Difference between revisions of "Acer TimelineX"

Revision as of 12:35, 23 April 2012

Hardware is a 4820TG/5820TG, but should be similar for all these laptops.

Installation

There is a quirk if you want to install Arch Linux. You need to connect via wireless, as Ethernet hardware is supported only by Linux kernel 2.6.34 and higher. Follow the Beginners' Guide for the rest.

Xorg

Open source drivers

You need ati and i915 xorg drivers:

pacman -S xf86-video-ati xf86-video-intel

While installing Arch Linux, you should disable the radeon kernel module, otherwise you may encounter kernel crash during booting. See Kernel_modules#Blacklisting for instructions.

If you need to use radeon and HDMI, you can manually enable it by executing

modprobe radeon

Kernel message with respect to radeon is as follows -

pci 0000:01:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
[drm] Initialized radeon 1.33.0 20080528 for 0000:01:00.0 on minor 1
[drm] Module unloaded
[drm] radeon kernel modesetting enabled.
VGA switcheroo: detected switching method \_SB_.PCI0.GFX0.ATPX handle
radeon 0000:01:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
[drm] initializing kernel modesetting (REDWOOD 0x1002:0x68C1).
[drm] register mmio base: 0xDC400000
[drm] register mmio size: 131072
vga_switcheroo: enabled
radeon atpx: version is 1
ATOM BIOS: Acer
radeon 0000:01:00.0: VRAM: 1024M 0x00000000 - 0x3FFFFFFF (1024M used)
radeon 0000:01:00.0: GTT: 512M 0x40000000 - 0x5FFFFFFF
mtrr: no more MTRRs available
[drm] Detected VRAM RAM=1024M, BAR=128M
[drm] RAM width 128bits DDR
[TTM] Zone  kernel: Available graphics memory: 1859316 kiB.
[TTM] Initializing pool allocator.
[drm] radeon: 1024M of VRAM memory ready
[drm] radeon: 512M of GTT memory ready.
radeon 0000:01:00.0: irq 44 for MSI/MSI-X
radeon 0000:01:00.0: radeon: using MSI.
[drm] radeon: irq initialized.
[drm] GART: num cpu pages 131072, num gpu pages 131072
[drm] Loading REDWOOD Microcode
[drm] ring test succeeded in 1 usecs
[drm] radeon: ib pool ready.
do_IRQ: 3.137 No irq handler for vector (irq -1)
[drm] ib test succeeded in 0 usecs
[drm] Radeon Display Connectors
[drm] Connector 0:
[drm]   LVDS
[drm]   DDC: 0x6470 0x6470 0x6474 0x6474 0x6478 0x6478 0x647c 0x647c
[drm]   Encoders:
[drm]     LCD1: INTERNAL_UNIPHY
[drm] Connector 1:
[drm]   HDMI-A
[drm]   HPD1
[drm]   DDC: 0x6430 0x6430 0x6434 0x6434 0x6438 0x6438 0x643c 0x643c
[drm]   Encoders:
[drm]     DFP1: INTERNAL_UNIPHY1
[drm] Connector 2:
[drm]   VGA
[drm]   DDC: 0x64d8 0x64d8 0x64dc 0x64dc 0x64e0 0x64e0 0x64e4 0x64e4
[drm]   Encoders:
[drm]     CRT1: INTERNAL_KLDSCP_DAC1
[drm] Internal thermal controller with fan control
[drm] radeon: power management initialized
[drm] fb mappable at 0xD0140000
[drm] vram apper at 0xD0000000
[drm] size 4325376
[drm] fb depth is 24
[drm]    pitch is 5632
fb1: radeondrmfb frame buffer device
[drm] Initialized radeon 2.6.0 20080528 for 0000:01:00.0 on minor 1

TimelineX 4820TG is having switchable graphics. To disable switchable graphics, add following to /etc/modprobe.d/radeon.conf

options radeon modeset=0

For more information, check Intel and ATI.

Experimental open source drivers

These drivers are unstable. If you are not an experienced linux user please do not try this drivers, they would eat your hamster.

Classic mesa

All support for evergreen cards is in master branch already.

yaourt -S xf86-video-ati-git
yaourt -S mesa-git

Pros: There is 2D and 3D available

Cons: Full of bugs; not developed actively

Gallium

Gallium support is in r600g and i965g modules.

Pros: They work pretty well

Cons: Difficult to set up. Needs latest kernel.

Closed Catalyst drivers

Catalyst (also known as fglrx) is a closed source graphics driver provided by ATI. It does not support certain features that the open source drivers do, but it has fully working, fast 3D acceleration. This is working at least with Acer Aspire TimelineX 3820TG that has ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650.

Since Catalyst cannot handle switchable graphics cards, you have to disable the Intel card from the BIOS. At least with BIOS v.1.19 you can do that by changing VGA mode to "Discrete".

If you use the stock kernel you can install Catalyst with the AUR packages catalyst-utils^AUR and catalyst^AUR. If you have a 64-bit system and you want to use 3D acceleration also in 32-bit games, you should also install lib32-catalyst-utils^AUR. These packages are also available for download from a third-party repository, see the ATI Catalyst wiki page. Note that installing these packages will make you remove the open source video drivers.

After installing package you probably need to configure Xorg. Using the provided aticonfig tool is recommended:

# aticonfig --initial
 (or for Dual Head: # aticonfig --initial=dual-head)
# aticonfig -v

Catalyst does not support KMS, so you should add nomodeset to your kernel line in /boot/grub/menu.lst, like this:

kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda1 ro nomodeset

It is also recommended (but not strictly necessary) to add fglrx to the MODULES array in /etc/rc.conf.

You may now reboot your system.

Switchable Graphics

Switching video cards works with the open source graphics driver.

You must have debugfs mounted for the switch access:

# mount -t debugfs debugfs /sys/kernel/debug

or add following to /etc/fstab:

debugfs /sys/kernel/debug debugfs 0 0

Make sure that your radeon driver is loaded:

modprobe radeon

Then you can use the following commands:

#Check current status:
cat /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch

#Enable ATI
echo DDIS > /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch

#Enable Intel
echo DIGD > /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch

#Power off unused card
echo OFF > /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch

#Power on unused card
echo ON > /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch

You may also use acpi_call module to switch graphics. There is a package in the AUR named acpi_call-git^AUR.

By doing the following, my TimelineX 4820TG laptop's battery life got improved significantly (now it gives 5+ hours on average .. with laptop-mode customization and radeon switchoff) -

#mount -t debugfs none /sys/kernel/debug
#modprobe radeon
#echo ON > /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch
#echo OFF > /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch
#cat /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch
0:+:Pwr:0000:00:02.0
1: :Off:0000:01:00.0

Touchpad

Touchpad is a synaptics so you need its driver:

pacman -S xf86-input-synaptics

Then add to /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ a new file (name it 20-synaptics.conf)

Section "InputClass"
 Identifier "touchpad"
 Driver "synaptics"
 MatchIsTouchpad "on"
 Option "SHMConfig" "on"
 Option "TapButton1" "1"
 Option "TapButton2" "2"
 Option "TapButton3" "3"
 Option "VertEdgeScroll" "on"
 Option "VertTwoFingerScroll" "on"
 Option "HorizEdgeScroll" "on"
 Option "HorizTwoFingerScroll" "on"
 Option "CircularScrolling" "on"
 Option "CircScrollTrigger" "2"
 Option "EmulateTwoFingerMinZ" "0"
EndSection

For more info, check Touchpad_Synaptics.

Keyboard

Add a new file in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ (name it 20-keymap.conf)

Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "Acer Keyboard"
        MatchIsKeyboard "on"
        MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
        Option                 "XkbLayout" "it"
        Option                 "XkbModel" "acer_laptop"
        Driver "evdev"
EndSection

Replace it with your keymap.

ACPI

ACPI works with BIOS v1.18 and higher.

BIOS v1.19 for 4820tg

BIOS v1.19 for 3820tg

If you do not have Windows installed, you can flash with a FreeDOS thumb drive.

Laptop Mode Tools

Install laptop-mode-tools

pacman -S laptop-mode-tools

You need to enable these modules in /etc/laptop-mode/conf.d/

auto-hibernate.conf Hibernate when battery level becomes critical

cpufreq.conf Adjust CPU speed

Add acpi_cpufreq, cpufreq_ondemand and cpufreq_powersave to the MODULES array in /etc/rc.conf.

dpms-standby.conf Turn off screen when not needed

ethernet.conf Turn off ethernet when on battery

intel-hda-powersave.conf Turn on powersaving for audio chip

intel-sata-powermgmt.conf Powersave for hard disk

lcd-brightness.conf Change brightness when on battery

The file is called /proc/acpi/video/GFX0/DD02/brightness and acceptable values are 10..100 with a step of 10

sched-mc-power-savings.conf Additional CPU powersave features

sched-smt-power-savings.conf Additional CPU powersave features

usb-autosuspend.conf Suspend unused USB devices

video-out.conf Disable video out on battery

wireless-power.conf Powersaving for atheros chip

Hardware

Bluetooth

Works out of the box. On some machines, Bluetooth cannot turn on because of Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress switching only WLAN. Fixed DSDT table seems to solve the problem.

On the 3820TG, Bluetooth might not work even if Template:Keypress+Template:Keypress is used to turn it on. (Symptoms include "usb disconnect" messages in dmesg, and the adapter not showing up in hcitool dev.) In this case, copying /lib/firmware/ath3k-2.fw to /lib/firmware/ath3k-1.fw helps, see this mailing list thread. If it does not work for you, please change this note!

Wi-Fi

Works out of the box and supports injection and AP mode.

TimelineX 5820

Wi-Fi driver needs to be installed. Open source brcm80211^AUR driver causes kernel panics; the proprietary broadcom-wl driver works fine.

TimelineX 4820TG

Wi-Fi driver does not work by default. You need to install broadcom-wl^AUR and b43-firmware^AUR.

Once you are done with driver and firmware installation, you need to add the following in the MODULES array in /etc/rc.conf and reboot:

MODULES=([...] lib80211 wl !b43 !ssb)

Once rebooted, you can confirm the working of the driver by following commands

# ip link
# ip link set eth1 up
# iwconfig eth1
# iwlist eth1 scan

For more information, check Broadcom_wireless.

Sometimes, the network (LAN/WLAN) interface names get swapped with every boot. To make the network interface name(s) stay constant, add the following to /etc/udev/rules.d/10-network.rules and bind the MAC address of each of your network interfaces to a certain interface name:

SUBSYSTEM=="net", ATTR{address}=="aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff", NAME="eth0"
SUBSYSTEM=="net", ATTR{address}=="ff:ee:dd:cc:bb:aa", NAME="wlan0"

Where:

• "eth0" is the name of LAN interface.
• "wlan0" is the name of WLAN interface.
• MAC address of each interface should be specified in lower-case. See the udev page for more information.

TimelineX 3820TG

Works out of the box, lspci lists the chip as

05:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9287 Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01)

Camera

Works out of the box.

Card Reader

Works out of the box, tested with a SD card.

Display brightness control

Sometimes brightness control for integrated card does not work (at least with the 2.6.36.2-1 kernel). You may add acpi_osi=Linux to the kernel line in the GRUB config to fix this.

Info

lspci

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor DRAM Controller (rev 12)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor PCI Express x16 Root Port (rev ff)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 12)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset HECI Controller (rev 06)
00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset USB2 Enhanced Host Controller (rev 05)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset High Definition Audio (rev 05)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev 05)
00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 6 (rev 05)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset USB2 Enhanced Host Controller (rev 05)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev a5)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 5 Series Chipset LPC Interface Controller (rev 05)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset 4 port SATA AHCI Controller (rev 05)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset SMBus Controller (rev 05)
00:1f.6 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset Thermal Subsystem (rev 05)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Device 68e0 (rev ff)
01:00.1 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc Device aa68 (rev ff)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications AR8151 v1.0 Gigabit Ethernet (rev c0)
03:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR928X Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)
7f:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor QuickPath Architecture Generic Non-core Registers (rev 02)
7f:00.1 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor QuickPath Architecture System Address Decoder (rev 02)
7f:02.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor QPI Link 0 (rev 02)
7f:02.1 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor QPI Physical 0 (rev 02)
7f:02.2 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor Reserved (rev 02)
7f:02.3 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor Reserved (rev 02)

lspci - TimelineX 4820TG (with Broadcom 4357 wifi)

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor DRAM Controller (rev 12)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor PCI Express x16 Root Port (rev 12)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 12)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset HECI Controller (rev 06)
00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset USB2 Enhanced Host Controller (rev 05)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset High Definition Audio (rev 05)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev 05)
00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 6 (rev 05)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset USB2 Enhanced Host Controller (rev 05)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev a5)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 5 Series Chipset LPC Interface Controller (rev 05)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset 4 port SATA AHCI Controller (rev 05)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset SMBus Controller (rev 05)
00:1f.6 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset Thermal Subsystem (rev 05)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Redwood [Radeon HD 5600 Series]
01:00.1 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc Redwood HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 5600 Series]
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications AR8151 v1.0 Gigabit Ethernet (rev c0)
03:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation Device 4357 (rev 01)
7f:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor QuickPath Architecture Generic Non-core Registers (rev 02)
7f:00.1 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor QuickPath Architecture System Address Decoder (rev 02)
7f:02.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor QPI Link 0 (rev 02)
7f:02.1 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor QPI Physical 0 (rev 02)
7f:02.2 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor Reserved (rev 02)
7f:02.3 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor Reserved (rev 02)

lspci - TimelineX 3820TG-5464G50iks

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor DRAM Controller (rev 18)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor PCI Express x16 Root Port (rev 18)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 18)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset HECI Controller (rev 06)
00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset USB2 Enhanced Host Controller (rev 05)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset High Definition Audio (rev 05)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev 05)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 2 (rev 05)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset USB2 Enhanced Host Controller (rev 05)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev a5)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 5 Series Chipset LPC Interface Controller (rev 05)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset 4 port SATA AHCI Controller (rev 05)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset SMBus Controller (rev 05)
00:1f.6 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset Thermal Subsystem (rev 05)
02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Redwood [Radeon HD 5600 Series] (rev ff)
02:00.1 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc Redwood HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 5600 Series] (rev ff)
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications AR8151 v1.0 Gigabit Ethernet (rev c0)
05:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)
ff:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor QuickPath Architecture Generic Non-core Registers (rev 05)
ff:00.1 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor QuickPath Architecture System Address Decoder (rev 05)
ff:02.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor QPI Link 0 (rev 05)
ff:02.1 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor QPI Physical 0 (rev 05)
ff:02.2 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor Reserved (rev 05)
ff:02.3 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor Reserved (rev 05)

Issues

ATI chip has no 3D acceleration.

Ethernet chip driver is buggy in the 2.6.35 kernel.

Links

1. Ubuntu-it thread
2. Usind acpi_call module to switch on/off