Ubuntu on the Acer Timeline laptops

The Acer Aspire Timeline and Acer Travelmate Timeline are ranges of laptops with focus on long battery life (up to 8 hours according to Acer, probably just about achievable under Ubuntu).

Unless otherwise specified, this set of documentation refers to the most recent non-testing release of Ubuntu.

Join the team of Acer Timeline users: https://launchpad.net/~acertimeline

Acer model numbers

There are 11.6", 13.3", 14.1", and 15.6" models, where the 11.6" and 13.3" ones lack an optical drive.

There are G varieties, which include an additional discrete graphics adapter (ATI HD 4330 and ATI HD 5650 on the 3820TG) in addition to the normal integrated one (Intel 4500MHD). The Intel can be disabled in BIOS, but the ATI can only be disabled programmatically (the experimental lenovo_acpi kernel module). See this post for x810TG models and this post for TimelineX models (x820TG).

There are Travelmate models, which have a different chassis and keyboard. They lack the HDMI and SPDIF outputs but include a dock connector (with DVI output), a fingerprint reader, and a non-glare screen finish.

Other features that may or may not be present in a specific model include bluetooth and 3G mobile data modem. The wireless adapters and processors vary as well. Some models have an SSD drive instead of a harddisk.

Note for Packard Bell Butterfly S users : Packard Bell is part of Acer. Except for the design, the Butterfly models are similar to the Timeline ones. You can use this wiki to solve your problems.

Issues & Notes

9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope)

• About 6,5 hours battery life (confirmed?)
• Problems with DVD-rom?
• No suspend to ram

9.10 (Karmic Koala)

beta

• Suspend seems to work (Doesn't resume back from suspend on 3810t)
• Touchpad on/off does not work (4810t) (works on 3810t)
• Brighness keys fix no longer works (Works on 3810t)

alpha 6

• Still fails to resume from suspend to RAM, although hibernate on disk works
• The ATI in the G models can only be powered off by compiling a kernel module

• See also http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/karmic/alpha6#Known%20issues

alpha 3

• Still problem with suspend
• Wireless kill switch always defaults to on on every boot (the switch is the wireless symbol right above F10, even if it does not look like a switch) - fixed in 2.6.31-5 (apt-get update, apt-get dist-upgrade for Karmic).

• See also http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/karmic/alpha3#Known%20issues

alpha 2

• About 7,5 hours battery life (confirmed?)
• Most issues solved
• Still no suspend to ram

10.04 (Lucid Lynx)

beta

• Suspend works with kernel command line parameter i8042.reset=1. Verified with 3810T BIOS v1.20.
• Confirming that it works with BIOS v1.20 as well. Yes! To make it permanent, add the i8042.reset to the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT variable in /etc/default/grub. Mine is set to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash i8042.reset".

Getting Started

Please visit the AspireTimeline/Installation section first.

For a general set of fixes post-install, please check AspireTimeline/Fixes.

For tips and suggestions on getting the most out of your Ubuntu install on the Timeline, please see AspireTimeline/Using.

References

This set of documentation is intended to organize and clarify the resources available for the Timeline.

Forum discussion threads:

• 3810T thread (the main source, thanks to Tokyahead and all the contributers for that great thread)

• 3820T thread

• 4810T thread

• 4810TG thread

• 4820TG thread

• 5810T thread

• 5810TG thread

• all threads tagged acertimeline

• Acer Aspire Timeline 1810TZ Wiki

Other resources:

• Acer Timeline user team page (includes a mailing list and archives)

The header and general design of this set of documentation was shamelessly copied from the AA1 documentation.