Install Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex 8.10 on the Samsung NC10

Fully functional 'out of the box':

• Video (with desktop effects)
• Wired networking
• USB (for mass storage devices)
• Webcam
• Suspend / resume

Fully functional after driver updates:

• Wireless networking
• Audio (internal speakers now turn off when headphones are in use)
• Internal mic

Not functional:

• Fn Brightness keys (workaround available)
• Wi-Fi On / off switch
• Multi-touch
• Samsung 3G USB wireless broadband modem (if present)

Installation

Prerequisites:

Before you begin you will need the following:

• A USB drive

• A downloaded image (iso) of the Ubuntu Intrepid installation CD (not required for UNETBOOTIN method)

Before you begin you will need to know the following:

• How to use terminal

• How to edit and save files e.g., by using gedit

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
sudo echo "ath5k" >> /etc/modules

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

Audio - Alsa Driver

The Alsa audio driver needs to be recompiled since the on-board chipset is a Realtek ID 272 which is not fully supported by Ubuntu 8.10.

When compiling the driver from source the package build-essential is needed. In terminal type:

sudo apt-get install build-essential

The last Alsa Driver source can be downloaded at here (tested on v. 1.0.18a) Extract it on Desktop and in terminal type:

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

Set the volume levels in alsamixer - In terminal type:

alsamixer

Restart the computer. The internal speakers will be disabled when you plug-in a headphone's jack.

Internal Microphone

For the internal microphone there is another workaround that needs testing. The internal microphone works but problems with plugging in headphones reoccur. Report your experiences on the discussion page.

Hotkeys

Experimental

I have finally correctly mapped the FN key for control the brightness of the screen perhaps after pressing UP or Down it go at the maximum of minimum value and after there was some problem with the keyboard... If you want to test substitute the file in /usr/share/hotkey-setup/samsung.hk with this lines

setkeycodes     e006    238     # Wireless ON/OFF
setkeycodes     e008    225     # Brightness UP
setkeycodes     e009    224     # Brightness DOWN
setkeycodes     e002    $KEY_SWITCHVIDEOMODE    # Monitor Switch
setkeycodes     e003    236             # Battery

Fn Brightness Keys - Workaround

Currently it is impossible to map the FN keys. Therefore, two utilities for mapping alternative keys are needed so that screen brightness can be adjusted. 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

To increase and decrease the screen's brightness

Maximum brightness may be quite low if you don't disable the "auto" brightness feature in the BIOS (F2 at start-up).

Xorg

I have customized my xorg.conf file for correctly running compiz and scrolling area of the touchpad, you can see it here:

#Starting from xandros version a customized xorg.conf file for Samsung NC10

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Ubuntu"
    Screen      0  "Screen1"
    InputDevice    "keyboard"
    InputDevice    "mouse"
    InputDevice    "Touchpad"  "SendCoreEvents" 
EndSection

Section "Files"
    ModulePath   "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
    FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc"
    FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1"
    FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi"
    FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1"
EndSection

Section "Module"
    Load  "glx"
    Load  "dri"
    Load  "dbe"
    Load  "extmod"
    Load  "synaptics"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
    Option        "AllowMouseOpenFail"
    Option      "BlankTime"        "5"
    Option      "SuspendTime"  "0"
    Option      "StandbyTime"   "0"
    Option      "OffTime"           "10"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier   "keyboard"
    Driver       "kbd"
    Option      "CoreKeyboard"
    Option      "XkbRules" "xorg"
    Option      "XkbLayout" "us"
    Option      "XkbVariant" ""
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier  "mouse"
    Driver      "mouse"
    Option        "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
    Option        "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
    Option        "Emulate3Buttons" "yes"
    Option        "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
    Option        "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier  "Touchpad"
    Driver      "synaptics"
        Option  "Device"        "/dev/psaux"
        Option  "Protocol"      "auto-dev"
        Option  "LeftEdge"      "1700"
        Option  "RightEdge"     "5300"
        Option  "TopEdge"       "1700"
        Option  "BottomEdge"    "4200"
        Option  "FingerLow"     "25"
        Option  "FingerHigh"    "30"
        Option  "MaxTapTime"    "180"
        Option  "MaxTapMove"    "220"
        Option  "VertScrollDelta" "100"
        Option  "MinSpeed"      "0.06"
        Option  "MaxSpeed"      "0.12"
        Option  "AccelFactor" "0.0010"
        Option  "SHMConfig"     "on"
        Option  "VertTwoFingerScroll"   "1"
        Option  "HorizTwoFingerScroll"  "1"

EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier   "Monitor1"
    VendorName   "Samsung"
    ModelName    "NC10"
    Option       "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier    "TV"
    Option        "Ignore"  "True"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier  "Device1"
    Driver      "intel"
    VendorName  "Intel Corporation"
    BoardName   "Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller"
    BusID       "PCI:0:2:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "Screen1"
    Device     "Device1"
    Monitor    "Monitor1"
    DefaultDepth     24
EndSection

Section "DRI"
    Mode         0666
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
# You may want to enable this.
    Option        "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection

Compiz

Add this line on the bottom of your xorg.conf file if you haven't already added

Section "DRI"
    Mode         0666
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
# You may want to enable this.
    Option        "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection

now you can enable compiz from System->Preference->Visual Effects and after that i suggest to install the MACosX like bar Avant window navigator that can help you to save usefull space on the bottom of your screen.

Touchpad

An easy way for correctly detect and config your touchpad is to add some lines to your xorg.conf file. Add this lines in the Inputdevice Section of the touchpad, this will enable your scrolling area.

        Option  "LeftEdge"      "1700"
        Option  "RightEdge"     "5300"
        Option  "TopEdge"       "1700"
        Option  "BottomEdge"    "4200"
        Option  "FingerLow"     "25"
        Option  "FingerHigh"    "30"
        Option  "MaxTapTime"    "180"
        Option  "MaxTapMove"    "220"
        Option  "VertScrollDelta" "100"
        Option  "MinSpeed"      "0.06"
        Option  "MaxSpeed"      "0.12"
        Option  "AccelFactor" "0.0010"
        Option  "SHMConfig"     "on"

For Two finger scrolling I see an interesting post here that I've tried without suxess, perhaps I think that this is the right way....

Internal 3G modem

Some NC10 models are sold with built-in, internal SAMSUNG HSPA Modem. Such models are in particular available in Poland (they are sold with iPlus wireless internet service). This modem does not appear to work at all. The USB vendor:product id is unknown to google as of 3rd of December 2008. The modem is a USB device and is supported on Windows XP. It's therefore possible to sniff the USB communication and reverse-engineer the drivers for the open source community.

The USB vendor:product id is: 04e8:6773

External Links

* http://nc10ubuntu.tout57.fr/ - A French blog for all tips and tricks to improve the use of Ubuntu on the Samsung NC10
* 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