Linux on the Samsung Q20 TXC 1100 Laptop

Specs

CPU:                  Intel Pentium M 1.1 GHz
RAM:                  512 MB DDR
Mainboard:            Intel 855GM
HDD:                  Toshiba 60 GB MK6021GAS
DVD:                  Toshiba DVD-/CD-RW SD-R2312
Floppy:               unknown
Display:              12" XGA TFT
Graphics:             Intel 855GM
Modem:                Intel AC97 (82801DB)
Sound:                Intel AC97 (82801DB)
Ethernet:             Intel PRO/100 VE
WLAN:                 Intel PRO/Wireless LAN 2100
USB 2.0:              Intel 1x + 2 x Dock
IEEE 1394 (Firewire): Ricoh R5C552
Cardbus:              Ricoh RL5c476 II
Memorystick Reader:   Ricoh RL5c476 II (?)
Infrared:             unknown

The floppy and optical drive are only available via the docking station, which is included. Samsung also ships a second, bigger battery which enlarges the laptop in depth about 5 cm.

Installation

This system was installed with Debian GNU/Linux 3.0r1 plus some backports for XFree86, GNOME2 and kernel 2.4.22. The base installation itself was difficult, because the optical drive is only accessible via firewire and the network chip is not supported by the woody boot-floppies. The new (not yet released) installation system for sarge did not work at all. So the harddisk was removed from the machine, put into an external PCMCIA-enclosure and the base system + current kernel were debootstrapped on another laptop. Users of RedHat 9 would have more luck, since the shipped installation system supports both, firewire and the network.
The machine is very quiet, even when used heavily. It is also very light and small, the ideal portable if you do not need 3D graphics or an optical drive when you are on the road.

BIOS

You may reach the PhoenixBIOS with F2. When hitting ESC you can choose between Hard Drive, DVD-ROM Drive, and a "Removable Device" to boot. This means it should support booting from an USB-stick, which it tried, but failed with a stick which boots just fine on an ASUS M2400N. Presumably, it needs the stick to be rigged as a floppy, not as a harddisk.

IDE/Chipset

The chipset runs fine with kernel 2.4.22. If you are planning to use 3D acceleration, you have to use the agpgart module from that kernel (or later).

DVD-RW/CD-RW

Nothing unusual, ide-scsi (and thus the whole scsi-system) is your friend if you want to burn CDs.

APM

APM was not tried.

ACPI

It seems to work, in a way. It does not seem to make any problems anymore (no update of the DSDT is needed), but it lacks support for the additional modules: battery, ac, thermal. Perhaps these are available with a custom DSDT, but this was not tried. The processor frequency cannot be adjusted. Also the sleep state S1 is not supported.

CPUFREQ

The driver against 2.4.22-pre6, found to be at codemonkey.org.uk, does not work on this machine. Though it does work on a Toshiba Satellite 3000-601.
However, the most recent driver seems to be found at ftp.linux.org.uk which was not tried.

SoftwareSuspend

Well, swsusp 1.0.3 works together with ACPI, get it from here. You have to restart networking by hand after the resume, the script is not able to handle it properly.

Sound (ALSA)

Works like a charm with snd-intel8x0.

Console

The framebuffer support for intelfb works, though non-accelerated. It has the same problem as other laptops, that it turns blank after a couple of minutes and only comes back after switching forth and back to XFree86.

XFree86

XFree86 4.3.0 works fine with i810. If you install the current 3D driver from dri.sf.net, you even get hardware accelerated graphics. But beware, that i810_drv.so does not work with XFree86 4.3.0, it needs some newer (unreleased, CVS) version. Fortunately, you can just copy the old driver over the newly installed one, thus mixing the new drm driver for the kernel, the new dri driver for XFree86 and the old 2D driver for XFree86. But it works!

Display

The function button (Fn+F5) does not seem to be ACPI-controlled, it just works. It is even possible to plug the external display into the machine after it has been booted and you can still switch between LCD+CRT, CRT, LCD, off.

Touchpad

It is a Synaptics touchpad and the scroll buttons work as soon as you install the appropriate driver from tuxmobil.org.

PCMCIA

Business as usual, take yenta_socket as driver and off you go.

USB

USB is driven by usb-ohci (1.x) and ehci-hcd (2.x).

IEEE1394

Firewire seems to work ok with the usual modules: ieee1394, ohci1394, sbp2.

Network

The LAN driver to be used is eepro100 or e100 and should not be too old. The drivers shipped with kernel 2.4.22 are just fine. For now, the integrated WLAN does not work due to Intel's reluctance of releasing a driver or specs. There is a petition to sign at petitiononline.com.

IrDA

The serial driver works via ircomm and irattach, FastIrDA - FIR was not tried.

Modem

The modem seems to work with the latest (unsupported) driver from smlink.com.

Hotkeys

There is one hotkey with a "circled i" engraved on it. It generates scancodes (75), so it should be possible to be included in some sort of hotkeyd or the regular keymap itself, also the Linux Mobile Guide - Installing, Maintaining and Tuning of Linux on Mobile Computers.

Memorystick Reader

Due to the lack of a memory stick, the reader could not be tested, but it seems to be just another cardbus device and thus useable via PCMCIA.

Credits

• Sebastian Henschel