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WinBook XL

Specifications

NameWinBook XL
ProcessorPentium MMX 233MHz
Screen12.1” SVGA
RAM64MiB
HDD2GB
Optical DriveCD-ROM
GraphicsChips & Technologies CT65554
Other2 x USB1.1, 2 x Type II PC card slot, Lucent K56flex winmodem

Note: this is a sample configuration

Linux Compatibility

Device Compatibility Comments
ProcessorYes
ScreenYes
HDDNot Tested See notes below
Optical DriveYes
GraphicsNot Tested Only tried vesafb so far
SoundNot Tested Might be ISAPNP
56K ModemNot Tested
USBYes uhci_hcd driver
PCMCIAYes See notes below

Notes

HDD

The BIOS seems unable to recognize hard disks other than whatever the machine is shipped with (it stalls indefinitely at boot), regardless of auto-detection or manually-entered disk geometry. FIXME Does upgrading the BIOS fix this? Update: BIOS version tested is apparently the latest available (see http://www.winbookcorp.com/support/xl/xl/xlbios.htm).

PCMCIA

Due to what is apparently a BIOS bug, the PCMCIA sockets get assigned IRQ 12, which conflicts with the hardwired interrupt for the internal trackpoint/touchpad and PS/2 port, at the very least causing one of them to not work. Specifying pci=irqmask=0xafff on the boot command line seems to resolve this (found at http://www.linuxquestions.org/hcl/showproduct.php/product/977).

The lack of DMA in PCMCIA IDE devices results in absurdly bad transfer rates (under 2MB/sec), so further testing on this particular system will probably require a BIOS update for HDD support, a very lightweight live CD, or some sort of network boot configuration…




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Last modified: Wednesday 12 of May, 2010 [23:11:42]
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