Ativ Book 8 (870Z5G) with (K)ubuntu Saucy

[dav7x]

Greetings.
I'm highly interested in buying an Ativ 8 (870Z5G), not sure yet if i5 or i7, and dual graphics card (Intel GMA HD Graphics 4600 and NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M [2 GB]), but first I need to be sure of a few things. I plan to install Kubuntu Saucy (14.04) and maybe Manjaro. Knowing about experiences with other distros will be interesting, of course, but since graphics drivers seem to cause issues sometimes, I would be grateful if you also inform if which graphics card(s) you have.
The computer has a 1 TB (5400 rpm) drive, which I may change for a 256 GB ssd disk and Windows 7.
I was wondering if any of you has been able to get these things working well:

- F2/F3 as brightness keys. (I found this: http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=155225. It might help if you are having issues.
- Toggling airplane mode with function keys.
- Sleep and hibernation, hopefully working reliably and reasonably fast.
- Does wifi work well in terms of stability?
- Does the touchpad work well? Are multigestures available?
- If you dual boot, how did you solve this? http://i.imgur.com/4jq4iDj.png
- Does something get weird after suspension/hibernation?
- How long does the battery last? I plan a typical use of typing (text, latex, ipython) in airplane mode, maybe ~75% of brightness, and from time to time some light surfing. Another scenario would be same as before but using inkscape and openscad, if these references are useful in any way.
- Does any of the graphics cards work cause functinoality problems at any point? I plan on using bumblebee and I don't mind if I have to login again or reboot for switching graphics.
- Has any update (like the kernel) broken anything?
- What did you do about uefi if you dual boot? Does windows updates cause problems?

And more general questions:
Have you changed the hard disk for an ssd? Is it easy to do?

[FOSSFool]

I recently purchased an open box ATiv Book 8 (NP880Z5E) at a BestBuy near me. The only thing this machine was lacking was a bit of memory, an SSD, and a decent OS. I bought an 8GB stick, and the M550 1TB SSD from Crucial Memory.

Currently I'm in the throws of getting Ubuntu 14.04 LTS installed and working. The 14.04 LTS standard install leaves you with the screen brightness, trackpad disable, and volume control function keys working. The Setup (f1), Monitor Select(f4), Fan Control(F11), and Wifi (f12) aren't. I'm reading through the forums on Here regarding 14.04 LTS to figure out how to get them working.

I'll keep you posted on my progress.

FOSSFool

[dav7x]

Thank you. However, I just jumped the gun and got it!
Right now things have been a bit easier than expected, but I have a few issues.

First, since it has an Intel 7260 wireless card, connection is slow and unstable.
I partially fixed it using this https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour ... omments/51 and also trying what the opener of the bug first tried, namely using this code in /etc/mpdprobe.conf:

Code: Select all

options iwlwifi 11ac_disable=1
options iwlwifi 11n_disable=1

If the file doesn't exist, create it (using sudo, of course).
Now it's been pefectly stable and a bit faster, but not yet as fast as my old Dell.
I hope we get a kernel update soon that fixes the issue.

Second and also annoying is that the sound card makes a more or less loud clicking sound whenever some important audio setting is changed, or sometimes when I play something. It seems to me (not an expert) like a power management issue, as it must be when the sound device is activated and deactivated. It sounds twice, before and after a sound is played, and if no sound has been played for a while. It does the same everytime I log out or shut down the computer.

Mine has a dual intel/nvidia card. Installing the recommended nvidia driver doesn't work, as it disables compositing. It works well with the open source drivers, however. It suspends and resumes like a charm.
I'm now reading more about bumblebee and post. I have seen some claims that both are kind of unnecessary, and that performance is more or less importantly degraded using any of them. Kernel version is 3.13, and automatic switching was supposedly implemeted in 3.12. I'll try the "updates" nvidia binary drivers. Mainly I'm hoping to get better battery life with the proprietary drivers, but probably that will only work if graphics card switching actually works.

Keyboard light control doesn't work. Some solutions point to installing the nvidia drivers, curiously. I haven't installed samsung tools yet, but I don't know if they will do anything about it after all.

[dav7x]

Update. Just made a change:

Code: Select all

options iwlwifi 11ac_disable=1

in /etc/modprobe.conf fixes the issue and connection is still stable but (until now) I get the speed I was used to.
The other workarounds for wifi I mentioned still apply, though.

[FOSSFool]

You got farther than I did

Yes, nothing was gained over standard install when I loaded the tools.

I've had to change directions and install SuSE because of another software requirement. Best of luck and congrats on getting this far!

-james