Page Contents Introduction Editing This Page Specifications Linux Compatibility Notes Related Resources Summary

This guide is intended to provide you details on how well this laptop works with Linux and which modules you need to configure. For details on how to actually install and configure the required modules have a look at our guides section for distribution specific instructions.

Introduction

This is a guide to running Linux with the Samsung Q1 laptop.

Editing This Page

If you would like to edit this page please first view our Editing Guidelines.

Specifications

Name	Samsung Q1
Processor	Intel Celeron-M ULV 900MHz
Screen	7" WVGA
RAM	512MB
HDD	40GB
Optical Drive	None
Graphics	Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900
Network	10/100 Ethernet, Atheros 5006EX 802.11bg Wireless, Bluetooth
Other	2 x USB2.0, Tablet

Linux Compatibility

Device	Compatibility	Comments
Processor	Yes
Screen	Yes
Optical Drive	Yes
Graphics	Yes
Sound	Yes	Use the snd-hda-intel module
Ethernet	Yes
Wireless	Yes
Bluetooth	Not Tested
56K Modem	Not Tested
USB	Yes
Firewire	Not Tested
SD Card Reader	Not Tested
PCMCIA	Not Tested
Tablet	Not Tested

Notes

You can use a USB Optical drive to install Linux on this laptop (as it does not come with one as standard).

Some recent Linux distributions not longer requires the following but most still do. As default the native screen resolution of this notebook is 800x480, however due to the way the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900 functions this resolution would not be usable right away. To get it working you will need to install the 915resolution program and type in:
915resolution 3c 800 480
This will then allow you to use the native 800x480 resolution. However this setting will be forgotten after each boot so you will need a way to automatically run this command at every boot. Fortunately most Linux distributions come with the 915resolution program and include a simple way of achieving this. You can view our Configuring the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900 & 950 guide for more information.

This wireless controller in this laptop does not have any native drivers for Linux so you will need to use the ndiswrapper module. For installation instructions, you can view our Configuring the ndiswrapper module guide. The windows driver to use with ndiswrapper can be found here.

Related Resources

Preparing your laptop for Linux
Configuring the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900 & 950
Configuring the ndiswrapper module for wireless controllers without native Linux drivers
Increasing battery life

Summary

While the tablet works fine under Linux, the software isn't really there to take maximum advantage of it. The need to use ndiswrapper is also a negative point for this laptop. It is recommended to use a Linux distribution with kernel version 2.6.17 or greater, such as Fedora Core 6 or Ubuntu 6.10.

Have you installed Linux on this laptop? If so how about leaving a comment about your success in the comments section below.