That was a pretty good weekend. I set up someone’s new Samsung N150 netbook with Ubuntu Netbook Remix.
If you like Windows, you might want to skip this long paragraph: the N150 came with Microsoft Windows 7 Starter. When I realised what that was, I thought it was some sort of joke. It’s more like an advert for Windows than a proper operating system. They even removed the option to replace the branded backdrop image, which gives you an idea of the pettiness of that distribution. I read that Win7 Starter used to have a 3 simultaneous application limit but an update removed it because of the sheer volume of complaints and rumblings about court cases to get money back. Microsoft justify all the limits with the argument that it’s optimised for low-power netbooks, but the N150 goes like stink compared to my own (7-year-old) work laptop and how much power is saved by loading the Windows logo backdrop instead of a nice picture anyway?
What did that make me want to do? Well this:
But I’d read that Samsung view nuking Win7 Starter from orbit as voiding the warranty and I couldn’t see anything to confirm or reject that in the paperwork, so I made it dual-boot with Ubuntu netbook remix. If it ever has to go back to the shop, I’ll hide the boot menu. I had enough trouble installing it that I did contemplate get.debian.net with some of the Debian Eee PC things, but I wasn’t sure what I needed and I didn’t have that much time.
There were two big gotchas when installing:
- When you switch between Ubuntu and Windows, it won’t boot the first time. Second and subsequent boots are fine, but the first one just reboots immediately. I suspect this would be the same for all GNU/Linux distributions.
- I didn’t realise that the current ndisgtk (or the underlying ndiswrapper?) couldn’t use Win7 drivers. Once I downloaded some XP drivers, it worked. There are some native drivers for the rtl8192 but I didn’t have time to go compiling on it yet.
After figuring those out, Ubuntu seems to work fine. Better than the Windows.
I got particularly appreciative comments about the large clickable spaces on the launcher that netbook remix uses (which is what I’d expect from Fitts’s Law). Debian probably has a similar launcher, but I don’t know what it’s called yet. It looks like some Gnome window or file manager and I’m a GNUstep throwback.
Setting up the mobile phone for internet access was also a breeze. It’s a later model than my old k608i, so it supports PANU, so after the Bluetooth pairing, it appeared in the networking menu on the top panel bar and it just worked.
On Sunday, I cycled to Clevedon (7 miles away as the crow flies, but 12 by bike because of a missing river crossing). Pretty good weekend.
You might also want to have a look here:
http://www.voria.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=296
It fixed up a couple of minor problems I had with my NC10 (correct mapping of the Fn keys)
I installed UNR on a Samsung recently, and quite liked it. Wrote it up here: http://davepress.net/2010/03/08/adventures-in-open-source-land/
how did You solve the problem with first failed boot? i have N150 with Ubuntu Netbook Remix 10.04 too and face the same issue.
I’ve not fixed it yet. First boot still fails. Reboot and it’s fine, though.
I supposed I’m the only person that faced the boot problem. I have tried OpenSuse, Mint and Ubuntu 10.04, 9.04 and remix. All of them worked same, crashed I mean.
I even asked help in Ubuntu forums. But no way.
I think it’s cause of BIOS software. Any clue?
I own a samsung n150 and I always setup multiple operating systems.
Usually as a min:
Win7,
Xp,
Test XP (mucking around with a few things which can break windows hence 2 XPs).
Ubuntu 10.4 Netbook
Browser Linux
I use grub4dos as my boot loader (hiding each win partition from each other) as I can fiddle with the settings from any os by just editing a text file.
I’ve done this on alot of pcs however the rebooting on the samsung really annoyed me.
Now to be clear about whats happens:
Start with Win7; ok.
Now chose Ubuntu; No Problem
Chose XP; Reboots just after xp starts loading.
Chose different XP; No Problem.
Chose Win7 or Ubuntu; Reboots again.
Ok to make this less annoying I’ve set grub4dos to remember the last chosen os so on a reboot it just loads it again.
Win7 is annoying as in case of boot interupt it default to a menu with repair where xp defaults continue.
Now I foolishy installed the XPs not in AHCI mode so I suspected anytime a OS tried to probe for old fasion ide the bios rebooted switching the controller to some sort of compatibility mode. This means any installer probing the system could reboot multiple times. Looking in the bios I confirmed this as there are related options for “xp detection”. Ok so I chose manual now rather than auto hoping it would fix the problem; it did not.
I managed to switch xp over AHCI post install suprisingly easily with a few registry additions and drivers.
Ok so now ALL the operating systems as in AHCI mode, my problems should be over.
Sadely it did not. Which means the Bios actually detects XP rather than the hd access method ?
I have also recently aquired another netbook of compaq make with the same chipset. I have no problems at all with rebooting so I think its Samsung’s crappy bios.
Another bios quirk on the samsung is usb booting. If you boot off a usb stick / harddrive most bios’s will set that drive to be hd0 (in grub terms) however the samsung will ALWAYS make your onboard hd hd0 and the usb hd1. This caused me alot of problems as grub4dos was picking up on the onboard hd config not my rescue stick. I had to rename the gdlr in the end to something else to get it to find the right thing.
I hope this has helped others with this netbook.
I can only hope for a bios fix…..
Still no insight as to why the reboot issue happens? It even happens on a Wubi install!
One good thing about Samsung is that they aren’t averse to providing firmware updates on the web. http://www.samsung.com/us/support/downloads/global
I just got an update for the N150 and flashed. Haven’t noticed any changes yet…
No new bios since May. Only samsung would release a bios fix without release notes to tell you what has changed!
To be honest I will never buy a samsung product again after this and Galaxy S mobile phone. Just installed the 2.2 update for android on it and has so many bugs. Very very obvious bugs. Have you guys ever heard of TESTING.
Hi, my samsung N150 came with Windows XP. While installing ubuntu netbook 10 edition, i removed windows partition (kept recovery partition though). But my installation failed. ubuntu dint work on my comp. Later I tried recovery with F4, it said C drive not found. I restarted, and since then it’s neither going to recovery by F4, nor going to bios by F2. It only shows ‘_’ sign after booting.
However, I tried to boot again thru USB drive where I had ubuntu installed, and since my earlier bios settings had boot from USB option, I am able to use ubuntu netbook edition thru USB.
Any idea how to go back to windows now?
That’s exactly where you want to be. Forget Windows, and forget lamed-down ‘netbook’ systems. The N150 is strong enough to run a full-strength Linux installation. I use Slackware 13.1 and it is great. Simple straightforward installer, full install, everything works (except volume and brightness buttons. They didn’t work in XP either.) I compile software, edit audio and video, land men on the moon. Don’t look back.
Mine came with XP Home. At first I was a little hesitant to play with other OSs since I have this genuine Windows thingy 😉 On my desktop I have format-install showdown. Then I installed UNR (dual boot). Upgraded to 11.04 alpha. Buggy. Formatted the UNR partition and screwed the whole thing. Know what? F Windows.
I formatted the whole harddisk, set boot to Other is BIOS. Installed Ubuntu 10.10 64 bit desktop full blown system. Wow!
Now I’m running 64 bit on ULCPC. In my opinion its awesome system.
Btw I miss the Easy resolution manager functionality and the Function key mapping.
Sound key works. For brightness, you can control it during the boot before the OS loads. I set it to previous settings in BIOS.
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