Saturday, December 12, 2009

HOWTO : Ubuntu 9.10 on Gigabyte TouchNote T1028X

Hardware configuration

Intel Atom N280 1.6GHz CPU
2GB DDR2 677HMz RAM
250GB 2.5" Hard Drive (Changed to Intel X25-M 80GB SSD)
10.1" Touch screen
PC Express card slot
3 x USB 2.0
All-in-one card reader
Carrying bag

This tablet netbook is in good desgin and quality. It is purchased on 2009-DEC-11 at $4,700-HK with USB mouse and screen protector as gifts. However, the screen protector is a little bit larger than the screen. I also added a Hauwei EM770 3.75G HSDPA modem and changed the hard drive to Intel X25-M 80GB SSD. The total cost is increased to $7,260-HK. Although the price is more or less reached the mid-range notebook level, it is worth to buy. By the way, it is a little bit heavy when holding it with one hand using touch screen feature.

Make sure to update your BIOS to "FC" version as it will activate the Wifi by default. The machine comes with "FB" version of BIOS.

The machine almost works perfectly on Ubuntu 9.10 including HSDPA modem but except touch screen feature. We need to do something to make it work.

Installation of Ubuntu 9.10

Make sure to press F6 on the startup menu and choose "expert mode" and followed by "Esc". Otherwise, your mouse will not work after the boot up.

Append the following line at the end of the command displayed on the screen.

elevator=noop i8042.noloop=1

Install Ubuntu 9.10 as usual. After the first boot up your mouse cannot work. Just follow the steps below to make it work again.

Press Ctrl+Alt+F2. At the command prompt, enter your username and password.

sudo nano /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Locate "linux" tag and append the following at the end of the line.

elevator=noop i8042.noloop=1

Save and reboot your system.

** Note : you need to add the line on every kernel updated.

Configure touch screen

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade


sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-input-evtouch gnome-randr-applet

sudo nano /etc/hal/fdi/policy/evtouch.fdi

Append the following lines.


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<deviceinfo version="0.2">
<device>
<match key="info.product" contains="eGalax Inc. USB TouchController">
<merge key="input.x11_driver" type="string">evtouch</merge>
<merge key="input.x11_options.ReportingMode" type="string">Raw</merge>
<merge key="input.x11_options.Emulate3Buttons" type="string">false</merge>
<merge key="input.x11_options.Emulate3Timeout" type="string">1</merge>
<merge key="input.x11_options.SendCoreEvents" type="string">On</merge>
<merge key="input.x11_options.MinX" type="string">0</merge>
<merge key="input.x11_options.MinY" type="string">2</merge>
<merge key="input.x11_options.MaxX" type="string">4096</merge>
<merge key="input.x11_options.MaxY" type="string">4096</merge>
</match>
</device>
</deviceinfo>


Reboot your system.

After booting up, go to "System" - "Administration" - "Calibrate Screen" and follow the instruction on screen to calibrate the screen.

Screen Rotation

You can rotate your screen on demand by Gnome Randr Applet. However, it cannot rotate your screen automatically.

Make Firefox work better

Install "Grab and Drag" add-on.

"Grab and Drag" add-on demo on Youtube.

That's all. See you!