Linux On My Samsung

From what I'm reading about the linux support for Samsung netbooks, most of them suffer the same problems as the NC10 (FN keys not working correctly, no backlight support, different wireless cards not working, etc).

I want to try to fix all these problems but, since I only have a NC10, I need more informations about the problems and someone willing to test the new packages I will build.

If anyone is interested in this, then post here the netbook model and its problems, and we'll try to figure out a solution.

I am happy to test for you. I have an N130 and am using Karmic.

Helen

Hi and welcome to the forum.
On the experimental repository there a new kernel that should fix the hard disk freeze problem affecting the Samsung N130 and N140. Here is the changelog: Also, do the FN keys work good on N130, or the force_release is needed like for the other Samsung models?

New kernel on the experimental repository. Changelog: Any user with the above netbooks, please test it and report here the results, thanks.

New 'samsung-backlight' package on the repository (replacing 'nc10-backlight').
It adds the backlight support for Samsung N310 (along with NC10, N120, N130).
Testing's welcome.

New 'samsung-wireless' package on the repository (replacing 'n140-wireless').
It installs the wireless driver for the Realtek 8192E found on Samsung N130/N140.

New 'udev' packages on the repository.
Added support for mapping of the FN keys on Samsung NC10/NC20/N120/N130/N140/N310.

New 'samsung-scripts' package on the repository (replacing 'nc10-scripts'). Changelog:

voRia wrote:New kernel on the experimental repository. Changelog:

Code: Select all

linux (2.6.31-17.55~ppa4~nc10~karmic) karmic; urgency=low
  ...
  * Fix FN keys release on Samsung N130.
  * Fix FN keys release on Samsung N140.
  * Fix FN keys release on Samsung N310.
  * Apply 'libata-ata_piix-clear-spurious-IRQ.patch' to fix the
    SATA freezing problem on Samsung N130/N140.

Any user with the above netbooks, please test it and report here the results, thanks.

Hi voria,

I've reinstalled my netbook again and used this latest kernel and I confirm that on the N140 this works great:

* Fn keys worked straight away (now that I knew what I was doing this time
* The SATA freeze seems to have gone (this is excellent - it had been happening to me every time I booted and I haven't seen it happen since installing this kernel)

So the kernel looks good, for N140 at least

Many thanks for your hard work!
Matt

n310 owner here, and your updated kernal worked perfectly to fix my backlight key issues. the wireless on/off isn't working, but i probably have to set that up somewhere. thanks so much for your work on this.

Thanks for the reports.

@steveperiod:
does the backlight control work out-of-the-box on N310, or have you installed the 'samsung-backlight' package?
I've added support for the N310 in it, but I don't know if it's really needed.

Hello,

I have a Samsung X120 and I am running latest (at the time) Karmic and kernel

Linux spyke 2.6.31-17-generic #54-Ubuntu SMP Thu Dec 10 16:20:31 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux

I registered the voria software source and installed the backlight and script packages for nc10, now I have some of my FN keys working (mute, toggle touchpad, sleep) but I am still missing the brigthness control, which is the most important to me as I have no control on the screen brightness.

Glad to be a tester for this device!

Dario

rouggio wrote: I registered the voria software source and installed the backlight and script packages for nc10, now I have some of my FN keys working (mute, toggle touchpad, sleep) but I am still missing the brigthness control, which is the most important to me as I have no control on the screen brightness.

The backlight package available on the repository has no support for the X120's graphics card (which is different from the one of the N series netbooks).
Please check if the backlight can be controlled through the gnome brightness applet: if it's not, please attach the output of 'lspci -nn' here.

Concerning the FN keys: the mute, touchpad toggle and sleep ones usually work by default. My scripts package is intended for enabling all the remaining ones.
Anyway, I've done some research about the X120 and it seems to suffer the same problem as the N series netbooks: it needs a patched kernel to force the release of some FN keys.
I'm going to upload a new kernel and udev on my experimental repository that should fix it.

New kernel on the experimental repository (it's building now, it will be available in a few hours). Changelog: New udev on repository. Changelog:

Good stuff VoRIa, we are getting there...

I installed your latest kernel and udev (actually, I updated everything) and I see some changes:

FN + UP/DOWN finally show the brightness control/notification on the top right of the screen but the screen brightness doesn't change
FN + F5 toggles the backlight, which translates to my x120 in switching off the screen completely.

I forgot to mention in my previous post that I tried to control the brightness trying to mix and match all the switches I am aware of, which might affect this:

- acpi_backlight=vendor on the grub kernel boot line
- brightness control in the bios configuration
- brightness applet on the application bar
- power management applet

None of them produced any result, the screen brightness is stuck. The only difference I can see is when I start the netbook on battery power it goes on a reduced brightness level and there's no way to change that either. This behavior can be disabled with the bios option listed above.

Now it seems that your new kernel finally intercepts the key combinations which is great, but unfortunately it produces no effect on the actual screen brightness.

Below is the output of lspci -nn:

00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Memory Controller Hub [8086:2a40] (rev 07)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:2a42] (rev 07)
00:02.1 Display controller [0380]: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:2a43] (rev 07)
00:1a.0 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 [8086:2937] (rev 03)
00:1a.1 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 [8086:2938] (rev 03)
00:1a.2 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #6 [8086:2939] (rev 03)
00:1a.7 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 [8086:293c] (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller [8086:293e] (rev 03)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 1 [8086:2940] (rev 03)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 4 [8086:2946] (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 [8086:2934] (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 [8086:2935] (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 [8086:2936] (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 [8086:293a] (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge [8086:2448] (rev 93)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation ICH9M-E LPC Interface Controller [8086:2917] (rev 03)
00:1f.2 SATA controller [0106]: Intel Corporation ICH9M/M-E SATA AHCI Controller [8086:2929] (rev 03)
00:1f.3 SMBus [0c05]: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) SMBus Controller [8086:2930] (rev 03)
02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) [168c:002b] (rev 01)
04:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller [10ec:8136] (rev 02)


What else could be there causing the problem?

Thanks,
Dario