I finally took the time to get everything on my HP Special Edition L2000 laptop working - sans modem, which I have no way of testing, and the multi-card reader, which I'm informed is definitely unsupported.

Previously, ndiswrapper worked, so I could get the internal wireless card working, but only in 32-bit mode; this is now working in 64-bit mode. Also, suspend works, under both the original kernel and the newly-released update.


First, grab the ndiswrapper source RPM from livna.org, rebuild, and install both the ndiswrapper and kernel-module-kernel-version binary RPMs. Grab the Windows 64-bit drivers - my card works with the drivers for the Acer Ferrari 4000, YMMV. Check the lspci output and compare with the list on the ndiswrapper wiki. Unzip, ndiswrapper -i the .inf file, confirm that there are no error messages, ndiswrapper -m to create the appropriate entry in modules.conf, and you're set to go as far as wireless is concerned.

You might want to add the Livna.org to the list of Yum repositories, but beware that the latest ndiswrapper release currently does not work with the Broadcomm 64-bit drivers, so when using yum, always use --exclude '*ndiswrapper*'.

rpm -ivh http://rpm.livna.org/fedora/4/i386/RPMS.lvn/livna-release-4-0.lvn.5.4.noarch.rpm

Then optionally install ATI's proprietary graphics driver - the latter is optional, but without it you're limited to stretched 1024x768 on a 1280x768-native LCD display. Not pleasant.

yum install ati-fglrx

Then edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf, change the driver from vesa to fglrx and add 1280x768 to the list of resolutions.

You could optionally install the kernel module to get graphics acceleration, but the performance boost is not that great (from 230 to 700 fps on glxgears), and the kernel module is a bit flaky (thanks, ATi). I've had trouble even switching back from X to the console when rebooting the machine, so trying to get suspend working would be a bit maddening, especially if the kernel module needs to be removed prior to suspending, since that would preclude suspending from X.

Next, modify /etc/grub.conf as such: add the following to the end of the kernel ... line:

no_timer_check noapic ignore_ff_buttons=PWRF acpi_sleep=s3_bios

The first item prevents the clock from going twice as fast, the second is needed for resume to work without freezing, the third stops the kernel from immediately shutting down when you press the power button to resume (need to figure out how to resume from any key a la the *books), and the last item tells the BIOS to reinitialize the display on resume (so you can still use the console virtual terminals - the X display works fine regardless).

Lastly, create /etc/acpi/events/powerbutton.conf and put in the following:

event=button/power.*
action=/opt/sbin/suspendtoram

and, naturally, create the aforementioned action file and make it executable. You need the following at the minimum:

#!/bin/sh
if [ ! -f /tmp/suspended ]; then
        touch /tmp/suspended
        service network stop
        service gpm stop
        rmmod ndiswrapper
        rmmod ehci-hcd
        rmmod ohci-hcd
        echo mem > /sys/power/state
else
        rm -f /tmp/suspended
        modprobe ohci-hcd
        modprobe ehci-hcd
        modprobe ndiswrapper
        service network start
        service gpm start
fi

Remove the default sample.conf - or move it out of the way - as it has a conflicting entry for the power button.

Credits:

Thanks to Guilherme Dias da Fonseca for providing the instructions to get me started.