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MSI Wind U135
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Introduction
This netbook comes with Windows 7 Starter preinstalled, but boots fine from a Ubuntu 9.10 Linux on a 4G USB stick.
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Specifications
| Name | MSI Wind U135 |
| Processor | Intel Atom N450: 1.66 GHz, 667 MHz FSB, 512KB On-Die L2 Cache |
| Screen | 10.1” 1024×600 |
| RAM | 1G DDR2, 2G max |
| HDD | 160G SATA |
| Optical Drive | None |
| Graphics | Intel GMA3150 |
| Network | Ethernet 10/100, Wireless 802.11bgn |
Linux Compatibility
| Device | Compatibility | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Processor | Yes | Intel Atom N450 |
| Screen | Yes | 1024×600 32bit color |
| HDD | Yes/Not Tested | Comments |
| Optical Drive | No | Not present |
| Graphics | Yes | VGA output port works with second monitor for extended desktop. |
| Sound | Yes | Playback works, internal and external microphone both work. |
| Ethernet | Yes/Not Tested | 10/100 |
| Wireless | Yes | 802.11gb Since Ubuntu 11.04, the supplied rt2800pci driver supports this chipset. Ubuntu 10.04 includes the rt3090sta kernel module in the staging area, so a compile is not necessary. The 802.11n not tested. |
| Bluetooth | No | Not present |
| 56K Modem | No | Not present |
| USB | Yes | Three USB 2.0 ports |
| Firewire | No | Not present |
| Card Reader | Yes/Not Tested | 4in1, SD,MMC.MS,XD. Won't boot from cardreader. |
| ExpressCard Slot | No | Not present |
| Camera | Yes | 1.3M pixel Bison cam. Remember to turn on camera via F6 function key. Standard webcam apps like cheese and Skype work. |
Notes
The standard rt2800pci driver replaced the staging area rt2860sta driver in Ubuntu 11.04 and later – no compilation nor configuration is needed to set up wireless.
The RaLink driver RT3090_LinuxSTA_V2.3.1.4_20100222.tar.bz2, when compiled, needs to be configured without the 802.11n and 802.11n draft to work. Also region/country codes need to be changed to limit the channels to the legal set. Manually copied the kernel into the /lib/modules/…/kernel/drivers/net/wireless directory and ran depmod -a. This module tainted the kernel, don't know why, unless a binary blob is present somewhere (or maybe some config error on my part).
The X server on earlier distributions may have trouble with the 1024×600 screensize. Ubuntu 9.10 is fine, but 9.04 will drop back to 800×600, 8.10 needs manual X configuration to run.
Summary
Linux boots off usb easily and most of the hardware is supported. Wireless works with supplied default drivers in Ubuntu releases after 11.04. Ubuntu 10.04 did include the rt3090sta.ko module in the staging area, so no compilation was necessary, but the download does provide the RT3090STA.dat file. This file needs to be edited for setting legal channels and copied into /etc/Wireless/RT3090STA/RT3090STA.dat.
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