Ubuntu Linux on a Mecer N223II Notebook

Colin Muller (colin - durbanet co za), 3 February 2005. I will update this page as I test other features.

For other notebooks, see http://www.linux-laptop.net/

The Summary

It works out of the box with a new install of Ubuntu Linux - with a few configuration tweaks.

Hardware and Installation Notes

The Notebook

Manufacturer: Mecer: http://www.mecer.co.za/
Model: N223II: http://www.mecer.co.za/systems/n223ii.html
Dimensions: 230mm x 292mm x 25mm
Weight: 1.9kg (mine probably marginally more because of the larger hard drive and extra RAM)

Installation Process

My OS: Ubuntu Linux: http://www.ubuntulinux.org/ Version 4.10 ("Warty Warthog").
Pre-installed OS: Windows XP Professional SP2 with recovery CD provided.

The first install did not go well, and I ended up with a 640x480 display in X, and a non-working wireless card.

I then reinstalled from scratch. The process which worked was:

Reinstall Windows XP Pro from the recovery disk, assigning it a 15GB partition (I use it for occasional testing, so I want to be able to dual-boot).
Boot from the Ubuntu install CD, adding the boot parameter vga=771. I have no idea whether this parameter was necessary, but thought it might be; it caused no harm. The CD/DVD drive did not boot the official Ubuntu CD, so I used a CD-R copy I had created of it. The official "Live CD" did boot.
Add three partitions to the 15GB one created during the Windows install. Ended up with partitions of 15GB, 500MB, 2GB and 60GB (approx). The 500MB one is for "PowerCinema", the Linux-based DVD playback system which came with the computer; it provides DVD playback when the computer is not running (there's a special button you press to start it up when the machine is off). The 2GB partition is swap. The 60GB is Linux.
Select 1280x800 display when asked
Choose the Ethernet cable connection as the primary one at this stage.
When asked whether to get software from the Internet, say yes. This means that several dozen MB of updates will be downloaded as part of the install process. I'm on ADSL, so that was okay by me, but it does delay things a bit. I don't know whether doing this helped the install succeed.

That was it for the initial install. Ubuntu installed and started up easily. Then I fixed the wireless connection by putting the following lines into /etc/network/interfaces. The key setting appears to be "open" on the key. Replace the asterisks with the values appropriate for your setup. You can test first at the command line by replacing "wireless_" with "sudo iwconfig ".

iface eth0 inet dhcp
name Wireless LAN card
wireless_essid *********
wireless_key open s:*****
wireless_ap **:**:**:**:**:**

After that, everything I immediately need was running, apart from some fine tuning of RAM and of the touch pad as per the detailed hardware notes below.

Device Status and Detailed Hardware Notes

Item	Model and Details	Status under Ubuntu Linux	Notes
CPU	Intel Centrino Pentium M 2.00GHz	Working	Fan a bit noisy. $ cat /proc/cpuinfo processor : 0 vendor_id : GenuineIntel cpu family : 6 model : 13 model name : Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 2.00GHz stepping : 6 cpu MHz : 600.227 cache size : 64 KB fdiv_bug : no hlt_bug : no f00f_bug : no coma_bug : no fpu : yes fpu_exception : yes cpuid level : 2 wp : yes flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss tm pbe tm2 est bogomips : 1191.93
RAM	2GB (2 x 1GB 200 PIN DDR PC266 DIMM)	Working	The Ubuntu i386 kernels are compiled without HIGHMEM and use less than 900MB of RAM, so I installed linux-image-2.6.8.1-4-686, which sees all of the memory. However, it crawls unless you pass a "mem=" parameter at the boot line. The largest which works properly is mem=2016M. Anything larger makes the machine crawl. BIOS reports 2040M of RAM, and memtest86 reports 2039M usable, but these both slow the machine down, as do 2032M and 2048M.
Hard Drive	Fujitsu 80GB Ultra DMA-100 (9.5mm), model MHT2080AT	Working	Noisy blighter when very busy, but reasonably quiet most of the time.
Optical Drive	Slimtype DVDRW SOSW-852S: CD-RW / DVD+RW / DVD-RW (24W / 10RW / 2.4W / 4RW / 8DVD)	Working	Burnt a 590MB CD in about 5 minutes. Have not yet burnt any DVDs.
Screen	WXGA 1280x800 12" TFT LCD	Working at full resolution, and also at 1024x768, 800x600, and 640x480, using the Gnome Screen Resolution changer.	Selected 1280x800 (and, just in case, 1024x768) when prompted during the Ubuntu install. I'd had one false start when I selected 1200x800 by mistake during the first install. Nothing I could do after that would make it run at 1280x800, so I reinstalled. A nice, bright, crisp display.
Graphics Card	Intel 82852/855GM	Working	See "Screen" section above. Shares some of the system RAM, if I understand correctly.
Wireless LAN	Intel Pro/Wireless 2200BG	Working	Driver, as per dmesg: ipw2200: Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2200/2915 Network Driver, 0.11 I had to set the WEP key to "open" for this to work with the ipw2200 driver which Ubuntu installs. See description of installation process above. WEP does work, though. Command-line method: sudo iwconfig eth0 key open s:*****
Ethernet	10/100TX: Realtek RTL8139, Chip type "RTL-8100B/8139D"	Working	It's one of those maddening ethernet cable ports into which some RJ45 connectors do not clip firmly, but it nonetheless does not come loose too easily.
Modem	56K V.90	Untested	$ lspci \|grep -i modem: 0000:00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corp. 82801DB (ICH4) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 03)
PCMCIA	1 Slot	Untested	The kernel module is inserted, so I guess it will work.
USB	2 x USB 2.0	Untested	Looks normal in dmesg, no reason to expect they won't work.
IEEE1394 (Firewire)	1	Untested	$ lspci \|grep -i firewire: 0000:01:0a.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments TSB43AB22/A IEEE-1394a-2000 Controller (PHY/Link)
S-Video Out	1	Untested
External VGA port		Untested
Card Reader	4-in-1: SD, MS, MMC, MS-Pro Cards	Untested
Touch pad	Synaptics	Working	I don't much like tapping on the touch pad instead of clicking. I added to the appropriate InputDevice section of /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 this line: Option "SHMConfig" "on" After that (and restarting X), this command disables tapping on the touchpad : synclient MaxTapTime=0 Here's what dmesg has to say about the pad: Synaptics Touchpad, model: 1 Firmware: 5.9 180 degree mounted touchpad Sensor: 18 new absolute packet format Touchpad has extended capability bits -> four buttons -> palm detection input: SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad on isa0060/serio2
Sound	Intel 82801DB (ICH4) AC'97 Audio Controller (Rev 03)	Working
Keyboard		Working	Have not yet experimented with all of the the function keys. The volume control keys seem not to work under Windows or Linux; the software volume controls do work, though. The brightness keys work.
Power Management		Silent Mode Button Works. Lid closing seems to have problems. The rest untested	The Silent Mode button is marked "P" and immediately lowers the power consumption and noise (and, presumably, speed) of the system. Closing the lid resulted in the screen going black, and nothing short of a re-boot would bring it back on. To be further investigated.

- Colin Muller (colin - durbanet co za).