This is my two-week nightmare history
I've recently bought a new, cheap, and powerfull Acer Aspire 1414LMI.
As soon as unpacket, I erased windows XP (hey! what's on Windows License Refund? ) and tried to install Fedora Core 4...
Two weeks later, I've got it. This is my story
PLEASE: READ THE ENTIRE DOCUMENT BEFORE START. It will save you to compile kernel too many times :-)
Note that there are several models Aspire 141x (1410,1411,1414), that provides diferent hardware ( memory, wide-screen, bluetooth, flashcard reader an so ), But they all share same main board and common components. The User Manual is common for all these models and for the Aspire 168x series
Last update: 19-Jul-2005
Some data on Acer Aspire 1410. "OK" means that works with vanilla FC4 withouth problems
| Processor: | Intel® Celeron® M processor with 512 KB L2 cache 400MHz processor system bus Intel® 855GME chipset |
OK |
|---|---|---|
| Memory: | 256 MB of DDR333 memory Upgradeable to 1 GB using dual soDIMM modules | OK |
| HDD | 40 GB ATA-100 HDD | OK |
| Storage | Integrated DVD-Dual drive | OK (read & write) |
| Display | 15.4" WXGA TFT LCD with 1280 x 800 pixel resolution 16.7million colours | OK | Graphic card | Intel® 855GME integrated 3D AGP graphics featuring Intel® Extreme Graphics 2 technology and up to 64 MB of video memory Dual independent display support | OK (For 3D accel see below) |
| Multimedia | Two built-in speakers / AC'97 MS-Sound compatible | OK |
| Modem | 56K ITU V.92 data/fax modem (Intel AC'97 ICH4 Modem chipset) | See below |
| Lan | 10/100 Mbps Fast Ethernet. Wake-on-LAN ready | OK |
| Wireless | Intel Improcomm ipn2220 Integrated IEEE 802.11g wireless LAN | See below |
| Infrared (FIR) port | nsc-ircc driver on ttyS0 | OK |
| IEEE 1394 port (FireWire) | Recognized (Not yet tested) | |
| SVHS Video connector | Composite+SVHS video output (Dual screen video option) | See Below |
| SVGA external connector | See Below | |
| 3 x USB ports | Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (rev 03) - USB-2.0 | OK |
| Hot Keys | See below | |
| PC Card slot | one Type II | OK |
Here comes the '/sbin/lspci' console output:
[jantonio@tux ~]$ /sbin/lspci 00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor to I/O Controller (rev 02) 00:00.1 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor to I/O Controller (rev 02) 00:00.3 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor to I/O Controller (rev 02) 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device (rev 02) 00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device (rev 02) 00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03) 00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 03) 00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 03) 00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 03) 00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev 83) 00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 03) 00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) IDE Controller (rev 03) 00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) SMBus Controller (rev 03) 00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03) 00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 03) 02:02.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401 100Base-T (rev 01) 02:04.0 Ethernet controller: Linksys, A Division of Cisco Systems [AirConn] INPROCOMM IPN 2220 Wireless LAN Adapter (rev 01) 02:06.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments Texas Instruments PCIxx21/x515 Cardbus Controller 02:06.2 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments Texas Instruments OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller 02:06.3 Unknown mass storage controller: Texas Instruments Texas Instruments PCIxx21 Integrated FlashMedia Controller
You can see a FlashMedia Controller recognized in mainboard, but I can't find connectors in the laptop, Hey! where are them :-).
Also, there is a bluetooth led/button, but no hardware found for it... Manual says that they are optional components, so depending of your model may be or not present
Also, you can see an SMBus controller. This is a sort of i2c bus used for ACPI subsystem. see below about it.
Acer Aspire does not provide APM, just ACPI
Installation is easy, and gives no problems: just allow boot from CD in bios setup, insert Fedora CD 1 / Fedora DVD, and restart computer.
When setting partition table you'll see a 3Gb partition labeled as type "Compaq Diagnostics". This partition is used for "Windows recovery" operations, so if for any strange reason you want to keep windows in your Acer, don't delete it
Fedora Core 4 xorg i810 Intel Video Driver works fine. You only need to edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf to correct HorizSync to allow resolutions greater than 800x600:
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Monitor Vendor"
ModelName "Unknown monitor"
# HorizSync 31.5 - 37.9
HorizSync 31.5 - 48.5
VertRefresh 50.0 - 70.0
Option "dpms"
EndSection
Direct Rendering 3D works really fine. You should select default depth to 16 or 24 bpp mode
Note that video memory is shared with main memory. At Setup you can select the video memory size (32/64Mbytes). Unless you need intensive 3D rendering work at 1280x1024, I suggest you to set to 32M
Almost every Acer laptops provide a dual SVHS/Composite 7-pin mini-DIN. Here comes layout and pinout:
| Pin | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | GND | Ground (Y) |
| 2 | GND | Ground (C) |
| 3 | Y | Intensity (Luminance) |
| 4 | C | Color (Chrominance) |
| 6 | - | (Not used) |
| 7 | V | Composite Video |
| 5 | VGND | Composite Ground |
This connector is pin compatible with standard 4-pin mini-DIN SVHS,
To enable TV output on FC4 you need to edit xorg.conf file and enable it:
Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "i810"
VendorName "Videocard vendor"
BoardName "Intel 852"
Option "MonitorLayout" "LFP,TV"
VideoRam 32768
EndSection
Note that Xorg site says that dual-screen in intel graphic devices is still a work in progress. In my case, with this configuration, flat panel is disabled, and TV output works is 800x600 mode. See i810(4) man page
On Linux, Fn+F5 seems not to work properly. No problemo:
Download and install i810switch package. Once installed and tested, you can reassign hotkeys to make Fn+F5 works ( remember to setuid program to enable switch to ordinary users )
Here comes the first serious problem: on standard Fedora 4 Kernel you cannot monitor battery and AC status: /proc/acpi/battery, and /proc/acpi/ac_status appears empty. what happens?
Well, Most acer models use a so called SmartBattery Subsystem SBS, instead of Standard ACPI battery calls. So you need:
I've tested both solutions. My recommendation is second one: less intrusive, more powerfull.
So download kernel-source and kernel-devel package:
root# rpm -v -i /path/to/kernel-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4.src.rpm root# rpmbuild -bp --target i686 kernel-2.6.spec root# mv /usr/src/redhat/build/kernel-2.6/linux-2.6.11 /usr/src/linux-2.6.11 root# ln -s /usr/src/linux-2.6.11 /usr/src/linux root# cd /usr/src/linux root# make oldconfigNow with "make menuconfig" (or editing .config) change these items:
.... CONFIG_ACPI_CUSTOM_DSDT=y CONFIG_ACPI_CUSTOM_DSDT_FILE="/lib/firmware/DSDT.hex" .... # CONFIG_STANDALONE is not set # CONFIG_PREVENT_FIRMWARE_BUILD is not set
Next thing to do is retrieve file DSDT.hex and store it at /lib/firmware/DSDT.hex
If you have Intel ACPI tools you may want to edit and recompile by yourself
Aspire11410 Custom DSDT files
Fedora Core 4 does not provide Software Suspend in their kernels, so you need to patch (again) kernel to support it.
Alternatively, you can download, pre-patched FC4-swsuspend kernel, install, and compile it ( don't forget to set ACPI battery configs !!!)
You'll need to download and install hibernate package, and setup /etc/hibernate/hibernate.conf
You'll also need to choose an hibernate partition, and modify initrd and grub.conf to make the kernel take care on this. See swsusp pages for additional info and downloads
NOTE: This instructions refers to native FC4 kernel. New versions on kernel and sowftware suspend ( including a graphic fbsplash screen option ) are actually available. So You'd better to skip these tiny guides and just go to swsusp pages at http://mhensler.de/swsusp/
The Aspire 141x has an AC'97 controller. Works fine by mean of ALSA snd_intel8x0 module. Here comes my sound-related /etc/modprobe.conf data:
# # tarjeta de sonido alias snd-card-0 snd-intel8x0 alias sound-slot-0 snd-intel8x0 options snd-card-0 index=0 # # Emulacion OSS alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss
But... wait... I cannot hear any sound!!!. Aghhhh, this is the FC4 modem driver,
snd_intel8x0m, that conflicts with sound card and gets it unusable....
No problemo:
At previous step, we have disabled kernel modem module... what to do now?
Intel AC'97 modem is a well known linmodem, and is full supported in linux.
Vanilla FC4 kernel discover irda port as serial IR device at ttyS0. but our chipset is an nsc-ircc FIR, not SIR.
So to get it fully running , just edit modprobe.conf and add:
# # puerto de infrarojos alias irda0 nsc-ircc options nsc-ircc dongle_id=0x09 io=0x3f8 dma=1 irq=3 install nsc-ircc /bin/setserial /dev/ttyS0 uart none port 0 irq 0; /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install nsc-ircc
Also, edit /etc/sysconfig/irda to get it like:
IRDA=yes DEVICE=irda0 # DEVICE=/dev/ttyS0 # DONGLE=actisys+ DISCOVERY=yes
Acer's wireless card is an Intel InProComm IPN2220. There are no native support for it in Linux, so you need to install ndiswrapper:
bash# cd /path/to/80211g.zip bash# unzip 80211g.zip bash# ndiswrapper -i /path/to/80211g/Winxp/neti2220.inf bash# ndiswrapper -lYou should read that neti2220 driver is now installed and hardware detected
# # dispositivos de red alias eth0 b44 alias ieee1394-controller ohci1394 alias wlan0 ndiswrapper options ndiswrapper if_name=wlan0
ndiswrapper warns on 4kstack kernel size of Fedora kernels for some NDIS drivers. This is not the case of neti2220, so is up to you to change this item in kernel
A last thing on wifi: Wireless led is not only a led. is just a button: by pressing it you'll get your wifi disabled (no TX/RX)
Last item is so simple: just use "setkeycodes" command to declare extra keys and their scan code translation. You can see key code at console mode by just pressing the key
you can find here a script to do automagically. Just start it at boot time, for instace by adding an entry at /etc/rc.d/rc.local. Then set up your preferred keys by mean of khotkeys(KDE) or gnome preferences menu
Note that not all Fn Keys are recognized: Fn+Susp seems not to work, and Fn+blankScreen does not generate key events, just blanks. This is a work in progress
So I had to edit Desktop -> Preferences -> KeyBoard Bindings to assign most of hotkeys in GNOME. Unfortunatelly there are no easy way to assign user-defined actions. This is the case of "hibernate" and "i810rotate" commands. My solution is use gconf-editor, and add new metacity keybindings and commands for these two keys
I've contacted with Acer and said me no-no: I cannot find Bluetooth neither CompactFlash, nor SmartCard adaptor for my laptop. At least in Spain, no plugable accesories are sold as separate options.
So if you really want it and dont want to buy it as separate usb gadget, be sure to choose correct 141x Aspire model
256Mbytes of RAM, althought sufficient, makes laptop a bit slow.... I've upgraded to 512Mb by adding another 256Mb module. Manual says that you can use either 266 or 333 Mhz modules. So be sure to use same module speed than the one that there is already in