Intro

Acer Aspire One 531h is listed on the back as "AO531h" - the AO for "Aspire One." It also says "ZG8" which I initially thought was the model number, but is apparently something else. Acer's website (see below) refers to it as 531h. 11.10 Oneiric was installed to a hard drive via the alternate install, but I also verified details using the LiveCD.

Note: it's possible to boot from the primary SD card slot but apparently not the expansion slot.

Big Difference Between 11.10 (oneiric) and 11.04 (natty)

  • Wifi works on the 531h on 11.04 (livecd/install). It does not in 11.10.

Works "out of box"

  • Screen
  • Keyboard
  • Touchpad (vertical scrolling enabled, horizontal possible through System Settings)
  • Ethernet / Wired internet
  • Audio
  • Microphone (internal, don't know about mic jack)
  • Suspend/Resume (Working in 11.10. May not have worked initially in 11.04, but did after updates.)

Doesn't Work (11.10 oneiric)

WLAN / Wireless internet

  • Hardware switch/wifi LED uncooperative, selecting "Enable Wireless" in Network Manager Applet also not useful (often interface appears as if some change is going on, but just switches back to disabled). The applet reports "wireless is disabled by hardware switch."
  • This might help:
    • sudo modprobe -r acer_wmi after running this command, I can plug in a USB wifi card, and wifi works. tinkering around a bit more, I also managed to get built-in wifi working. Alas, I don't know which command(s) did it. "ifdown" and "ifup" might have been part of it.
  • Wifi switch
  • Hibernate - thought it was un-hibernating, but looks like it simply booted afresh.
  • Shutdown - Shutdown from menu merely logs out (Unity) or has no effect (GDM). To shut down the system I have to issue "sudo shutdown -h now" from the terminal.
  • Reboot - looks like it crashed prior to shutting down. Patience ran out.

Untried

  • Webcam - detected as "Suyin Webcam" but 11.10 Oneiric comes with no webcam-using apps, so haven't tested yet.

Minor problems

  • First message on screen when booting: "error: no video mode activated" - not exactly confidence inspiring!
  • Can't mount both SD card slots at the same time. Appears that you have to choose one, and that's the one you have to stick with until rebooting.

See Also

External Links

AspireOne/531h (last edited 2012-04-27 02:14:47 by adsl-98-85-118-37)