Kubuntu 11.04 on the Chembook 2370VA

kubuntu-copiaMy experience with Fedora 15 was not as I had hoped. The ATI graphics driver was particularly problematic (regular minute-long hangs due to spinlock issues) so I decided to try a completely different distribution. I decided to go with Kubuntu 11.04 and performance has been excellent.

Summary

Basic installation

Just like the previous Fedora 15 installation, I ran a final backup of my data to an external USB drive, and then performed a full installation from the Kubuntu 11.04 DVD. I didn’t bother encrypting the hard drive as my laptop rarely leaves home now.
Once the installation completed, the first thing I did was to restore my data to the laptop.

AWS RegionPublic HostnamePublic IPPrivate IP
USA (Oregon)ec2-52-36-0-40.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com52.36.0.40172.31.40.213
Europe (Dublin)None assigned52.51.50.174172.31.32.210
Australia (Sydney)ec2-52-64-65-8.ap-southeast-2.compute.amazonaws.com52.36.0.40172.31.6.75

Issues

Dual head set-up

I still had some issues getting my dual-head set up configured to my liking. As with FC15 I used a simply X11 script which runs automatically during boot.

cat /etc/X11/Xsession.d/45custom_xrandr
# Force the screen to a resolution my Compaq Q2159 supports -- but only if it
# is connected.
INTERNAL_OUTPUT="LVDS"
EXTERNAL_OUTPUT="VGA-0"
MODE="1920x1080"
RATE=60
/usr/bin/xrandr | grep "$EXTERNAL_OUTPUT connected"
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
/usr/bin/xrandr --output $INTERNAL_OUTPUT --same-as $EXTERNAL_OUTPUT
/usr/bin/xrandr --output $INTERNAL_OUTPUT --off
/usr/bin/xrandr --output $EXTERNAL_OUTPUT --mode $MODE --rate $RATE
fi


This script detects if my Compaq monitor is connected, and if it is, disables the screen of the laptop.

Configuration Files

I rebuilt the kernel — the configuration file is here.

System Information

[philip@localhost ~]$ uname -a
Linux localhost 2.6.38.8va2370final #2 SMP Sun Nov 27 17:11:17 PST 2011 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
[philip@localhost ~]$ df
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1 75889760 52566884 19467824 73% /
none 443212 684 442528 1% /dev
none 447444 168 447276 1% /dev/shm
none 447444 92 447352 1% /var/run
none 447444 0 447444 0% /var/lock
[philip@localhost ~]$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/PM/GMS/910GML Express Processor to DRAM Controller (rev 04)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/PM Express PCI Express Root Port (rev 04)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 04)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #1 (rev 04)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #2 (rev 04)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #3 (rev 04)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #4 (rev 04)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 04)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev d4)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FBM (ICH6M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 04)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) IDE Controller (rev 04)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 04)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc M26 [Radeon Mobility X700]
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8001 Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 13)
02:01.0 CardBus bridge: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c476 II (rev b3)
02:01.1 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C552 IEEE 1394 Controller (rev 08)
02:01.2 SD Host controller: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 17)
02:01.3 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev 08)
02:01.4 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd xD-Picture Card Controller (rev 03)
02:02.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2915ABG [Calexico2] Network Connection (rev 05)
[philip@localhost ~]$ cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor : 0
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 13
model name : Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1.73GHz
stepping : 8
cpu MHz : 798.000
cache size : 2048 KB
fdiv_bug : no
hlt_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 2
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic mtrr pge mca cmov clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss tm pbe up bts est tm2
bogomips : 1596.14
clflush size : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes : 32 bits physical, 32 bits virtual
power management:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *