Recommended subnotebook with good Linux compatibility

[phxx]

Hi,

I recently purchased an Acer Aspire TimelineX 1830TZ which is a pretty cool 11.6" Subnotebook with a ULVP Prozessor (Intel U5400) which means it has a very good battery runtime with about ~8 hours.
But this device had a few issues with running the latest Ubuntu. The following things were broken:

* Changing the brightness of screen backlight (fixed after BIOS update)
* Scrolling with the touchpad
* Wireless keys for deactivating/activating etc - it was always disabled after boot

So ... I'm now on the search for a possible new Subnotebook.
What do you think? Have you suggestions/knowledge about which recent Subnotebooks are working well with a Linux system?
I'm able to do the configuriation/compiling drivers by hand if necessary.

Which brands are known for beeing very good at Linux compatibility?

Thank you so much!

[rohcQaH]

* Scrolling with the touchpad
* Wireless keys for deactivating/activating etc - it was always disabled after boot

Both sound like software issues. I don't think buying new hardware will help, nor is it needed.

For Touchpad scrolling, have you installed and configured the Synaptics drivers? I don't use them, but they sound like they'd solve your issues.

http://tuxmobil.org/touchpad_driver.html

http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Synaptics_Touchpad

Not sure about the rfkill switch. It works fine on my lenovo notebook, but there it's a dedicated toggle switch, not a hotkey. Is there any information in dmesg? Try

dmesg | grep -i rfkill

in a console.

[phxx]

Hi and thanks for your reply.

These issues look, like you say, like software issues ... But infact I tried a few late nights to get these things working. Especially the touchpad thing - and it didn't worked. I checked all driver possibilities and udev configurations but had no luck in getting it working.
Unfortunatelly I already returned it to the vendor. So I cannot keep trying.

I usually don't have these problems with other notebooks I've used yet with Linux -- so there might be also some good opportunities in the subnotebook segment.

[chithanh]

For newer hardware, it sometimes takes a few kernel releases until it is supported properly. Your best bet would be to install a recent kernel (2.6.34 or 2.6.35-rc4) and see if the problems persist.

Unfortunately Ubuntu 10.04 decided to ship a 2.6.32 kernel, so if you plan to buy hardware for Ubuntu 10.04, look for computers that are confirmed to work, or that were on the market for ~6 months prior to 2.6.32 release to be on the safe side.

[bbone]

Your best bet would be to install a recent kernel (2.6.34 or 2.6.35-rc4) and see if the problems persist.

Hi,

you can easily check that by adding the kernel-ppa.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kernel-ppa/ppa
sudo aptitude update

You can now install some newer kernels (but keep in mind that they are not officially supported).

[Zhick]

The Thinkpad X201 supposedly works quite nicely with Linux. And if you're a german student you can even get it without Windows preinstalled. Here's a german blog-entry which describes what works and what doesn't. According to that only the Sleep-button doesn't work out-of-the-box (but emmits a key-event, so it should be possible to make it work) and the Wireless Hotkey only works for turning off.

[phxx]

Thanks again for all your replies.

@bbone: I will definitly check this out next time I buy me a notebook. This might fix some of this issues. I'll test that. Thanks!

@Zhick: The X201 (especially X201s) is amazing!! That might be my next subnotebook. And the best thing: I'm actually a german student :-)
Can you give me a hint where I can purchase the X201(s) without Windows preinstalled? That would be nice. Thanks!

[phxx]

(Sorry for double posting ... but I haven't found an edit button)

To the X201: I already found the "education" version. 999? which is pretty good (but why does Lenovo provide 1280x800 in a 12" display? - some netbooks can do better!)

Notebookreview.com has a review of the X201 line - they say in their specificiations that the X201s was cheaper than the X201.

How is that possible? In Germany X201s costs at minium around ~1800? to 2200?.

[Zhick]

(Sorry for double posting ... but I haven't found an edit button)

Editing is only possible within one minute of posting. That supposedly somehow is necessary to fight spam.

To the X201: I already found the "education" version. 999? which is pretty good (but why does Lenovo provide 1280x800 in a 12" display? - some netbooks can do better!)

Yeah, the (relatively) low resolution and the lack of a digital video-output (it's only got VGA) are also my two biggest complaints with the X201. Still I think I'm going to get one (I'll soon be a german student as well ). A 13-inch modell would be even better imho, but unfortunately Lenovo apparently has no plans to update their X300/X301-series to the new Intel Core CPUs.