Laptop FAQ

All sorts of issues found in regular Build	This is a collection of tips the Build instructors keep in regular Build. Some of it may be useful to Laptop builders.
Laptop won't shut down completely (hangs on power down)	This is an issue that happens to dual core laptops in particular. The problem is that a sound module fails to unload during shut down, preventing the machine from doing so. To fix this you need to remove the sound module in question in the command line terminal. Go to Applications > Accessories > Terminal and type in "sudo gedit /etc/init.d/halt". After the first set of comments (signified by the #) add "rmmod snd_hda_intel". This will remove the troublesome sound module. Alternately, if this doesn't work, try going to "sudo gedit /etc/modules" and adding "apm power_off=1".
Why is the disk imager not working?	If the imager can't find the root partition, chances are it is either a bad hard drive (try another drive first), an improperly connected hard drive, or the little IDE adapter is burned out. They burn out periodically. Check the back of the adapter for burned marks. Ask someone if you are unsure.
Hibernate problems	When a hard drive is moved from one laptop to another, hibernate may fail to work. In at least some cases, this is because the drive is being recognized as /dev/sda, rather than /dev/hda. make sure that the swap partition is a logical partition (not primary) e.g. /dev/sda5 make sure that /etc/fstab shows the swap as the correct device. in /boot/grub/menu.lst make sure that there is the following line. # defoptions=resume=/dev/sda5 run "sudo update-grub" afterwards (might need to run "sudo grub-mkdevicemap" first)
Weirdly large font in login	Login screen looks fine until you put in the username, which is in a huge font (larger than the input field):This is a bug in the X server which reports the screen size as 289x21 mm. In the final sense it is something that will be fixed in a future version of X, but for now there is a workaround. In the "Screen" section of xorg.conf, put in the following line: Option "DDC" "off"
Check the Battery Status	watch cat /proc/acpi/battery/ Sometimes the remainder of the command is BAT0 or BAT1, sometimes it begins with a "C" Trial and error will get you there. You might end up needing to look in "/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/status" or some such place.
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