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Lenovo IdeaPad S205
Introduction
This is a compatibility guide to running Linux with the Lenovo IdeaPad S205 laptop
This page is just for discussing using Linux on the Lenovo IdeaPad S205. For a general discussion about this laptop you can visit the Lenovo IdeaPad S205 page on LapWik.
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Specifications
For full specifications see the Lenovo IdeaPad S205 specifications page.
| Name | Lenovo IdeaPad S205 |
| Processor | AMD Zacate Processor E350/E450 1.6Ghz dual core |
| Screen | 11.6” Widescreen 1366×768 |
| RAM | Up to 8GB |
| HDD | 320GB (depend of model) |
| Optical Drive | None |
| Graphics | AMD Radeon 6310 Graphics |
| Network | Realtek RTL8101E/RTL8102E Ethernet Atheros AR9285 WiFi b/g/n |
| USB | 3x USB 2.0 |
| Other | Bluetooth (optional) |
Linux Compatibility
| Device | Compatibility | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Processor | Full | Shows up as 2 CPUs. |
| Screen | Full | |
| HDD | Full | |
| Graphics | Full | |
| Sound | Full | |
| Ethernet | Full | |
| Wireless | Full | |
| USB | Full | |
| Card Reader | Full | |
| Webcam | Full |
Notes
* Tested with Debian GNU/Linux. Ubuntu not works out of the box.
* Linux 2.6: There is no standart kernel driver for card reader but you can use opensource driver from realtek. I dont recommend to use this driver because this driver brokes a USB subsystem - with this driver you can't use USB-flash, USB-hdd or other USB storage.
Linux 3.2: Now card reader works fine with standard kernel drivers.
* For install GNU/Linux you must use GRUB1 or Lilo because GRUB2 dont support UEFI booting without special partition for bootloader.
Summary
Very good device but firstly you need some information for install GNU/Linux.
Discussion
I'm using LILO and dual boot with win7, debian 6 (squeeze) with encrypted partition, using linux for daily work and use, win7 only sometime for short time, I don't have any trouble with this netbook and linux on this, sometimes is something going back in KDE enviroment, but drivers working ok, wifi, ethernet net interface, gpu with original drivers, no boot problems
At first, the UEFI meant that I only had luck installing Fedora. With later kernels however, everything seemed to work out of the box. I'm presently using Crunchband Waldorf and it's my main work machine these days, and I'm pretty happy with it's performance. Be careful around the power switch as it's quite sensitive.
Also, I seem to have a choice of having all the USB sockets working, but not the card reader, or having the left USB and card reader working, but not the right hand USBs. I'm hoping this'll be fixed at some point.
Be warned. This laptop has been an incredible hassle. At various times with different distros the following have proved difficult:
1) dual booting with windows 7.
2) getting the wifi working. works out of the box now with newer kernels but slow.
3) sound.
4) seemingly random failures to boot. as one user mentioned this seems to be remedied at times by removing external power and waiting a while.
5) proprietary catalyst driver sucks
don't buy this laptop if you want to run linux on it.
I've install CentOS 6.4 at this machine.
It work well now. I've found out any obvious problem.
After a year of fiddling, I have finally gotten decent performance out this laptop.
Most things worked fine out of the box with ubuntu 11.04… except wireless, grub and the microphone. I found guides on line to get the wireless working by blacklisting a bunch of stuff (or you can run
rfkill unblock wifi
rfkill unblock all
sudo modprobe -r acer_wmi
) Either way, wireless performance was awful. Not much changed under 11.10
Finally under 12.04 things are much better. Though performance when not plugged in drops (I am still experimenting with power settings) and performance seems to drop after an hour or two. restarting wifi generally takes care of the problem.
. The microphone was because it was a stereo mic that inverted the wave on one side.. I think pulse audio preferences fixed that.
Anyway, now that I got things working, it is quite a splendid little laptop.. but it is definitely not an install for the feint of heart (maybe 12.10? :)).
The new Ubuntu LTS 12.04 Release works out of the box, including Grub2. Everything is perfekt now ;)
Wiped Windows and managed to get Ubuntu 11.10 to run on it (11.04 didn't work for me).
Is now mostly usable but
Had no problems with sound or SD card reader which were reported by others elsewhere.
Such a lovely laptop, but such a pain to put Linux on. I have Ubuntu 11.04 working on it, mostly happy now with a 2.6.39 and a 3.2 kernel. However if I suspend the laptop it will fail to boot as the drives appear to have been remapped or something. I have to unplug the power and battery, hold down the power switch for around 10 seconds and then power it up again. It will resume perfectly from the suspended state - bizzare!
I have a lenovo S205, and has been the most troublesome Linux laptop I have ever encountered.. ( have installed Linux on about 10 or so different laptops in one form or another, and have never had an issue, until I got this one)
Boots up from USB and runs linux without any difficulty, Installs without a hitch, however within a day fails to boot. Followed every single web page I can find on the net, about issues about UEFI and made sure I have always used GRUB1, to no avail.