Cimi’s Official Blog

Samsung NC10, Linux and working Hotkeys 27 January, 2009

As promised, a small guide for linux on the samsung nc10.

Updated software seems to contain enough compatibility for this netbook, in fact everything worked fine except the “Fn+keys”.

You have to follow this step to make “Fn+keys” work:

• Patch the kernel with that: http://bugzilla.kernel.org/attachment.cgi?id=19301
  

To enable the Fn+F5 hotkey (disable monitor brightness) do:

1. Install xbacklight
2. copy this script into /usr/bin and make it executable: http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/175266/nc10/xbacklight.sh
3. Run these:
   gconftool-2 -s --type string /apps/metacity/keybinding_commands/command_1 xbacklight.sh
gconftool-2 -s --type string /apps/metacity/global_keybindings/run_command_1 XF86Launch1

Some notes:

• Check out the upstream kernel bug: http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=12021
• Feel free to write a better xbacklight.sh script
• The brightness keybinding should work with gnome 2.24. I’m not sure about the “XF86Launch1″ command, which could change (?) on some distributions. “XF86Launch1″ is the command recognized by fedora after patching the kernel.
• Change the id of the keybinding_command if you have already bound other commands.

Posted in English, GNOME, Howto, Metacity |

17 Replies

1. Thoemy said:
   27 December, 2008 alle 18:03

   You can also play with “xset dpms force off” and “xrandr --output LVDS --off“. Both probably save a little bit more power.

2. Cimi said:
   28 December, 2008 alle 3:46

   xrandr --output LVDS --off
   and
   xrandr --output LVDS --auto

   though with xbacklight it is nicer (fading in and out…)
   you choose

3. M@ said:
   28 December, 2008 alle 14:06

   Is it true NC10 has got 6/7 hours of autonomy?
   what about the keybord? is it handy or not?
   M@

4. Thoemy said:
   28 December, 2008 alle 14:16

   @Cimi
   Why not use both?

5. Cimi said:
   28 December, 2008 alle 15:50

   @3: true and handy kbd
   @4: yeah good idea… but under windows the behaviour is not to blank the screen… so I guess the power is the same

6. Ben said:
   29 December, 2008 alle 10:44

   Thanks a bunch for the update, much appreciated. Will try this tonight and this might lead to better usage (currently it’s mostly sitting in the corner for me).

7. anon said:
   1 January, 2009 alle 23:49

   How do I patch the kernel? Everytime I google it each page gives me a different answer!

8. Galdo’s Blog » Blog Archive » Samsung NC10 - erster Test said:
   4 January, 2009 alle 13:19

   [...] Linux auf dem NC10 existieren einige Sourcen [1], [2], [3], [4], [5] die Informationen dazu [...]

9. TheMorningFlight.com » Setting up Ubuntu on Samsung NC10 said:
   11 January, 2009 alle 18:00

   [...] brightness icon to the taskbar. The sleep and hibernation worked already. I have recently found a site that claims to sort the Fn keys but I have not tried it [...]

10. John said:
    2 February, 2009 alle 16:06

    Update the BIOS ? Can you be more specific on what fn Key fix and which version of the BIOS it is fixed in. Thanks

11. Cimi said:
    2 February, 2009 alle 17:20

    @john:
    it was a mistake, sorry.

12. voRia’s Place » Blog Archive » Samsung NC10 + GNU/Linux: accoppiata vincente? said:
    6 February, 2009 alle 20:42

    [...] il pacchetto xbacklight dai repository ufficiali Ubuntu, copiamo questo script (un grazie ad Andrea Cimitan è d’obbligo) in /usr/local/bin e lo rendiamo eseguibile. Facciamo quindi in modo che quando [...]

13. t-men said:
    9 February, 2009 alle 17:33

    I had to replace:
    “if [ $backlight_level == "0.000000" ]; then”
    in the xbacklight.sh script with
    “if [ $backlight_level = "0.000000" ]; then”
    so i doesn’ t get a
    [: 20: ==: unexpected operator
    no idea why (using Ubuntu 8.10, but configured the buttons through XFCE settings manager instead of the gconftool thing), thought it might be helpful for others with the same issue…

    Thanks again!

14. dnl said:
    20 February, 2009 alle 5:37

    @t-men. Yeah, Ubuntu doesn’t use bash for /bin/sh, they use dash. So, either you degrade the script or put /bin/bash on the shbang line…

15. Daniel said:
    28 February, 2009 alle 8:06

    I wrote a small script, with grabbed informations around the net, which handle almost all fn-keys features.

    I’m running Xubuntu 8.10, and i set up the keyboard shortcuts manager to call this script with the correct parameters for each key.

    https://naboo.homelinux.org/NC10/nc10-sets.sh

16. Patearson said:
    28 March, 2009 alle 13:39

    Hi ! could you explain how to patch the kernel with the file .patch ??

17. Sam Singer said:
    25 March, 2010 alle 14:55

    Hi there, I use Kubuntu 9.10.

    When using KMS (by default), xrandr –props gave different options on my Samsung X360 display: LVDS1, and BACKLIGHT range 0 to 7 only.

    After disabling KMS, the display was named LVDS:

    LVDS connected 1280×800+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 303mm x 190mm
    EDID_DATA:
    00ffffffffffff004ca3424500000000
    00120103801e13780a87f594574f8c27
    27505400000001010101010101010101
    010101010101b419004a50200a300c1e
    33002fbe100000190000000f00000000
    00000000002387026401000000fe0053
    414d53554e470a2020202020000000fe
    004c544e3133334154313430303000dc
    PANEL_FITTING: full_aspect
    supported: center full_aspect full
    BACKLIGHT_CONTROL: kernel
    supported: native legacy combination kernel
    BACKLIGHT: 7 (0×00000007) range: (0,7)
    1280×800 60.0*+
    1024×768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
    832×624 74.6
    800×600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
    640×480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
    720×400 85.0
    640×400 85.1
    640×350 85.1

    Still, the range 0,7 is wrong, but I can use 255 for max. brightness!

    With KMS, I could only use sudo setpci -s 00:02.0 F4.B=ff

    What still isn’t working: I don’t find an option to shutdown on action: lid shut.

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