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Sunday, February 27, 2011

Bigger buffer log (dmesg) size

Someone asked me: how to make dmesg output is not truncated. The answer is make the buffer log size bigger. How? As far as I know, there are two ways to raise the buffer log size:
  1. Pass the parameter of log_buf_len=n to kernel, where n is a power of two number (n = 2^x). The default for slackware is 2^15 or 32768 (32k). You can change n to 65536 (2^16) or 131072 (2^17). In this way, you don't need to recompile your current kernel.
  2. Compile or recompile your kernel. Before you compile the kernel yourself or recompile it yourself, you have to change the kernel parameter in General Setup > Kernel log buffer size (see figure) to 16 (65536) or 17 (131072). After compilation, don't forget to copy kernel image, config, and System.map into /boot directory and set up your bootloader (lilo/grub) properly.


Choose one of them then you will get full dmesg output on your screen. It will be very long message log.

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Problem when using ATI Catalyst Proprietary Display Driver 11.x

When I monitored ATI Catalyst driver website for Linux, the last driver version is 11.2 (15 Feb 2011). However, when I tried to install it on my laptop (ATI Mobility Radeon HD5400 series, my own compilation of kernel 2.6.37.2, & Xorg-server 1.9.4 from slackware64-current), the x server crashed. This happened also when I tried to install 11.1 version. Therefore, I have to draw back to the 10.12 version and it runs smoothly on my laptop. Since this version is very stable, I suggest, it's better if you stay on 10.12 version until AMD releases the new version.

Note: If you want to install the 10.12 version, you will need to patch the kernel module of ATI Catalyst using this patch for 2.6.37.x or this patch for 2.6.36.x. You don't need to this patch if you are using 2.6.35.x. Also, the 11.x version of ATI Catalyst doesn't need this patch.

How to install & patch:
  • Download the 10.12 version from here.
  • From console (run in text mode, make sure to this as root and the installer are executable), enter the directory where the installer is then run: ./ati-driver-installer-10-12-x86.x86_64.run --install
  • Follow the instructions.
  • When done, enter to /lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/
  • copy the patch to this directory then run: patch -p0 < fglrx_10.10-12_with_2.6.XX.x.diff (note that XX is 36 or 37, depends on your kernel version).
  • run: ./make.sh
  • if there is no error, go up to one level (/lib/modules/fglrx/) then do: ./make_install.sh
  • reboot your system
  • use aticonfig --initial to create /etc/X11/xorg.conf then make necessary changes on it. My suggestion, it's better if you move and rename that xorg.conf to /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/fglrx.conf
  • start your x server
Test your display, activate desktop effect, or whatever you want.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

How to activate right-click function on clickpad?

Finally, I can use the right-click of the clickpad on my laptop (HP Pavilion dv3-4036TX). Clickpad is differ from touchpad, those are, it is larger than touchpad and it doesn't have physical buttons for left- and right-click (see picture below and click here for more detail).


Because of this construction, if we use common driver (synaptics) on linux, you cannot use right-click function, in other word, when you click on both left and right bottom side of clickpad, you will get left-click function only.

If you want to activate right-click function, you have to patch the xf86-input-synaptics driver. You can download the patch from this site. How to patch? Follow the steps below:
  1. Download the source of x11 (the whole directory tree) from Slackware site. It's better if you use rsync command for downloading it. In my case, I use: rsync -avP rsync.osuosl.org::slackware/slackware64-current/source/x/x11 /home/henry/rsync/
  2. Copy the patch to path-to/x11/patch/xf86-input-synaptics/. In my case, I copy it to /home/henry/rsync/x11/patch/xf86-input-synaptics/.
  3. Add this line: patch -p1 < $CWD/patch/xf86-input-synaptics/synaptics-clickpad-support.patch --verbose || { touch ${SLACK_X_BUILD_DIR}/${PKGNAME}.failed ; continue ; } to path-to/x11/patch/xf86-input-synaptics.patch then save it. In my case, I add that line to /home/henry/rsync/x11/patch/xf86-input-synaptics.patch file.
  4. Run the slackbuild script exactly like this: ./x11.slackbuild driver xf86-input-synaptics
  5. You will get new slackware package of xf86-input-synaptics for your clickpad. Afterward, upgrade the existing xf86-input-synaptics with the new one using upgradepkg.
  6. Make new file (you can name it freely) in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ (in my case: /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/clickpad.conf), then write these lines in the file then save it:
Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "touchpad catchall"
        Driver "synaptics"
        MatchIsTouchpad "on"
          Option "TapButton1" "1"
          Option "TapButton2" "2"
          Option "TapButton3" "3"
EndSection

Restart X server, then enjoy your "right-click function" of clickpad if you click the right bottom area of clickpad. In addition, if you click the middle bottom area of clickpad, you will get "middle-button function".