Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron on Asus Z53Jr

On April the 24th the final version of Ubuntu 8.04 "Hardy Heron" was released.
In this post I'll evaluate how well it fits on my Asus Z53Jr Laptop.

My notebook (which is now a years old but still amazingly fast) specs are:

• Intel Core2duo T7200 2GHz 4Mb cache
• 2Gb RAM DDR2
• 160Gb HD
• 15" 1280x800 TFT screen
  
• ATI X2300 Video Card with 128Mb RAM up to 898Mb shared memory
• SD Card Reader
• 1.3 MPx Camera
• Network: Ethernet + Intel i3945 802.11 a/b/g Wireless
• Ports: 4 USB 2.0, 1 FireWire, VGA out DVI out
  

One year ago I've installed Ubuntu 7.04 wich I've later upgraded to 7.10.
This time I wanted to see all the improvements of a "fresh" distro so I backup-ed all my data and I went for a fresh install.

I've downloaded the standard cd, burnt it and rebooted the system. The I selected my keyboard ad proceeded with the live distro so I could access the graphic installer from it.
The live cd worked fine recognizing the correct screen resolution (1280x800) and the intel wireless also.

I clicked on the install and a wonderful installation process reduced to 7 easy steps let me tell Ubuntu all It needs for the installation BEFORE it started leaving me free to play with my baby or watch tv while the installation procedure took care of everything!

At the end of the process the only thing I've had to do was to reboot my system which was perfectly usable (see previous post for the problems on 7.04 if interesed).

The wireless card was recognized without any problems, and the only thing I've had to do was to insert my WPA key to enable the network.
I don't have an ethernet plug near my notebook so wifi is the only chance to have an internet access for me.

The repositories (just a suggestion)

Having my internet access out of the book before trying everything else I've enabled all the official repositories and added the medibuntu repositories. If you want to add this repository too please refer to the howto on medibuntu's website.
In medibuntu you can find acrobat reader, google-earth, skype all packaged and ready to be downloaded.

ATI Card (Restricted Modules)
The default driver used by Ubuntu is the free ati one. If you want the ati proprietary driver (fglrx), and I suggest this if you want applications like google-earth to work open a prompt and type in

sudo apt-get install xorg-driver-fglrx

after this select the restricted driver from System -> Administation -> Hardware Drivers and reboot.

Composite and OpenGL Support

The fglrx driver developed by amd-ati is now at a decent level of development which means that you can use composite without problems.
You can even use openGL without any major problems.
The point is: you can use them individually but not together!
If you try to do so (try to open google-earth with composite enable) the 3D rendering will flicker resulting in an unasable application.
This is not Ubuntu's fault but a problem related with the fglrx driver itself.
The truth is that I don't really care much of all the fancy composite stuff so this is not a big problem to me.

Suspend & Hibernate
In ubuntu 8.04 they work PERFECTLY out of the box! This is fantastic considering that we are talking about a notebook. Really a great improvement compared to the previous versions of Ubuntu.

Function Keys and Extra Keys
The notebook has 5 keys near the power button. None of them is working. They work in Vista, which came preinstalled on the notebook, using a special application made by Asus running in background.
If you know hot to make them work fell free to contact me.
There is another series of special keys (Fn keys):

• Fn+F1 (suspend) works
  
• Fn+F2 (enable disable wireless) not working
• Fn+F3 (opens the mail client, or anything you prefer) works
• Fn+F4 (opens the browser) not working
• Fn+F5-F6 (display brightness up/down) working
• Fn+F7 (toggles the display lamp on/off) woks
• Fn+F8 (external display) not tried yet
• Fn+F9 (enables/disables touchpad) not working
• Fn+F10-F11-F12 (audio on/off, down, up) working

1.3 Mpixel Camera & Microphone
The 1.3 Mpixel camera & the integrated microphone are working perfectly out of the box. I've tested them using skype 2.x. & the sound recorder tool.
The only thing I've had to do was to enable Capture in the sound volume panel and try out some setting of Front Mic & Front Mic Boost to adjust the recording level.

Firefox 3 (beta 5)???
The only thing in which I have some doubts at the moment is the presence (by default) of firefox 3 beta 5 and not the old (but stable) firefox 2.
From this beta you can see that the new firefox will be an absolutely good browser but at present there are some little things that do not convince me:

1. the "page loading" rolling icon on the tab never stops even when the page is fully loaded
   
2. google browser sync plug-in at present isn't compatible with the new firefox... is you are used to google browser sync as I am this is really annoying.

I'll try it out for for another week but I'll probably switch back to firefox 2 (which is donwloadable from the official repositories of course).

Final Thoughts
In my opinion Ubuntu 8.04 it's a great improvement compared to 7.04 (and 7.10 of course).
This distro resolves a lot of problems present in previous releases.

1. No need for the alternate cd anymore. You can do the live install procedure without problems.
2. Improvement in hardware management: wireless card, web camera, function keys
   
3. Better fglrx driver "out of the box" (after enabling the restricted modules of course)
4. Great suspend and hibernate (a must for a notebook)

I think that if you have a notebook you should give it a try... expecially with hardware similar to mine.

As usual feel free to contact me if you have any doubts. I'm not a linux geek of fanatic but a java programmer but if I can give you some help you're welcome.

Ubuntu 7.10 gusty gibbon on Asus Z53Jr F3Jr

I've upgraded my notebook from Feisty to Gusty. So this isn't a "fresh install experience". I've published the Asus Z53Jr specs before but here they are (again)

Notebook Specs

• Model: Asus Z53Jr / F3Jr
  
• core2duo T7200 2GHz 4Mb cache
• 2Gb RAM DDR2
• 160Gb HD
• ATI X2300 Video Card with 128Mb RAM up to 898Mb shared mem
• SD Card Reader
• 1.3 MPx Camera
• Ethernet + Intel i3945 802.11 a/b/g Wireless
• Ports 4 USB 2.0, 1 FireWire, VGA out DVI out

Upgrade Procedure
When I logged in Feisty and opened the update manager feisty suggested the distribution upgrade, and so I did.
The all process was smooth and clean and took less than 2 hours (most of which were spent downloading the software from the internet).
The upgrade procedure told me that support for some software ended... not a real problem for me (I've never used gcj, I usually download the official jdk directly from sun).
Here are some screenshots:


Fisrt Look
The first impression is that Ubuntu improved it's general usability.
I usually work connected to my network via WPA wireless. Using the restcricted modules as in feisty I managed to use the intel wireless card and ati x2300 gpu without any problems (except for the suspend issue, see below).
The drivers where already installed before in feisty, gusty simply upgraded them to a newer version.
Two major usability improvements on the network configuration are that without any manual configuration now you can automatically activate the wireless connection without unlocking the keyring when you login. This could have been done in feisty with some configuration now there is a checkbox directly on the unlock keyring dialog.
Another improvement is the support of wpa connectivity when you manual configure your network: now if you want to manage your network manually you can do it really easily!

Almost everything it's working without problems
As in Feisty this things are working without any issues

• display driver at correct resolution (1280x800)
• touchpad
• usb ports
• integrated sd card reader
• Fn buttons
• Fn+F1 (suspend) is recognized but I thing that the ati driver has major issues while suspending the notebook
• Fn+F2 (enable/disable wireless)
• Fn+F4 opens the browser
• Fn+F5,F6,F7 panel light controls
• Fn+F10,F11,F2 sound controls
• Fn+Arrows the sound controls (tested in Banshee)

Not Tested
I've not tested the external display and the Fn+F8 button as I don't have an external display available right now.

The Bad Part: Things that don't work
Suspend and Hibernate
Suspend and Hibernate still doesn't work :(!!
I suspect an issue with the ati fglrx driver. I've tested the 8.42.3 driver downloaded directly from ati without any success too.
The only thing I've managed to do on my system was to stop the system from suspending and hibernating installing this packages on the system:

• apmd
• hibernate
• uswsusp

Composite
Composite is disable and doesn't work with the fglrx driver. With the new 8.42.3 driver it is theoretically supported via AIXGL but the only thing I've got was a white screen (an internet search told me that I'm not the only one).

1.3mpx camera
The integrated 1.3mpx webcam isn't recognized as in feisty. In the next days just for curiosity I'll try to recompile the syntek driver http://syntekdriver.sourceforge.net/ (se previous posts).

If you find any workaround for this problems (suspend and hibernate in particular) or if they are working for you on the same notebook (or very similar one) via a fresh install please feel free to contact me.

Ubuntu 7.04 on Asus Z53Jr F3Jr

This is how I installed Ubuntu 7.04 on my new notebook Asus Z53Jr (or F3Jr).

Disclaimer: Actually this page is a work in progress... I know it needs some formatting and I want to add more contents in the future so be patient please :)

The notebook specs are:

• core2duo T7200 2GHz 4Mb cache
• 2Gb RAM DDR2
• 160Gb HD
• ATI X2300 Video Card with 128Mb RAM up to 898Mb shared mem
• SD Card Reader
• 1.3 MPx Camera
• Ethernet + Intel i3945 802.11 a/b/g Wireless
• Ports 4 USB 2.0, 1 FireWire, VGA out DVI out

this is the lspci output:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS/940GML and 945GT Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS/940GML and 945GT Express PCI Express Root Port (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 02)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 02)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 3 (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #1 (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #2 (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #3 (rev 02)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #4 (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e2)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 02)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7 Family) Serial ATA Storage Controller IDE (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 02)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Unknown device 718a
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 01)
03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection (rev 02)
06:01.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd Unknown device 0832
06:01.1 Generic system peripheral [0805]: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 19)
06:01.2 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd Unknown device 0843 (rev 01)
06:01.3 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev 0a)

Due to the ATI Card issue with Xorg you should intall feisty in textual mode via atlernate CD or DVD.
The system will install without problems. When prompted for the video resolution remember to select 1280x800!
On the first reboot you won't be able to login graphic mode. Login in text mode with your notebook connected to internet via ethernet card and type (look here for a more detailed explanation):

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install linux-restricted-modules-$(uname -r)
sudo apt-get install xorg-driver-fglrx
sudo depmod -a

and yes, before you ask it: I'm using the restricted modules.
next configure the video card:

sudo aticonfig --initial
sudo aticonfig --overlay-type=Xv

and reboot

sudo shutdown -r now

at the reboot the system will login via gdm. Now lets take a look to what is working and what not.

Working

• video card at correct resolution
• sound (even Fn + F10, F11, F12 keys )
  
• sd adapter
• usb & firewire ports
• display lamp (even Fn + F5, F6, F7 on/off)
• other shortcuts Fn + F1, F2 are recognized)
• the shotcut keys on the top left of the notebook works
• the microphone (* see note)
• hibernation
  

*I've tested the microphone mainly using skype 1.3.0.53 and sometimes worked sometimes not. When it did not work I simply restarted skype and this resolved any issue.

NOT Working

• the on off pad switch Fn + F9
• the sleep mode Fn + F1 (the system doesn't wake up correctly, if you can help feel free to contact me)
• the 1.3MPx camera
  

Another thing that doesn't work out of the box is the cpu frequency scaling but this issue it's easy to fix:
Edit the /etc/modules file (sudo gedit /etc/modules) and add this line:

acpi-cpufreq

Next: I like to manage the cpu speed via the cpu frequency monitor applet and if you want to do the same you should set the sticky bit to the /usr/bin/cpufreq-selector executable.

sudo chmod +s /usr/bin/cpufreq-selector

You will need two applets (one per core) as the F3Jr is a Core2Duo processor.
That's all for now. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.
bye

Updated: 1.3mpx webcam