Gigabyte T1028M collective thread

[beke]

There are currently three different threads about the Gigabyte T1028M in the forum. I thought it might be useful to have a unifying thread.

Please help with any and all comments!!!
and
WARNING: I am not an expert -- you follow any advice at your own risk!!! -- make backups!!!

Nuff said.

Tested Ubuntu Version:
Ubuntu Netbook Remix 9.10

Problems:

• Problem: Touchpad not working.
  Solution:
  9.04 / grub: modify /boot/grub/menu.lst by adding 'i8042.noloop=1' at the end of the line(s) starting with "linux" (containing the uuid of the root partition)
  9.10 / grub2: modify /etc/defaults/grub and modify the "splash quiet" line by including 'i8042.noloop=1'. Afterwards run update-grub2.
  You can test this by adding 'i8042.noloop=1' in the grub menu at boot.
  (Thanks to http://0x42.org/blog/archives/62-Ubu...uchscreen.html and http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1230484 )
  
• Problem: Touchscreen not working.
  Solution: Install xserver-xorg-input-evtouch.
  Some people (see comments) experience problems and/or severe stability issues especially with 9.04.
  Workarounds include:
  (Doktor.Wahnsinn) If your touchscreen still does not work, try activating the 'activate second mouse button on holding first' feature.
  (beke) If an application (like Xournal) uses Xinput, deactivate the use of Xinput.
  (ratiafak) Install the drivers from eGalax.
  
• Problem: Touchscreen calibration unstable.
  Solution: Following https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...35/comments/14 I use an fdi instead -- save it as a text file in /etc/hal/fdi/policy/SOMENAME.fdi
  
  

  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" ?>
  <deviceinfo version="0.2">
  <device>
    <match key="info.product" contains="eGalax Inc. USB TouchController">
   <merge key="input.x11_driver" type="string">evtouch</merge>
   <merge key="input.x11_options.ReportingMode" type="string">Raw</merge>
   <merge key="input.x11_options.Emulate3Buttons" type="string">false</merge>
   <merge key="input.x11_options.Emulate3Timeout" type="string">1</merge>
   <merge key="input.x11_options.SendCoreEvents" type="string">On</merge>
   <merge key="input.x11_options.MinX" type="string">0</merge>
   <merge key="input.x11_options.MinY" type="string">2</merge>
   <merge key="input.x11_options.MaxX" type="string">4096</merge>
   <merge key="input.x11_options.MaxY" type="string">4096</merge>
    </match>
  </device>
  </deviceinfo>

• Problem: Webcam not working.
  Solution: Webcam works after reactivating the webcam using SmartManager in winXP.
  
• Problem: Connecting the power plug triggers suspend mode.
  Solution: None. Could be a regular bug, but I haven't found anything similar. Does anybody else experience this?
  
• Problem: Calibration is suddenly bad in the center (happens at random). Sometimes triggered by rotation (but not always), sometimes by simply using the touchpad (or so it seems...)
  Solution: None. Workaround: log off, restart X, reboot. Does anybody else experience this?
  
  
• Problem: Wireless -- nm-applet crashes while connecting.
  Solution: Updating ubuntu using ethernet solved it for me.

Installation/Karmic/software related

• Netbook Launcher: The touchscreen click is unable to start programs that are not in the "favorite" section. The problem seems to be that instead of a click a drag is registered. Dragging everything important to favourites is a workaround. Any hint would be great.
  
• Rotating: Works fine, but Netbook Launcher has problems in portrait orientation: In the section "system" the two subsections "preferences" and "administration" overlap.
  
• SmartManager: A replacement for Gigabyte's "Smart Manager" for winXP would be nice. WattOSpm could be a replacement, but I couldn't try it so far.
  
• Installation ran smoothly (except that (W)LAN connection did not work)
  
• Post-Installation: the first boot ended at root console claiming that the last time of mounting was in the future. One run of fschk per partition solved the problem; could be realted to encryption.

Well, that's all for now. I hope this helps anyone thinking about installing ubuntu! So much works out of the box

[Fecos]

Hi beke!

Did you find something instead of "Smart Manager"?

[beke]

Hi Fecos, I haven't found anything -- so far I concentrated on checking progress of Karmic on it, which is coming along fine, but I'll update the post when I have some more time.
Maybe we should open a new thread for this? It would be nice to have a GUI in general, and especially nice to be able to switch off the camera, which I don't seem to be able to under Ubuntu at all.

[Doktor.Wahnsinn]

Hello,

how do you deactivated the XInput support ?

greetings,

Doktor.Wahnsinn

[beke]

Hi Doc,
in my case, the only problematic application was Xournal -- which is where I deactivated Options->'Use Xinput' after which I haven't had a single crash.

I don't know if there is a general way. So checking each 'destabilizing' application for Xinput might be the way to go.

I might add however that I also installed the xorg-wacom-package at some point (which offers Xinput capabilities for wacom tablets), so uninstalling it might help, but that's for you to test...

[Doktor.Wahnsinn]

Hi beke,

i havent installed any kind of xournal or anything like this.

But some curious effect, thats let my touchscreen permanet ´life´ is activating the mouse-feature ´activate second button on holding first´ .

After reboot this special feature doesn´t work anymore, but since this, my touchscreen not freezed anymore..

curios...so next step for me, is to activate the second button..

greetings

Doktor.Wahnsinn

[beke]

Doc,
that's weird. I use the "activate second button on holding first", too, but I never had that kind of issue. Are you using Karmic, too? Otherwise upgrading might be an option.
B.

[ratiafak]

Hi, I have T1028X and 9.04.
I have tried xserver-xorg-input-evtouch but if freezed even on desktop (with no application running). I have uninstalled it and tried eGalax driver from www.eeti.com.tw. Beta installed without any problem. It has settings utility, which is the same as in W.XP, so calibration was easy. I just switched off right-click emulation and use the Mouse->Accessibility->Simulated Secondary Click.
I can also recommend gnome-randr-applet for rotating and onboard as working keyboard.

[Petr Mach]

• Warning!!! for 9.10/grub2 this is a bad hack: running grub-update/grub2-update (i.e. each kernel update) will generate grub.cfg without this addition. For this reason grub.cfg is read only and you shouldn't alter it. I don't know how to convince grub2 to add this in a safe way. You can however test this hack by adding 'i8042.noloop=1' in the grub menu at boot.

Safe way is edit /etc/defaults/grub and modify "splash quiet" line by including 'i8042.noloop=1'. After it run update-grub2.

[beke]

@ratiafak: Have you tried upgrading to 9.10?

@Petr: thanks! I will finally have time to update the post this weekend, so this really comes in handy!