Shuttle ST62K + Linux

I have set up this page to detail information found as I try to get Linux working fully on my Shuttle Zen XPC (model ST62K). The ST62K is a P4-based small form factor PC which has a number of new components that are/were unsupported or require the latest drivers to work under Linux. My hope is that this page will be a useful resource for others setting up Linux on the ST62K.

Some other machines that are based on the same/similar chips (and so information on this page may apply, but no guarantees):

• Shuttle ST61G4
• ASUS Pundit-R
• ASUS P4R800-VM (motherboard)
• ASUS P4R800-V Deluxe (motherboard)
• Various laptops

If you have any more information than is on this page then please email me.

Status

2004-10-10: Machine boots, 2D accelerated video under X with TV out, USB works, IDE DMA works, LAN works, sound works; hardware sensors work. Rear line-in on sound adapter doesn't seem to be enabled. Enabling "Wake on RTC alarm" BIOS feature causes a reboot instead of shutdown (though a workaround is available, see below). TV-out overscan can't be adjusted.

• Last week my ST62K came back from repair, and the fan now works again.
• I upgraded to the latest kernel (2.6.8.1) and installed lm_sensors 2.8.7, and sensors are now working, so I can now read and monitor fan, temperature and voltage settings. When installing lm_sensors, just don't forget (like I did) to uninstall old versions first, particularly any versions you compiled yourself.
• The binary patch described in the last news post only works with the ATI proprietary driver version 3.12.0. Version 3.14.1 is out now, the issue has not been fixed, and the patch is no longer applicable as the binary file in question has changed. I have reported this issue to ATI, so hopefully they will fix it shortly. For now I am sticking to 3.12.0.
• Per Weijnitz discovered a fix for the RTC alarm reboot problem - compile rtc (Enhanced Real Time Clock Support) as a module, and unload it during shutdown. This may be fixed properly in the next 2.6 kernel release.
• I did some testing with nvram-wakeup. Unfortunately it seems that the BIOS setting for enabling/disabling RTC alarm can't be set by nvram-wakeup, and the only solution is to use the set_timer script (which relies on you setting the RTC alarm to a predefined value, and then adjusting the system time at shutdown and startup - kind of like moving the goal posts).

2004-09-18: Long overdue update, sorry people:

• ATI has released version 3.12.0 of their binary drivers. They now support the Radeon 9100 IGP (2D acceleration only) and TV out works! (yes!) However, before TV out will work properly you have to use a hex editor to change /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/fglrx_drv.o at locations 13B2F and 13BE4 from 2C to 19. If you don't do this then the TV out display is garbled. Many thanks to Juan Rios who emailed me with this fix - I have no idea how he figured it out, but it works. Presumably ATI will fix this in the next release. Also, these drivers will not work with the latest X.org X11 6.8.0, but 6.7.0 works fine (I have uploaded a new config file in the files section).
• I'm fairly impressed with the quality of the built-in TV out. Adjustment of the overscan would be nice, but the default is not too bad. It sure beats the external VGA to TV converter I was using before that had horrible patchy colour.
• Per Weijnitz reports that kernel 2.6.8.1 fixes the bttv driver crash problem. He also reports he has been able to read temperature/fan speed sensors on his machine, however I haven't looked into this myself yet.
• I have noticed one strange problem with the ST62K since I have had it - it sometimes causes interference on two of the TVs in my house (only some channels though). It used to be visible whenever the power supply was plugged in, but today I tested it and it wasn't so pronounced, and only happened when the unit was on. I'm not really sure what to do about this.
• Unfortunately the fan stopped working in my ST62K today, so it is currently out of action until I get a replacement. :(

2004-05-28: A few bits and pieces:

• The ever-determined Per Weijnitz has filed a few bug reports relating to the ST62K: for the RTC alarm bug, the rear line-in (reportedly fixed in ALSA 1.0.5 - unconfirmed), and a crash he's getting with the bttv driver.
• Steven Cruysberghs reports that ASUS's new Pundit-R is also based on the 9100 IGP chipset, so information here may now be useful to users of this platform as well.
• Kay-Uwe Goetz has some useful tips:
  • The 2.4.26 kernel has support for IDE DMA, so if you prefer to stick with 2.4, you can.
  • hdparm -d1 -c3 can be used to enable DMA (should be on by default) and 32-bit transfers (seems to default to 16-bit).
  • It may be possible to work around the RTC alarm problem using set_timer script from nvram_wakeup, which relies on setting the RTC alarm time to some fixed value, and then changing the system time on shutdown. (I haven't tried this yet).
  • A bit of information on the PN11 optional WiFi adapter (see below).
• Frank Dzaebel reports that he was getting sound-related crashes on his ST62K until he disabled APM and enabled ACPI in the kernel. If you're having sound issues, try this fix.
• ATI's latest 3.9.0 proprietary driver (fglrx) still doesn't work with the 9100 IGP. The RS300 isn't even recognised by it.
• The picture quality from the TV-out converter is so bad that I'm considering going back to my older nVidia-based machine as my main entertainment PC, at least until ATI sees fit to release a driver that works with the 9100 IGP. Sigh :(

2004-05-16: I have to say I'm really disappointed with the output quality of this external TV-out converter. In fact I'm considering buying a separate DVD player because with the converter, playing a DVD just doesn't look right (too dark, colour balance not quite right, rolling diagonal lines visible on the sky and other bright backgrounds). In other news, Per Weijnitz has pointed out that enabling the "Wake on RTC alarm" feature in the BIOS (which is useful for setting up recordings at specific times - the machine doesn't need to be on all the time), then shutting down Linux causes the machine to reboot instead of shut down. I have confirmed this issue on my ST62K as well.

2004-05-13: I got sick of waiting for the built-in TV-out to be workable, and so I bought a PC to TV converter (a LifeView ViewMaster LR77). Frankly, for the price the converter is a piece of crap - the quality isn't brilliant, overscan adjustment is far too imprecise, and the controls aren't even labelled. However it does give me usable TV-out. Interestingly it doesn't seem to care what refresh rate the VGA input is set to - there must be some framerate conversion going on. The ST62K has thus finally graduated to being my main entertainment PC.

2004-04-12: Today I found that tvtime will not work without a YUY2-capable overlay (ie, proper a X driver), so I had a go at trying to sort out the ATI driver supplied with X.org X11. I spent an hour playing with modelines and other settings in the X configuration file but I got absolutely nowhere - it seems that the "ati" driver is doing something strange that causes perfectly correct modes to be screwed up on the TV. However I have made a slightly modified version of Per Weijnitz's vesa-driver X configuration that I mentioned yesterday, which starts a little faster (without the X font server or mouse, neither of which I use). One other thing I found today was that the audio line in does not seem to be working - no amount of fiddling with the mixer settings seems to help. :(

2004-04-11: Bumper update

• The 2.6.5 kernel is out, complete with both updated ALSA and IDE DMA that both work with the ST62K. So now you can just install this without having to worry about applying any special patches.
• Per Weijnitz writes to say that you can use the standard VESA driver to get working TV-out on the ST62K. He found this out by just booting off a Knoppix CD, and after some research came up with an XFree86 config file that gives working TV-out (when booted up with a TV connected). Of course it's not accelerated, but it's adequate for TV-only use, even when playing movies. Thanks Per!
• I've installed the recently released X.org X11R6.7.0 release, which replaces XFree86. I only had to tweak my old XFree86 configuration a little to make it work (just changed the name of the default layout). I've re-uploaded the config in the files section.
• Tip from French reader "Berthy": if you're having problems with crackling/noisy sound, mute the "IEC958 input monitor" in alsamixer. I haven't had this problem myself, but I know others have.
• Reader Lars Ekman reports that his external Firewire hard drive is working with the 2.6.5 kernel.

2004-03-13: I finally got a chance to try the IDE DMA patch, and it works! Note that at the time of writing, there are two files in that directory - you only need to apply the "-2" file as it is a cleaned up/fixed version of "-1". See this LKML posting by the author.

2004-03-10: Breaking news: a reader just sent me some information regarding the IDE DMA situation - ATI have been working on this and it looks like there's now a patch against the 2.6.3 kernel here (which I haven't had time to test yet). Also, ATI just officially released version 3.7.0 of their XFree86 drivers for XFree86 4.3, and they claim to support the 9100. I haven't had any luck in the past with the closed source drivers, and I'm not holding my breath for TV out support in particular, but it's probably worth a try anyway. Actually I've had quite a few emails lately, thanks for letting me know this page has been useful :)

2004-03-04: ALSA 1.0.3 came out a few days ago, with a new driver snd-atiixp. I tried it out and it works well. Yet another component supported :)

2004-02-21: I tried TV-out today. As with most cards, if you plug the TV in before switching on the PC it works, but unfortunately the mode XFree86 is using is not compatible with the TV (just a flickering mess of garbage, though the colours are correct).

2004-02-19: my posting to alsa-user netted a response from ALSA developer Clemens Ladisch, apparently an audio driver is being worked on :)

2004-02-18: kernel 2.6.3 just released, upgraded, no changes. Checked the board, the sensors chip is an IT8712F-A. Probably doesn't work due to unrecognised SMBus chip. I also tried the suggested ALSA fix, but unfortunately it didn't work, so I've posted a message to the alsa-user mailing list about it.

2004-02-17: Shuttle's ST61G4 uses the same ATI chipset as the ST62K. I discovered a little more information here and here (both translated from French, from the same site) with the help of this little factoid. Upgrading to XFree86 4.3.99 got me working video apparently with xv acceleration (woohoo!) although I haven't yet tested TV out. Also, after upgrading to the 2.6.3-rc3 kernel, a mouse plugged into the USB port seems to be detected. Two down, three to go...

00:13.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc: Unknown device 4347 (rev 01)
00:13.1 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc: Unknown device 4348 (rev 01)
00:13.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc: Unknown device 4345 (rev 01)

• All my testing has been performed under Gentoo Linux, mostly with the latest 2.6 kernel.
• Kernel configuration files and other bits are available here.

Full lspci listing (updated 2004-03-13):

00:00.0 Host bridge: ATI Technologies Inc: Unknown device 5833 (rev 02)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc: Unknown device 5838
00:13.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc: Unknown device 4347 (rev 01)
00:13.1 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc: Unknown device 4348 (rev 01)
00:13.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc: Unknown device 4345 (rev 01)
00:14.0 SMBus: ATI Technologies Inc ATI SMBus (rev 17)
00:14.1 IDE interface: ATI Technologies Inc: Unknown device 4349
00:14.3 ISA bridge: ATI Technologies Inc: Unknown device 434c
00:14.4 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc: Unknown device 4342
00:14.5 Multimedia audio controller: ATI Technologies Inc SoundMAX Integrated Digital Audio
01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc: Unknown device 5834
02:05.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
02:06.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. IEEE 1394 Host Controller (rev 80)

• Submit unidentified PCI entries to pciids.sourceforge.net.
• Do something about the TV interference problems

My name is Paul Eggleton. You can email me at bluelightning@bluelightning.org. Thanks to all the people who have emailed me with information or even just a thank-you note, it is much appreciated!

I would also like to thank all of the hard-working open-source developers who have made Linux on the ST62K possible, as well as those working for the manufacturers and OEMs involved who have supported their efforts.