Howto: Install Jaunty on Gateway LT3103

[Hal58]

Only two of the current "netbooks" (and I include the 11.6" models) have the processing capability to do what I need; Audio editing with Audacity and viewing 720p HDTV mpeg2 streams. The first is the Samsung NC20 with the Nano CPU, and the Gateway LT31 family with an Athlon64. These are my notes from an LT3103 installation.

First, I replaced the hard drive with a G.Skill 128 GB Solid-State Disk, connected a USB slimline CD drive, and booted the system. At the first prompt, select the RAM test and take a break (it takes a while). After the test completes AT LEAST ONCE with no errors, you are ready to begin. If any errors are displayed, change the RAM.

When booting after the RAM test, Press F6 at the start, dismiss the presented options and add

clock=hpet

There is nothing magical here, but I have found it more reliable on other Athlon installations, and it works here. Let the disk continue to the live desktop then opening a terminal with

Applications->Accessories->Terminal

I prefer to do manual partitioning with fdisk due to the finer level of control than the automatic tools. In the terminal, enter

sudo fdisk /dev/sda

Delete the existing partition, and enter your own configuration. My table for the SSD is:

Disk /dev/sda: 128.2 GB, 128228261888 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 15589 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xa231d92b

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 15 120487 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 16 273 2072385 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda3 274 1299 8241345 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 1300 15589 114784425 83 Linux

The swap size should be at least as large as the memory installed so that all data can be preserved for "hibernate" or "deep sleep". At the end, press "w" (write) and "q" (quit) to exit fdisk.

Note that partitioning boundaries (ending cylinder) are adjusted in each case so that there was no "+" after the "Blocks" entry. I have found this to be a much more reliable configuration with Solid-State Disks, while it doesn't seem to be much of a problem with regular hard drives.

Now double-click on the Install icon on the desktop to begin putting Ubuntu on the disk. When you come to the partitioning section, select "manual" at the bottom of the screen, and tailor each of the partitions you made previously. In my case, it is:

partition use as boot flags mount point
sda1 ext2 * noatime /boot
sda2 swap
sda3 JFS noatime /
sda4 JFS noatime /home/hal

The seemingly unusual mount point for sda4 is so that I can preserve my home directory across different installations, versions and tests without problems, and add other users in a like manner while keeping the /home directory within the main root partition.

Finish the installation normally. When instructed, remove the disk from the CDROM drive (or unplug the USB drive) and reboot.

I prefer a few custom settings of the gnome desktop, and set them up early
in the process. Skip these if you don't desire them.

System->Preferences->Appearance->Visual Effects --> None
<lighten the load on the netbook processor>
System->Preferences->Keyboard Preferences->Layouts->Layout Options->
Ctrl key position --> Make CapsLock an additional Ctrl
<My left hand is permanently wired for the 'Wordstar Diamond>
System->Preferences->Startup Applications
/usr/bin/gkrellm
/usr/bin/gnome-terminal --hide-menubar --geometry=100x24+600+25
<I absolutely live by Gkrellm data and a terminal>
System->Windows --> Check "Select windows when the mouse moves over them"
<Save work with no excessive clicking>

One of the first (if not THE first) thing to do after an installation is to update all packages. From a terminal execute:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

== reboot now at prompt.

I have become accustomed to several little utilities, and many of my
favorite tools are not installed by default. So I load them next with many of them pulling in even more. The basic tools are:

joe - Used in the 'jstar' mode gives a usable WordStar editor
lm-sensors - Give access to hardware sensors for temp, fan and more
gkrellm - A useful system monitor which has saved many systems with
indications of failing parts (heat, fan bearings)
jfsutils - Needed since I format Root and Home directories in JFS
audacious - My favorite music player since it does CD-Text, flac & ogg
sshfs - My favorite method of remotely mounting over a network
sensors-applet - Another temperature monitor on the top menu bar
normalize-audio - Great tool to measure/set average and peak levels when
processing my music files.

Bring them and all dependencies in with the command line:

sudo apt-get install joe lm-sensors gkrellm jfsutils audacious sshfs sensors-applet normalize-audio

Hardware Sensors

Execute "sudo sensors-detect" in a terminal and answer "yes" to saving the modules in /etc/rc.local at end. Then manually enter

sudo modprobe k8temp

to avoid reboot and make the sensors immediately usable. You can test them in a terminal by simply typing "sensors".

Start the "gkrellm" system monitor in the background with

gkrellm&

and configure gkrellm as desired by right-clicking on it and navigating through the preferences list. I add 'temp3' and 'THRM' temperature sensors to the continuous display.

If desired, add the temperature applet (Hardware Sensors) to the top menu bar, then configure which sensors you want displayed by right cliking on the icon and selecting 'Preferences' and then the 'Sensors' tab.

Wifi

By default, nothing seems to be loaded. To correct this, we obtain some additional modules (backports) by using another command line

sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-jaunty

On the next reboot, the 'ath9k' module will be loaded and wifi will be up and running. In my case, I use WPA with a big Hex key and entering it at the Network Manager prompt brings the network up.

Function Keys:

The special Function Keys (Holding "Fn" down while pressing another key) seem to partially work. Here is my list of a preliminary test:

Fn-Up/Down Screen brightness Up/Down
Fn-Right/Left Volume Up/Down
<Fn-F1> ??
<Fn-F2> ??
<Fn-F3> <Toggle Bluetooth - N/A>
Fn-F4 Suspend (any key awakes w/password, USB active)
<Fn-F5> <Toggle External Monitor??>
Fn-F6 Blank Screen (any key restores backlight)
Fn-F7 Disable/Enable Touch Pad (may need twice)
Fn-F8 Toggle Mute
<F9 & F10 Unused>
Fn-F11 Toggle Scroll Lock
Fn-F12 Toggle Num Lock

I used a Samsung 1680x1050 LCD as an external display, and when connected after the Gateway was on, I was unable to get it to display. When booting with the external display connected, both it and the internal display were active at an intermediate resolution. The internal display could be blanked with "Fn-F6" but the expected "Fn-F5" had no effect whatsoever.

REMAINING PROBLEMS:

1. The CPU will not respond to frequencing scaling. During bootup, you briefly see the message announcing failure of 'powernowd-k8', so the CPU will remain at 1.2 GHz.

2. Some Function+Fn Keys do not respond in expected manner and the printed documentation with the unit is of no help.

[jcsteele]

Besides CPU scaling, the wireless connection WILL drop after a period of time...I have yet to see it remained connected overnight on my home network, and when I connect it to my schools network, it drops after about 30 minutes.

[Footer]

Hello,

I'm about 2 days away from purchasing one of these netbooks. Best Buy has them for $379.99 right now + tax:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....ustomerreviews

I've read here on the Ubuntu forums and in at least one user review about the wi-fi problem. I'm curious if this is still an issue of if the backports module does indeed fix it.

Also, I'm contemplating 9.04 Kubuntu since I'm a KDE fan. Anyone else try that on the Gateway LT3103? How's performance?

Thanks!

[Prikolchik]

I haven't seen anyone mentioning that it is possible to boot from the built-in card reader. I've used external CD-rom to install Jaunty 9.04 on SDHC card, enabled F12 boot menu in BIOS, pressed F12 and selected to boot from card reader. Viola! (my BIOS: v1.1303 model: LT3110h).

[diffy]

For me, I recently install Jaunty on my gateway lt 3103 and i have some issues :
- the front mic doesn't work
- the cpu frequency is locked at 1.2 ghz
- the wifi disconnects sometime, but very randomly

I seen on some forums that the alsa driver which is with jaunty has a bug, i tried an update but then i had no sound at all

i have no more informations about that bugs.

David

[gtwy]

Battery life painfully short in Ubuntu
=======================================

I have successfully undervolted and underclocked using Rightmark RMClock (windows utility) with P states ranging from [800 MHz @0.67 V] to [1200 MHz @0.7 V] and have noted a very impressive extension in battery life

Finally somone was able to underclock the AMD processor under LINUX to 800 Mhz =D>(although not sure @0.67 V):
http://forum.notebookreview.com/show...393200&page=22

Has anyone successfully underclocked to 800MHz @0.67V under Ubuntu Jaunty? Please confirm the steps if yes.

P.S: Is it possible to re-write and test the AMD processor to go to even lower (unsupported) P states? possibly with a multiplier like 3x @600 Mhz or even lower for super awesome battery life?

[Prikolchik]

I've written a How-to: Getting power management to work on Gateway LT31.

[omniuni]

Hey all,

Powertop gives me the following suggestions, which increase battery life by about an hour.

Suggestion: Enable USB autosuspend by pressing the U key or adding
usbcore.autosuspend=1 to the kernel command line in the grub config

Suggestion: increase the VM dirty writeback time from 5.00 to 15 seconds with:
echo 1500 > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_writeback_centisecs
This wakes the disk up less frequently for background VM activity

Suggestion: Enable SATA ALPM link power management via:
echo min_power > /sys/class/scsi_host/host0/link_power_management_policy

I have also heard that using EXT4 can help.

Any idea where to put those commands so that they execute along with the computer?

As I get more information, I'll update it here.

[gtwy]

To save the battery life even more, is it possible/ worthwhile to run the entire OS off a 8 GB SDHC card (Class 10 with 30 MB/s write speed) I wonder how fast the card reader on this is though.

Seagate Momentus 250 GB Power Consumption
• 2.0 W (Read)
• 1.6 W (Write)
• 2.0 W (Seek)
• 0.6 W (Idle)
• 0.2 W (Standby)

courtesy: http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=632

[larry.]

Thanks so much Hal, great post. Getting wifi working was becoming an annoying hurdle for first time linux user, but getting back modules fixed right away on restart. Vista is slow as dirt on this gateway, so this was a lifesaver.