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Ubuntu Netbook Remix Post-Installation Help

The purpose of this guide is to enable Wifi, hibernate, and other features on the Toshiba NB205 that which do not work out of the box with Ubuntu Netbook Remix (UNR).

Install

You should append "nohz=off" to the boot options when booting from the USB drive. Otherwise, it will be too slow.

Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi should be enabled from BIOS setup.

From the main menu, go to Administration then Software Sources. In the Updates tab check "Unsupported updates (jaunty-backports)". After closing this window, Update Manager will likely ask you to allow it to check for updates, and you should do so. If it does not, issue in a terminal:

sudo aptitude update

...to retrieve new package lists.

After the package list update, from a console issue the following command to get Wi-Fi up and running.

sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-karmic

This will install a new Linux kernel (2.6.31-20-generic as of this update) which will be selectable from your boot loader upon restarting your computer.

Sound

To enable sound via headphone jack, use a text editor as root to add the following line to /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf:

options snd-hda-intel model=asus-mode4

At mine the headphone jack worked out of the box, but the internal speaker did not. I added the following line to the file mentioned above:

options snd-hda-intel index=0 model=auto

Having this, I got the option the select 'Audio Speaker' as output device. With this sound works like charm.

Kernel Boot Fix

As of kernel 2.6.31-18, there have been problems relating to speed and the system intermittently freezing. By default, the NB 205 (and other related models such as the NB 200) sometimes freeze and suffer from low performance due to a power-saving feature of the Linux kernel. Dramatic speed increases have been noted with this feature disabled (boot speeds increased by 20 seconds). If you wish, this feature can be disabled.

To disable the kernel feature (if using the GRUB2 bootloader), use a text editor as root to open the file: /etc/default/grub

Add "nohz=off" to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT

It should look like:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash nohz=off"

Then run the following from the Terminal to complete the fix:

sudo update-grub

A reboot will be required to apply the change.

Bootup time

The boot time is with the default settings horrendously slow. A simple change in the BIOS will speed up the boot time to less than 30 seconds.

• Press F2 on machine boot to enter the BIOS
• Select the 'Advanced' tab
• Change SATA controller mode from AHCI to Compatibility

Bluetooth

Bluetooth will not work with default, but again, simple change is necessary to get it to work. We need to configure the kernel module omnibook correctly. There are a few option, I currently use these:

• create a new file in /etc/modprobe.d named omnibook.conf with content

options omnibook ectype=12

• force the module to be loaded at system start by editing /etc/modules and add

omnibook at the end

• to test the changes without reboot load the module manually

sudo modprobe -v omnibook

The bluetooth icon should appear in the task bar.

To make bluetooth work after suspend/resume one more step is required.

• create a new file in /etc/pm/config.d named omnibook with content

SUSPEND_MODULES="omnibook"

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