Notes on installation and compatibility of Ubuntu with Packard Bell laptop computers.

Summary

|| Samsung || P10 || Yes || Suspend to RAM || ? || Installation is no problem. Didn't test the built-in modem as I do not need it.

• 2006-Sep-12

Packard Bell Easynote R3400

Breezy notes Anchor(breezynic)

• Breezy will by default detect the wrong tulip module as the network card module. remove this module rmmod tulipdownload the uli526x module from http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=83710&page=2 (second post on second page). Follow the details in the post to get the module unpacked and installed properly.

Dapper notes

• Dapper Livecd will only boot with the boot parameters noapic nolapic acpi=off

• Dapper Livecd Installation crashes during finalizing installation stage prior to configuring grub leaving a unusable system.

Anchor(dapperusb2)

• Plugging in USB devices will "freeze" the system. Unplug usb device and the system will become available again after 30 seconds. Advice: blacklist the echi-hcd module. This is the usb2 module which causes all the trouble. USB1.1 is the only way to go if you're set on using Dapper.

Anchor(dapper8254)

• Dapper kernel 2.6.15-(all versions) have issues with the ATI chipsets. Kernel will say "8254 timer not connected on IO-APIC". This is a known kernel issue for the 2.6.15 range. It's fixed in 2.6.16 (requires manual building) and 2.6.17 (Ubuntu Edgy). workarround: boot with boot parameters noapic nolapic acpi=off.

• Installation advise: Install Breezy and upgrade to Dapper, it's the only way to get it working.

Edgy notes Anchor(edgymodem)

• 2006-09-02 sl-modem-source does not compile against current 2.6.17-6-k7 kernelsource.
  • Edgy is still under construction, so it might change before it's final release.

Packard Bell Easynote R3450

• Installation boot only with the parameter vga=771 noapic

• Installation: 1280x800 resolution needs to be set manually in xorg.conf

Packard Bell Easynote R3280

• Installation boot only with the parameter vga=771 noapic

• Installation: Only automatic network configuration failed
• Others: in process

Packard Bell Easynote M5262

• Generally a smooth install and good user experience: ethernet connection, DVD drive, etc, all good
• Touchpad and USB mouse work fine in tandem
• Not yet got built in card reader working
• Problems linking external monitor (but also in WinXP)
• Problems linking digital camera (Fuji Finepix 1400) but may be camera issue
• After booting, X sometimes displays a blank white screen and needs to be restarted with Ctrl-Alt-Backspace to access GDM

Packard Bell Easynote A5560

• Smooth installation, manual partition to keep recovery parition.
• Kept recovery partition so my sister can go back to Windows, should she want to. (Brand new laptop - didn't let her even try Windows.)
• Wireless Linksys card "INPROCOMM IPN 2220" not working. Fixed with ndiswrapper:
  • $ sudo apt-get install ndiswrapper

  • $ wget ftp://ftp.support.acer-euro.com/notebook/TravelMate_4000_4500/driver/a802.zip

  • $ unzip a802.zip
  • $ sudo ndiswrapper -i A802/Winxp/neti2220.inf
  • $ sudo modprobe ndiswrapper
  • $ rm -rf A802 a802.zip
• WXGA not detected automatically. Fixed with 855resolution:

  • Download and install Debian package from: http://www.debian.or.jp/~kmuto/855resolution/

  • $ sudo vi /etc/default/855resolution
    • MODE=3c
    • XRESO=1280
    • YRESO=768
  • $ sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg
  • $ sudo /etc/init.d/855resolution start
  • $ sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart
• Wireless not working after resume from hibernate, computer hangs if I try to enable it.
• Haven't testet DVD burning and card reader yet.

CategoryLaptop

Samsung X15

Basically works out of the box. Video, audio, touchpad all fine, USB mouse works too. Wireless LAN needs ndiswrapper, but then works fine.

CPU throttling works, but battery indicator does not work (using Warty, at least).

Function keys (brightness, volume, battery indicator) don't work, I haven't investigated yet.

Haven't tested PCMCIA, modem, external monitor, or suspend yet.

Samsung GT9000 Series

This laptop is quite old now but Breezy installed just fine. Runs very slow with the standard RAM but an upgrade sorts this out.

Touchpad (including the scroll buttons), screen, Intel i830 AGP graphics, USB, LAN, audio all works fine with no special configuration needed. No wireless built in but PCMCIA worked right away too and I am successfully using a Draytek 802.11b wireless card. Haven't tested the built-in modem as I have no use for it. Suspend to hard drive works.

Battery indicator works 95% of the time but I have seen it tell me I am running on battery power sometimes when the laptop is actually plugged in. It'll popup a message saying you're about to run out of power but nothing happens. Haven't tested an external monitor.