2009-08-02
23:04:02

A while ago Windows XP on my Samsung Q1 got on my nerves too much. It’s just too slow, takes ages to boot and to log on. So I decided to test Linux on it again.

I did test Linux on it in 2006 already, but felt it wasn’t ready for use on the Q1 yet. In the time being I did try different Linux versions (Ubuntu MID and UNR) but somehow never switched.

At first I wanted to test Moblin 2.0. Unfortunately there are no distributions available yet, that don’t require PAE (which the CPU of the Q1 doesn’t have). So I decided to test Ubuntu UNR and it’s varients.

From the installation point of view the best experience was eeebuntu as it worked on the small screen without any problems. But the current eeebuntu is still based on Intrepid and one important part of the Q1 doesn’t work well with Intrepid: WiFi. There I had to use ndiswrapper and this didn’t work with my WPA network.

This led to Ubuntu 9.04 NBR. The installation doesn’t work by default on the small screen, esp. the partitioning. Fortunately there is a workaround in booting the live system first and changing the font resolution down to 72 dpi or lower. This way you’ll be able to go through the wizard.

After installation I tried to calibrate the touch screen, but I just got a message, that no evtouch capable device was found. Google did find a solution: “calibrating” manually using xinput. So I finally ended up calling

xinput set-int-prop "Touchkit HID-USB Touchscreen" \
                    "Evdev Axis Calibration" \
                     32 80 3950 150 3900

at each session start. The values I found using trial and error. Actually I can’t remember where I got the starting numbers from… With this calibration the touch screen is very usable.

Some things are still not perfect, though. Esp. the integration of on-screen keyboards is not as good as on Windows XP Tablet (and I expect it to be even better on Windows 7). Cellwriter is a good start (but how can I get a German layout on cellwriter, with umlauts?). On gdm I don’t seem to get an usable on-screen keyboard (auto-logon saves me here).

BTW, for a short time I tested Karmic. WiFi was much better there, but lately X doesn’t work any longer (I assume UXA has to be blamed; X didn’t find a usable internal screen). So I reverted to Jaunty and hope all will work again once Karmic is released.