimatrix/

    Thanks.

    You're welcome!

    2004/03/10 : New kernel (version 2.4.25)
    Patches :
  • i2c v2.8.4
  • lm_sensors v2.8.4
  • set patches of the current saa7134 version (from bytesex.org)
  • bootsplash v3.0.7 (from bootsplash)

    Changes :
  • Replaced sisfb by vesafb
  • Activated bootsplash support

    2004/01/23 : New kernel (version 2.4.24)
    Patches :
  • i2c v2.8.3
  • lm_sensors v2.8.3
  • set patches of the current saa7134 version (from bytesex.org)
  • sisfb v040122 (from Thomas Winischhofer website)

    Improvements :
  • Sensors are now working
  • updated sisfb driver

    2004/01/22 : Sensors are working
    Lm_sensors team has released a new version of sensors (2.8.3, 2004/01/15).
    From ChangeLog :
    Module it87:
  • Fix sg_tlx writes; fix sensor type reporting;
  • add 8712 Super I/O detection;
  • remove initialization of temp_type and fan_ctl;
  • remove init and temp_type module parameters
    • Since initializations are removed, SmarGuardian mode doesn't seem to be desactivate.

    Few chance they read this, but : Thanks!

    2003/30/12 : Tuner card is working
    Today is Christmas Day :-)
    Finally, the card is working with saa7134 v0.2.9.
    Options are : card=7, tuner=24
  • card=7 is SAA7134_BOARD_TVSTATION_RDS
  • tuner=24 is TUNER_PHILIPS_FQ1216ME


    • 2003/21/12 : Finaly bought a remote control
    It's an ATI remote control (usb) which works fine with lirc from cvs.

    General Hardware Data

    Processor (not included)

    processor       : 0
vendor_id       : GenuineIntel
cpu family      : 15
model           : 2
model name      : Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 2.00GHz
stepping        : 9
cpu MHz         : 2018.421
cache size      : 128 KB
fdiv_bug        : no
hlt_bug         : no
f00f_bug        : no
coma_bug        : no
fpu             : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level     : 2
wp              : yes
flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe cid
bogomips        : 3981.31

    Hard Disk (not included)

    Ouput from command 'fdisk -l /dev/hda'

Disk /dev/hda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
   /dev/hda1               1         124      995998+  82  Linux swap
   /dev/hda2   *         125         248      996030   83  Linux
   /dev/hda3             249        9729    76156132+   5  Extended
   /dev/hda5             249         856     4883728+  83  Linux
   /dev/hda6             857        9729    71272341   83  Linux

Ouput from command 'hdparm -i /dev/hda'

/dev/hda:

 Model=ST380011A, FwRev=3.06, SerialNo=3JV4RHPK
 Config={ HardSect NotMFM HdSw>15uSec Fixed DTR>10Mbs RotSpdTol>.5% }
 RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=4
 BuffType=unknown, BuffSize=2048kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=1
 CurCHS=65535/1/63, CurSects=4128705, LBA=yes, LBAsects=156301488
 IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:240,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}
 PIO modes:  pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
 DMA modes:  mdma0 mdma1 mdma2
 UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 *udma5
 AdvancedPM=no WriteCache=enabled
 Drive conforms to: ATA/ATAPI-6 T13 1410D revision 2:

 * signifies the current active mode

    Survey PCI Devices

    Output from command 'lspci'

00:00.0 Host bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS651 Host (rev 02)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS 530 Virtual PCI-to-PCI bridge (AGP)
00:02.0 ISA bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS962 [MuTIOL Media IO] (rev 25)
00:02.1 SMBus: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS]: Unknown device 0016
00:02.5 IDE interface: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 5513 [IDE]
00:02.7 Multimedia audio controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] Sound Controller (rev a0)
00:03.0 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.0 Controller (rev 0f)
00:03.1 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.0 Controller (rev 0f)
00:03.3 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 2.0 Controller
00:04.0 Ethernet controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS900 10/100 Ethernet (rev 91)
00:08.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. IEEE 1394 Host Controller (rev 80)
00:09.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB (rev 50)
00:09.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB (rev 50)
00:09.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 51)
00:0a.0 Ethernet controller: 3Com Corporation 3c940 1000Base? (rev 12)
00:0e.0 Multimedia controller: Philips Semiconductors SAA7134 (rev 01)
00:0f.0 Network controller: Unknown device 1814:0101
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS650/651/M650/740 PCI/AGP VGA Display Adapter

    Memory

    My DigiMatrix have 256Mo of DDR PC2100 RAM.

    Monitor

    Only Connected to TV throught TV-Output with a RCA cable.

    Hardware and system configuration

    Distribution

    I use the     Debian Linux distribution (sid). I choose it for severals reasons:
    Here is my sources.list file.
    Complete list of installed sofware is here.

    You can download my kernel packages by adding the next line into your sources.list :
    deb http://people.easter-eggs.org/~yack/digimatrix/debian ./

    Kernel

    I tried two     Kernel versions, 2.4 and 2.6 :
    Version Config file Patches dmesg Debian packages Extra modules
    2.6.0-test8 config-2.6.0-test8   dmesg kernel  
    2.4.22 config-2.4.22   dmesg kernel  
    2.4.23 config-2.4.23   dmesg kernel, alsa modules  
    2.4.24 config-2.4.24 pach dir dmesg kernel, alsa modules 3C2000
    2.4.25 config-2.4.25 pach dir dmesg kernel, alsa modules 3C2000
    2.4.26 config-2.4.26 pach dir dmesg kernel, alsa modules 3C2000, rt2400
    2.6.10 config-2.6.10 pach dir dmesg kernel lirc_dev, lirc_it87, rt2400

    Bootsplash

    Using lpp patch from     http://lpp-themes.sourceforge.net/.
    A screenshot is here.
    Need to modify starting scripts. I use file-rc on debian unstable so you can get my deb here.

    Video card

    It's a SIS 315 3D based vga adaptor 64MB shared memory.
    It support VGA, DVI-D, HDTV, S-Video.
    The version of     XFree86 is 4.3.0.
    Here is my XF86Config-4.

    Network card

    Two cards are integrated to the mainboard :
  • 10/100Mb/s - SIS900 Based (SIS, module is sis900)
  • 1Gb/s - 3C940 Based (3Com, module is is sk98lin)

    WIFI card

    The card is based on an RT2400 chip from     RaLink Technology.
    GPL driver can be found at http://rt2400.sourceforge.net/

    Debian user's: you can compile the module from sources delivered by the rt2400-source package.

    Here is my configuration (Debian) and associated script:
  • /etc/modules/aliases:
    [...]
    alias eth2 rt2400

  • /etc/network/interfaces:
    [...]
    auto eth2
    iface eth2 inet static
        address X.X.X.X
        network X.X.X.X
        netmask X.X.X.X
        broadcast X.X.X.X
        gateway X.X.X.X
        up /usr/local/sbin/wireless_settings.sh eth2

  • /usr/local/sbin/wireless_settings.sh:
    #!/bin/sh
    device=$1

    iwconfig ${device} key my_key
    iwconfig ${device} mode managed
    iwconfig ${device} essid my_essid

    Audio card

    The card is a SIS7012 Soundchip. It works with intel8x0 alsa driver.
    Sounds good, no noise.

    IEEE1394 (aka firewire, i.link)

    No peripherals to test this yet.

    Usb:

    Works with usb-uhci for USB1.0 and usb-ehci for USB2.0.

    SmartCard Reader

    Seems to works with usb-storage, only tested with a card from a digital camera.

    Sensors

    Works with it87
    Necessary modules are :
  • i2c-core
  • i2c-proc
  • i2c-dev
  • i2c-isa
  • i2c-sis645
  • it87
    •

    TUNER/FM Card

    It's a LG INNOTEK card on a minipci slot based on a saa7134 chip.
    Khyron and me are working on a patch for the saa7134 driver to make both PAL and SECAM versions of the card fully working.
    The patch is included in the kernel since version 2.6.15.
    I took some     pictures of the card

    Known problems

  • Sound mutes when a SECAM-L channel is in mono.

    Working status by countries

    Note: I didn't test the following configurations.

    Basic informations Status Comments Reported by (on)
    Country TV type TV mode Tuner type Kernel Video driver (Options) Sound driver Software Distro Comments Sound Video Are all channels working ? Comments    
    Belgium cable (Coditel) PAL LG INNOTEK
    TALN-S2007
    SECAM
    		 2.6.7-1-386 (Debian) saa7130/34, 0.2.11 (card=2 tuner=38 oss=1 dsp_nr=1 mixer_nr=1) alsa xawtv, tvtime, mplayer (with driver v4l2) Debian Sid   9/10 9/10 Yes (>40)   - Happy :)
    - machine bought in France     		Gaëtan Frenoy (27/07/2004)
    France cable (Numericable) SECAM LG INNOTEK
    TALN-S200T
    SECAM
    		 2.6.14-digimatrix (handmade) saa7134 from the kernel with my patch (autoprobed) alsa xawtv, tvtime, mplayer (with driver v4l2) Debian Sid   5/10 9/10 Yes (8)     Cyril Lacoux (18/12/2005)

    Remote Control

    Works with     LIRC.
    Necessary modules are :
  • lirc_dev
  • lirc_it87

    • Configuration file for lirc are here.

    Software

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Disclaimer

    This document has nothing to do with Asus, they don't even know it exists. There is no guarantee that the information on this page is accurate, please don't hold me responsible if your experience is different from the information here.

    Document License

    The author owns this document.
    The document is freely distribuable under license terms of     GNU Free Documentation License (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html).
    All comments, suggestions or help is very welcome and encouraged.
    Please send whatever comment you want to the author.

    Credits & Links
    Last modification : December, 17 2005