(K)Ubuntu 6.10 - GNU/Linux running on Samsung R50 laptop

This article was written to inform the Linux community about the function of the Samsung R50 laptop using (K)Ubuntu 6.10 (Edgy Eft) and it's referenced on linux-laptop.net and tuxmobil.org.

You can also take a look at this other article I wrote about the same laptop with Debian.

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GENERAL SPECIFICATIONS

Legend: = Working "Out of the box" = Working but with eventually faults = Working after manual configuration = Not working = Not tested yet

Processor - Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1.73GHz
Main Memory - 1024MB (2x512MB) SDRAM
Graphics Card - Mobile Intel(R) 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Chipset Family (128 MB)
Display - High-resolution 15,4" LCD screen (get 1280x800 Screen Resolution)
Hard Disk Drive - Hitachi HTS541060G9AT00 60GB
Optical Disc Drive - TEAC DV-W28EA DVD±RW (+R DL) / DVD-RAM drive
Card Reader - Ricoh Co. Ltd. R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro
Network Adapter - Broadcom 440x 10/100
Wireless Adapter - Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2200BG (it's possible to patch the driver for monitor mode)
Sound Card - Intel 82801FB ICH6 Family
Touchpad - Synaptics PS/2 (full funcionality configuration)
Acpi & Battery (see Problems detected section and a suggestion for saving power)
USB - 4 ports (USB 2.0)
PCMCIA - Ricoh R/RL/5C476(II) o compatible
Keyboard - Samsung SDM 4500P (It works all Fn keys)

View lspci output.

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1280x800 Screen resolution

I think this is the better screen resolution for a 15,4" screen. If you don't have it you must edit the /etc/X11/xorg.conf and change your "Screen" Section for this one (it's very important that you make a backup copy before the change):

Section "Screen" Identifier "Default Screen" Device "Tarjeta de video generica " Monitor "Generic Monitor" DefaultDepth 16 SubSection "Display" Depth 1 Modes "1280x800" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480" EndSubSection SubSection "Display" Depth 4 Modes "1280x800" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480" EndSubSection SubSection "Display" Depth 8 Modes "1280x800" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480" EndSubSection SubSection "Display" Depth 15 Modes "1280x800" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480" EndSubSection SubSection "Display" Depth 16 Modes "1280x800" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480" EndSubSection SubSection "Display" Depth 24 Modes "1280x800" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480" EndSubSection EndSection

And then restart the X server (ctrl+alt+backspace).

After you added the new resolution you can select it on the gnome-control-center or kcontrol (depend on what graphical desktop you use).

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Synaptics Full Funcionality Configuration

If you have upgrade your system (by the official repositories) and you still don't have funcionalities like "drag and drop" or "right-click tapping on right-bottom corner" you must edit the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file (you must do a bakup copy of the file first) and add this section:

Section "InputDevice" Identifier "Synaptics Touchpad" Driver "synaptics" Option "SendCoreEvents" "true" Option "Device" "/dev/psaux" Option "Protocol" "auto-dev" Option "HorizScrollDelta" "0" EndSection

And also, inside "ServerLayout" Section add:

InputDevice "Synaptics Touchpad"

Finally restart the X-server (ctrl+alt+backspace) to take the changes applied.

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Problems Detected

The only problems I have noticed are the following:

* apci/button detects the laptop lid is closed all the time. (This problem persists on other linux distributions like Debian or PCLinuxOS). Maybe it's a kernel bug with related with this hardware.

cat /proc/acpi/button/lid/LID0/state
[state: closed]

* It can't suspend to RAM. I am sure that this have to be possible, beacuse I am able to do it on Debian 4 with this same hardware. But the fact is that nowadays I'm not able to do it on Ubuntu 6.10 yet. With the 7.04 version of Ubuntu that problem seems to improve, but it still not solved at all.

* The icons on top left side of the screen that are showed when you press Fn+(F2,F8,F9,F10 or Brightness up/down) doesn't look so good (but the function works OK, the problem is only with the icons). But it's a matter out of importance, I think.

If you have the same hardware and have fixed any of this problems, please let me know.

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lspci output

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/PM/GMS/910GML Express Processor to DRAM Controller (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #2 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #3 (rev 03)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #4 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev d3)
00:1e.2 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1e.3 Modem: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FBM (ICH6M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 03)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) IDE Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 03)
06:05.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX (rev 02)
06:07.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection (rev 05)
06:09.0 CardBus bridge: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c476 II (rev b3)
06:09.1 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C552 IEEE 1394 Controller (rev 08)
06:09.2 Class 0805: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 17)
06:09.3 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev 08)
06:09.4 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd xD-Picture Card Controller (rev 03)

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Saving Power

I strongly recommend you to use the Intel(R) powertop utility in order to see what processes or configurations are making you waste battery. Following some of its suggestions you can save power and decrease your average CPU temperature.

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Any questions or comments will be wellcomed.