ultranote II : which linux ?

[carmelo]

Hello,

I just bought this laptop :

Ultranote II
core i7
16 Gb
1 To SSD
15,6" IPS MATE

I will install Linux on this machine, but I want to know which one for best hardware support.

Is there anyone here who has already installed linux on it ?

I will use this laptop at work for :

- VM (linux vm, windows vm, with VMware workstation or KVM or virtualbox)
- Libre office work and Microsoft work with wine
- lots of terminal stuff (vim, ssh, ...)

I want to be able to use suspend and hibernation, wireless, bluetooth (I own BT mouse).

Thanks a lot

Carmelo

 

[hogfish]

Yes. It sounds as if I have the same machine including cpu, memory and I have an MX100 Crucial SSD.

I am using debian testing.

I have had a few teething problems which I am working around. See my other posts.

The only outstanding problem which I have not yet investigated is a problem with Wifi. But note that I choose the non-standard

02:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Wireless 7260 (rev 73)
Subsystem: Intel Corporation Wireless-N 7260

because I have legacy devices on my network. It is using the
iwlwifi driver ATM.

I have not tested bluetooth (no devices here), nor suspend and hibernation which don't seem to be very relevant with an SSD.

If you need any advice feel free to send me a message. I don't visit the forum very often.

 

[batfastad]

As someone who's been using Linux on servers for a long time but only started using it for full-time desktop use in the past 2-3 years, I've always found Ubuntu and its derivatives have broader hardware support.

Note that I'm in the process of researching the Linux support on these machines myself so I can't comment on any of these machines specifically. Up until recently was using a Lenovo ThinkPad with an AMD Turion Neo X2 chipset, which was usually stable with Linux although some things just refused to work. Closing the lid always triggered suspend and disabling/re-enabling bluetooth caused lock-ups etc.

I would generally recommend Ubuntu or Linux Mint as the first port of call. My desktop of choice is XFCE so I usually go with Mint+XFCE or Xubuntu.
In my experience any other distro is going to need more work to get fully functional.

On another note, I am a fan of debian testing but generally only use that for home server stuff with RHEL/CentOS for public-facing servers.

 

[hogfish]

The only outstanding problem which I have not yet investigated is a problem with Wifi.

Update: wifi is now working. I think that the iwlwifi driver may have been updated since the original tests.

 

[ajgreeny]

I have just this morning finished installing Xubuntu 14.04.1 and getting all my wife's files and folders from /home on her old laptop into the new /home of an Ultranote with the following specs:-

Chassis & Display UltraNote: 15.6" Matte Full HD IPS LED Backlit Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i3 Dual Core Mobile Processor i3-4100M (2.50GHz) 3MB
Memory (RAM) 4GB KINGSTON SODIMM DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 4GB)
Graphics Card INTEL® HD GRAPHICS MEDIA ACCELERATOR 4600
Memory - Hard Disk 500GB SERIAL ATA II 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (5,400rpm)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive UltraNote Series: 8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Memory Card Reader Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)
Thermal Paste STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Bluetooth & Wireless GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® N-7260 (300Mbps, 802.11BGN) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options 2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Battery UltraNote Series 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (62.16WH) (Up to 7 Hours)
Power Lead & Adaptor 1 x UK Power Lead & 65W AC Adaptor
Keyboard Language ULTRANOTE SERIES UK KEYBOARD
Notebook Mouse INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Warranty 3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)

Everything is working superbly at the moment and I have not yet found anything that gives me cause for the slightest concern. I had some reservations about the Intel wifi prior to purchase as there were some problems at the start of the 14.04 *ubuntu versions with no firmware for the wifi chip being installed by default. That now would appear to be a thing of the past as the machine found and uses our wifi at full speed with no difficulty.

I installed in UEFI mode, as I did my desktop machine from PCS 18 months ago, and at the first attempt I forgot to setup the small EFI partition, and tried to use an msdos partition table instead of gtp at the first attempt, which led to the bootloader not finding a hard disk. I quickly realised what I'd done and put it right. The OS installed in about 15 mins.

Brilliant machine! The display is astoundingly good after being used to a standard definition of 1440x900 on the old laptop, and all the hardware is working wonderfully, so you will not be surprised if I recommend one of the *ubuntu family of OSs for your machine.

 

[carmelo]

thanks ajgreeny

I currently have Ubuntu 14.10 on the laptop, but I have changed the wlan card because the one that camed from PCSpecialist was a mess with linux ...

Do you have installed some kind of power management / fan control customisation ?

I have disabled the UEFI, what are advantages to keep it enabled ?

Thanks !

 

[ajgreeny]

No real advantages to UEFI that I have seen other than being more up-to-date, so to speak. Some say it is a bit faster though I have not seen any major differences, though I have not run this machine without UEFI so can't really compare. However, I am now reasonably comfortable with UEFI when there is no dual booting to mess around with, which fits me very well now as I have not had Windows for several years and don't miss it one iota. Actually that is slightly wrong as I have a VM of WinXP which I have to use to update my satnav (TomTom Start 25) which, surprise, surprise, will not work with Linux.

I have no power-management other than the xfce4-power-manager that comes standard with Xubuntu, and so far it has not needed any extra fan control; it is actually very quiet and runs very cool.

One thing missing from this machine is an indicator light for when Caps-lock is on, which can be a bit annoying. I am looking for some way of showing this and if I find something useful I'll report back.

What wireless card did you choose? I have the GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® N-7260 (300Mbps, 802.11BGN) + BLUETOOTH which worked at full speed out of the box with 14.04.1.

 

[matbla984]

I just installed Centos7 without a hitch - except couldn't get a 2nd monitor to do anything expect replicate the laptop screen.

 

[Tony1044]

I've always liked CentOS - it's a clean install.

Mint is always a good choice with a lot of wide hardware support and an interface close enough to Windows (if you're coming from that route) that it won't confuse too much...however...I've had issues with Mint in virtualised environments (VMWare Workstation and Oracle VirtualBox when both Hypervisors were run under Windows).

Why not download a few live CD's and give some flavours a try?