Installing Debian on MSi CR629 (Novatech I3) laptop

I recently bought a new laptop from Novatech, without any operating system pre installed (it turns out to be labelled an MSi CR629). I would, by the way, recommend Novatech as a supplier, particularly for people who want to buy computers which don't have Windows pre-installed. The directions I give will probably be considered a bit terse by a first time Linux installer, as I mainly want to explore how to obtain a working, Linux installation on this particular hardware, not to replicate other people's documents which describe how to install Linux of various flavours.

This post will describe the steps I went through to get a working Debian Linux stable installation on the laptop, for the guidance of any others who might wish to do the same. I might move to testing at some point, rather than stable; this is something I haven't decided yet.

I spent some time beforehand thinking about the Linux distribution to use. The short-list was Gentoo, Debian, and OpenSuse. I rejected ubuntu, which I have used for a long time on my desktops, because I don't like some of the recent changes and the direction the project seems to be going in, in terms of user interface design and flexibility. I ended up rejecting Gentoo, after actually attempting an installation; I have in the past spent too much time manually configuring Xorg.conf, and I have no desire to do so again. I never got round to trying OpenSuse...

1. Create CD and Install Debian Linux

I did this on one of my existing computers. I downloaded via the Debian website, and burnt a CD using brasero on my existing ubuntu desktop. Then I booted up the laptop, inserted the CD, and rebooted, following the instructions on screen. The network install works fine, though it must be done with a wired internet connection (see below on how to add wireless support).

I chose to partition manually, though there is no particular need to do so. This was mainly so that I could leave some empty space on the disk, possibly for installing Windows later, possibly for exploring other Linux distributions. But I created a small /boot partition, a larger than recommended swap (as I've had problems in the past from too small swap space), and a large / partition (as I have also suffered from using machines which had many partitions which did not work out as the needs of the server did not match the ideas of the installer).

Once the installation process is complete, follow the menu item to restart, remove the CD, and let the machine boot from the hard drive. With the exception of some hardware accessories, this process worked fine.


Some hardware problems will only become apparent over time; there are several pieces of kit integrated into the laptop which I have not used yet, and even some which I am unlikely to ever use (the MMC card reader). A couple of items did immediately need fixing to work with Debian, and this is probably the most technical requirement of the installation.

2. Wireless networking


The laptop comes with RaLink RT3090 wireless hardware, which has known issues with linux drivers. But before we come to that, the device is bizarrely switched off by default. If you press Fn and F8 simultaneously, wireless networking is turned on, and the status light second on the left below the mousepad should become green.

Next, install the basic wireless software. Open a terminal, and as root or using sudo, run

# apt-get install firmware-ralink wireless-tools


(Using synaptic is of course an acceptable alternative.)  Enable the drivers by restarting the network manager, either by rebooting or


# /etc/init.d/network-manager restart


The software package named firmware-ralink contains several drivers, some of which will work with the RT3090 hardware, but none of which allow stable wireless connections. They are however needed to establish a connection. For a more stable connection, download the proprietary driver for the RT3090 directly from Ralink's support website. You will need to accept the license, entering name and email, to download. To install, you will need to be root or use sudo.

# unzip 2010_1217_RT3090_LinuxSTA_V2.4.0.4_WiFiBTCombo_DPO.zip
# cd 20101216_RT3090_LinuxSTA_V2.4.0.4_WiFiBTCombo_DPO
# make
# make install

(The original text here included a link to a website where a .deb file could be downloaded; I hadn't taken in that this was ubuntu only and would not work in debian.)

Rebooting is probably the easiest way to see if the driver is picked up. You can see a list of which drivers are loaded using

$ lsmod | grep -e rt2 -e rt3

(you don't need to be root to run this). If rt3090sta is not listed, you need to add it (as root):

# modprobe rt3090sta

This immediately got the wireless working, searching for networks to connect to, and with a reasonably (but not perfectly) stable connection.

To force the driver to be loaded on booting the laptop, run the following command as root:

# echo "rt3090sta" >> /etc/modules

This simply adds the module name for the driver to the list in this file of the kernel modules to load on boot. (N.B. This does not always appear to work, but if not, run the modprobe command again to load the driver manually.)

(These instructions are based on those here, which although they didn't work for me as written, gave enough clues that I could get wireless working.)

3. Integrated card reader

Inserting an SD card into the card reader (second drawer from the front on the left hand side; you need to remove the cover first) does nothing. This is because the driver for the reader is not included as a module for use with the current linux kernel - there is a kernel bug report, but it is complicated and confusing in its advice and in fact easier to follow instructions are available elsewhere. The card reader is a USB device, and can be seen with

$ lsusb

The output should include a line like:

Bus 001 Device 005: ID 0cf2:6250 ENE Technology, Inc.

which indicates the manufacturer of the hardware. These instructions are intended to get card readers made by this manufacturer to work in debian linux: if the hardware for the laptop has changed and a different card reader is included, the method will be different.

You will need to be root to install the driver, which needs to be compiled as a kernel module.

First, download the driver here. The downloaded zip file needs to be unzipped to a particular location:

# unzip -d /usr/src/keucr-0.0.1 R100_02_ene_card_reader.zip

Create a file named /usr/src/keucr-0.0.1/dkms.conf containing:


PACKAGE_NAME="keucr"
PACKAGE_VERSION="0.0.1"
CLEAN="rm -f *.*o"
BUILT_MODULE_NAME[0]="keucr"
MAKE[0]="make -C $kernel_source_dir M=$dkms_tree/$PACKAGE_NAME/$PACKAGE_VERSION/build"
DEST_MODULE_LOCATION[0]="/extra"
AUTOINSTALL="yes"

and then use dkms to build and install the driver:


# dkms add -m keucr -v 0.0.1
# dkms build -m keucr -v 0.0.1
# dkms install -m keucr -v 0.0.1
# echo "keucr" >> /etc/modules

The last line means that the module will be loaded on boot. To load it manually in the current session use:

# modprobe keucr

Test by inserting a card; it should now be recognised and automatically mounted. Whenever a new kernel is built/installed, this driver will break and will need to be re-installed:

# dkms remove -m keucr -v 0.0.1 --all

# dkms add -m keucr -v 0.0.1
# dkms build -m keucr -v 0.0.1
# dkms install -m keucr -v 0.0.1



# modprobe keucr

4. Mousepad tapping

Not everyone likes mousepad tapping (that is, being able to tap on the pad to simulate a mouse button click, rather than using the bar at the bottom of the pad), and it is turned off by default in gnome (the default windowing environment in debian). Enabling is much simpler than the preceding tasks. To enable, simply use the menu at the top of the screen; select System/Preferences/Mouse, go to the Touchpad tab, and click on "Enable mouse clicks with touchpad". This should take effect immediately.

5. Webcam


Like the wireless hardware, this is switched off by default. I spent a while trying to work out what the problem might be, before turning it on, which can be done by pressing Fn and F6 simultaneously. When you do this, you should straightaway find:


$ ls /dev/video*

returns

/dev/video0

and that you can see yourself if you start the application cheese (select Applications/Sound and Video/Cheese Webcam Booth). Additionally, lsusb will now return an additional entry which includes the manufacturer's name: "Acer, Inc".

You can turn the webcam off again with the same key combination.

Update: Fixed some errors in the wireless networking section.
Update 2011-10-13: Updated URL for Ralink Support.