RedHat Linux on the NEC Versa 6200MX

This is my old trusty laptop. It's an old model, I put this page up only because the original 6200MX page is no longer maintained, and you need to know one critical detail about X to get it to work right.

Win98 and RedHat 7.1 install easily on the machine, but it's really too slow for them. I'm back with RedHat 6.2 and still happy.

This page was last modified: 22-June-2001. For more laptops see www.linux-laptop.net.

Status with RedHat 6.2 (With 2.2.14-5.0 Kernel)

Feature	Status	Setup	Notes
Display	Works	Easy	Select monitor type "Generic Laptop 1024x768". See tricks section. May also be supported by XiGraphics
2 Button glidepad	Works	Automatic	Would be nicer if it had a third button.
USB	Available	Automatic	Under Kernel 2.4.4, plug in a CardBus USB adapter and it will just work. See linux-usb.org for compatible cards.
Floppy CD Serial Parallel Keyboard VGA	Works	Automatic	Belkin's PS/2 Y cable allows a mouse and keyboard to plug in at the same time.
Sound	Works	Automatic	I use soundblaster emulation. May also be supported by 4Front Technolgies Drivers.
IrDA Infrared	?	?	Works under Windows. Never found a use for it other than hotsyncing Palm Pilots.
CardBus PCMCIA	Works	Automatic
Power: Screen Saver	Mostly Works	Automatic	Somtimes you must press the lid switch to get the display back.
Power: Battery Status	Works	Automatic
Power: Suspend to ram	Often fails	Automatic	Just press the sleep button, or use "apm -s". About 20% of the time the machine reboots when you start it back up.
Power: Power off	Works	Automatic

Specification & Equipment Details

Vendor specifcations	NEC Support
Hard drive	Standard 12mm height drive. Vendor-specific bracket. Possible to swap drives, just requires a lot of tiny screws.
RAM	Under keyboard, akward to access.
CPU Fan	Only runs on very hot days. Quiet usually.
Versions	Extact model tested: PC-6250-B1854-R. BIOS as shipped & tested: 0020 03/25/97 . Hard Drive: Not original
Strengths	Feature rich at the time. Nice screen. Runs Linux well.
Weakneses	Heavy.
Notes	Did I mention it's heavy?

Output of "lspci" showing all PCI devices

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 430MX - 82437MX MTSC [430MX PCIset - 82437MX Mobile System Controller (MTSC) and 82438MX Mobile Data Path (MT (rev 02)
00:01.0 Bridge: Intel Corporation 430MX - 82371MX MPIIX [430MX PCIset - 82371MX Mobile PCI I/O IDE Xcelerator (MPIIX)] (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Chips and Technologies F65550 (rev 45)
00:03.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1131 (rev 01)
00:03.1 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1131 (rev 01)

Output of "hdparm-tT /dev/hda" showing disk performance

/dev/hda:
Timing buffer-cache reads:   128 MB in  3.97 seconds = 32.24 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads:  64 MB in 13.37 seconds =  4.79 MB/sec

Tricks, Tips & Details

The XFree86 video driver changed a few years ago, reducing the range of allowed video frequencies for this machine's chipset. Add the following lines to undo the change. Without these lines, you won't get full resolution:

Section "Device"

        Option          "fast_dram"     # Needed to prevent screen glitches
        Option          "hw_cursor"     # Set to "sw_cursor" in case of problems
        DacSpeed        65.00           # Override server's idea of what is safe
                                        # to allow 1024x768 at 16 bits per pixel
EndSection

For reference, here are working configuration files for the machine:

To allow the hard disk to spin down more often, make the following changes to RedHat's configuration

Edit /etc/syslog.conf and change the "cron.*" to "cron.warn".
Edit /etc/fstab and add "noatime" as a parameter to all your Linux partitions.

History of this document

22-Jun-2001: Created this document give update to original 6200MX page. Email "bryce2" at machine "obviously.com".
10-Jan-2004: Minor maintenance.