Nokia booklet 3g - ArchWiki

# Nokia booklet 3g

The Nokia Booklet 3G is a small, light and nice Netbook with some interesting features:

- Aluminium frame.
- 12h theoretical battery life (actually 8 to 10h of real use in Linux with low screen brightness, which is still nice).
- 1280x720 screen resolution, much better than the normal on other netbooks (1024x600).
- 3G modem, working well with Linux, so you can get connected everywhere.
- GPS
- HDMI output.
- No fans, no noise, moderate hot.
- Bluetooth and wifi integrated.

Most of the hardware of the Booklet if fairly compatible with Arch Linux out of the box. The worst part is always the Intel GMA500 graphics card, with good support for 2D acceleration (general experience is smooth and good), but a total lack of 3D and video acceleration, and some problems with HDMI output and suspend.

Probably the second bad thing is the hard disk speed, but there are some tricks we can do with Arch to improve it.

The volume of the speakers are just incredible low (even at maximum volume). It is recommended to use headphones, both wired and Bluetooth works.

## Install

The installation is fairly standard using a pendrive.

## Graphics Card

See Poulsbo for configuration and options (including brightness control).

HDMI out only works with `modesetting` driver (which is the newer one).

## Hard Disk

The hard disk is stoping the spin very soon, causing a very bad usage experience, specially with firefox (which access the HD very ofen). There is a solution for this using hdparm:

`# pacman -S hdparm`

Now edit `/etc/rc.local` and add:

`hdparm -a 512 -B 255 -S 241 /dev/sda`

Run the command yourself to see the effect inmediatly. Se `hdparm` man page to see possible values, specially for `-S` option.

Note: This may cause a slight decrese in battery life.

## 3G Modem

The modem is working correctly with full speed (7.2mps) and good reception, and the recommended way to manage it is using NetworkManager, because you probably will need to connect or reconnect several times along the day. Also, `nm-applet` indicates the signal strength in its icon.

But sometimes it may stop working correctly, needing a full reboot. This is due to corruption in the BIOS.

To avoid this, edit `/etc/default/grub` and add `memory_corruption_check_size=256K` to `GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX` variable. (Don't forget to update grub with `grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg`).

## Software

Software recommended for this machine is the same recommended for most netbooks:

- xfce4 as a general desktop system is good.
- wmii or awesome are very nice for managing windows. You can combine them both with xfce4 or run alone.
- GNOME or KDE can run, but not smoothly with 3D effects, so it is better to avoid composition.
- NetworkManager is the best to manage the modem and the wifi. Specially, nm-applet can show 3G signal strength in real time.
- firestarterAUR is a very good firewall because it can start and stop when you use the modem, and can share connection by wifi.
- Chromium is preferred over firefox because it feels much faster on Atom procesors.

In general, try to keep simple and avoid bogus applications. Remember that you're running a 1Gb-RAM system with no 3D acceleration with an Atom processor.

## Links

- Linux on the Nokia booklet 3g
- Nokia official support

Category:

- Nokia