My laptop is a Samsung Q45 which I am very pleased with on the whole.

My operating system of choice is Debian GNU/Linux. Here are my notes about the problems I encountered with trying to run Debian on the Samsung Q45. I will continue to update this page as bugs are fixed, so watch this space...

Freeze during boot

A bug in the Linux kernel causes the system to lock up when the video kernel module is loaded, as happens during system boot. The workaround is to boot the installer using the noacpi kernel parameter, then once the system has been installed, create /etc/modprobe.d/novideo containing blacklist video. This is 475319, filed upstream at http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10448. There is a patch to fix this, but it can not be applied yet because it causes a regression.

According to another user, Samsung's new firmware version 17ST fixes this problem, but I have not confirmed this for myself. Samsung's driver/support website is perpetually broken, but downloads for each category can be found by searching for q45 on their search form: http://www.samsung.com/uk/function/search/resultList.do?searchWord=q45

Suspend/Resume

Suspend/resume works correctly with Linux 2.6.25 and pm-utils 1.1.1 or later.

Earlier versions rely on the use of certain quirks which were added to hal-info on 2008-04-15 (but with a typo that was corrected on 2008-05-23). So if you are using Linux 2.6.24 or earlier, you will need a hal-info package from after that date.

Special keys

Keymap info was added to hal-info on 2008-04-15.

Without the video kernel module, it is not possible to change the brightness of the backlight by pressing the relevant buttons on the keyboard. It is possible to control the backlight with the xbacklight program however. The laptop hardware seems intelligent enough to automatically dim the backlight when on battery power, so this isn't a problem for me.

Video

During installation I ran into 458916 which screwed up the video during the remainder of the installation. Since I am familiar with debian-installer I was able to complete the installation 'blind' (basically by hitting Enter several times). The bug may have been fixed already, since the current xserver-xorg package no longer runs xresprobe to discover the available video modes, but I have not confirmed this.

After installation there was a curious video problem: no text or icons were rendered, although the system was otherwise usable. This is 451791; adding the following two Option lines to xorg.conf fixed it:

An alternative is to add Option "EXANoComposite" "true" instead, but that causes graphical corruption in Mozilla-based web browsers (491871).

After the system has been up for a couple of weeks (via many suspend/resume cycles), running programs that use 3d acceleration causes the laptop to lock up. This is tracked at 481345. Unfortunately it is not easy to reproduce.

Audio

Initially, audio would not come back after a suspend/resume cycle. This is 481613 and is fixed with version 2.6.26 of the Linux kernel.

There are a few bugs in gnome-volume-control and GStreamer that make it awkward to adjust the volume of some of the laptop's audio controls. The problem is that several controls have a common name ('Input Source' and 'Capture'). This is tracked by the following bugs:

Webcam

Works correctly with version 2.6.26 of the Linux kernel. With previous versions, the uvcvideo kernel module can be used (the Debian package is linux-uvc-source).

Wireless networking

The wireless card initially won't work. The following kernel messages are logged:

Work on this is tracked at http://www.intellinuxwireless.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=1650. A workaround is to create the file /etc/modprobe.d/fixwireless containing the following:

Having saved that file, reboot (or reload the iwl3945 kernel module) and the wireless card should work correctly.

Warranty

I purchased an extended warranty, giving me three years of cover. Unfortunately Samsung customer support is terrible; I tried to register the warranty by telephone, only to be told that they do not offer extended warranties at all! Eventually I was escalated to a nice Scottish man who appeared to have a clue, and who took down my details and said that I would receive confirmation by snail mail within four weeks. That was back in April 2008, and I have not received anything yet...

Windows refund

Unfortunately there was no option to buy the laptop without an included copy of Windows Vista.

I wrote to Samsung on 2008-04-27 to enquire about the refund process. I received no reply. I wrote again on 2008-05-23 and have still not received a reply.

Here is a copy of the letter I sent: samsung-vista-refund.odt

Hardware details

lspci -nn output:

lsusb output:

Kernel messages

The contents of /var/log/dmesg after booting with Debian's linux-image-2.6.26-1-amd64 kernel, version 2.6.26-8:

robots.org.uk: SamsungQ45 (last edited 2008-11-01 14:42:33 by sam)

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