Asus X83VB-X1 Running Linux 64-bit Kubuntu Intrepid Ibex 8.10
I've been searching around for a new laptop for a while. I was torn between the new macbooks, old macbook pros, and the usual stuff from dell. There were various deals going on that were, for better or worse, too rich for my blood.
Well, this morning I noted that best buy had put an Asus Laptop/Notebook at a very good price. This machine included Intel Centrino 5800 duo core at 2.0 GHz, 4 GB RAM, 250 GB disk, and Nvidia 9300M GS with 512 MB dedicated memory, LED display, etc. for $699. That's a lot of hardware for the money. I needed a 64 bit machine with 4 GB RAM as I've been doing a lot of building custom ubuntu derivatives and work in vmware and virtual box.
I searched high and low and couldn't find much in the way of success stories with this machine, particularly with ubuntu linux. I did as much research as I could and finally gave up, drove to the best buy with a kubuntu disk in my pocket, walked up to the machine, looked around, jammed it in the cd drive (to my amazement, it wasn't locked down), and rebooted it. The live CD came up with no problems, long enough for me to open a console, confirm that everything was working, and do an lspci noting the wireless chipset, etc.
I then pulled the disk out and rebooted the machine (just before the best buy kid walked up), went onto the web via my G1, googled for the intel 5100 wireless and discovered that it was supported with the new .27 kernel under intrepid. So I bought one, brought it home, installed the intrepid version of Kubuntu after noting that the ubuntu and kubuntu intrepid live CDs both showed problems which seemed to be related to a problem with the CD drive, lots of squashfs errors after the dekstop loaded properly. It was very strange because there wasn't a single problem until I tried to run the apps from the desktop and in both ubuntu and kubuntu live, apps wouldn't run, despite the desktop being perfectly functional.
So I did the full install to disk and I'm pleased to report that everthing is fine. I'm quite happy with the machine now though I haven't had a chance to test everything out yet, but the screen, video, network, etc. are working great. It's a fast machine, for sure.
One thing to note is that with the 64-bit build of firefox, you can use the 32-bit version of flash. I did the following:
UPDATE
Today I downloaded the official release of Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex and I'm pleased to report that after doing a clean install on the Asus X83VB-X1, everything works including touchpad, wireless, sound, CD-ROM drive (see comment from thafreak below), nvidia proprietary drivers, everything. I was on the fence about keeping this laptop, but I've decided it is the best linux laptop you can buy for $699. Run, don't walk to the local best buy and get yourself one.
Well, this morning I noted that best buy had put an Asus Laptop/Notebook at a very good price. This machine included Intel Centrino 5800 duo core at 2.0 GHz, 4 GB RAM, 250 GB disk, and Nvidia 9300M GS with 512 MB dedicated memory, LED display, etc. for $699. That's a lot of hardware for the money. I needed a 64 bit machine with 4 GB RAM as I've been doing a lot of building custom ubuntu derivatives and work in vmware and virtual box.
I searched high and low and couldn't find much in the way of success stories with this machine, particularly with ubuntu linux. I did as much research as I could and finally gave up, drove to the best buy with a kubuntu disk in my pocket, walked up to the machine, looked around, jammed it in the cd drive (to my amazement, it wasn't locked down), and rebooted it. The live CD came up with no problems, long enough for me to open a console, confirm that everything was working, and do an lspci noting the wireless chipset, etc.
I then pulled the disk out and rebooted the machine (just before the best buy kid walked up), went onto the web via my G1, googled for the intel 5100 wireless and discovered that it was supported with the new .27 kernel under intrepid. So I bought one, brought it home, installed the intrepid version of Kubuntu after noting that the ubuntu and kubuntu intrepid live CDs both showed problems which seemed to be related to a problem with the CD drive, lots of squashfs errors after the dekstop loaded properly. It was very strange because there wasn't a single problem until I tried to run the apps from the desktop and in both ubuntu and kubuntu live, apps wouldn't run, despite the desktop being perfectly functional.
So I did the full install to disk and I'm pleased to report that everthing is fine. I'm quite happy with the machine now though I haven't had a chance to test everything out yet, but the screen, video, network, etc. are working great. It's a fast machine, for sure.
One thing to note is that with the 64-bit build of firefox, you can use the 32-bit version of flash. I did the following:
- Install 64-bit firefox from the package manager.
- Install nspluginwrapper from the package manager.
- Download the latest version of flash for x86.
- Unpack it to your favorite location.
- mkdir sudo /usr/lib/browser-plugins,
- sudo cp libflashplayer.so /usr/lib/browser-plugins/.
- nspluginwrapper -i /usr/lib/browser-plugins/libflashplayer.so
- Restart the firefox and the flash player will be working as normal.
UPDATE
Today I downloaded the official release of Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex and I'm pleased to report that after doing a clean install on the Asus X83VB-X1, everything works including touchpad, wireless, sound, CD-ROM drive (see comment from thafreak below), nvidia proprietary drivers, everything. I was on the fence about keeping this laptop, but I've decided it is the best linux laptop you can buy for $699. Run, don't walk to the local best buy and get yourself one.
posted by David Watson at
11:51 PM
15 Comments:
Thanks for this! I'm looking at that same computer from best buy, and was concerned about getting ubuntu to work on it. Out of curiosity, what kind of manufacturer's warranty does it come with? Because I couldn't seem to see anything about it on the website.
It seems like a beast with the Core 2, 4 Gb of RAM, and the video card. Think I might have to get it, because my 4 year old Dell took a crap...
Indeed, the only problem I've had thus far is that I can't seem to get the cd/dvd drive to write consistently on kubuntu intrepid with k3b. I did get it to write once with cdrecord from the command line, but whenever k3b hangs, the drive is borked such that I have to reboot to get it to eject and a soft reboot doesn't work - I have to power off completely. I'm gonna load ubuntu intrepid and see if that behavior is any different. But yes, my general impression is that it's a good, fast solid machine. The screen in particular is wonderful and the wireless inits properly with no configuration out of the box with intrepid.
As for the warranty, I haven't been able to find any statement about the warranty anywhere in the printed docs that came with the unit. Sigh.
Hmmm, I think there must be a manufacturers warranty. At least it seems that way from the Asus website.
How is the screen? It's listed as being LED. Is it as bright as they say?
I just bought this as well. I too am having issues with the cd drive. I even had trouble installing ubuntu from cd.
I'm wondering if it's something to do with the sata chipset or something.
Also, do you use virtualization at all? Does your cpuinfo list vmx in the flags?
I'm waiting to hear from asus tech support on it.
I had the same problem with my cdrom. I set the sata mode to compatible in the bios, and the cdwriter works fine now.
Have you been able to use the hardware virt? I'm not seeing vmx in the cpu flags, and kvm-intel module won't load.
I'm thinking there needs to be a bios update to enable it.
@thafreak:
Thanks so much for the cd-rom comment! I hadn't gotten it working but I'm going to try the bios flag now.
I am about to install virtual box and give it a whirl so no report yet.
@jesse:
The LED screen is absolutely head and shoulders above any LCD I've used - bright, clear, wonderful.
The only complaint I' have about this machine at this point might be that the keyboard's a bit clacky around the tab key and the mouse buttons are so stiff as to be unusable. I'm actually learning to tap on the touchpad as a result or use an external mouse. But it's a great machine - I love it.
Thanks for the Flash Thanks and cd-rom tips, they both worked great (oh by the way I made the purchase and have ubuntu up and running after some frustrating crashes during install). Just to warn you, there seems to be a bug with this architecture that causes havoc when the laptop goes into suspend mode. Basically, the filesystem gets shredded and upon reboot GRUB gives an error and you are pretty much hosed. Happened to me (thankfully right after install so no big deal),
and lots of other folks too!
I just disabled the suspend and hibernate options so that it wouldn't happen again.
That's odd. I wonder what the difference is? I'm running Ubuntu Intrepid 64-bit and I have suspend on a half hour cycle such that it goes into and out of suspend several times a day and I've never had problem with the suspend or hibernate. There must be some difference in the mix. You're not running 32-bit Intrepid are you?
Nope, I'm running 64-bit Intrepid Ubuntu. That is odd that you haven't had any problems, because it happened to me the first time I put it into suspend mode... I wonder what the difference could be, or if that is actually what happened to my machine.
But other than that the Intrepid install was flawless, and everything seems to work.
I have tested this laptop on Fedora and that bug #203537 is nonexistant. So I am just gonna guess it was Ubuntu?
Hi there. I just bthis same machine, everything works fine for me except sound. I cannot play sound or hear sound. What did you do to get sound working for this laptop?
@Walter, did you check the volume settings on all of the sound devices in the control panel?
Yes I checked David. It seems there is some bug or issue with the sound driver as it pertains with alsa. I have been trying to swtich b/w pulse audio, alsa, oss, but no luck with hearing sound.
Onething I am curious, how do you unmute in alsamixer?
David, indirectly you saved my bacon. lol. I decided to reinstall, but this time it was Ubuntu Intrepid instead of Hardy. Everything works great now. I had the ALC663 realtek
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home