Ubuntu on the Samsung NC10

[rockclimb]

Hi all,

I received my NC10 this week, and I've been working on some PPA packages to get it working properly without having to do too much manual editing.

This weekend I'm looking at the issue with the release event not being sent by some of the hotkeys. There is already support in the kernel for a similar problem on other laptops, so I've tried writing a patch and everything is compiling now so I'll be able to test it in an hour or so.

If it seems to be OK, I'll put it up in my Personal Package Archive on Launchpad (username: rockclimb), and once a few more people have tested it then I'll give it to the Ubuntu Kernel Team with the hope that they will integrate it, and also push the patch up to the main kernel tree.

I've also got a package that does the wireless configuration - that is already in my PPA.

Andy

[swesemeyer]

Hiya,

I posted a bugreport on the Opensuse bugzilla and apparently Dan Kukawka produced a fix in the latest version of hal available from the Opensuse factory repository. It might be worth having a look at that. Search for bug number 450110.

I'd post a link but the forum rules don't allow it.

Cheers,
Steve

[rockclimb]

Just looked at his commit, and it looks like it'll map the keys to do the right thing, but I'm not sure if it deals with the failure to send a release event. I'm looking further though, as my kernel package is still compiling...

[rockclimb]

Right, looked a bit more and I still don't see how the commit would fix the lack of a release event. It should however map the keys to the correct functions once it works its way into your distribution.

[rockclimb]

My fix seems to be working in the 2.6.27-9 kernel. Binaries are in my PPA (with a new one building now that I've figured out how to stop it trying to build for amd64 too).
I'll make the same patch to 2.6.27-10 in the next couple of days too.

Next job is to make a modified version of hotkey-config which contains the key mappings. Any suggestions as to what I should map the following to:
The first aid kit or whatever it is
The running man
The brightness/contrast key (i couldn't see anything suitable in the list)

[rockclimb]

Someone else has submitted an almost identical patch to mine to kernel dot org. The bugzilla reference is 12021. Hopefully this will get accepted and make its way into the Ubuntu kernel.

Andy

[rockclimb]

Sure - my ppa is here: https://launchpad.net/~rockclimb/+archive

It gives you the right lines to add to your apt sources, and then you should be able to upgrade your kernel to linux - 2.6.27-9.20~ppa2~intrepid1 using synaptic.

Andy

[rockclimb]

Hi,

The update is a replacement for the default kernel, so what you see in grub is what I'd expect. Brightness should work except that it still has the bug where if you go down below minimum brightness then it won't come back up again. I've not figured out the best place to patch that yet, and as it's not stopping me using anything then I've not worried too much.

My volume keys are working fine. The wireless key doesn't work, but I believe that's because the wireless driver doesn't support disabling. The only thing my patched kernel fixes is the lack of a release event.

If you want to go back to the default version you can do so in Synaptic. Find the kernel package, then force the version to the one without ppa in it.

Andy

[swesemeyer]

Just installed the latest BIOS(04CA) from the US Samsung site and the brightness keys now work in OpenSuse 11.1 without any workarounds.

[swesemeyer]

That's interesting. It didn't work for me when I first installed it and the only reason why I updated the BIOS was because the bug at bugzilla (dot) kernel (dot) org (12021) suggested that it was the BIOS update that fixed it.

[swesemeyer]

Just a follow up. Apparently, the BIOS update does not make a difference after all(see updated bug report at http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=12021). It just so happened that I updated the hal version and the BIOS at the same time which made me believe that the BIOS was the cause. However, as Jon stated already, OpenSuse must be doing something somewhere else to pick up the brightness key event (and ignoring the subsequent stream of virtual keypress events). So, while the brightness keys work under OpenSuse, it was not the BIOS update....

Very curious... I wonder what functionality OpenSuse used to achieve this (and I don't believe their kernel contains any NC10 specific patches). If anyone knows then that might also help the Ubuntu set-up.

Cheers,
Steve

[rockclimb]

I've updated the packages in my PPA, with some extra patches applied. The following are available from https://launchpad.net/~rockclimb/+archive/ppa

* gnome-power-manager: With the patch to stop brightness going below zero, so it doesn't get stuck black any more.
* hal-info: with the settings for the NC10 keys (this is copied directly from the PPA for Chris Coulson, who is working on this).
* linux-2.6.17-11: an updated version of the current intrepid kernel
* nc10-config: a package which does the configuration of the wireless card. It depends on the linux-backports-modules package, which is available in the Ubuntu backports repository.

Let me know how you get on with these.

Andy

[vhenninot]

Hello, and THANKS for ALL your work !
I just bought my NC10, and will install ubuntu today !

If i understand this thread, we can now install Intrepid Ibex + your 4 packages, and wifi, HAL and FnKeys work ?

The only thing that remain to do is to upgrade the audio drivers ?
(as described in ubuntu/community/NC10 audio section)

Thanks again,
Vincent

[Hans Rolo]

[vhenninot]

Hello,
i installed my Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex yesterday...
...Fn key and WIFI work fine
THANKS !