After wrestling with this baby for a week I've finally got it running Puppy perfectly. My sister needed a new laptop so I'd been researching for a few months looking out for something suitable. Form factor wise, it's much like a Mac, but the thing I really like about it, is that it now runs Puppy
(Click for fullsize) (Three more screen shots because I may be OCD, here, here, and here.)
Just thought to document the journey in case it could help someone else trying to get it going.
Specs
Quad-Core Processor (up to 1.4GHz)
AMD Radeon™ HD 8250 Graphics
Qualcomm Atheros AR956X
13.3" HD LED Display (1366 x 768), Anti-Reflective
4GB DDR3L System Memory at 1,066MHz (on BD 4GB)
128GB Solid-state Drive
No optical drive
1.44kg (3.17lbs)
Not exactly blown away specs, but so far it seems to be running quite smoothly. As expected the SSD opens files quickly and boots in 15 sec or so but when cold opening LibreOffice for example, that takes an age. I guess I'll update after she plays with it more. It's silent. Can't seem to hear any fans running. Not really sure if it has fans though with it idling on 600MHz while using the on demand governor.
Initial Boot
I got in to BIOS (well technically UEFI setup) by pressing F10 at the Samsung logo and set it up as stated here.
Namely:
I thought UEFI was going to be the nightmare that everyone painted it as so was pleasantly surprised when it booted Carolina 1.1 off a USB without a problem and into the XFCE desktop without a hitch.1. Disable Secure Boot
2. Select the CSM OS Option (Compatibility Support Mode)
3. Disable Fastboot (Skips USB Detection when Enabled)
4. Save & Reset
Trackpad and Keyboard
First problem showed itself clearly when I realized the trackpad, keyboard, and plugged in mouse was not responding. Reading around I deduced the Carolina kernel was too old, so I jumped to newest Pupplet I could find, Stemsee's Saucy Salamandar CE. The mouse, trackpad and keyboard responded fine, so this confirmed the issue of the kernel. The trackpad still needs a bit of sensitivity tweaking but that's more of a personal thing and it's nothing that xfce4-mouse-settings can't handle.
Wireless LAN
I compiled the new kernel (3.15) using the Kernel Kit (version 0.1.4) from Woof-CE (Thanks 01micko and Iguleder
) for Carolina and Carolina booted up with working peripherals. 
...But then I noticed there was no wireless. A bit of poking around the internet looking for drivers and then read here that it needs to be selected during kernel compilation.
So recompiled the kernel and hey presto! Frisbee picked up the router! Another win for Puppy
Graphics
So most things were puttering along nicely at this stage but XFCE was struggling along, dragging Thunar windows around was like dragging logs through molasses. Whenever I opened anything, it would open like an unfolding stuttering blind. Even the screensaver went at a quarter of its usual speed. Basically it was unacceptable for a modern computer. I was really worried I'd bought a lemon because people have complained the Ativ 9 Lite was a bit laggy.
A bit more thinking though and then I thought maybe I'd compiled the kernel wrong and it was using to many processes. So I pulled up lxtask to see what was eating everything. It turned out to be X. Well that made sense, the processor is a pitiful 1.0-1.4GHz so if it was having to deal with graphics rendering as well as everything else it would slow down things a bit. So I downloaded the AMD Catalyst™ 14.4 Proprietary Linux x86 Display Driver and compiled using the instructions here. (I've compiled an older version of these drivers in the past using Geoffery's more detailed hand holding instructions but I couldn't remember where the link was). I had some trouble with symlinks in the new kernel source and there was an error in the logs, but the graphics driver compiled without needing to use --force. glxinfo brings back an error as well but despite all these issues, it appears to have fixed the horrible lag and Thunar windows open quite spiffily. I don't think it'll come back to bite me just yet as my sister doesn't play games or anything graphic intensive, but I will try and sort it out in the future.
Edit 19/06/14: Turns out the amd-drivers only support up to kernel 3.4. Used the patch here, and the drivers compiled nicely, working glxgears and all. Video playback is noticeably better.
UEFI
Finally, the big scary one. I spent so much time researching trying to understand UEFI, but I just couldn't wrap my head around it. Something about needing to have a little 200-500MB EFI partition where bootloaders live for each operating system? Then trying to understand how bootloaders as I understand them to be like GRUB, BURG and LILO fit into the equation... very very confusing. Most posts about UEFI were also about not being able to boot the Linux distribution and I wasn't having that problem at all, Carolina, X-Slacko, and Saucy Salamander CE booted just fine off the USB.
My breakthough moment I credit to HoerMirAuf. Thank you so much for being one of those people who after solving their problem, actual come back and post the solution!
I'd tried just simply installing Grub4Dos from Carolina but it didn't boot. I then tried BURG which also failed. The simple fix was to recreate the partition table as a MSDOS partition. Then any of the usual bootloaders, BURG or Grub4Dos install normally. (I tried both) Brilliant!
As a slight discourse, I suppose the thing that makes UEFI hard is secure boot. UEFI is just like BIOS if there is a legacy option (I'm assuming that's what the CSM OS Option is) and you switch off secure boot.
I suppose the quick noob's guide to installing Puppy on UEFI would be:
1. Disable secure boot
2. Enable legacy mode
3. Recreate hardrive partition table as MSDOS
4. Install GRUB/BURG etc. and Puppy as per usual.
I don't know if that's compatible with Windows 8 because I don't know if that's compatible with secure boot. I'm not keen to mess around with it as Samsung apparently has dodgy firmware that even Windows can brick with the wrong UEFI settings.
Miscellaneous
The included mini-ethernet adaptor worked just fine requesting and receiving an IP address. Tested the webcam with UCView, all good there though the recorded ogg was a mess, but I've had that issue with separate webcams anyway. HDMI cloned but wouldn't extend the desktop. Have to look into that. I don't have a mini-VGA adapter (those things are pricey!) so that remains untested. The inbuilt bluetooth is also untested, it's tricky enough getting that going on a normal day.
Conclusion
I still have little things to tweak like hotkeys (volup, voldown, etc.), the most major thing being the XFCE volume panel widget will not control the master volume.
Besides that, I'm very pleased with this purchase. I could have got a more powerful laptop for less but besides the fact my sister was after a light weight laptop, I was really taken by the idea of Puppy running on such a Mac like device. See! Puppy can be classy and modern too! Yeah, not sure why I've still got something to prove. Puppy's been looking pretty good since moving to XFCE (My apologizes to all JWM, GTK 1.2 retro lovers
) (And yes, I know Slacko the flagship is still on JWM, it's just not my style even if it does the job.)If anyone else is interested in Australia, I picked it up for $545 at MSY.
Some actual photos. I made a Burg theme for kicks. (It's just a rip off Dark Shine by SWOriginal with the Samsung background.) To install, extract to ../boot/burg/themes and add it to burg.cnf.
(I'm sorry, I know my photoshoot skills could use work
)20/06/14 Edit: Here's a link to Carolina 1.2 with the latest 3.15 kernel:
Carolina 1.2 with 3.15 kernel.
MD5: 912819e4e58ba21ae4e2ef06a5755339
I'll also later post the compiled graphics drivers to make it easier for anyone else who has an ATIV 9 Lite. (Depending on if I can get my hands on the laptop again)
