Linux On My Samsung

Posted: **25 Aug 2011, 20:56**

Hi,

i need to get a new laptop because my old one recently decided to go into retirement. Im thinking about getting a Samsung rv 520. I wasnt able to find any reviews on this one by linux (preferably ubuntu)users. Then i stumbled upon this forum.
Does anyone here use that laptop with linux? What is working and what isnt working? Im especially interested in the nvidia card as it is an optimus card. How does that affect everydays work?
Thank you very very much for any answer!

Greetings, Kiesel

Posted: **26 Aug 2011, 20:12**

Hi Kiesel,

thanks for reminiding for this topic. I have bought this RV520 since 3 months. Ubuntu 11.04 is running with that well, but the backlight will be stay unsatisfactory. Maybe, I'm not a "professional" - the backlight won't be adjustable. So with AC power the backlight will be stay at 100% and at battery power the backlight stay at 20%. The FN-Keys up and down don't work. If I go to standby at AC power, the backlight falls after resume to 20% and no trick will get back to 100%, only you reboot.

I might, that the problem is the nvidia driver.

My E252 with Intel graphics is full functionally (10.4 LTE).

All other functions are working well. So the RV520 is a good choice.

Best regards

Posted: **27 Aug 2011, 02:06**

thank you for your reply.

i just wanna use it with AC connected, so i think thats a drawback i can live with until its fixed. Thank you very very much for your answer!

Posted: **27 Aug 2011, 22:23**

kiesel wrote: i just wanna use it with AC connected,

just an additional information: My E252 runs with battery 1,5hrs only

, but the RV520 4 hrs

(Both with wlan/wifi) So I can recommend the RV520 also for battery power using.

Posted: **04 Sep 2011, 17:07**

Hi everyone. I simply registered because there is very little info on the RV520. I just bought it and have tried several boot disks (Ubuntu Live CD, openSUSE KDE4 Live CD, openSUSE Net install DVD and openSUSE regular install DVD). None of them will boot. The Ubuntu ones first give me a minor textual error (error: "prefix" is not set.), then a grub menu with the option to check ubuntu without installing, an option to install ubuntu and an option to check the disk for errors. None of those work, I just get a blank screen.

Then, the openSUSE stuff gives me:

ELILO boot: ............
Loading kernel linux... done
Loading file initrd...done

Last one takes a little bit and then then nothing happens. I've never experienced this before. Anyone with a hint?

one bit of extra info. With the initrd thing, I tried pressing enter a couple of times while it was loading those things and something interesting came up. No idea if it's because of the enter or simply that now I saw output I didn't see before:

initrd.c(line 99):read image(initrd) failed: 1

I noticed in the bios that the full 4 gigs of memory is installed in the second slot. Can that have anything to do without? It'd be extremely weird.

UPDATE: Looks like UEFI was the problem. This prevents other OS's from bing booted (and installed then I reckon). I turned that option off in the BIOS and now an openSUSE KDE4 Live CD is booting.

Posted: **13 Sep 2011, 20:10**

Hi,

sorry for answering late, i have been on vacation.
To boot the live cd i needed tpo press "e" when the cd bootloader was shown. i then entered between "nosplash" and "--" the option "noefi" and booted with f10. works like a charme!
I also noticed that it is possible to change the luminosity with "fn+up/down" within the live-cd, boot not when the system is installed. does anybody have any ideas on how to transfer that ability to the installed system?

/edit: ah, sry, i didnt see what you added. a question: how did you turn uefi off in BIOS and do you use a dualboot system? im havin trouble getting grub up and running. windows starts directly and no grub is shown.

kind regards, kiesel

Posted: **13 Sep 2011, 20:20**

I sure do.

Taken from here: http://forums.opensuse.org/english/get- ... ost2337959

But I'll put it down here more easily. You need to adjust slightly if you're using something other than openSUSE, obviously.

Code: Select all

su -c 'zypper install gcc make kernel-devel'
mkdir samsung
cd samsung
wget http://dl.dropbox.com/u/16953763/samsung-backlight.c
wget http://dl.dropbox.com/u/16953763/Makefile
make
su -c 'cp samsung-backlight.ko /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/'
su -c 'depmod -a'

Yast -> System -> Boot Loader: add to "Optional Kernel Command Line Parameter":

Code: Select all

acpi_backlight=vendor

For NVidia, add this to /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-device.conf (or the device section in /etc/X11/xorg.conf if you have that one):

Code: Select all

Option "RegistryDwords" "EnableBrightnessControl=1"

Reboot

Works great. Everything is working on my RV520: from webcam to sleeping/hibernating to backlight. GREAT Linux laptop.

Posted: **17 Sep 2011, 09:28**

thank you for your help, but unfortunately this tutorial doesnt work in ubuntu. even though all steps run flawlessly they dont show the wished for effect.
the only effect i see is that after adding the acpi_backlight=vendor to grub, the luminousity-indicator doesnt show any mopre when using the fn keys. seems like i have to look for another solution :/

Posted: **18 Jan 2012, 22:19**

What I'm doing wrong as I keep getting the warning below?

Code: Select all

kimmo@linux-7fo4:~/samsung> make
make -C /lib/modules/3.1.0-1.2-desktop/build M=/home/kimmo/samsung modules
make[1]: Siirrytään hakemistoon "/usr/src/linux-3.1.0-1.2-obj/x86_64/desktop"
  CC [M]  /home/kimmo/samsung/samsung-backlight.o
/home/kimmo/samsung/samsung-backlight.c: In function ‘sabi_exec_command’:
/home/kimmo/samsung/samsung-backlight.c:105:5: error: implicit declaration of function ‘msleep’ [-Werror=implicit-function-declaration]
cc1: some warnings being treated as errors

My laptop is Samsung RV520 with nVidia GeForce 520M. I have installed openSUSE 12.1 also I have tried Linux Mint, but I have not figured out to get the fn-keys to control the screen brightness or to get the system suspend working.

Posted: **19 Jan 2012, 07:38**

If you have problems, I'd check the original site I got it from, I'm just the messenger over here.

Good luck!

Posted: **05 Apr 2012, 16:30**

Got ubuntu 11.10 on this laptop.
Only thing I've found to be a right pain is the brightness, so I thought I'd share the script I am using. This is on a pretty much default 11.10 install, would probably worth with others.

The script will set your screen to default brightness of 20%, which you can change by clicking on the brightness icon in the top toolbar (that will appear when you run the script) and changing. It forces the brightness back to this level every 5s in case you (like me) often press keys that reset it.

Save below as a script called something like brightness_applet.py

Code: Select all

#!/usr/bin/env python

import datetime
import sys
import gtk
import appindicator
import imaplib
import re
import dbus
bus = dbus.SessionBus()

proxy = bus.get_object('org.gnome.SettingsDaemon',
                       '/org/gnome/SettingsDaemon/Power')

iface=dbus.Interface(proxy,dbus_interface='org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.Power.Screen')

PING_FREQUENCY = 5 # how often script forces brightness back

class ShowDate:
    def __init__(self):
        self.brightness = 20
        self.ind = appindicator.Indicator("date-display",
                                           '/usr/share/notify-osd/icons/gnome/scalable/status/notification-display-brightness-full.svg',
                                           appindicator.CATEGORY_OTHER)
        self.ind.set_status(appindicator.STATUS_ACTIVE)
        self.menu_setup()
        self.ind.set_menu(self.menu)

    def menu_setup(self):
        def menuLambda(b): return lambda x:self.setBright(b)

        self.menu = gtk.Menu()
        for pc in range(0,101,10):
            self.item = gtk.MenuItem("%s%%"%(pc))
            self.item.connect("activate", menuLambda(pc))
            self.item.show()
            self.menu.append(self.item)

    def main(self):
        self.set_brightness()
        gtk.timeout_add(PING_FREQUENCY * 1000, self.set_brightness)
        gtk.main()

    def quit(self, widget):
        sys.exit(0)

    def setBright(self, b):
        self.brightness = b
        self.set_brightness()

    def set_brightness(self):
        iface.SetPercentage(self.brightness)
        return True

if __name__ == "__main__":
    indicator = ShowDate()
    indicator.main()

Make it runnable using

Code: Select all

chmod +x brightness_applet.py

Run it to test is ok using

Code: Select all

./brightness_applet.py

Ctrl+C to exit

Set it up to start on login by clicking on icon in top right corner of screen to get menu, choose Startup Applications..., then click Add button, type a name, browse to find this script, save, logout, login.

Decide what you like as a default (I like 20) and edit the 20 in the script to your favourite.

Hope this helps someone, it was cobbled together from multiple sites/posts from the net.

Posted: **13 Apr 2013, 16:09**

Do your RV520 have also the Nvidia-Card? My Nvidia will turn down the backlight, but not turn up again. Try this and please report wat happend. Actually xubuntu 12.10 is running on my RV520 with latest updates.

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Brightness script for ubuntu on Samsung RV520

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