I will try to give here a fairly good describtion of my Samsung X30 WVM 1600 Notebook running under Linux.
I give Archlinux a chance on this Notebook and therefore everything here is based on this distribution. In fact it should be unimportant which distribution you would like to use, the more important question is what Kernel version you plan to use. Many features of this Notebook wouldn't work with the 2.4 kernel so I recommend you use the 2.6 line. This Review is also based on the 2.6 line so it's not valid for others.
If you have suggestions please contact me. Further information about contacting me you will find on my page
I give no warranty at all for anything!
You will find the build in Hardware on the
manufacturer homepage.
Samsung X30 WVM 1600 Hardware:
This review was made with the vanilla-kernel 2.6.10 from the official Linux Kernel page. I have configured my kernel myself. I tried to make it as small as possible. Some things are still useless and still in the config of the kernel but I think you could optimize it yourself if you want.
Here is my actual .config
When you look into my config you can see in the ACPI section of the file that you are able to specify the file with your corrected DSDT table to get a working ACPI. If you don't know what DSDT is look into the DSDT Section of this Review.
You should know that the path you could write into the dsdt kernel option 'CONFIG_ACPI_CUSTOM_DSDT_FILE="dsdt_table.h"' is relative to the include directory of your kernel source directory. I recommend you put your dsdt file directly into your include directory and put the name of the file in the config option like I did it.
With this option you don't have to patch your kernel for inserting your custom DSDT table. There are other methods out there for inserting the custom tables over alternative methods but these methods require the kernel to be patched. You will find out more about this when you follow the links in my DSDT section.
This section is deprecated since you don't have to fix your dsdt table anymore. I'm not sure if they fixed the Bios or the ACPI code in the kernel was changed. The only thing I can say for sure is that it will run with Bios version 08UK and a kernel version greater 2.6.13.
This Notebook doesn't come with a ACPI system working for Linux out of the box. You have to change the DSDT table to get the ACPI working.
I have already fixed the dsdt for my bios version (06UE). You can download the header table from my fixed table so you only need to activate it. You could also get the ASL source code of my table from ACPI Project Page where you could find also useful HowTos concerning the hole DSDT subject.
On the ACPI Project Page you have to go to DSDT and View there you can choose the manufacturer, model and bios version of your need and download the appropriate table. Keep in mind that you have to use the Intels ASL Compiler to get the header file out of the ASL source code or create your own custom DSDT table.
When ACPI is working (you will see it when you don't get error messages in 'dmesg') Linux should be able to to the PowerManagement things. At the current state of the Linux development ACPI isn't fully implemented into the kernel so features like Suspend to disk or Suspend to Ram are not supported or buggy. If you wish to use it you should look at the Softwaresuspend Project Page where you could find a patch for the kernel to get it working. You should read some information on the page before you use the patch.
I use the proprietary Nvidia driver along with the xserver from X.Org. Here is my xorg.conf also known as XF86Config when you use the XFree86 xserver
This configuration enables Nvidias TwinView when X starts and a Monitor is connected to the port. Eventually you have to change the resolution (1280x1024) of the connected monitor so it will work seamless with your second display.
My current version of Xorg server is 6.8.1. Sometimes when I start my machine the xserver boots up and the screen remains black. When this happens I'm not able to do anything so I have to push the Power button for a few seconds to shutdown the machine and reboot it. This failure is caused by the LCD/CRT setting in the bios. If you change that to simply LCD you shouldn't have this problem any more.
This section is updated for the 2.6.14 kernel.
The soundcard or better the soundchip on the motherboard works with alsa intel8x0 driver. It works, more I could not say about a notebook soundchip.
Since ALSA is merged into the kernel there shouldn't be a great problem for you to make it work.
The modem is also supported by ALSA with the intel8x0m module. To make it work you need to run the slmodem daemon with the alsa driver. In Archlinux you simply have to install slmodem over pacman "pacman -S slmodem". This package is in the extra repository so make sure you enabled it in "/etc/pacman.conf". I couldn't test the modem but I configured it a little bit with KPPP and it say the modem is ok so I believe it should work.
I couldn't test the PCMCIA device so I couldn't say if it works. I have configured it and get no errors when I load the pcmcia daemon. When you look into the PCMCIA kernel config section I have linked above you could see I have the Yenta Socket enabled. The pcmcia-cs package I have installed comes with a pcmcia daemon which I start on every boot and say that it's watching two sockets so I would say it should work.
Furthermore I could test the Memory Stick device now and had no luck. It seems that there is neither a driver nor a specification so there is not really a chance to get this device working but we could hope and wait for a wonder.
I have to mention that cardctl shows some information when the Memory Stick is inserted but without a driver there is no chance to connect to it properly. Since this Reader runs somehow over the cardbus and not over USB the theme is complex I guess.
Everything you need to know you will find on the ipw2200
project page from Intel.
The drivers and firmware from this project are still under development and are not bugfree but working very well for me.
You have to compile and install this driver as a module for your kernel you should read the README and INSTALL files which come with the tarball of the drivers. A sensitive point is the firmware. You need to have the proper firmware version to the right driver version and must put them on a location to be loaded when needed but this is described in the above mentioned help files.
First I used the touchpad with the so called synaptics drivers. These drivers give you some extra functionality you know from working with this pad on windows like scrolling.
I changed this and use the pad as a normal PS/2 mouse. You could see this also when you look at my xserver config. For this you have to enable the evdev interface in the kernel and in grub/lilo you have to add the following parameter: 'psmouse.proto=imps'
You could look at my grub.conf/menu.lst. The reason to use it as a PS/2 mouse is that the build in scrollwheel is working for me with this setting. Scrolling on the pad itself isn't possible any more but clicking with tipping on the pad is still available.
On this Laptop are four extra buttons or better Multimedia keys. Originally these keys should work as starting your Browser, starting Mail client, a User defined key and the Wlan on/off switch.
Of these four buttons the Wlan button is working out of the box. The Email butten gives me a keycode when I test it with xev and could be managed with Xmodmap or eventually with a Multimedia key daemon like lineak. To get the other two working you have to write two lines into your /etc/rc.local: 'setkeycodes 74 130' and 'setkeycodes 75 131'
With these two lines you set the two keys to give proper keycodes. When you reboot the system or simply execute these two commands you will get keycodes also with these two buttons and could be used.
The Function keys e.g. Fn+battery are also working. The battery, S/PDIF, Num, Roll and increasing/decreasing brightness of the flat panel are working. On the LCD/CRT Function Key I'm not sure if it is working out of the box. The others like Mute are not working obviosly so you have to use lineakd.
The Power button is the only button not working but I have no purpose for it so I don't miss it. Sometimes I use it to shutdown the machine as described above.
I use lineak for which you have to add my edited lineakkb.def. You have to put this file into your /etc directory. To use lineakd you must start it of course (I start it with kde automatically) and have a lineakd.conf file in your .lineak/ directory which fits your needs.
This Notebook is highly recommended when you are looking for a Linux Notebook. I think you will have to search hard for a Notebook supporting nearly everything.
Last Updated: Nov 26 2005