Samsung R429 Linux Setup

Fixes and performance tweaks for running Linux on the Samsung R429 (and similar 2010-era Samsung laptops).

Hardware

Component	Specification
Model	Samsung R429 / NP-R429
CPU	Intel Core i3 M 330 (2.13 GHz)
GPU	NVIDIA GeForce 310M (GT218M)
RAM	4 GB DDR3
Storage	320 GB Mechanical HDD
OS	Arch Linux

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Lid Suspend Fix

The ACPI lid switch on this motherboard does not update Linux SW_LID input events properly:

kernel: ACPI: button: The lid device is not compliant to SW_LID.

Because systemd-logind relies on SW_LID, closing the lid fails to trigger suspend.

Solution

1. Set kernel parameter button.lid_init_state=open

Add button.lid_init_state=open to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT in /etc/default/grub, then update GRUB:

sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

2. Catch ACPI events with acpid

sudo pacman -S acpid

Create /etc/acpi/events/lid:

event=button/lid.*
action=/etc/acpi/handlers/lid.sh

Create /etc/acpi/handlers/lid.sh:

#!/bin/bash
grep -q closed /proc/acpi/button/lid/LID0/state && /usr/bin/systemctl suspend

Make it executable and start acpid:

sudo chmod +x /etc/acpi/handlers/lid.sh
sudo systemctl enable --now acpid

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PS/2 Keyboard Resume Fix

After resuming from ACPI sleep, the built-in keyboard can stop responding due to a register state loss on the motherboard's PS/2 controller.

Add i8042.reset=1 i8042.nomux=1 to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT in /etc/default/grub, then update GRUB:

sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

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Performance & Disk Optimizations

1. GPU Reclocking (Nouveau)

The GeForce 310M defaults to low power state 07 (405 MHz core). Setting state 0f increases clocks to 625 MHz core / 1530 MHz shader / 790 MHz memory.

Create /etc/systemd/system/nouveau-pstate.service:

[Unit]
Description=Set Nouveau GPU to max pstate
After=sysinit.target

[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=/bin/sh -c 'echo 0f > /sys/kernel/debug/dri/0/pstate'
RemainAfterExit=yes

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Enable the service:

sudo systemctl enable --now nouveau-pstate.service

2. Disable CPU Security Mitigations

Reclaims 10-20% CPU performance on older dual-core processors.

Add mitigations=off to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT in /etc/default/grub, then update GRUB.

3. I/O Scheduler & HDD Queue Tuning

For mechanical hard drives, BFQ scheduling and smaller read-ahead values prevent micro-stutters during heavy disk reads.

Create /etc/udev/rules.d/60-hdd-queue.rules:

ACTION=="add|change", KERNEL=="sd[a-z]", ATTR{queue/rotational}=="1", ATTR{queue/scheduler}="bfq", ATTR{queue/read_ahead_kb}="512", ATTR{queue/nr_requests}="256"

4. Memory & Dirty Page Ratios

With 4 GB RAM and ZRAM enabled, early swappiness and low writeback thresholds keep the UI responsive while writing dirty pages in small batches.

/etc/sysctl.d/99-zram.conf:

vm.swappiness = 150

/etc/sysctl.d/99-hdd-dirty-ratio.conf:

vm.dirty_background_ratio = 3
vm.dirty_ratio = 6

/etc/sysctl.d/99-writeback.conf:

vm.dirty_writeback_centisecs = 6000

5. Ext4 Mount & Commit Settings

Edit /etc/fstab to add noatime and commit=60 for the root partition:

UUID=... / ext4 rw,noatime,commit=60 0 1

(Note: commit=60 applies to ext4 only. Do not add commit options to VFAT /boot).

6. Profile-Sync-Daemon (Browser Cache in RAM)

Symlinks browser profiles to tmpfs RAM and syncs periodically, cutting disk writes:

sudo pacman -S profile-sync-daemon
systemctl --user enable --now psd.service

7. Threaded Interrupts & Mesa Acceleration

Add threadirqs nouveau.config=NvBoost=2,NvPmEnableGating=1 to GRUB command line.

Enable Mesa GL threading in /etc/environment:

mesa_glthread=true

Configure DRI3 in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-nouveau.conf:

Section "Device"
    Identifier "Nouveau GPU"
    Driver "nouveau"
    Option "DRI" "3"
    Option "TearFree" "true"
EndSection

8. Nouveau VP4 Video Decoding Firmware

Extracts video engine firmware from NVIDIA 340.108 drivers to enable hardware H.264 decoding support under Nouveau:

mkdir -p /tmp/nouveau-fw-build && cd /tmp/nouveau-fw-build
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/envytools/firmware/master/extract_firmware.py
wget https://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/340.108/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-340.108.run
sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-340.108.run --extract-only
python3 extract_firmware.py
sudo mkdir -p /usr/lib/firmware/nouveau
sudo cp -a nv* vuc-* /usr/lib/firmware/nouveau/
sudo mkinitcpio -P
rm -rf /tmp/nouveau-fw-build

Revert anytime by removing /usr/lib/firmware/nouveau and running sudo mkinitcpio -P.

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Boot Speed Optimization

• Disable wait-online & bluetooth: sudo systemctl disable NetworkManager-wait-online.service bluetooth.service
• Skip initramfs fsck: Remove fsck from HOOKS in /etc/mkinitcpio.conf and run sudo mkinitcpio -P.
• Volatile Journal: Set Storage=volatile in /etc/systemd/journald.conf.d/00-journal-limit.conf.

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LightDM Tokyo Night Theme

Copy the GTK theme system-wide and configure /etc/lightdm/lightdm-gtk-greeter.conf:

[greeter]
theme-name = TokyoNight
icon-theme-name = Papirus-Dark
background = #16161e
user-background = false
font-name = Sans 10
position = 50%,center 50%,center
indicators = ~clock;~spacer;~session;~power
clock-format = %a, %b %d  %H:%M