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I'm currently looking for a notebook, and the contenders so far are the Samsung NC10, Asus Eee PC 1000HE and perhaps the msi Wind U100.
[rant] Looks like for the first time since 2000, I'll have no choice but to pay the WinTax. I'm sad that I could not complete the decade without paying it again, specially to buy in a segment which started with a strong Linux presence [/rant]
My question to the users of these notebooks is the following: since I plan to only use Linux on the notebook, I would like to know what kind of degradation in performance can I expect. For instance, the 1000HE strong suit is an extra long battery life, but I have read in forums that using Linux will shave 2 hours of battery life. If so, the long battery argument does not fly for me anymore, as I WILL be using Linux on my notebook.
Just to be clear about this, I'm aware that there is plenty of info on how to run Linux on these machines (1,2). But what I want is to know what kind of performance are you achieving right now with your model, and how did you managed it (distributions, patches, etc). Also, I would like to know what kind of functions could not be made to work so far, or have a degraded performance. Specially important to me are battery life, the ability to do voip, and the possibility to do presentations through the VGA port. But of course any problems and sources of irritation are of interest to me (suspend mode, hibernation, etc).
Hopefully, this thread will also be useful to others to exchange information on how to improve their notebook performance.
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My experiences with the 1000HE:
- Arch runs fine with a regular install from USB
- All (well almost all) netbooks use the intel chipset. It works fine with the intel driver, which was buggy in the beginning but I haven't experienced any problems in the last weeks
- Battery time is around 6 hours. Even windows doesn't make it 9.5 hours. I posted a survey on an eee forum and these are the results: 35 ppl have 4-6 battery life, 24 ppl have 6-8 hours. And since most ppl run Windows, my 6 hours seem to be a good average. I can manage many more hours if I reduce screen brightness but I like the bright screen, the screen is really exceptional good on the 1000HE btw.
- I run Icewm. Gnome also runs really fast (surprised me) and KDE runs ok, but a bit slow (recent drivers increased performance)
- Sound works out of the box with the standard HDA chipset. Webcam is ok, nothing special, works with the uvcvideo driver
- Xorg setup is real easy with HAL, no config needed anymore.
- All the special keys generate acpid events and you can use the eee scripts from AUR. I created my own scripts because I found the generic scripts pretty slow.
And cool things with Linux:
- 720p HD video and youtube HD video plays smooth with recent drivers. Windows couldn't really do this.
What's not so good.
- KDE is a bit slow, although performance increased over the last few updates
- 1080p HD is not OK on any netbook
- Touchpad is very sensitive and therefore becomes a bit glitchy. Maybe you can configure your way out of this with synclient.
I Haven't tested VGA out, but the wiki reports it's working fine.
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Thanks for the detailed feedback, it sounds encouraging!
All the special keys generate acpid events and you can use the eee scripts from AUR. I created my own scripts because I found the generic scripts pretty slow.
That's interesting, did you publish them somewhere,?
Also, I guess there were no specific issues with the webcam and mic, or you didn't use them at all?
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ACPI scripts for 1000HE, change XUSER to your username. I didn't include the images. Also, this is mainly for inspiration to write your own script!
#!/bin/sh
# Default acpi script that takes an entry for all actions
# NOTE: This is a 2.6-centric script. If you use 2.4.x, you'll have to
# modify it to not use /sys
# Wilco: sometimes passing evenst to an X session fail when calling external scripts so most code should be in here
# Custom options
XUSER=wilco
NOTIFY="notify-send -t 1250"
set $*
export XAUTHORITY=/home/$XUSER/.Xauthority
export DISPLAY=:0.0
case "$1" in
button/power)
case "$2" in
PWRF) /sbin/shutdown -t3 -h now ;;
*) logger "ACPI action undefined: $2" ;;
esac
;;
button/sleep)
case "$2" in
SLPB) echo -n mem >/sys/power/state ;;
*) logger "ACPI action undefined: $2" ;;
esac
;;
ac_adapter)
case "$2" in
AC0)
case "$4" in
00000000)
/mnt/data/eee/acAdapter
;;
00000001)
/mnt/data/eee/acAdapter
;;
esac
;;
*) logger "ACPI action undefined: $2" ;;
esac
;;
battery)
case "$2" in
BAT0)
case "$4" in
00000000) #echo "offline" >/dev/tty5
;;
00000001) #echo "online" >/dev/tty5
;;
esac
;;
CPU0)
;;
*) logger "ACPI action undefined: $2" ;;
esac
;;
button/lid)
#echo "LID switched!">/dev/tty5
;;
hotkey)
case "$3" in
00000037) # Touchpad on/off
if [ `synclient -l | grep TouchpadOff | awk '{print ""$3""}'` = "0" ];
then
$NOTIFY -i /mnt/data/eee/icons/keyboard.png "Touchpad disabled"
synclient TouchpadOff=1
else
$NOTIFY -i /mnt/data/eee/icons/keyboard.png -u critical "Touchpad enabled"
synclient TouchpadOff=0
fi
;;
00000010) # Wi-Fi button
WIFINAME="`find /sys/devices/ -name rfkill0`/state"
WIFISTAT="`cat $WIFINAME`"
if [ $WIFISTAT = "1" ];
then # Wi-Fi is up
$NOTIFY -i /mnt/data/eee/icons/wifi.png "Wi-Fi turned off"
ifconfig wlan0 down
/etc/rc.d/wicd stop
killall wpa_supplicant
# killall wicd-client # Uncomment to kill wcid-client when disabling Wi-Fi
rmmod ath9k
echo 0 > `find /sys/devices/ -name rfkill0`/state
else # Wi-Fi is down
$NOTIFY -i /mnt/data/eee/icons/wifi.png -u critical "Starting Wi-Fi"
echo 1 > `find /sys/devices/ -name rfkill0`/state
modprobe ath9k
/etc/rc.d/wicd start
# if ! [ "$(pidof icewmtray)" ]; # Icewm tray not running
# then su $XUSER --login -c icewmtray &
# fi
# (sleep 3s; su $XUSER --login -c wicd-client &) &
fi
;;
0000002*) # Brightness up/down
let BRIGHTNESS=`cat /sys/devices/virtual/backlight/eeepc/brightness`*100/15
$NOTIFY -i /mnt/data/eee/icons/brightness.png "Brightness: $BRIGHTNESS %"
;;
00000013) # Toggle speakers
if [ `amixer get iSpeaker | grep "Front Right: Playback" | awk '{print ""$4""}'` = "[on]" ];
then # Speaker is currently on
$NOTIFY -i /mnt/data/eee/icons/mute.png "Muting all sounds"
else # Speaker is off
$NOTIFY -i /mnt/data/eee/icons/unmute.png "Unmuting all sounds"
fi
amixer set iSpeaker toggle
;;
00000014) # Volume down
CUR=`amixer get LineOut | grep "Left: Playback" | awk '{print ""$5""}' | sed -e 's/\[//' -e 's/\]//' -e 's/\%//'`
if [ $CUR -gt 0 ]; # Only lower the volume if it's above 0
then
amixer set LineOut 5%-
$NOTIFY -i /mnt/data/eee/icons/volume_lower.png "Volume" `amixer get LineOut | grep "Front Right: Playback" | awk '{print ""$5""}' | sed -e 's/\[//' -e 's/\]//'`
fi
;;
00000015) # Volume up
CUR=`amixer get LineOut | grep "Left: Playback" | awk '{print ""$5""}' | sed -e 's/\[//' -e 's/\]//' -e 's/\%//'`
if [ $CUR -lt 100 ]; # Only increase the volume if it's below max
then
amixer set LineOut 5%+
$NOTIFY -i /mnt/data/eee/icons/volume_higher.png "Volume" `amixer get LineOut | grep "Front Right: Playback" | awk '{print ""$5""}' | sed -e 's/\[//' -e 's/\]//'`
fi
;;
00000016) # Backlight key, does not work on older systems!
xset dpms force off
;;
00000012) # Taskmanager key
su $XUSER --login -c "urxvt -e top" &
;;
0000001a) # First silver button, show status of devices
WINAME=`find /sys/devices/ -name rfkill0`/state
WISTAT=`cat $WINAME`
if [ $WISTAT = "1" ];
then $NOTIFY -i /mnt/data/eee/icons/wifi.png -u critical "Wi-Fi: ON"
else $NOTIFY -i /mnt/data/eee/icons/wifi.png "Wi-Fi: Off"
fi
BTNAME=`find /sys/devices/ -name rfkill1`/state
BTSTAT=`cat $BTNAME`
if [ $BTSTAT = "1" ];
then $NOTIFY -i /mnt/data/eee/icons/wifi.png -u critical "Bluetooth: ON"
else $NOTIFY -i /mnt/data/eee/icons/wifi.png "Bluetooth: Off"
fi
if [ `cat /sys/devices/platform/eeepc/camera` = "1" ];
then $NOTIFY -i /mnt/data/eee/icons/webcam.png -u critical "Webcam: ON"
else $NOTIFY -i /mnt/data/eee/icons/webcam.png "Webcam: Off"
fi
;;
0000001b) # Second silver button, toggle bluetooth
BTNAME=`find /sys/devices/ -name rfkill1`/state
BTSTAT=`cat $BTNAME`
if [ $BTSTAT = "1" ];
then # Bluetooth already on
$NOTIFY -i /mnt/data/eee/icons/bluetooth.png "Bluetooth turned off"
/etc/rc.d/bluetooth stop
sleep 1s
rmmod btusb
echo 0 > $BTNAME
kill `ps aux | grep blueman-applet | awk '{print ""$2""}'`
else # Bluetooth off
$NOTIFY -i /mnt/data/eee/icons/bluetooth.png -u critical "Starting bluetooth"
echo 1 > $BTNAME
/etc/rc.d/bluetooth start
fi
;;
0000001c) # Third silver button, toggle camera
if [ `cat /sys/devices/platform/eeepc/camera` = "1" ];
then # Webcam already on
echo 0 > /sys/devices/platform/eeepc/camera
$NOTIFY -i /mnt/data/eee/icons/webcam.png "Webcam turned off"
else # Webcam off
echo 1 > /sys/devices/platform/eeepc/camera
$NOTIFY -i /mnt/data/eee/icons/webcam.png -u critical "Starting webcam"
fi
;;
0000001d) # Fourth silver button
/mnt/data/eee/acAdapter
;;
00000039) # Speed (space) key
if [ `cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor` = "ondemand" ];
then
cpufreq-set -g performance
$NOTIFY -i /mnt/data/eee/icons/stock_dialog-info.png -u critical "Setting maximum speed mode"
else
cpufreq-set -g ondemand
$NOTIFY -i /mnt/data/eee/icons/stock_dialog-info.png "Setting ondemand performance mode"
fi
;;
esac
;;
esacAC Adapter script (also called from rc.local):
#!/bin/sh
if [ `cat /sys/class/power_supply/AC0/online` -eq "0" ];
then
cpufreq-set -g ondemand &&
echo 20 > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/ondemand/up_threshold &&
echo 9 > /sys/devices/virtual/backlight/eeepc/brightness &&
echo 5 > /proc/sys/vm/laptop_mode;
else
cpufreq-set -g performance &&
echo 15 > /sys/devices/virtual/backlight/eeepc/brightness &&
echo 0 > /proc/sys/vm/laptop_mode;
fi
echo 1500 > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_writeback_centisecs;Last edited by Wilco (2009-05-16 08:52:57)
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Webcam works fine:
# echo 1 > /sys/devices/platform/eeepc/camera
$ mplayer tv://
To record audio and video (both the alsa and forceaudio switch are required):
$ mencoder tv:// -ovc lavc -oac mp3lame -tv alsa:forceaudio -o webcam.avi
For the mic to work you need unmute the capture channel. (Un)muting the sound is a bit strange and happens through the iSpeaker channel instead of PCM.
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Thanks a lot for the info and the scripts, they will be a good reference when I get to setup mine!
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