Laptop

= Laptop Special Interest Group =

Mission
Goal: To improve the Fedora Laptop experience and make more stable, flexible and usable over time.

Members

 * Jonathan Blandford
 * Florian Festi
 * Richard Hughes
 * Peter Jones
 * Phil Knirsch
 * Florian La Roche
 * David Zeuthen
 * Marek Mahut
 * Huzaifa Sidhpurwala

Important Links

 * /HotKey sub-page
 * http://people.freedesktop.org/~hughsient/quirk/
 * T60 would only suspend with kernel option "acpi_sleep=s3_bios"
 * Fedora 8 Laptop Improvements

Tasks
some hardware to work with workarounds for a given model and be able to submit that easily to bugzilla
 * General:
 * Summarize the hard/software items that are already know to work
 * Make a FAQ with info on how to fix some common problems or how to get
 * Possible to autodetect timezone (probably not)
 * Improve documentation for the various user level parts (g-p-m etc.)
 * Tool to gather information what kind of suspend/hibernate methods work
 * Make Fedora LiveCD work nicely on laptops, too
 * Custom DSDT support
 * "Airplane" support: Be able to enable/disable radio/tv recivers via a UI

what we can do on servers.
 * Storage:
 * Removable:
 * Support all kinds of removable storage
 * Make the behaviour of the various storages consistent and similar to


 * Filesystems:
 * Encrypted filesystems (in case laptops get stolen etc)
 * (Enable NTFS read support (check legal for that))


 * Backup:
 * Support or do something similar to iDisk

allowed to use this device (e.g. updates over GPRS isn't a real good idea ;).
 * Network:
 * Configuration:
 * Add a checkbox for each device if "automated services" should be
 * Allow more secure setup for WiFi networks (if anything is missing)
 * Possible automatic detection of network printers and http proxies
 * Bring back the idea of profiles (based on available interfaces etc)


 * WiFi:
 * Automatic detection of new networks
 * In UI sort by radar strength
 * Have checkbox to filter out any networks (pw protected ones etc)
 * Remove multiple SSID's by ALT selection and delete

http://fedoramobile.org/fc-wireless/bcm43xx-yum-livna/
 * Drivers:
 * Improve Wireless drivers support, add more Open Source drivers
 * Improve AC97 modem support

just works with mobile phones
 * Bluetooth:
 * Automate bluetooth setup as much as possible
 * Make it easier to configure bluetooth and have a default config which
 * Automatic device discovery and setup (especially phones)


 * GPRS:
 * Automated setup for GPRS/3G cards (typically USB or USB/serial cards)
 * Easy configuration for internet
 * Dialer scripts
 * Know magic gprs numbers
 * Add SyncE projec? http://synce.sourceforge.net/synce/howto.php

savings and disableing of certain services. connectivity (e.g. sendmail up to 1 minutes, other 10-15s)
 * Services:
 * Proper selection of services for laptops, combined with power
 * Proper restart, depending on network connectivity after resume
 * Make sure service (re)starts don't hang when there is no network


 * DNS:
 * Automatically use cachine DNS server locally?


 * LDAP:
 * Integration with stored/cached password when offline

switches closing the lid (Some FS laptops)
 * Graphics:
 * Monitor:
 * Support dual monitor/head mode
 * Allow runtime switch from single to dual head and general display
 * Fix problem when booting with closed lid (not configured properly)
 * Fix problem of laptop starting up after doing a suspend and then
 * Make native resolutions selectable on several laptops (Dell etc.)
 * Detect plugin/plugout of monitors properly and react properly


 * X11:
 * Fix problem with network changes while X11 is running


 * Drivers:
 * Make display switching more stable
 * Sync problems on some FS laptops on external displays
 * Autodetection of video and s-video outputs (where possible)


 * Sound:
 * Drivers:
 * Better driver support for some models (Dell)

power saving things
 * Power:
 * UI:
 * ACPID configuration tool
 * UI to select cpuspeed strategies
 * Easy to switch profiles for power saving in general
 * Add configurable suspend/hibernate actions for for lid close
 * Allow max power saving to be used when running low on battery
 * Finer grained control via UI to enable/disable certain aspects of


 * Saving:
 * Choice of different strategies for cpuspeed daemon
 * Make more services and demons "power" aware (HAL, prelink, cron etc)
 * Look into the acpi-sbs project and whats worth integrating
 * Support suspend2 http://www.suspend2.net/
 * Configurable shutdown of unused devices/peripherals
 * Include s2ram? http://en.opensuse.org/S2ram


 * ACPI:
 * ACPI support for more devices (e.g. harddisks)

initialized/deinitalized properly
 * Docking:
 * Dock/undock:
 * Make sure no reboots are needed for all common services
 * On some laptops during plugin/plugout of the laptops devices won't get


 * Mouse:
 * Touchpad:
 * Improve behaviour of some drivers (Compaq 2209, IBM T42, Synaptics)
 * Being able to turn on/off the touchpad

the proper ACPI events depending on manufactor/model - see /HotKeys
 * Keyboard:
 * Keys:
 * Support special keys and suspend/resume keys that don't generate

some laptops
 * External:
 * Fix bug with numlock and plugging in/out the external keyboard on


 * Software:
 * Installation:
 * Allow installation and booting from external USB/Firewire drives.

during install time (or make the accessible later easier with pirut or firstboot) desktop machines a laptop install which contains the typical laptop packages
 * Packages:
 * Know about hardware specific packages and possibly installed them
 * Trim memory use on laptops as they tend to have less memory than
 * During install either have a specific Laptop group or at the start
 * Include laptop_mode tools? http://www.xs4all.nl/~bsamwel/laptop_mode/

invitations, synchronication, offline mode etc)
 * Groupware:
 * Calender tool with typical groupware functionality (groups,


 * Mail:
 * Improve offline support for email clients:
 * Schedule creation of new folders offline
 * Sync emails before going offline


 * Updates:
 * Have a notify icon if updates are available


 * Repo management
 * List of packages from repos (yumex or pirut)

machine (keywords: rsync or similar)
 * Data:
 * Make it easier to keep data in sync between a laptop and a home
 * Allow signaling apps to save modified work (e.g. for remote reboots)

FAQ
Q: I'm having problems with suspend/hibernate on my laptop. What can i do?

A: We're currently looking into makeing this more realiable for a larger range of laptops. Also we hope to provide a test tool soon with which you can run some tests on your laptop to figure out how to do proper suspend/hibernate on your specific machine.

Q: I have a laptop with Dritek hotkeys, how can i make them work?

A: For several laptops who use those there is a package available here which might help: http://www.haxxed.com/code/dritek-tool-0.1.tar.bz2

Status

 * 06/13/2006: Start of the SIG page.
 * 06/14/2006: Start collecting ideas/features.
 * 06/21/2006: First update of tasks, still in the process of filtering out

Mailinglist
Feel free to join our mailinglist at http://lists.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/laptop