Kubuntu on 6715b

This is a guide on installing Kubuntu 7.04 (Fawn) on the 6715b using the ShipIt CDs that I have. The following is the full lspci output.

00:00.0 Host bridge: ATI Technologies Inc Unknown device 7910
00:01.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc Unknown device 7912
00:04.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc Unknown device 7914
00:05.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc Unknown device 7915
00:06.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc Unknown device 7916
00:12.0 SATA controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 Non-Raid-5 SATA
00:13.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI0)
00:13.1 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI1)
00:13.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI2)
00:13.3 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI3)
00:13.4 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI4)
00:13.5 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB Controller (EHCI)
00:14.0 SMBus: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 SMBus (rev 14)
00:14.1 IDE interface: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 IDE
00:14.2 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 Azalia
00:14.3 ISA bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 PCI to LPC Bridge
00:14.4 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 PCI to PCI Bridge
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Unknown device 791f
02:04.0 CardBus bridge: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c476 II (rev b6)
02:04.1 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd Unknown device 0832 (rev 02)
10:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetLink BCM5787M Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express (rev 02)
30:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4310 UART (rev 02)

Requirement
An active internet connection via the ethernet port.

Installation
Insert the Kubuntu CD and restart the computer. The computer should automatically boot up from CD and present you with the boot menu. Select the first option to start or install Kubuntu. The main problem with the installation is that Kubuntu does not successfully initialise the graphics as the CD doesn't ship with the necessary ATI drivers. It will seem like the startup has stalled after about 30 seconds. Then, perform the following steps:

1. Hit CTRL-ALT-F1 and wait until the the rc.local scripts are run. A full graphical user interface should fail to start.
   
2. Hit ENTER and you will be presented with a command line. You may need to press CTRL-ALT-F1 a few times to return to the console.
3. Enter the following commands into the console prompt.
   

• sudo -s
• killall kdm (replace kdm with gdm for ubuntu)
• apt-get install xorg-driver-fglrx
• depmod -a
• aticonfig --initial
• kdm start
  

That will start up the main Kubuntu graphical desktop in full 1680x1050 glory. Then, just proceed as normal for installing Kubuntu.

Graphics
Kubuntu doesn't detect the new on-board X1250 graphics properly before and after installation. So, in order to enable full graphics acceleration goodness, the proprietary ATI drivers need to be installed. This is accomplished by typing in the console, the following commands:

• sudo -s
• apt-get install xorg-driver-fglrx
• depmod -a
• aticonfig --initial (this might say that an fglrx section is already found, which is fine)

After that, just restart the machine. In order to enable full 3D acceleration, the composite extension for X needs to be disabled. Just add the following lines to /etc/X11/xorg.conf file.

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "false"
EndSection

Networking

1. Ethernet works automagically. I'm blogging aren't I?
   
2. Bluetooth works automagically. Verified with my mobile phone.
   
3. Wifi currently works using ndiswrapper with the Windows drivers. The chipset is too new to work with a native bcm43xx module. However, I expect this to change very soon as this module is currently under heavy development.
   

Audio
The audio chip uses the ATI SB600 Azalia chipset, which is automagically supported by the snd_hda_intel kernel module. This is a compatible chipset to the trusty Intel HDA. Surprising! I guess that whatever licensing agreements ATI had with Intel isn't going to be extended to the future.

Media Card Reader
Surprisingly, the media card reader works automagically as well. I inserted an MMC card and it appeared on my Kubuntu desktop immediately. Snazzy! No additional setup required.

Keyboard + Mouse
They both work automagically. The special control touch buttons at the top also work and also the scroll pad. Volume control, wireless, information and presentation. I'm not sure what the presentation button does though, so I have not tested it yet.

Fingerprint Reader
The reader is a USB device (08FF:2580) provided by AuthenTec, Inc. Haven't figured out how to get this working yet. Not important for me.

DVD Writer
K3B detects the writer automagically. I assume that it should work as I have no blank media with me to test it out.

Miscellaneous
Suspend to RAM works automagically but with a couple of quirks. The biggest quirk is that only a CPU core comes on after resume. The second CPU core stays off for some reason. So, the dual core Turion X2 becomes a single core processor on resume!

UPDATE@+5: From what I've found on the Net, it seems that this problem with the second core going missing is a kernel issue. The issue has been fixed in 2.6.22 but Kubuntu (7.04) ships only with 2.6.20. I will have to wait till (7.10) comes out before getting the 2.6.22 kernel. It seems that it's not so easy to manually compile my own kernel. That's a problem common to all "user friendly" distros. It was a simple matter on Slackware.