Samsung Series 5 Ultra 530U3C-A02PT

This is an article about running Gentoo on a Samsung Series 5 Ultra 530U3C-A02PT.

Product page (in Portuguese): https://www.samsung.com/pt/consumer/monitor-peripherals-printer/notebook/ultra-portable/NP530U3C-A02PT

Preamble / Special Requirements

The current setup was designed for a working laptop with a focus on performance ~~and security~~. It features:

Optimizations for a Solid State Disk (SSD)
~~Full disk encryption~~ This requirement was dropped due to a lack of performance and increased complexity. May be enabled later by using Full Disk Encryption (dm-crypt/luks) or encrypted home.

Note
The original 500GB HDD was replaced by a 120GB SSD so some options (filesystem, /var/tmp location, etc.) were taken to reflect this change.

Hardware

Laptop Specifications

Hardware Summary and Support Status
Type	Device	Model	Support	Driver
Processor	Processor	Intel Core i5-3317U CPU @ 1.70GHz	Full	acpi-cpufreq
	Power Management	ACPI	Full	i2c-i801
	PCI Express Bus	7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller	Full	pcieport
Storage	Hard Disk	7 Series Chipset Family 6-port SATA Controller [AHCI mode]	Full	ahci
Video Chipset	Discrete GPU	3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller	Full	i915
Input	Keyboard	-	Full	evdev
	Touchpad	-	Partial	synaptics
Network	Gigabit Ethernet	RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller	Full	r8169
	802.11n Wifi	Centrino Advanced-N 6235	Full	iwlwifi
Sound	HD Audio	7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller	Full	snd_hda_intel
Peripheral	USB 3.0	7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB xHCI Host Controller	Full	xhci
	USB 2.0	7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller	Full	ehci_hcd
	Webcam	WebCam SC-13HDL12131N	Full	uvcvideo
	Brightness Sensor	-	?
	Info LEDs	-	?

SSD Specifications

The SSD is a 120GB Intel® Solid-State Drive 330 Series.

Capacity: 120 GB
Components:
- Intel® 25nm NAND Flash Memory
- Multi-Level Cell (MLC)
Form Factor: 2.5-inch
Thickness: 9.5 mm
Weight: Up to 80 grams
SATA 6Gb/s Bandwidth Performance (Iometer Queue Depth 32)
- Sustained Sequential Read: 500 MB/s
- Sustained Sequential Write: 450 MB/
Read and Write IOPS1(Iometer Queue Depth 32)
- Random 4 KB Reads: 42,000 IOPS
- Random 4 KB Writes: 52,000 IOPS
Compatibility
- Intel® SSD Toolbox with Intel® SSD Optimizer
- Intel® Data Migration Software
- Intel® Rapid Storage Technology
- Intel® 6 Series Express Chipsets (with SATA 6Gb/s)
- SATA Revision 3.0
- ACS-2 (ATA/ATAPI Command Set 2)
- Limited SMART ATA feature set
- Native Command Queuing (NCQ) command set
- Data Set Management Command Trim attribute
Power Management
- 5 V SATA Supply Rail— SATA Link Power Management (LPM)
Power
- Active (MobileMark* 2007 Workload): 850 mW (TYP)
- Idle: 600 mW (TYP)
Temperature
- Operating: 0o C to 70o C
- Non-Operating: -55o C to 95o C

cpuinfo

root #cat /proc/cpuinfo

processor       : 0
vendor_id       : GenuineIntel
cpu family      : 6
model           : 58
model name      : Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3317U CPU @ 1.70GHz
stepping        : 9
microcode       : 0x12
cpu MHz         : 1701.000
cache size      : 3072 KB
physical id     : 0
siblings        : 4
core id         : 0
cpu cores       : 2
apicid          : 0
initial apicid  : 0
fpu             : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level     : 13
wp              : yes
flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx rdtscp lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl xtopology nonstop_tsc aperfmperf pni pclmulqdq dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm pcid sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic popcnt tsc_deadline_timer aes xsave avx f16c rdrand lahf_lm ida arat epb xsaveopt pln pts dtherm tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid fsgsbase smep erms
bogomips        : 3393.62
clflush size    : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes   : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

Note
I've omitted remaining 3 processor entries for brevity.

lspci

root #lspci -nn

00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation 3rd Gen Core processor DRAM Controller [8086:0154] (rev 09)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller [8086:0166] (rev 09)
00:14.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB xHCI Host Controller [8086:1e31] (rev 04)
00:16.0 Communication controller [0780]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1 [8086:1e3a] (rev 04)
00:1a.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 [8086:1e2d] (rev 04)
00:1b.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller [8086:1e20] (rev 04)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 1 [8086:1e10] (rev c4)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 4 [8086:1e16] (rev c4)
00:1d.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #1 [8086:1e26] (rev 04)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation HM76 Express Chipset LPC Controller [8086:1e59] (rev 04)
00:1f.2 SATA controller [0106]: Intel Corporation 7 Series Chipset Family 6-port SATA Controller [AHCI mode] [8086:1e03] (rev 04)
00:1f.3 SMBus [0c05]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller [8086:1e22] (rev 04)
01:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Intel Corporation Centrino Advanced-N 6235 [8086:088e] (rev 24)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller [10ec:8168] (rev 06)

lsusb

root #lsusb

Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 003 Device 003: ID 15ca:00c3 Textech International Ltd. Mini Optical Mouse
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 152d:2329 JMicron Technology Corp. / JMicron USA Technology Corp. JM20329 SATA Bridge
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 2232:1035  
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 8087:07da Intel Corp

Installing Gentoo

Booting the CD USB

This laptop doesn't include a CDROM drive so you must either install a LiveCD into a USB thumb drive (LiveUSB) or borrow an external CDROM drive. If you opt to use a USB stick SystemRescueCD has a guide about creating a LiveUSB .

Now plug your LiveUSB, change BIOS boot order by pressing F2 and follow the instructions in the Gentoo Linux AMD64 Handbook. Come back to this guide when configuring the kernel or adjusting make.conf.

Partitioning

Some remarks before launching GParted:

I've replaced the original Hitachi 500GB HDD with a 120GB SSD.
This laptop is bundled with an internal 24GB SanDisk SSD ExpressCache. ExpressCache is a software layer that caches HDD reads/writes with a small SSD boosting the OS (Windows 7) performance.
I'll be using the HDD connected via USB when emerging packages because that's where /var/tmp/portage and /usr/portage/distfiles will reside.

Partition Alignment for SSD

You may already notice all the fuss around [how important is to properly align SSD partitions. To achieve this the simply answer is: use a tool like GParted and select MiB alignment to start and end on precise mebibyte (1,048,576 byte) boundaries. Yan Li's Easy way to align Linux partitions for SSD and myths debunked corroborates the GParted statement.

Partitioning Scheme

Using the setup above we now have the following disk identifiers.

sda - Intel 120GB SSD
sdb - SanDisk 24GB SSD (ExpressCache)
sdc - Hitachi 500GB HDD

Disk	Partition	Size	Starts at	Description	Mount point
sda	sda1	128 Mib	1 MiB	Boot partition	/boot
	sda2	? GiB	? MiB	Linux root partition	/
	sda3	40.00 GiB	? MiB	Windows 7 (original install)	/mnt/windows
sdb	sdb1	? GiB	? GiB	Used by Diskeeper's ExpressCache
	sdb2	? GiB	? MiB	Used by Intel Rapid Start Technology to allow Win7 to save its state
	sdb3	6.1 GiB	? GiB	Linux swap. I've used the same size as RAM (plus 100MiB) to allow hibernation.

Filesystems and fstab

FILE /etc/fstabStatic information about the filesystems

# <fs>                  <mountpoint>    <type>          <opts>                                  <dump/pass>
/dev/sda1               /boot           ext4            noauto,noatime,nodiratime,discard       1 2
/dev/sda2               /               ext4            noatime,nodiratime,discard              0 1
/dev/sdb3               none            swap            sw                                      0 0
/dev/sdc3               /mnt/hdd        ext4            defaults,noatime                        0 2
tmpfs                   /tmp            tmpfs           nodev,nosuid,size=1G                    0 0

Kernel configuration

First install kernel sources of your liking. I'm using reliable gentoo-sources.

root #emerge gentoo-sources

make.conf

FILE /etc/portage/make.confCustom settings for Portage

# Please consult /usr/share/portage/config/make.conf.example for a more
# detailed example.
CFLAGS="-march=native -O2 -pipe"
CXXFLAGS="${CFLAGS}"

MAKEOPTS="-j5"

HDDDIR="/mnt/hdd/gentoo"
PORTAGE_TMPDIR="${HDDDIR}/var/tmp"
PORTDIR="${HDDDIR}/usr/portage"
DISTDIR="${HDDDIR}/usr/portage/distfiles"
PKGDIR="${HDDDIR}/usr/portage/packages"

INPUT_DEVICES="evdev synaptics keyboard mouse"
VIDEO_CARDS="i915 intel vesa fbdev"

USE="aacplus apache2 bash-completion colordiff cryptsetup curl eselect faac
     faad fat fbsplash ffmpeg gd git google google-gadgets googledrive gpg
     imagemagick imlib inifile intl iproute2 iptables kdm lastfm lastfmradio
     latex libv4l libv4l2 lm_sensors logrotate lzma lzo matroska mediaplayer
     mmx mplayer mppe-mppc ntfs okular openrc openssl openvpn pdo phar pixmaps
     pm-utils ppp pygments sha512 soap sockets sqlite sqlite3 sse sse2
     subversion theora threads unzip v4l vhosts vim vim-syntax vlc xls
     xmlreader xmlrpc xmlwriter xz zip"
LINGUAS="pt"

GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://cesium.di.uminho.pt/pub/gentoo/ http://darkstar.ist.utl.pt/gentoo/ http://mirror.ovh.net/gentoo-distfiles/"
SYNC="rsync://rsync.pt.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"