Category:Z61t

Reviews

• z61t Linux review (Milosz Tanski), 2006-01-05

Linux

Most of the laptop features are current supported by Linux, kernel 2.6.17+ recommened.

Hardware support

Sound works fine with the snd-hda-intel module in the Linux kernel. Be aware that disabling modem in BIOS breaks sound.

Virtualization: [[Intel_Core_Duo_(Yonah)]] supports Intel VT-x, but Z61t BIOS disables it, rendering laptop unusable for KVM or Xen with unmodified guests. Avoid this model if you care about fully expoiting CPU features.

IRDA

Make sure you either explicitly enable or disable the IRDA functionality in the bios (instead of having it be enabled but off) otherwise the kernel IRDA drive will OOPs. Other then that it works fine.

Graphics

Requires xorg-x11 >= 7.1
xf86-video-i810(xorg i810 driver) >= 1.7.0
915resolution.

3-in-1 card reader

In order to get the card reader you need kernel 2.6.17+ with the sdhci modules. Also you will need the open-source tifm driver. The current version 0.5.0 produces oopes on the z61t on umount; however, the SVN version aviable works fine.

ACPI

Suspend

• As of kernel 2.6.17 suspend works, with one gotya that the SATA controller is set to compatibility mode in the BIOS (instead of AHCI mode). This is due to the fact that the kernel dosen't eaxactly suport suspend/resumue in the AHCI driver yet, and the AHCI module fails to turn the hard drives back on at resume time.

• Patches for AHCI suspend are aviable at the following urls:

Description Patch 1 Patch 2 Patch 3 Patch 4 Patch 5 Patch 6

• Notes:

Make sure you remove a couple modules on suspend: ipw3945 (if your have intel wireless) also the sdhci and tifm (3 in 1 card reader modules), otherwide the laptop may not goto sleep and/or wakeup properly.