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Medion Akoya (MSI Wind) netbook and eComStation

Started by Shai, 2008.07.03, 11:46:10

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Shai

Hi,
I just bought a Medion Akoya netbook which is available at Aldi (Germany) for 400€ since today. It is - as far as I know - a rebranded MSI Wind. However the MSI Wind won't be released in Germany in less than 2 months.
Hardware looks promising. It appears to have an intel 945 gm graphics chipset which is supported by SNAP!
Sound is Realtek but it doesn't seem to be AC97 - I'm confident it will work with Uniaud nevertheless.
WLAN is a Ralink device. There's a Ralink genmac package and I will try that.
I don't know whether the Webcam will work with some of the available webcam drivers/programs - but I don't need it anyway.
I am going to install eComStation tomorrow by copying the install CD to the HD using a bootable Linux-on-flash-drive distribution or something. I will not install eCS itself to a SD card or USB stick. I think I'm also going to install a small Ubuntu-Linux (need this for my job and I don't necessarily want to port the programs I'm developing to OS/2 although it would be interesting to see whether it would work out of the box in a Linux-like environment in OS/2 -- otherwise I wouldn't contaminate a pure eCS system of course ;) ).
I will keep you informed if you're interested.

greetings,
Robin

Shai

ok,
I could just use two USB flash drives and here's what I've already tried:
1. Disable AHCI in BIOS. This is important as it would lead to nasty OS/2 traps while booting the installation floppies.
1. I copied a XUbuntu Live/Installer CD to a flash drive - I will need it to prepare the partitions and because I want to install XUbuntu later
2. I booted XUbuntu (live) and partitioned the 75.53gb HD: I just created one 1gb partition at the end of the HD. I formatted it as FAT16 and specified "ECS_CDRUN" as the volume label.
3. I zipped (no compression) the content of the eCS installer CD (btw I used eComStation RC4) and copied it to a flash drive. I included system files of course.
4. On the netbook, I simply unzipped the zip file to my "ECS_CDRUN" partition.
5. I used the DISKIMGS\IMAGE.EXE tool on the eCS installer CD to write the first boot floppy to a flash drive. IMAGE -H ECS0.DSK X:
6. I booted the netbook from that flash device and chose to boot with default values.
7. When I was prompted to insert disk 1, I copied the ECS1.DSK to the device in the same way as above. The file could be read successfully.
8. I did the same with ECS2.DSK - it was read successfully.
9. The eCS boot image appears and I am prompted to insert the installation CD. I guess that means LOCATECD.SYS does not recognize the partition even though I have no problems accessing it in plain DOS (tried a FreeDOS boot floppy copied to the flash drive)

I read that this worked for some people who installed eCS on the eeePC.

Could the reason be that the partition is too big? I had to make it this large because a 800mb partition wasn't sufficient although the CD is only about 700mb.

cheers,
Robin

Shai

I just tried it with a 840mb FAT16 ECS_CDRUN partition - doesn't help...
Maybe it has something to do with the drive letters? Is it possible to specify in the config.sys where the CD drive letters start? And if yes (ie if any config.sys changes are necessary), why did nobody who already installed eCS that way point this out?

Shai

ok, according to Sigurd Fastenrath (eee pc on internal ssd instructions), "Linux" isn't the ideal partitioning tool. Maybe I should try DFSee on Linux or DFSee on plain FreeDOS.

Sigurd

#4
Hi,
just sold the EEE and bought this Netbook as well. Using the same installation method than my EEE one I brought eCS 2.0 RC 5 to run yesterday! It looked really great! Sound did work with 1.1.4 RC 6 (It is the Realtek ACL888), Video worked with 800X600 with SNAP (3.0 Vesa) but much better with Panorama.

Unfortunately there is no 1024 X 600 Resolution, add gamode with snap failed, the widescreen activator reports a "non supported chipset".

LAN (Realtek 8102E) and WLAN (Ralink) not working (yet)

BUT!!!

After I tried to use SMP Kernel and Switch the whole thing crashed with trap 0008. This trap happens now everytime I try to boot or reinstall eCS. So I think I have to do it again from the beginning.

I might try to disable AHCI in BIOS; your hint, may be this helps.

But - it is really worth trying it! I will post another Youtube video, once I get it to work.

Sigurd Fastenrath

Shai

I converted the DFSee FreeDOS based boot floppy to my flash device, partitioned the HD and copied the installation CD using XUbuntu. Now LOCATECD.SYS finds the partition. However after loading SNAP (makes no difference with VGA), it crashes with trap 0008 - and I still have AHCI disabled. Maybe I should activate it again!? Would make no sense and it would (should, if this error is reproducable) crash *before* LOCATECD.SYS.

@Sigurd:
Did you install using a ECS_CDRUN partition or did you prepare a SD card on your workstation?

Shai

I removed ACPI from the config.sys - as it is a common source of errors. Now it just halts after SNAP (there's simply nothing happening). Frustrating somehow...

Shai

alright!
the whole driver-disabling-method was useless (I tried countless combinations). it was simply the USB device.
When I boot with custom values and I remove the flash device at the configuration screen (isn't necessary anyway at this point) - the installer boots properly - with ACPI, USB drivers, SNAP and everything!

Sigurd

Hi,

never used a SD card, that is the way Ed Durant is doing it (with the EEE). I have to use Windows in case of work, so I use Partition Magic to create a partition. But this was / is a little tricky because I need sometimes to many primary Partitions. I will give it a try later this evening and will report any progress.

Thanks for your hints, seems to me that I should disconnect the USB DVD Drive I got once the installation uses the internal ECS_CDRUN Partition.

Sigurd

Shai

@Sigurd:
Removing the USB device doesn't change much - it just seemed so because it booted for first time when I tried this. It crashed several times thereafter using the same sequence of actions and in fact currently the installer runs with an USB device connected (it was connected when it started up). So it's more a question of luck - it works in about 1/5 of the times I try it.

I now have another problem. LVM complains about corrupted partition tables on the main drive and on the reserved drives for the removable media devices. Cleaning up the partition tables using DFSee doesn't seem to make a difference. My last idea would be to completely wipe the disk and partition it again. But I'm restraining because the whole procedure will be time consuming...

cheers,
Robin

Shai

The LVM issue was because there was no LVM information - after I initialized the LVM information to default using DFSee (at least I think that's what I was doing), it was able to work with the partitions (and I guessed it is possible to do this on its own). eCS is now already booting from the HD. :)

Sigurd

#11
Hi,
for me it works if I use DANI in "compatible mode" during install and later on. I could get closer to the error: If I disable ACPI after installation, no more crashes - unfortunately no more power management as well. I could reproduce the trap 0008 if I used the "extended -x-shutdown method" used by xworkplace. While enabling this the akoya shuts down perfect (to perfect indeed), but the next start will crash right after the bootlogo with trap 0008!

The safest way for me until now:
- disable acpi.psd
- disable extended shut down options

Meanwhile I am uploading the new Qucikshot video I just made about this. But Youtube still needs some time to process the data  ::)

Wish you luck!

Sigurd


Shai

@Sigurd:
My eCS boots very infrequently. I get the same trap you descibed - but I don't know what triggered it as it worked for some time.
Sadly I cannot try to disable ACPI because I cannot get the installer to boot again (tried it 20 times or so...) and XUbuntu doesn't seem to include JFS drivers. Disabling ACPI for the installer doesn't help, neither does the DANI compatibility mode.
Maybe I have more luck tomorrow.

Sigurd

@shai

Sorry for this - but now I have got the trap again...... It seemed to be away, but the only thing to say is that it is happening "less often". Thats a pitty.....

It seems that it is not a problem (or not only) with ACPI, but I dont know how to solve this problem.

Any one - any ideas?

Sigurd