Installing Ubuntu on a Samsung N145 (and possibly others)

There are a few issues out-of-the-box with Ubuntu (and possibly other distros) on Samsung laptops and netbooks. Specifically:

• Pressing the brightness function keys causes the keyboard to lock
• The brightness keys don’t change the brightness.
• Resuming from suspend hangs the computer with a black / blank screen.
• Wireless does not work properly after resuming from suspend.

There are also non-Samsung related problems with Ubuntu and Unity:

• Vi inserts A, B, C, D characters in insert mode when using the arrow keys.
• Eclipse and Lyx menus don’t display in Unity (and other applications).

This guide is specifically for Ubuntu 10.10 and the Samsung N145 netbook, but the information will be applicable to other distros and Samsung laptops and netbooks.

If this page doesn’t resolve your issues, check the comments as other users have experienced other issues and found further work-arounds for them.

A comment on installing Debian on the N145.

A post on installing Debian on Atom based computers.

Last updated: 2011/01/09

Samsung Hardware Issues

Brightness keys freezing keyboard

The brightness keys cause the keyboard to stop working when pressed. With the backlight fixed below it becomes clear that the issue is the keys are never registered as released by the operating system.

This can be fixed by doing the following (from here, bug filed here):

1. Type the following:

sudo vi /lib/udev/rules.d/95-keyboard-force-release.rules

2. Search for “sS”, this should take you to a regexp for Samsung models on a line beginning with “[sS][aA][mM][sS][uU][nN][gG]”.

3. Add “*N145*|” (or your specific laptop model) to the list.

Note: If your model is not an N145 this may not work. If this occurs, simply replace the line with a “*”.

Function keys not working

The brightness keys (and other function keys) are not recognised by default in Linux.

This can be fixed with the following steps (from here):

1. Type the following:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:voria/ppa

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

sudo apt-get install samsung-tools samsung-backlight

sudo reboot

Note: It appears on some systems the function keys begin working but the brightness does not change. In this case, try appending “acpi_backlight=vendor” to the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX line in Suspend / Resume below.

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=”acpi_sleep=nonvs acpi_backlight=vendor”

Suspend / Resume

Note: This should normally work on its own, but a regression in the 2.6.3x Linux kernels requires us to use the existing 2.6.32 kernels from Lucid Lynx, in addition to the following steps, which is described at the end of this section. Bug report here.

Suspend and resume causes the system to freeze on resume (some activity, but the screen never powers back on). There are also issues with wireless networks coming in and out of range when roaming that cause the system to continually lock itself and eventually freeze.

This modifies the ACPI flags set in Grub (from here). This resolves all freezing issues with suspend / resume and wireless networks coming into and out of range when roaming (I ran my laptop on the tram today with no issue!).

1.At the console, type the following:

sudo vi /etc/default/grub

2.change the following line

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=””

to

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=”acpi_sleep=nonvs”

3. Type the following

sudo update-grub

sudo reboot

Note: This doesn’t work on its own with the current 10.10 kernel. After following these instructions please perform the “Lucid Kernel fix” below.

Lucid Kernel fix

There are currently regressions in the Linux kernel that prevent the 2.6.35 kernel from waking up from suspend (see here).

The resolution is to install the kernel from Lucid Lynx. Instructions for installing a kernel deb came from here.

1. Download the kernels linked to from here into their own directory.

2. Type the following:

sudo dpkg -i *.deb

Ubuntu should now suspend / resume without freezing.

Wifi Suspend / Resume Fix

Suspend / resume works with the above fixes, but the wireless will not recognise any wireless networks on resume.

The resolution for this is to remove and re-add the Wireless kernel module during suspend / resume.

1. Type the following:

sudo touch /etc/pm/config.d/unload_modules

sudo vi /etc/pm/config.d/unload_modules

2. Add the line:

SUSPEND_MODULES=”ath9k”

Type the following:

sudo reboot

This should resolve all the “out-of-the-box” with Ubuntu 10.10.

Non-hardware Issues

The following are issues that are not related to the Samsung hardware, but still are annoying none-the-less and can be trivially fixed.

Using the Webcam

The webcam works out of the box, but this is not apparent. Use the Function + F3 key to enable the webcam.

There may be a BIOS setting to preserve the last enabled state of the device.

Thanks go to Jerzy Jarmasz comment which pointed this out.

Vi keys

The Vi keys can be fixed by doing the following (from here):

1. Type the following:

touch ~/.vimrc

vi ~/.vimrc

2. add the line

set nocompatible

Enabling Multi-touch

Enabling multi-touch support for the TouchPad:

1. Applications -> Mouse
2. Select the “Touchpad” tab
3. Select “Two-finger scrolling”
4. Select “Enable horizontal scrolling”

Fix  Unity menus for some applications

Unity is still quite immature and has some issues trying to force GNOME applications to use a “global menu”, unfortunately this change has been hacked on and isn’t properly supported by the majority of applications. Even the default Firefox install uses the below work arounds to display its menu in Unity.

Either of the two below methods should work for any given application. Should the “Eclipse” method not work, try the steps in the “Lyx” method for your specific application.

Ubuntu automatically adds ~/bin to the $PATH variable if it exists on login. So we will put our scripts to fix the menus there.

Eclipse

Eclipse doesn’t work well with the global menus in Unity and an environment variable must be set before running Eclipse (and other similar applications):

(This method unfortunately doesn’t work for Lyx, see below for the work-around).

1. Download the latest Eclipse binary from the Eclipse homepage.

2. Type the following:

mkdir ~/opt

mkdir ~/bin

tar -xzf eclipse-xxx.tar.gz

3. Move the eclipse directory to ~/opt

4. Type the following:

touch ~/bin/eclipse

chmod 755 ~/bin/eclipse

vi ~/bin/eclipse

5. Add the following text:

#!/bin/bash
export UBUNTU_MENUPROXY=0
~/opt/eclipse/eclipse &

Logout and back in and run “eclipse” from the terminal.

The only problem with this is that as Eclipse is installed in ~/opt, the Eclipse Icon will not display in the Unity bar.

Lyx

The Eclipse menu fix above does not work for Lyx and infact causes both menus to disappear. The work around for this is to tell Unity to display both. I’m not sure why this works and the other method doesn’t, but it is currently the only way to have Lyx menus display in Unity (from here):

1. Type the following:

mkdir ~/bin

touch ~/bin/lyx

chmod 755 ~/bin/lyx

vi ~/bin/lyx

2. Add the following text:

#!/bin/bash
export APPMENU_DISPLAY_BOTH=1
/usr/bin/lyx &

Logout and back in and run “lyx” from the terminal.