Ubuntu Lucid Works on the MSI Wind U100

March 9, 2010 by Linerd · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Ubuntu, linux 

The MSI Wind U100 netbook has been plagued by a bug in the Ubuntu Karmic kernel mode setting (KMS) that causes the screen brightness to flicker upon startup. As a result of this, I've been running Ubuntu Jaunty which continues to run well.

This past weekend I decided to download the Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx Alpha3 release and give it a try. I can confirm that based on booting a Live USB, the screen flicker issue has been fixed on the U100. Good news for the MSI Wind owners out there!

So if you're one of the Wind users that's been avoiding the update to Karmic, things are looking good for installing Lucid.

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Enable The RT2860STA Linux Wireless Driver

August 31, 2009 by Linerd · Leave a Comment
Filed under: HowTo, Ubuntu, linux 

I've been using ndiswrapper and the Windows drivers for the Ralink RT2700E wireless card in my MSI Wind U100 432US. It turns our that the kernel included with Ubuntu Jaunty now includes the native Linux driver for this card. I'm not sure when this was added to the kernel, but I'm using version 2.6.28-15.

If you've been using ndiswrapper you'll need to disable it first. This is done by removing the ndiswrapper kernel module using the modprobe command. Open a terminal and enter

sudo rmmod ndiswrapper

You can now try out the RT2860STA driver by enabling the proper kernel module.

sudo modprobe rt2860sta

You should now be able to see a "new" wireless device called ra0 listed in the results of iwconfig.

iwconfig

You'll need to reconnect to your wireless network using Network Manager or whatever tool you use to connect to wifi.

If everything is working OK for you with the new driver, there are a few steps you need to take to make sure the changes hold after a reboot.

Blacklist ndiswrapper

You need to blacklist ndiswrapper to keep the module from loading on the next boot. Edit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

Add this line to the end of the file and save it.

blacklist ndiswrapper

Load the rt2860sta module at Boot Time

Edit /etc/modules to force the rt2860sta driver to be loaded when you boot.

sudo gedit /etc/modules

Add the following and save the file.

# wireless drivers for Ralink 2860
rt2860sta

You are now running your RT2700E wireless card with the native Linux driver.

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