In 2010 i bought a Asus UL50VT for studying. When i installed linux (Ubuntu 10.10, i think) i noticed that many features of this laptop didn't work under Ubuntu. Some of them i could fix. For example disabling the nvidia graphics card. But i wasn't happy, because there were so much other things left. I used Ubuntu with the Gnome 2 GUI because i liked its simplicity.
When Ubuntu 11.10 came out, they made the Unity GUI the standard Ubuntu GUI and upgraded Gnome to version 3. I didn't like neither of them. So i decided to search for another distribution that comes with a other GUI and gives me more posibilities to fix the hardware problem i had.
I was always a fan of the LVM and DM-Crypt options in the Ubuntu alternate installer, and encryption on a laptop always sounded like a great idea. So i was looking for a distribution that offered me the comfort of a simple GUI, a good way of adding functionalities by myself and supported LVM and dm_crypt.
My first try was with Linux Mint. Version 12 came out in November 2011. But it lacks of a encryption option in the setup. So i tried some ugly hack with installing Debian with LVM and dm_crypt and upgrading it to LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition) because i read they are compatible. It didn't work properly, some pakets failed to install and i was very unhappy with the solution.
Next thing i tried was Xubuntu 11.10. It kind of worked for me for some time, but i didn't like the options to configure the system like i want it. I didn't figure out how to alter some of the kernel options and some other stuff. The plymouth bootscreen was nice, though.
I tried Gentoo, but i wasn't happy with compiling everything, but the way of working with config files and editing scripts directly was cool. The compiling of Gnome resulted in overheating of my CPU, and i gave up.
Now i'm writing this Page on Arch Linux with xfce4 installed, using gedit and i'm kinda happy. I want to write down how i got everything to work to help everyone who has the same laptop and to save every script and config i used.
At first, some specs of the hardware:
| Model | Asus UL50VT-XO037V |
| CPU | Intel Core 2 Duo 1300mHz |
| GPU | Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series,nVidia-Geforce G210M |
| Wireless | Atheros AR9285 WLAN,ASUSTek Computer, Inc. BT-253 Bluetooth Adapter |
| Wired | Atheros Communications AR8131 Gigabit Ethernet |
| Other | Asus Integrated Webcam |
What i got to work, and how.
| Part | Goal | How? | Resources |
|---|---|---|---|
| CPU | Powersave Mode all the time to get longer battery time | cpufrequtils, Set CPU to run in powersave mode, and force 800mHz as max frequency. | |
| GPU | Disable nvidia-GPU to save power | Installed acpi_call module, load it at boot, made init script to send VGA-OFF command. | acpi_call files |
| GPU | Enable intel-GPU default, enable VGA-out | Load i915 module, kernel parameter | Grub menu.lst |
| Boot | Have a nice looking boot process | Used fbsplash, made own theme, slim as display manager with arch theme. | Theme: arch-window-tux |
| LCD | Control brightness, possibly with the hotkeys | Made brightness script, acpid for hotkeys. | acpid: Script, Events |
To be continued... (Still working on some fixes).
Page created December 2011 by bitstacker.
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