Linux and a zepto

can anyone recommend a good vesion of linux that they have got working on a zepto? (i have no linux experience or have any dea which is a good easy to use gui etc.)

Dave

 

We have tested Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon with the 3215W and everything was working out of the box except for the on board Audio which needed a little tweaking (which could be found on the Ubuntu website (HD Audio)).
We do however not provide any support for Linux on any of our machines.

 

I'm currently writing from a 6324W with the latest version of Ubuntu (7.10 or Gutsy Gibbon).
I installed it very easily and the only problem i had was the sound driver not working, but i just followed this guide and all was ok. I think that with the final release of the 7.10 this trick is not needed anymore, though.

So i recommend this distro, i'm very happy with it and i've tried several distro before and no one was so smooth and cool.

 

Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon....

700MB download file...burn it to iso and boot from it. Once booted you can test the OS from the cd before installing it.


Audio will not work right now, but the fix has already been mentioned in previous posts

 

I am using Suse 10.3 on a 3215W (same as previous posts for audio). But I just need and tested; audio, CD-DVD (read and burn), USB port and LAN.

 

The only thing that didnt make the installation of ubuntu 7.10 work like a charm for me was the sound. But i had a friend who helped me with that, otherwise it was just click and go.

I got one problem tho, its when im surfing in ubuntu with firefox and using tabs. switching tabs takes like ages and slows down my computer so i cant do anything. the cpu usage goes up to max and i usually have to wait like up to five seconds before i can see the tab i switched to. This only happends when im switching tabs... And it happends both with and without compiz enabled.
Anyone else got the same problem, or maybe a solution.

/Megatron

 

Try Opera browser, Its a very fast and simple browser (not 100% shure there is a version for Linux but it would be wierd if they didnt)

 

No luck installing Ubuntu 7.10 on 6625WD, got a bit further than with 7.04 but got stuck after "Running local boot scripts". There are some guides over that problem but it just made me lose faith in Linux again.

 

I know what you mean lol


quite lucky 7.10 worked flawlessly with me on desktop, haven't tried laptop but the live cd worked a treat though

 

I turned off ahci in the bios and it initially came up with some error but then seemed to boot and run the gui fine. (6625WD) Only prob now is getting the audio to work which might involve actually installing the os. I hope to get it working off a memory stick fingers crossed.

 

By the way is it not just a case of downloading the linux drivers from realtek site?

 

achi is already disabled by default in my bios (008), im running win xp (Is this normal or should I have it enabled)

I didn't get any errors booting from CD

For the audio to work properly you must follow the guide listed in the previous page and you have to restart after (so yea you have to install the OS).

I plan on getting it installed on an external hard drive. Ive had good experiences with ubuntu in the past, very fast and lightweight. I hope the fans will be quiter in Ubuntu and the battery time will be a bit more since its lightweight.

Once done installing on external HD will enable all the compiz effects haha and make it look and function like mac osx

 

i will gove it a go and hope the card works as it should i.e i can get the s/pdif port to work

 

there is no beifit to enabling ahci in xp that i have found, check though my threads about how to get it working if you need to.

 

It should work fine, I've seen people running Ubuntu on the 6625WD. I'm running Mandriva on my 6625WD and it works pretty peachily. With Ubuntu I think you have to install in text mode as its install drivers can't cope with the 8600; Mandriva deals with it just fine.

Download the Mandriva 2008.0 32bit version and you won't be disappointed.

 

I got it to work now.

Well not the sounds, I'm not a superman you know. Went through the HdaIntelSoundHowTo with ALSA 1.0.15, using some simple scripts someone provided at Ubuntu forums, but no luck.

 

i had some troubles with this too, in my case there were some files that was misplaced in the wrong folder when installing ALSA1.0.15. Im not sure what files it was....

 

Have a look here:

http://atlas.hasselbalch.com/znote6625wd/

 

I believe you would do yourselves a favour as a company by offering Linux as an option on your laptops. It would help raise your profile within the (ever growing) Linux community - a community who in general are desperate for good laptops, that come with Linux, at a sensible price.

 

Dibosco, you mentioned that you write a review of the 6625WD with linux do you have a link? Also the version you are running did it install without problems? ALso thanks for the link found that myself today and was going to try out the realtec drivers. WIll need to reinstall linus first as I tried the alsa route and now i have no soundcard hardware listed at all arghhhh.

 

I think the topic still covers this conversation..

So, little update. Installed those realtek drivers and got sound out off laptops own speakers and headphones but no optical output, which is just as bad as no sound at all.

 

does the light come on in the optical port? i have not tried this method yet. Also see this thread i found today

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=545318&page=1
not sure which page it was might be 2
i have not tried anything yet so watch this space, no optical would mean back to xp for me

 

I don't know what future plans there are for Linux support, but as it is now it would be shooting ourselves in the foot to start supporting Linux as we have no people in the company with knowledge of Linux.
The only reason we inform people that Ubuntu 7.10 is supported on at least one of our models is because people have been asking about it a lot in our sales department, so one of the people from our sales team tried it out one weekend on our 3215W model and read up on how to get the soundcard to work.

But going from doing some casual testing and actually releasing notebooks with Linux on them is a big step, because as soon as you release something with an operating system most people expect every person in the company to be able to answer every little detailed question about how to get things to work. We are getting bigger as a company sales wise, but compared to companies like Lenovo and Dell who have already started releasing machines with Linux we are really small support wise, and do not at current time have capacity to venture into a project like Linux on our laptops, but as I said I do not know if there are plans for things like this.

 

About this page: http://atlas.hasselbalch.com/znote6625wd/

It's only a 3-in-1 card reader capable of SD, MMC og MS Pro, not as stated a 5-in-1 card reader It does not even work with xD cards under Windows, so why should it support it under Linux

 

It's here: )

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=174819

Note, with 2008.0 official release you don't need to load new alsa drivers, just do the mod of the sound file to set it up with the Toshiba setting.

 

but that handful has quite much tools and know-how

 

if i ever get ubuntu working with sound etc. i will write a guide , i think it would be nice to have some linux zepto newbie guides on here. I am completley new to linux so it should be fun

 

Errrm, the guide on how to do it in Ubuntu's on a link on a post on the previous page!

 

yeah that did not work for me, i have sound now thow using my previous link buti have no optical output light yet. Do you get optical output on mandriva? Also the guide was for this forum as i thought it would be usfu to have some user guides kinda like an FAQ for things like CD-rom not working etc..

 

mandriva just hand during the boot process for me about 3 quarters of the way through very odd. Tried new disks etc.

 

i managed to get the optical out spdif working in ununtu gusty gibson after 2 days if you would to know more see
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=599292&page=2

 

I didn't even know there's an optical output on the laptop! I've got no need for it anyway...

 

Hi,

I bought my Znote 6615WD October 2006. Installed Ubuntu 6.10 then. Got to tweak many things to get them running. Updated to 7.10 / Gutsy Gibbon recently. Most things work out of the box. Some things won't do at all. Even if I can't help with above mentioned problems perhaps someone's interested with my experiences...

Working with Ubuntu 7.10 w/o trouble:
-LAN
-WLAN
-all USB
-Microfon / Speakers / Headphones
-3D acceleration (Compiz effects are so very cool)
-E-Mail/Browser-Buttons on top of keyboard
-Multimediabuttons in front of keyboard
-lid-switch / Suspendmode when display cover closed
-touchpad
-Cardreader (tested with SD-cards)

Working at least halfway:
-Bluetooth (shows devices, doesn't pair - some OBEC error)
-volume buttons control line in, not volume (out)

Not working:
-USB ports at docking station :-(
-tv card (mini pci avermedia hybrid, vendor appears as "phillips" within linux)
-IrDA
-Bison webcam (but shows up as USB device)

Not tested:
-IEEE 1394 / Firewire
-SPDIF
-Modem

Additional tested:
-Internet access by mobile phone - Nokia 6131 connected via USB cable, appears as /dev/ttyACM0 and works fine with wvdial
-no Internet access with HTC Magician /T-Mobile MDA compact I - shows up as /dev/ttyUSB0 but doesn't connect

Open to be tested:
-Gnomeversion of SynCE to Sync my PocketPC data...

All in all Ubuntu 7.10 runs good enough (including Enemy Territory:Quake Wars) that I only boot Windows for playing non-linux games, watching TV and using the webcam.

 

I'm borrowing the thread a bit:

Which distro do you use for your zepto laptop?

I got a zepto 3215w for my brother. He is running Ubuntu 7.10 at the moment. I've got most of it working fine including the sound.

But he has some issues with both hibernation and standby mode whereas the computer doesn't wake or just plainly shuts itself off (nicely).
These issues happen when the lid gets closed.

Could you give me any pointers? Is there anything specific in BIOS or some settings i need to attend to? Thanks

 

I'm using Arch Linux and KDE.

At least sleep mode (suspend to ram) works for me although sometimes it doesn't work for some reason. It might be that Ubuntu doesn't have kernel or something new enough to support those. And if sleep or hibernation isn't too important, I suggest to take take those off as sometimes those are a bit buggy.

In Arch there's gnome-power-manager which might be already installed in Ubuntu to change settings what to do when lid closed.

Also, ubuntuforums might help better as there are more Ubuntu users.

 

I am using Suse 10.3 on my 3215W with KDE desktop. Unfortunately I do not really use sleep mode but just only the 'powersave' mode provide by Kpowersave.

 

I'll try to play a bit with BIOS settings and check with the ubuntuforums to see if someone can shed light over this thing. Thank you for your answers

 

I have recently installed Linux Mint 4.0 Daryna edition, for the first time to see whether there was something into it.
I've got it installed without much trouble, but as a lot of others are saying, the soundcard isn't working. And that's why I'm writing to get some help to understand the guide linked to in #3.

HTML:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HdaIntelSoundHowto

The first instruction says:

Code:

      Install the required tools and kernelheaders

sudo aptitude install build-essential libncurses-dev gettext linux-headers-`uname -r`

Do I put the code into a terminal window? And what should I write instead of "uname -r"?

 

I'm not familiar with Linux Mint but since it's Ubuntu based it should work as it's described. You should just copy-paste the line and not change that uname-r:

Code:

sudo aptitude install build-essential libncurses-dev gettext linux-headers-`uname -r`

If that guide won't work for some reason, try this.

And it might need following line in /etc/modprobe.conf

options snd-hda-intel model=toshiba

 

#39, Now it worked putting copying the first code to the terminal - without your last proposed line. Thank you!
I've downloaded the three files which is saved in my downloads folder and named alsa-driver-1.0.15rc3.tar.bz2, alsa-lib-1.0.15rc3.tar.bz2, alsa-utils-1.0.15rc1.tar.bz2.

I start copying the next codelines from the guide to the terminal, and the first 2 lines seems to work. the 3. line sudo cp ~/downloads/alsa* . isn't working. Am I supposed to write something instead of * ?

This is my last line in the terminal: tyven@tyven-laptop:/usr/src/alsa$

 

I finally figured it out, and I now have sound.
I basically just used the guide mentioned in previous post, and the "options" line:

Code:

options snd-hda-intel model=toshiba

(Thanks to harr1), that is to be used at the last operation.

I'm however not impressed by the user-friendliness of Ubuntu so far...

It's a good idea to open the terminal value from the directory whereto you downloaded the files, as it makes browsing unnecessary.

 

Laptops are known not to be supported so well in Linux. Especially new hardware takes time to be fully supported since almost every developer is volunteer. I have Linux in my 6625WD (Arch Linux) just for testing; battery lasts much longer in Windows with rmclock and so on.

It's however nice to test always latest stuff like KDE 4 and Compiz-fusion, but not to use it everyday. You always have to remember that it's free to use.

 

Why do u think that linux is not for every day usage?

 

It's my opinion (for this laptop) because certain things that I want won't work as well as those should to be used every day. I have used Linux for one year for only OS on my machine couple of years ago, then I wanted to play and installed Windows. So I do have pretty much experience with Linux. Now as I have laptop too, I'm thinking to switch completely to Linux in this desktop machine because it would work more seamlessly with my Linux server.

So, Linux is good for every day usage for some but not all people and computers. But it's developing nicely and in these three years I have used Linux it's developed incredibly fast.

 

try a user friendly distro like ubuntu and you will be totally satisfied...

 

new beta version of ubuntu 8.04 works straight out the box on my 6625wd even sound and optical output. Only thing taht is not working seems to be the webcam (which is no biggie for me) .

 

long time no see djcla, hows it been.

anyway yea 8.04 works out of the box, thanks to the new kernel and the pulse audio sound system instead of alsa

 

I've had my 6615WD for about a year and a half, and tried all different distros on it, and they all pretty much worked fine. At the moment i'm running Xubuntu (64 bit) and it's fantastic.

The Webcam thing is annoying though, because i still have to boot into XP to use it.... I've never managed to find a driver for it (for Linux) anywhere, which is a shame.

Great notebooks though.....

 

not bad mate not been on here for a while so many forums to look at in very little time these days.

 

Ubuntu 8.04 release candidate on my Znote 6615WD installs and works fine mostly.

*WORKING
-notebook's own USB ports
-LAN
-WLAN
-sound (but volume controls don't work with 8.04rc)
-nvidia graphics acceleration
-optical drive
-memory card reader

*NOT WORKING BUT HOPEFUL
-bluetooth's recognized but won't pair (USB BT dongle from TRUST (the mini thingi) works and pairs)
-docking station's usb ports

*NOT WORKING without hope
-built in webcam

*NOT TESTED
-any ports at the docking station (with exception for LAN -which works- and USB -which doesn't work)
-built in 4port IEEE1394 aka firewire
-built in IrDA
-P1/P2 keys
-VGA out
-built in modem
-hybrid mini pci tv receiver
-express card

Well, tomorrow'll be the Ubuntu 8.04 final release - let's see again then.