Zepto Znote 6024W laptop

So I got a new laptop, a Zepto Znote 6024W.

I got it with 2GB of RAM, a 7200RPM 120GB harddisk, 1440×900 screen, 2.4GHz Intel Core Duo CPU, and Intel Pro/Wireless 4965AGN.

First overall impressions are quite good. The good stuff:

• Everything seems to work out-of-the-box with Ubuntu Hardy.
• You can customize the configuration when you order it, so you don’t have to pay (money and power wise) for stuff you do not need. This includes the Operating System, so no Microsoft tax (I would probably have gotten a Thinkpad if I could have found a place to buy it without Windows).
• The machine feels fairly small, and not too heavy.
• The machine feels generally quite fast.
• It has 4 USB ports (my old one had only two).
• The mains adapter is two-legged with the cord on top, so should fit everywhere (for some reason it is quite common to get three-legged plugs which only fit in some sockes, and with a bent cord so it only fits at the ends of a multi-connector extension cable).

Some bad points:

• There is no DVI-B output (only VGA). A bit sad, since I will use it with a big external monitor maybe 90% of the time.
• Keyboard feels a bit uncomfortable (but then all laptop keybords do, I mostly use an external USB keyboard and mouse).
• Fan tends to spin up and down all the time.
• The machine seems to run quite hot.

Zepto (www.zepto.dk) is a Danish company I believe, but it seems they deliver to several other contries as well.

Installation

I first went into the BIOS to see what was there. I only made a few changes:

• Advanced / Installed OS: Changed from “WinXP” to “Other”.
• Advanced / Large disk access mode: Changed from “DOS” to “Other”.

Not sure exactly what these do, or if the changes even have any effect…

Next, I went on to install Ubuntu Hardy. I choose the 64-bit version. Let’s face it, the 32-bit days are over, some people also ran DOS on their shiny new 386 computers back then. Besides, I need the 64-bit capabilities for some of my projects. Java and Flash Firefox plugins will suffer… I will probably install a 32-bit KVM guest later just to get the internet banking working.

For some reason I hate juggling with CDs/DVDs, so I always do a network install. The BIOS was already configured to boot from network.

To do a network installation, I use another existing linux host which I set up as follows:

1. Connect an ethernet cross-cable from a spare ethernet port to the machine to be installed.
2. sudo apt-get install dhcp3-server
3. Edit /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf, add this:
       subnet 10.10.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
        range 10.10.0.10 10.10.0.245;
        option routers 10.10.0.1;
    }
    filename="pxelinux.0";
4. sudo ifconfig eth0 10.10.0.1 netmask 255.255.255.0
5. sudo /etc/init.d/dhcp3-server start
6. sudo apt-get install tftpd-hpa
7. sudo sh -c 'echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward '
8. Set up reverse route in main router/firewall (this is needed so that when the machine to be installed uses a 10.10.0.x address to contact the Internet, the ADSL router will know how to route return packets back through the helper host to the machine).
9. Download these files from http://mirror.uni-c.dk/pub/ubuntu/dists/hardy/main/installer-amd64/20070308ubuntu40/images/netboot/ into /var/lib/tftp-boot/:
       pxelinux.0
    ubuntu-installer/amd64/initrd.gz
    ubuntu-installer/amd64/linux
    ubuntu-installer/amd64/boot-screens/f7.txt
    ubuntu-installer/amd64/boot-screens/f9.txt
    ubuntu-installer/amd64/boot-screens/boot.txt
    ubuntu-installer/amd64/boot-screens/f6.txt
    ubuntu-installer/amd64/boot-screens/f5.txt
    ubuntu-installer/amd64/boot-screens/f4.txt
    ubuntu-installer/amd64/boot-screens/f1.txt
    ubuntu-installer/amd64/boot-screens/f2.txt
    ubuntu-installer/amd64/boot-screens/f10.txt
    ubuntu-installer/amd64/boot-screens/f8.txt
    ubuntu-installer/amd64/boot-screens/f3.txt
    pxelinux.cfg/default

With these preparations done, just boot the new machine to be installed. It will boot from network into the installer and download everything needed to finish the install.

Customization

After installation, I did some customization to get the machine into a comfortable state for me to work on:

• Install some extra programs:
   sudo apt-get install fvwm build-essentials emacs21 gnus emacs-goodies-el xchat
    sudo apt-get install twinkle imagemagick gnus-doc emacs21-common-non-dfsg liferea
    sudo apt-get build-dep mysql-server-5.0
• Setup the X server for dual-head operation, fix the useless caps lock key to be a control key, and disable Ctrl-Alt-Backspace killing the session:
      --- xorg.conf 2008/06/05 15:16:01 1.1
    +++ xorg.conf 2008/06/05 19:36:38 1.2
    @@ -20,6 +20,7 @@
       Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
       Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
       Option "XkbLayout" "us"
    +  Option "XkbOptions" "ctrl:nocaps"
     EndSection

     Section "InputDevice"
    @@ -30,19 +31,35 @@
     Section "Device"
       Identifier "Configured Video Device"
    +  Option "Monitor-LVDS" "Internal Panel"
    +  Option "Monitor-VGA" "External VGA Monitor"
     EndSection

     Section "Monitor"
       Identifier "Configured Monitor"
     EndSection

    +Section "Monitor"
    +  Identifier "Internal Panel"
    +EndSection
    +
    +Section "Monitor"
    +  Identifier "External VGA Monitor"
    +  Option "RightOf" "Internal Panel"
    +EndSection
    +
     Section "Screen"
       Identifier "Default Screen"
       Monitor "Configured Monitor"
       Device "Configured Video Device"
    +  SubSection "Display"
    +    Depth 24
    +    Virtual 3040 1200
    +  EndSubSection
     EndSection

     Section "ServerLayout"
       Identifier "Default Layout"
       Screen "Default Screen"
    +  Option "DontZap" "on"
     EndSection
• Copy over my old homedir to get customizations included. I have a lot of those, and seems they all basically work! That’s pretty good considering that I copied from 32-bit into 64-bit linux. I did had to tweak my FVWM configuration slightly, since apparently screen 0 and 1 are reversed compared to my old setup.

That’s about it, I think. MySQL server 6.0 full “make” (./configure --plugins=max) runs in 7 minutes, which is quite respectable (my old laptop spent I think over 25 minutes on that).