Greg's GNU/Linux Advent 7011 Page

Introduction

Here is a collection of resources I've compiled, related to running GNU/Linux (in this case Slackware) on an Advent 7011 laptop. Everything here is all based on what I had to do to make mine work... I originally used Slackware 8.1 as the base installation but have since used Slackware 10.

I am personally very disappointed with my model of the Advent laptop and other models seem to have the same problems. Apart from the atrocious graphics card there are also the following problems:

  • The TV out is black and white only, no, really.
  • The fan is underneath the laptop - so you can't operate it properly on your lap!
  • The fan is under-powered, when doing heavy work the machine just turns off when it gets too hot.
  • The power supply shipped with the machine is noisy and gets worryingly hot.
  • There is no COM port.
  • The screen flickers a lot - when I tried to get it replaced I was told there was nothing they could do unless I agreed that they could format my hard disk.
  • The DVD drive is very picky about what it reads.
  • The whole thing is based around an SiS chipset.

    Video with the SiS 650 Under XFree86 4.2

    The support does not appear to be very good. SiS do not appear to properly support the device.

    Support is provided by Thomas Winischhofer, on his page here. Using his driver playing MPEGs, using OpenGL in general etc. is possible but not satisfactory. Maybe you should pester SiS to release datasheets.

    Sound with the SiS 7012

    I used the kernel version 2.4.20 and compiled in support for the Intel i8xx. This was the recommended method but although sounds worked for CD etc, and I was able to set the mixer volume levels, playback of PCM did not work. The solution was to use the ALSA drivers, from the ALSA Project. Don't forget to set permissions of /dev/mixer and /dev/dsp. Note: sound works perfectly with kernel version 2.6.X.

    Network with the SiS 900

    I used the kernel version 2.4.20 and compiled in support for it directly. It worked fine for me.