Amilo Pro V2000D

Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo Pro V2000D, running GNU/Linux. This model doesn’t have a very pretty appearance, but it’s well equipped and quite cheap. You can get “higher” models of Amilo that are more expensive and less equipped. My laptop has:

• Celeron M 1.5GHz with frequency scaling
• 256MB RAM (way to little, I expanded it to 768MB)
• 40GB hard disk (which failed after 6 months and was replaced)
• 15″ TFT with 1024×768 resolution
• Intel integrated graphic card with 3D accelleration
• Intel integrated sound card
• IrDA port (working with nsc-ircc driver)
• Modem
• Firefire (never tested)
• MB, SD, MMC card reader (never tested)
• 1 PCMCIA port
• 3 USB 2.0 ports
• Broadcom ethernet adapter (BCM4401)
• Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG WLAN adapter

It initially ran Slackware, but then I got lazy and switched to Ubuntu, where I don’t have to compile all the stuff myself. My instructions assume you’re using Ubuntu, but they may work in other distributions as well.

Wireless network

First, add options to the ipw2200 driver. Create the /etc/modprobe.d/ipw2200 file:

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/ipw2200

And add the following two lines to it (they may appear wrapped but they are only two lines):

options ipw2200 mode=0 associate=1 led=1
install ipw2200 /sbin/modprobe acerhk; sleep 1; echo 1 > /proc/driver/acerhk/wirelessled; /sbin/modprobe –ignore-install ipw2200

Save the file and apply the changes:

sudo depmod -ae
sudo rmmod ipw2200
sudo modprobe ipw2200

CPU frequency scaling

In theory, this Pentium M processor should be supported by the speedstep-centrino module. Unfortunately, this module does not want to load. In order to get the CPU frequency scaling to work, p4-clockmod module needs to be used. Add “p4-clockmod” line to /etc/modules. You can also define the default governor, for instance: “ondmeand”, by issuing this command:

sudo su -c “ondemand > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor”

IrDA

I have successfully used the infrared interface to communicate with my cell phone. You need the IrDA-utils software package. Also obexftp is needed if you want to exchange files with your cell phone. On Ubuntu, you can install those programs by issuing this command:

sudo apt-get install irda-utils obexftp

Start the IrDA reception.

sudo rmmod nsc-ircc
sudo modprobe nsc-ircc
sudo modprobe ircomm-tty
sudo irattach irda0 none -s

To see if your phone is recognized, turn the infrared connection in your phone on, place the phone 10 cm, looking at the Amilo’s infrared port (on the left) and type:

sudo irdadump

If you see a string representing an answer from your phone, the devices see each other. You can list files in your cellphone:

obexftp -i -l /

Read man obexftp to learn how to use it.