Samsung P210-Pro

Edwin Top (linlap@dilruacs.nl)

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The iwlagn driver is in the mainstream kernel since 2.6.27 and works, it needs the firmware which can be downloaded here: http://intellinuxwireless.org/?n=downloads

See http://wiki.debian.org/iwlagn

If you're lazy: my kernelconfig for 2.6.28.2 can be downloaded.

I had to try a few times before I could use the 1280×800 with the intel driver.

/etc/init.d/gdm stop
Xorg -configure
cp xorg.conf.new /etc/X11/xorg.conf
/etc/init.d/gdm start

Or download a xorg.conf.
I disabled DRI, because the intel driver generates an VBLANK interrupt for every refresh, waking the CPU up 60 times a second. If you're not so keen on powersaving, or if the bug is resolved in your driver-version, just remove the “NoDRI” line.
Also a german keyboardlayout is configured, that can easily be “cured” if you wish ;)

For the backlight controls, I had a look at the description of the Samsung X360 here, which helpfully states that in kernel >= 2.6.27 the acpi interface has been removed.
Since we need at least that kernel version for the Intel Wifi Link 5100, we have to use a workaround.

The manpage of the intel driver describes, that one can switch to “legacy mode” if the acpi interface is not available:

xrandr --output LVDS --set BACKLIGHT_CONTROL legacy

Then one can set the brightness from the commandline:

xrandr --output LVDS --set BACKLIGHT $VALUE

$VALUE = 0 → Backlight off, $VALUE = 255 → brightest setting

The only problem which remains for me so far is: if the brightness is set to “0”, the backlight is switched off.
I cannot get it to switch back on by increasing the brightness level. Will have to find that out.
For now I disabled the “dim display when idle” settings in the gnome power management.

I can only recommend using the laptop-mode-tools from Bart Samwel.
That just took care of everything I wanted to save power on.
If you really want to know more what is going on, or if you want to tweak more yourself, read the excellent documentation on LessWatts.org and use PowerTOP to find out the power-thirsty processes on your laptop.

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