Arch Linux

FathisAeril

Member

Registered: 2010-07-02

Posts: 82

Samsung Series 7 laptop

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Samsung+-+15.6"+Series+7+Laptop+-+8GB+Memory+-+1TB+Hard+Drive+-+Silver/4708803.p;jsessionid=6E80F64685B1D94A11DACCA1703207BC.bbolsp-app03-11?id=1218512740623&skuId=4708803

Anyone in the Arch community have that (or a similar model) laptop? No Arch wiki article or Linux based reviews of it that I've seen. Was mainly curious about how well its supported, if it has a hardware mux for the hybrid graphics (Intel+AMD)or if you could only just turn off the AMD card, or if the bios had VGA settings. Any problems you had with support, things like that. In the market for a new laptop and I really like that one's style and weight, but I wanted to make sure I wasn't going to be out of luck on linux support

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It doesn't matter how much training you have. A broken rib is still a broken rib.

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 20,692

Re: Samsung Series 7 laptop

If possible, try booting an install disk. 
Extra bonus points if you can run lspci -nn and capture the output to the cloud or to a thumb drive.  If you can, post it here and someone will look at it.

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Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature -- Michael Faraday
The shortest way to ruin a country is to give power to demagogues.— Dionysius of Halicarnassus
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How to Ask Questions the Smart Way

pf37!

Member

Registered: 2012-05-06

Posts: 1

Re: Samsung Series 7 laptop

I am running arch on that exact model.  Everything works pretty well. I turned off the Radeon card as it didn't seem worth the battery life it was draining.
Touchpad support is better running Arch than it was on Debian Sid, but the Elantech driver doesn't like right-clicking, but two-finger tap and two-finger scroll work. Using the generic driver, it's just the opposite.
I don't remember seeing any VGA settings in the BIOS. I'll have to get back to you on that.
I am deciding whether to wipe the Windows partition completely. Windows has also hijacked the 8GB SSD drive, so I haven't touched that. I am wondering if I can configure that drive and put maybe /boot and /usr or even /swap on there.
Wireless works well out of the box--also better than on Sid.
I am averaging maybe 3 1/2 hours battery life.

For the bonus points:

00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family DRAM Controller [8086:0104] (rev 09)
00:01.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200/2nd Generation Core Processor Family PCI Express Root Port [8086:0101] (rev 09)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:0116] (rev 09)
00:16.0 Communication controller [0780]: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1 [8086:1c3a] (rev 04)
00:1a.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 [8086:1c2d] (rev 04)
00:1b.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller [8086:1c20] (rev 04)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 1 [8086:1c10] (rev b4)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 4 [8086:1c16] (rev b4)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 5 [8086:1c18] (rev b4)
00:1d.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #1 [8086:1c26] (rev 04)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation HM65 Express Chipset Family LPC Controller [8086:1c49] (rev 04)
00:1f.2 SATA controller [0106]: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family 6 port SATA AHCI Controller [8086:1c03] (rev 04)
00:1f.3 SMBus [0c05]: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller [8086:1c22] (rev 04)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI Seymour [Radeon HD 6400M Series] [1002:6760]
02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Intel Corporation Centrino Advanced-N 6230 [8086:0091] (rev 34)
03:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller [10ec:8168] (rev 06)
04:00.0 USB controller [0c03]: ASMedia Technology Inc. ASM1042 SuperSpeed USB Host Controller [1b21:1042]

hadrons123

Member

From: chennai

Registered: 2011-10-07

Posts: 1,249

Re: Samsung Series 7 laptop

@ OP . If you could wait for a while you could get the ivy-bridge series, which has better intel-graphics card. AMD graphics is  trouble most of the time during xorg, kernel updates, if its turned on in linux.