Revision 26 as of 2009-10-06 08:20:28

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This page contains suggested fixes and/or hacks to get hardware working properly with Ubuntu on the Aspire Timeline.

Boot issue after installation

There are two workarounds to this issue.

Switch SATA mode from AHCI to IDE

Enter the BIOS and change the SATA mode from AHCI to IDE. (Feel free to write this process down in more detail if you like)

Issues

  • Changing mode to IDE will prevent you from dual booting into Vista
  • NCQ is disabled (does the disk have NCQ?)

Set boot option in Grub

  1. Press the escape key during boot to get access to the Grub interface. Enter "libata.force=noncq" (without quotation marks) and boot into Ubuntu.
  2. Open a terminal and enter "sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst"
  3. Change "# defoptions=quiet splash" to "# defoptions=quiet splash libata.force=noncq"
  4. Save and close gedit, then run "sudo update-grub" on the command line.

Issues

  • NCQ is disabled (does the disk have NCQ?)

Note

  • This problem does not apply to the version with Intel SSD. Nothing needs to be done for the SSD version. It would be great if someone with the HD version can try a different HD, to make sure it's not a problem with the particular HD Acer uses.

Wired Networking

On this page here: http://partner.atheros.com/Drivers.aspx you can find the AR81Family-linux-v1.0.0.10.tar.gz driver. Download and extract it.

  • Note: Is my case, Ubuntu's default archive manager (file-roller) couldn't extract the file, however Ark could. (sudo apt-get install ark and open the file with Ark)

The README in the file pretty much explains the installation. The MAKE INSTALL failed for me on the installation of the man-file but that does not seem to have mattered. Now the card is detected.

Here is a more detailed description:

  • $ tar xvf AR81Family-linux-v1.0.0.10.tar
  • $ cd src/
  • $ make
  • $ sudo make install

    • Note: An error might appear saying that the man pages couldn't be created. This is not really a problem.

At this point you can either restart or manually insert the module with:

  • $ sudo insmod /lib/modules/2.6.<your kernel revision>-generic/kernel/drivers/net/atl1e/atl1e.ko

9.10

Works out of the box with 9.10 alpha 2 and alpha 3.

Audio

Seems to work perfectly out of the box (at least with 9.10 alpha 2 and alpha 3). Low volume is a hardware shortcoming. It's the same under Vista.

However, there are things you can try to make it better. A fresh install may leave some ALSA channels low. Try running alsamixer and setting all the channels to maximum volume. Type Esc to quit. From then on you should be able to just use the PulseAudio controls.

Suspend to RAM

Possible with new kernel on 64bit Ubuntu 

$ wget -c http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v2.6.30/linux-headers-2.6.30-020630-generic_2.6.30-020630_amd64.deb http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v2.6.30/linux-headers-2.6.30-020630_2.6.30-020630_all.deb http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v2.6.30/linux-image-2.6.30-020630-generic_2.6.30-020630_amd64.deb
$ sudo dpkg -i linux-headers-2.6.30-020630-generic_2.6.30-020630_amd64.deb linux-headers-2.6.30-020630_2.6.30-020630_all.deb linux-image-2.6.30-020630-generic_2.6.30-020630_amd64.deb

Does not seem to work under 32-bit 9.04, 9.10 alpha 2 and alpha 3. Suspend seems to work, but resuming powers off the machine instead. BIOSes versions 1.04 and 1.08 (for 3810t) don't help. Using the "resume-trace" procedure described here does not yield any matches. Unloading all non-essential modules in single user (recovery) mode doesn't fix it.

Bug report: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/405120

Blocked during Reboot / Shutdown

Symptoms : During a reboot or a shutdown, you're stucked on a blackscreen with a white blinking cursor.

Affected models : This issue has been experienced with 4810TG and 3810T on Jaunty.

Solution : In some cases, it can be solved by upgrading the kernel to the 2.6.30.5 (or better) version. You can use kernelcheck if you're not comfortable with kernel compilation.

Webcam

works fine also after installing the proper driver: - type in: sudo modprobe uvcvideo - type in: sudo apt-get install cheese - type in: cheese - set the resolution in the preferences to 640x480 to get rid of the distortion - done!

Touchpad Multitouch

(From post in 3810 thread):

The synaptics pad may not support true multitouch. However, we emulate multitouch when the width of the touch is greater than 6 units: 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<deviceinfo version="0.2">
  <device>
    <match key="info.capabilities" contains="input.touchpad">
        <merge key="input.x11_driver" type="string">synaptics</merge>
        <merge key="input.x11_options.SHMConfig" type="string">On</merge>
        <merge key="input.x11_options.EmulateTwoFingerMinZ" type="string">50</merge>
        <merge key="input.x11_options.EmulateTwoFingerMinW" type="string">6</merge>
        <merge key="input.x11_options.VertTwoFingerScroll" type="string">1</merge>
        <merge key="input.x11_options.HorizTwoFingerScroll" type="string">1</merge>
        <merge key="input.x11_options.TapButton1" type="string">1</merge>
        <merge key="input.x11_options.TapButton2" type="string">3</merge>
        <merge key="input.x11_options.TapButton3" type="string">2</merge>
    </match>
  </device>
</deviceinfo>

To find a suitable width threshold for your interactions, use: 

synclient -m 100

Touchpad On/Off button

9.04

Simple workaround to activate the touchpad again: 

sudo modprobe -r psmouse && sudo modprobe psmouse

9.10

Works perfectly out of the box in 9.10 alpha 2 and 3. Broken again in 9.10 Beta

External monitor

I have a Samsung 970p here and wanted to attach it with a resolution of 1280x1024 and had some trouble doing it. So here is the solution in case you also have issues getting the proper resolution.

First, know the resolution and the frequency. 60Hz is working fine here. You have to find out a modeline for the screen you are using. For this go into a shell and type: 

# gtf 1280 1024 60.0

which gives you the modeline for 1280 x 1024 at 60Hz: 

  # 1280x1024 @ 60.00 Hz (GTF) hsync: 63.60 kHz; pclk: 108.88 MHz
  Modeline "1280x1024_60.00"  108.88  1280 1360 1496 1712  1024 1025 1028 1060  -HSync +Vsync1024 1025 1028 1060  -HSync +Vsync

Then you edit your /etc/X11/xorg.conf to look like this: 

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier      "Acer Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier      "External Monitor"
        Modeline        "1280x1024_60.00"  108.88  1280 1360 1496 1712  1024 1025 1028 1060  -HSync +Vsync
EndSection

Section "Screen"
        Identifier      "Internal Screen"
        Monitor         "Acer Monitor"
        Device          "Video Card (Primary)"
        SubSection "Display"
                Virtual         1900 1200
                Modes           "1900x1200" "1366x768" "1280x1024"
        EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Device"
        Identifier      "Video Card (Primary)"
        Option          "Monitor-VGA" "External Monitor"
EndSection

Note where I inserted my modeline to make it work. If you then log out and log in again, the menu SYSTEM - PREFERENCES - DISPLAY should show the 1280x1024 resolution in the dropdown. This is the general direction. If this does NOT work for you for whatever reason, please take a look at this here: http://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Config/Resolution

9.10

Works perfectly out of the box in 9.10 alpha 2 and 3. Just use System -> Pref -> Displays.

DVD Not Mounted

This seems to be a bug. The simple workaround is use "eject" command from terminal

Brighness Control (fn+Arrow)

9.04

Out of the box the brightness control arrows will bring up the change notification but will not actually adjust the brightness. Run the following command to fix the issue. 

xrandr --output LVDS --set BACKLIGHT_CONTROL native

This does not work in 9.10 Beta

For the 5810T, the brightness controls will work by adding this line in the kernel config in grub: ""nomodeset acpi_backlight=vendor"" This will disable KMS, but will also solve some other problems, like Framebuffer Compression not being enabled (drains on the battery).

Wireless network

Affected model 1810tz with wificard identified as Intel Corporation WiFi Link 100 Series (lspci). Killswitch always off for wireless in 9.04 and 9.10 alpha6. Follow instructions to fix issue.

9.10

  1. Download new microcode from http://www.intellinuxwireless.org/ put in /lib/firmware

  2. Download latest compat-wireless (2009-09-30 worked) from http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Download, follow instructions (install, unload).

  3. sudo modprobe iwlagn or restart