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Installing Debian Etch on Samsung M40 XWM 725

Last updated: 2006-05-12

General Hardware Specifications of Samsung M40 XWM 725

This laptop is operating under kernel version 2.6.8

ACPI support

Steps to override buggy DSDT with a fixed one are described in this tutorial. Here's the DSDT definition file to be added in directory include/acpi/ in kernel tree. Then file drivers/acpi/osl.c has to be patched:

 *
 */
  
+#include <acpi/dsdt_samsungm40.h>
 #include <linux/config.h>
 #include <linux/kernel.h>
 #include <linux/slab.h>

and:

 if (!existing_table || !new_table)
 	return AE_BAD_PARAMETER;
 
-	*new_table = NULL;
+	*new_table = (strncmp(existing_table->signature, DSDT_SIG, 4)) ? NULL \
+			: (struct acpi_table_header *) AmlCode;
 	return AE_OK;
 }

Kernel patches for Dothan CPU

• speedstep-centrino module won't be loadable ("No such device") unless kernel is patched. This report explains how to fix this issue. File arch/i386/kernel/cpu/cpufreq/speedstep-centrino.c has to be changed in this way:

   static const struct cpu_id cpu_id_dothan_a1 = {
   	.x86_vendor = X86_VENDOR_INTEL,
   	.x86 = 6,
   	.x86_model = 13,
  -	.x86_mask = 1,
  +	.x86_mask = 6,
   };
  

  According to this report, new 6 value stands for stepping value provided by command cat /proc/cpuinfo

• Another problem is that CPU produces a weird noise when running on its battery and decreasing speed. There's a patch for this in the kernel bug tracker. It consists of changing HZ value in file include/asm-i386/param.h:

   #ifdef __KERNEL__
  -# define HZ			1000		/* Internal kernel timer frequency */
  +# define HZ			100		/* Internal kernel timer frequency */
   # define USER_HZ		100		/* .. some user interfaces are in "ticks" */
   # define CLOCKS_PER_SEC		(USER_HZ)	/* like times() */
   #endif
  

Monitor

This modeline can be put in Xorg configuration:

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier	"Generic Monitor"
	HorizSync	30-64
	VertRefresh	50-100
	Option		"DPMS"
	ModeLine	"1440x900@60" 97.54 1440 1472 1840 1872 900 919 927 946
EndSection

Keyboard hotkeys

• On kernel 2.6.x, some keycodes have to be re-assigned (as explained here). I added a script in init.d/ to re-assign keycodes 74 and 75 to 200 and 218 (these new codes can be used since they don't match any key being already used in include/linux/input.h):

  #! /bin/sh
  set -e
  case "$1" in
     start)
  	echo -n "Setting key codes... "
  	/usr/bin/setkeycodes 74 200
  	/usr/bin/setkeycodes 75 218
  	echo "done."
  	;;
     *)
  	echo "Usage: /etc/init.d/sethotkeys {start}" >&2
  	exit 1
  	;;
  esac
  exit 0
  

• Then you can use following xmodmap configuration file to get new signals' codes captured by xev:

  keycode 128 = XF86Mail
  keycode 194 = XF86WWW
  keycode 168 = XF86AudioMedia
  keycode 160 = XF86AudioMute
  keycode 176 = XF86AudioRaiseVolume
  keycode 174 = XF86AudioLowerVolume
  

Hardware information

• Samsung M40 XWM 725 specifications
• BIOS revision: 03JK
• lspci output:

  0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 82855PM Processor to I/O Controller (rev 03)
  0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82855PM Processor to AGP Controller (rev 03)
  0000:00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 01)
  0000:00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 01)
  0000:00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 01)
  0000:00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB 2.0 EHCI Controller (rev 01)
  0000:00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801 PCI Bridge (rev 81)
  0000:00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82801DBM LPC Interface Controller (rev 01)
  0000:00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82801DBM (ICH4) Ultra ATA Storage Controller (rev 01)
  0000:00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) SMBus Controller (rev 01)
  0000:00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 01)
  0000:00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 01)
  0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV34M [GeForce FX Go 5200] (rev a1)
  0000:02:03.0 CardBus bridge: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c476 II (rev ac)
  0000:02:03.1 CardBus bridge: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c476 II (rev ac)
  0000:02:03.2 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C552 IEEE 1394 Controller (rev 04)
  0000:02:05.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401 100Base-T (rev 01)
  0000:02:07.0 Network controller: Intel Corp. PRO/Wireless 2200BG (rev 05)

Links

• linux-laptop.net
• tuxmobil.org
• gentoo-wiki.com: HARDWARE Samsung X30 WVC 1500
• gentoo.org: HOWTO: Fix Common ACPI Problems
• intel.com: ACPI development tools
• cpqlinux.com: Linux ACPI Howto (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface)
• kerneltraffic.org: Common problems and solutions with 2.6 input drivers
• nvidia.com: X configuration options
• Debian on Thinkpad T42p (tips for ''Centrino'' CPUs)

Contact information

• e-mail address: julien.pauthier at yahoo.fr
• complete report: http://samsung-m40.pauthier.eu/

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