Samsung RV520 Official Topic

eKoeS · 2011-09-27 19:56:54

Hi guys,

I've recently bought a Samsung RV520 and successfully installed ArchLinux on it. After a few days of struggles and battles with both the backlight and the wireless card, I finally got them working flawlessly and would be happy to explain how. Actually, I'd like to use this thread as a place to gather more general info about ArchLinux and Samsung RV520. I know that this is not the most appropriate place for sharing the knowledge, but I'm also sure that it is too early for a wiki page. Thus, if you've got any useful tips, please post on this thread!

#1 Backlight

If you're not new to installing Linux on a laptop, you probably know that backlight is an unpleasant beast. Most of the people out there can't seem to get it working, but if you're a lucky owner of a Samsung RV520 then you'll be pleased to know that there is actually a way to adjust the backlight. Let me explain how:

First of all, add the following option to the kernel lines of your GRUB file:

acpi_backlight=vendor

Then, make sure to install `samsung-tools` from AUR and add the following module to /etc/rc.conf:

MODULES=(... samsung-backlight ...)

Finally, in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d find or create a file called 20-nvidia.conf and make sure it contains the following:

Section "Device"
	Identifier		"An identifier for your nVidia card"
	Driver			"nvidia"
	Option			"RegistryDwords" "EnableBrightnessControl=1"
EndSection

Reboot et... voilà! Welcome back, backlight. We missed you.

#2 Wireless

One thing you need to know if you are a Samsung RV520 user is that the built-in kernel module for the Broadcom BCM4313, brcmsmac is broken and might cause intense freezes to your system (you have no chances except to manually shut Arch down by pressing the power button). Luckily, there's another driver called broadcom-wl that seems to solve the issue.

In order to replace the built-in driver, add the following line to /etc/modprobe.d/modprobe.conf:

blacklist brcmsmac
blacklist bcma

This will prevent the built-in driver from loading at system startup.

Finally, insert wl in the MODULES array of /etc/rc.conflike this:

MODULES=(... wl samsung-backlight ...)

Done! Enjoy your working wireless connection.

#3 Touchpad

On a fresh install you'll notice that the touchpad doesn't seem to react to any gestures (two fingers scroll, tap and so on...). Moreover, it is not recognised as a touchpad by default but, instead, as a Logitech PS/2 mouse. To fix that, just install the following packages:

psmouse-elantech xf86-input-synaptics

-----

Let me know if you encounter any issues and thanks in advance for your feedback.

Last edited by eKoeS (2011-09-27 19:58:26)

Serg2809 · 2012-01-20 20:52:36

Thanks, it helped me to solve part of my problems. I wonder whether you use grub or grub 2 bootloader and what config file did you mean under

First of all, add the following option to the kernel lines of your GRUB file

(I couldn't fix the backlight with legacy when adding "acpi_backlight=vendor" to kernel parameter in /boot/grub/menu.lst and then doing everything as follows.)

Last edited by Serg2809 (2012-01-20 20:53:14)

eKoeS · 2012-01-22 12:49:09

Hi Serg,

I wonder whether you use grub or grub 2 bootloader and what config file did you mean under

It's GRUB 0.97 and config file is `/boot/grub/menu.lst` as you correctly guessed. However, since I updated the kernel I can't seem to get backlight working anymore as well. As far as I know there's a new samsung module coming that should ensure backlight compatibility, but I'll have to further investigate.

Arch Linux

#1 2011-09-27 19:56:54