Hello, Haiku fans;
I'm a total Haiku newbie. I've tried it on emulators from alpha 2, with incredible poor performance. As the hardware support got better, I've tried to run it on several computers, with no good results.
With the last alpha (4.1), I've finally been able to boot it from a pendrive on an old Toshiba Satellite L100-108. Despite it's age and thanks to a RAM ampliation from 512MB to 2GB, I've been using it as a Windows XP developer machine, so I can't mess with the OS and partitions due to my job. Haiku on a pendrive has offered me the use of the machine as a personal system without risking my HD. The duties I want to use it is managing my personal mail, web-browsing, reading ebooks and comics, telnet and ftp access to remote systems to manage my blog and a bit of c/sdl/python programming (ren'py games), so internet access through WiFI is a must.
The problem is that despite finally booting fom USB, the wifi chipset causes a kernel panic when booting the desktop that blocked the system. After trial and error I discovered that there were to bugs compounded:
1) There is a bug in the IO APIC layer with my chipset. It causes the systen to hang unless disabled and basic PIC use choosen. I can bypass it on the boot menu options, but I must do it each reboot.
2) There is a bug in the wifi chipset (iprowifi3945 Intel Pro WiFI 3945) despite being suposedly supported. I can use the exit command on the kernel tracer to continue but the previous bug bould cause the system to hang. I can boot in safe mode, but no network access whatsoever then. If I mess with the boot menu the system will still cause the kernel panic but continue booting. Then I will be able to use the ethernet cable correctly (rtl8139 Realtek 8139) yet wifi won't work. The detected hardware is:
~> listdev
device Serial bus controller (SMBus) [c|5|0]
vendor 8086: Intel Corporation
device 27da: NM10/ICH7 Family SMBus Controller
device Mass storage controller (IDE interface) [1|1|80]
vendor 8086: Intel Corporation
device 27c4: 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7-M Family) SATA Controller [IDE mode]
device Bridge (ISA bridge) [6|1|0]
vendor 8086: Intel Corporation
device 27b9: 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge
device Bridge (CardBus bridge) [6|7|0]
vendor 104c: Texas Instruments
device ac56: PCI1510 PC card Cardbus Controller
device Network controller (Ethernet controller) [2|0|0]
vendor 10ec: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
device 8139: RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+
device Bridge (PCI bridge, Subtractive decode) [6|4|1]
vendor 8086: Intel Corporation
device 2448: 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge
device Serial bus controller (USB controller, EHCI) [c|3|20]
vendor 8086: Intel Corporation
device 27cc: NM10/ICH7 Family USB2 EHCI Controller
device Serial bus controller (USB controller, UHCI) [c|3|0]
vendor 8086: Intel Corporation
device 27cb: NM10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #4
device Serial bus controller (USB controller, UHCI) [c|3|0]
vendor 8086: Intel Corporation
device 27ca: NM10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #3
device Serial bus controller (USB controller, UHCI) [c|3|0]
vendor 8086: Intel Corporation
device 27c9: NM10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #2
device Serial bus controller (USB controller, UHCI) [c|3|0]
vendor 8086: Intel Corporation
device 27c8: NM10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #1
device Network controller [2|80|0]
vendor 8086: Intel Corporation
device 4222: PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan] Network Connection
device Bridge (PCI bridge, Normal decode) [6|4|0]
vendor 8086: Intel Corporation
device 27d0: NM10/ICH7 Family PCI Express Port 1
device Multimedia controller (Audio device) [4|3|0]
vendor 8086: Intel Corporation
device 27d8: NM10/ICH7 Family High Definition Audio Controller
device Display controller [3|80|0]
vendor 8086: Intel Corporation
device 27a6: Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller
device Display controller (VGA compatible controller, VGA controller) [3|0|0]
vendor 8086: Intel Corporation
device 27a2: Mobile 945GM/GMS, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller
device Bridge (Host bridge) [6|0|0]
vendor 8086: Intel Corporation
device 27a0: Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS, 943/940GML and 945GT Express Memory Controller Hub
And the system is using the Intel Graphic Driver correctly (In fact, it still had some graphical tearing on the standard alpha 4.1 version, but upgrading/overwritting with the installation of a nightly build fixed it and some of the graphical bugs of the GLTeapot), being a 945GM chip.
3) The ACPI must also fail somehow since the battery applet can't detect it, and when I try to shut it down, it closes all programs and reverts to a black screen, but it still won't shut down (like old pcs on the windows 95 age without any or decent enouth support)
My theory is that everything comes from the APIC bug, cripplig the other susbsystems (enerrgy management and wifi card).
- Is there a know fix or driver? How can I install a new driver?
- Is there a haiku testing tool for the hardware support?
- If there is no fix, how can i disable apic by default on boot and disable the wifi driver so it doesn't hang?
- Where can I find a basic user manual for beos for x96/haiku manual or a good tutorial? A course with exercices and console commands would be ideal.
