Out Here In The Field : Journeys

So, as I mentioned earlier on this post, I’m in the market for a new notebook. Particularly, I’m in the market for a notebook equipped with a  discrete graphic chip, either from Nvidia or ATI. After a lot of reading, I decided to get a BenQ S42, equipped with GF 9600 series (I can’t remember which one)

So, Just when I’m about to stroll to the BenQ store, I passed a Toshiba booth, and curiousity led me to enter the store. One and half an hour later, I walked out of the shop with a Satellite M300 in hand. The power or marketing

Anyway, the M300 comes with lesser specced graphic chip (ATI HD3470), but comes with eSATA port.The rest of spec is nearly the same.

As soon as I arrived home, the first thing that I do is to load the Intrepid Ibex cd, repartition the 200GB HDD to make way for my Ubuntu install. The installation process is smooth as usual. After reboot there are several peripherals that was not automatically detected, which are the dialup modem and bluetooth adapter. I can live without the modem, but the bluetooth is a must! Also compiz is not currently activated.

Installing Satellite M300-E413 bluetooth adapter

After rummaging for a while, I found out that I have to install omnibook-source to get the M300 bluetooth work. You can get the pacakage here. Make sure that the bluetooth is powered on by flicking the switch in front. Before installing  and building the module, get everything you need to build a module by opening console and type:

surfer@M5MobileMark-II:~$sudo apt-get install module-assistant build-essential

After that, double click on the omnibook-source file to install the package. Follow the instruction. Next is to build the module:

surfer@M5MobileMark-II:~$sudo m-a a-i omnibook-source

To activate the bluetooth adapter immediately, type:

surfer@M5MobileMark-II:~$sudo modprobe omnibook ectype=14

The next thing to do is to get the bluetooth adapter to start on boot. Add the module to the /etc/modules. Open the file by console

surfer@M5MobileMark-II:~$sudo nano /etc/modules

Add a new line, and put omnibook then save. My /etc/modules looks like this:

fuse
lp
sbp2
omnibook

Next, create script that will be executed on boot:

surfer@M5MobileMark-II:~$sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/omnibook

….and add the following line to the file

options omnibook ectype=14

Save, and reboot. The bluetooth adapter should work after reboot.

One thing that I notice, the bluetooth adapter always failed to survive a system hibernate and resume. You would have to manually unload and reload the omnibook module. To do this manually, create a script just like this:

surfer@M5MobileMark-II:~$ cd /usr/lib/pm-utils/sleep.d/
surfer@M5MobileMark-II:~$ sudo nano 89bluetooth

Put these lines on the file:

#!/bin/bash
rmmod -f omnibook
modprobe omnibook ectype=14

Save. Set the file to be executables by :

surfer@M5MobileMark-II:~$ sudo chmod 755 89bluetooth

Hopefully, the bluetooth adapter should be able to start after resume

Compiz Fusion

To get desktop effect by compiz, the installed graphic chip driver must support acceleration. This usually means proprietary binary driver from the graphic chip vendor instead the FOSS radeon/radeonhd. There are several tutorial on how to do this floating on the internet. You can get Envy NG to fetch and install the latest binary driver available for you. I choose the Ubuntu way. First open up the Synaptic Package Manager by going to System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager. Go to Settings > Repositories. On the Ubuntu Software Tab, put the checkmark on all of the available box, press close. Next reload synaptic by pressing the reload button. After synaptic is updated, close it. Go to System > Administration > Hardware Drivers. The ATI HD3479 driver should be listed there. Click on the “ATI/AMD propiertary FGLRX graphics driver”, then press the “Activate” button.

Activated AMD/ATI fglrx driver

After the process is done, go to System > Preferences > Appearance. on the Visual Effects tab choose either Normal or Extra. If everything is ok, Compiz should be active immediately. To get the most of Compiz Fusion get the Emerald Theme Manager, Fusion Icon, and the compizconfig-settings-manager. Emerald let you change the windows decorator. Look for themes for emerald here. The Fusion Icon allows you to switch between compiz and metacity without having to resort to opening a console. Lastly, the Compiz Config Manager allow to enable or disable and tweak plethora of Compiz function and setting. To get them, open a console and type:

surfer@M5MobileMark-II:~$apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager emerald fusion-icon

To make sure that the Fusion Icon is loaded every time we login,  go to Setting > Preferences > Session. Add a new session, put “fusion icon” as the name and fill the command with “fusion-icon -n”

Compiz Fusion is done, and now I can enjoy the desktop effect