Gateway LT31 update. There have been some reports of patch freezing the box while
changing the frequencies. This has been identified to be a hardware issue. Older
revision laptops have clockgen chip ICS932S421BGLF and don't have any issues with
frequency scaling or overclocking. Newer ones have ICS9248BF-96 (which in reality is
a SLG84605) and will exhibit random lockups while changing frequencies. They also don't
overclock that well. See this post confirming the issue.
I'm glad I have the older one.
The powernow-k8 patch is now in
git and will be part of next kernel release.
Gateway LT3103u hacking. Managed to get PowerNow! working in Linux. I downloaded
DSDT from ACPI, disassembled with iasl, fixed 2 errors and 1 warning, added _PSS
table with 5 P-States - 1200MHz@0.9V, 1100MHz@0.85V, 1000MHz@0.8V, 900MHz@0.75V,
800MHz@0.7V. Compiled the DSDT table with iasl compiler and compiled it into kernel.
See
this guide on details how to incorporate custom DSDT table in kernel. Next step
was to modify powernow-k8 Linux module to work with these P-States. powernow-k8
module has restrictions regarding allowed frequencies. In short - it just would
not work with frequencies this low. Also there was a bug in powernow-k8 module
that prevented voltages lower than 0.8V from working.
dsdt.dsl -
fixed DSDT table (source)
dsdt.hex -
fixed DSDT table (compiled)
Gateway LT3103u tweaking. I bought this puppy at Best Buy for $399.99 plus tax (currently they are $379.99 plus
tax). Nice little machine. I wiped the preinstalled Windows Vista Basic and Acer
eRecovery partition and installed dualboot Windows XP and Gentoo Linux on it. For
some reason Gateway decided to disable AMD PowerNow! in BIOS/ACPI, making power
saving in Linux impossible. Windows though is different story, thanks to RightMark CPU
Clock Utility. I configured it to use processor P-states and even slightly
undervolt (0.7V vs default 0.9V) when in lowest P-state with CPU at 800MHz. Granted
it was a pain in the butt to set this up so that unprivileged user can use it - see
this post for information on how to set up RMClock to run as service.
Also installing latest AMD Chipset and VGA drivers from Gateway site made a huge
difference in power saving department. I think installing WebCam and SDCard drivers
also made some difference allowing USB devices to power down when not in use.
I'm getting 5 hours 55 minutes in BatteryEater Idle test with display brightness at 50% and
WiFi connected and idle. This is an improvement over stock system. I'm using Brad's LT3103u battery test as a reference. In
idle test with display brightness at 25% and WiFi connected and idle he got 5 hours
4 minutes with 5.8% battery left which extrapolates to total battery life of 5 hours
23 minutes.
I love this netbook. The CPU also can be overclocked some 130% using SetFSB utility. See this post for details.
Microsoft Xbox hacking. Finished video patching code for nkpatcher. The patch
allows Xbox to be connected to VGA monitor and/or autoconvert 480i resolution
games to 480p resolution.
nkpatcher10-vga10.diff - changes nkpatcher10 -> nkpatcher10-vga10
nkpatcher10-vga10.zip - full source code
From version 10 to version 10-vga10: * Added force RGB video feature. This will patch kernel system call AvSetDisplayMode to configure GPU for RGB signal. It will also patch Conexant and Focus registers to configure video encoder to send bi-level sync with correct colors. Xcalibur video encoder is not supported. Intended for connecting the Xbox to VGA monitor. Connect AV pack Y output to monitor green input, Pr to monitor red input and Pb to monitor blue input. The monitor must support sync on green. Special sync separator circuit is required if the monitor does not support sync on green signal. * Added feature to convert 480i video modes to 480p. This will patch kernel system call AvSetDisplayMode so that it sets video mode 480p, if mode 480i is requested. Enhances graphics quality for applications that run in 480i video mode only. Note that this feature will be active even if 480p video mode is disabled in msdash. Video patching will be done only if HDTV AV pack is detected.