Install Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex 8.10 on the Samsung NC10

DOCUMENTATION UNDER CONSTRUCTION...

Fully functional 'out of the box':

• Video (with desktop effects)
• Wired Networking
• USB
• Webcam
• Suspend / Resume

Fully functional after driver updates:

• Wireless Networking
• Audio (internal speakers now turn off when headphones are in use)

Not Functional:

• Fn Brightness keys (workaround available)
• Internal mic
• Multi-touch

Installation

Prerequisites:

Before you begin you will need the following:

• A USB drive

• A downloaded image (iso) of the Ubuntu Intrepid installation CD

Creating USB startup disk:

Method 1: (From an Ubuntu Intrepid computer, or computer running Ubuntu Intrepid Live CD) UBUNTU USB TOOL

Go to System -> Administration and select Create a USB startup disk. Select the Ubuntu image and the USB device, then press the Make startup disk button at the bottom of the window.

(Either of the options at the bottom of the window, regarding saving documents and settings, will work with this method, so pick your preference.)

After it is finished, install from the USB startup disk

Method 2: (From any Windows or Linux Computer) UNETBOOTIN

Download Unetbootin to your computer and plug in your USB drive. Follow the instructions at the UNetbootin website to create a USB startup disk.

When the startup disk is ready, install from the USB startup disk

Installing to NC10 from the USB startup disk:

Plug in your USB startup disk, then reboot the computer. You may need to change your NC10's boot settings so that it will boot from a plugged-in USB disk; to check, press F2 when the netbook is first turning on to enter BIOS setup.

When you have verified this, save changes and exit BIOS setup.

The computer should then boot from the USB startup disk, offering you an Ubuntu menu. Select Install Ubuntu to begin installation.

Wireless Networking - Atheros

The wireless hardware is detected, but a non-functional driver is loaded when Ubuntu is installed. Installing the latest Madwifi driver resolves this problem.

First, disable the installed driver from System->Administration->Hardware driver by clicking Deactivate on the bottom of the window.

Next, blacklist the bad driver by adding it to your kernel blacklist. Open a terminal and enter

sudo echo "blacklist ath_pci" >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
sudo echo "blacklist ath_hal" >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

Finally, install the Madwifi driver:

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

After rebooting the driver should load and wireless networks should be listed in the Network Manager Applet.

Audio - Alsa Drivers

We need to recompile audio driver alsa at the last available version since the audio chipset is not fully recognized by ubuntu 8.10. The on-board chipset is a Realtek ID 272.

for compiling driver from source we need the package build-essential, for that simply run in a terminal

sudo apt-get install build-essential

Now we can download the last Alsa Driver source from here (tested on v. 1.0.18a) Extract it on Desktop and run in a terminal

cd Desktop/alsa-driver-*
./configure --with-cards=hda-intel --with-oss=yes --with-sequencer=yes
make
sudo make install

Now we have to check the volume in alsamixer with:

alsamixer

Restart the computer. The speaker will be disabled when you try to plug-in an headphone's jack.

Internal Microphone

For internal microphone exists another tricks that need more test. I've tried it and my internal microphone now works fine but I re-encounter problem with headset plugin. try to test it and write your experience.

Fn Brightness Keys - Workaround

Since now its impossible to map FN key, perhaps its possible to manage a combination of key that can emulate this function. we need two utilities for mapping keys Ctrl+UP and Ctrl+DOWN for managing screen's brightness. From terminal:

sudo apt-get install xbacklight

Download Ubuntu Tweak from here and install it. Now open Ubuntu tweak (Application -> System tools) go to the appropriate section (Personal -> Shortcut) and set the combination that you want for example

Ctrl+UP with:

xbacklight -inc 10

and Ctrl+DOWN

xbacklight -dec 10

For increase and decrease the screen's brightness

This is only a tricks that doesn't resolve the real proble but give you a possibility to manage the brighness with a key combination.

See Also

...

External Links

* http://nc10ubuntu.wordpress.com/ - A blog that considers ways of improving the use of Ubuntu on the Samsung NC10
* http://www.netbooknews.it/ubuntu-su-nc10-parte-seconda/ - Italian blog for all netbook-related news and tricks. (Thanks for Audio and wireless tricks)
* Dedicated unofficial blog