LaptopTesting

Revision 3 as of 2005-08-14 21:52:46

Clear message

Providing totally rad laptop support

The [http://ubuntu.com/community/teams/laptop Ubuntu laptop team] are on a mission to get Ubuntu to work great on as many laptops as they can. To do this, they need to know which hardware works without configuration and which is currently unsupported.

How you can help

If you have a spare laptop that doesn't contain any important data, or if you like restoring from backups, or if you know how to install an OS under a chroot, here's what you can do.

  1. Install Ubuntu Breezy on the laptop.
  2. Add a row to the LaptopTestingHardware page, describing the level of support Breezy has for each item listed.

Ubuntu developers can then choose which hardware to target for improvement, with the aim of ensuring that it works out of the box in future releases.

What we're interested in

These criteria have been chosen to define laptop support in Breezy.

Hotkeys

Any printed hotkeys should generate events that are passed on to userspace, and appropriate commands then executed. For example, a wireless button should enable or disable the wireless and bluetooth hardware. A sleep button should put the laptop to sleep. A mail button should launch an email client.

A list of known keys is being assembled at LaptopKeycodes.

Bluetooth

The Bluetooth hardware in the laptop should be automatically configured on boot.

Modem

The modem should be autodetected and configured. The user should simply be able to configure /dev/modem for their ISP.

Infra-red

The infra-red port should work correctly. Where possible, it should use FIR, but falling back to SIR is acceptable.

Docking station

When supported by the hardware, it must be possible to hot dock and undock the laptop from the docking station. On docking, all docking station hardware must automatically appear and be made available with no further configuration. On eject, the resources must be freed correctly.

Video/TV out

With the aid of hotkeys or UI elements, it must be possible for the laptop user to enable and disable all video outputs on the laptop.

Suspend

Suspend to disk and to RAM must work without any further configuration.

CategoryLaptop