Last update: 5 November 2007
I bought an Acer Aspire 5650 in October to accompany me in my travels. Half-way through I got really fed up with Windows, so I installed Linux as dual boot. It works great, my only regret is that the xD card reader in the side doesn't work - SD works great with a patch - (which is one of the main reasons I took the laptop with me :p).
Distros: Gentoo, Ubuntu edgy 6.10 (briefly upgraded to 7.04 then trashed), and Debian 4 testing.
Kernel: 2.6.18 to 2.6.21 (updated regularly from kernel.org).
Author: Thomas Calvert - thomas NOSPAM @calvert.ch (remove the NOSPAM of course).
| Component | Status | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Intel Centrino Dual 1.66GHz | Fully Supported | CPUFreq works great if compiled in your kernel with the ACPI P-States driver. |
| Keyboard | Fully Supported | I had to add the following to my /etc/X11/Xmodmap for the € and $ keys
near the arrows:keycode 51 = dollar dollar keycode 140 = EuroSign EuroSign |
| Toshiba MK1032GS 100GB | Fully Supported | SCSI hard drive, use the sd kernel module. |
| Matshita UJ-845S CD-RW Combo | Fully Supported | Use the sg module. Risky! This drive can be firmware flashed to upgrade it to a DVD+/-RW dual layer burner using the D100 rpc1.org firmware. THIS IS AT YOUR OWN RISK!! I almost lost mine doing this, so I don't recommend it. If you want more info on how I did this, email me. |
| nVidia GeForce Go7600 128MB | Fully Supported | 1280x800@24bits@50Hz. I recommend the nvidia.com
proprietary driver. The TV-out also works great as an extension of your screen, or as a separate screen. Other screen outputs not tested, but I would expect them to work with no problems seeing as the driver is developed by nVidia themselves. Note: PCI-Express, not AGP. |
| Broadcom Tigon3 10/100/1000Gb Ethernet | Fully Supported | Use the kernel tg3 module. |
| Intel Centrino 3945 802.11a/b/g Wireless | Fully Supported | Not in all distros, ipw3945 module. Injection can be achieved using ipwraw from the iwlwifi project. |
| USB Intel 82801G Hub | Fully Supported | No brainer with usbcore. |
| PCMCIA ENE CB-712/4 Cardbus | Fully Supported | Use the yenta module. |
| Intel High Definition Audio (HDA) - Realtek ALC883 chip | Fully Supported | snd_hda_intel module. Microphone input works with a bit of tinkering (see below) |
| ACPI (battery, cpufreq scaling, AC, etc...) | Fully Supported | Standard ACPI modules. |
| Bluetooth (apparently Broadcom chip) | Fully Supported | uhci_hcd module. Connected through USB. |
| Firewire (IEEE1394) | Fully Supported | Standard ohci1394 module. |
| Infrared | Not tested | I didn't even compile IrDA into my kernel. And I remember reading something about the infrared on another similar Aspire not working... Sorry! |
| ExpressCard/34 | Not tested | No idea... See expresscard.org |
| SD card reader by ENE Technologies | Supported with patch | The ENE controller is a bit strange, but
can be made to work with the sdhci driver. First get the patch here,
then apply it to your kernel sources, recompile, reload sdhci module, and I have SD cards automounted by GNOME. Credits to GoogleGuy |
| xD card reader by ENE Technologies | NOT Supported | xD is proprietary technology for which only one linux beta driver exists, and that is for some external readers. SD is supported after patching, so all is not lost ;) |
| 56k modem | Not tested | Probably doesn't work anyway. Does anyone still use 56k? :s |
That's about it. Overall I am very happy with the performance, I can run WoW in 1280x800 under linux and the fps is only slightly lower than windows (under cedega or wine). My only regret really is the card reader, but then I can only blame ENE... This is also why I still have WinXP as dual boot.
Getting the microphone to work: I had a hard time getting the microphone working. Basically I have to load the module with model=targa-dig option, then up the Mic Boost (in alsamixer) to at least 50%, make sure Capture is unmuted and at 100%, and in options Channel Mode must be 2ch or 4ch, and Input Source I set both to Mic. My microphone now works fine in Skype and other applications.
A few recommended kernel config items
lspci output:
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS/940GML and 945GT Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03) 00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS/940GML and 945GT Express PCI Express Root Port (rev 03) 00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02) 00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 02) 00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 02) 00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 3 (rev 02) 00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 4 (rev 02) 00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #1 (rev 02) 00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #2 (rev 02) 00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #3 (rev 02) 00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #4 (rev 02) 00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 02) 00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e2) 00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 02) 00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7 Family) Serial ATA Storage Controller IDE (rev 02) 00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 02) 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation G70 [GeForce Go 7600] (rev a1) 04:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetLink BCM5789 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express (rev 21) 05:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection (rev 02) 06:00.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. IEEE 1394 Host Controller (rev c0) 06:04.0 CardBus bridge: ENE Technology Inc CB-712/4 Cardbus Controller (rev 10) 06:04.1 FLASH memory: ENE Technology Inc ENE PCI Memory Stick Card Reader Controller (rev 01) 06:04.2 Generic system peripheral [0805]: ENE Technology Inc ENE PCI Secure Digital Card Reader Controller (rev 01) 06:04.3 FLASH memory: ENE Technology Inc FLASH memory: ENE Technology Inc: (rev 01) 06:04.4 FLASH memory: ENE Technology Inc Unknown device 0551 (rev 01)
lsscsi output:
[0:0:0:0] disk ATA TOSHIBA MK1032GS AS02 /dev/sda [1:0:0:0] cd/dvd MATSHITA DVD-RAM UJ-845S D100 /dev/scd0
lsmod output (custom kernel, may not be identical to yours):
Module Size Used by vfat 7680 1 fat 33564 1 vfat mmc_block 4232 2 sdhci 10764 0 mmc_core 14212 2 mmc_block,sdhci ipv6 180032 10 nvidia 6820116 26 vmnet 19748 5 vmmon 161100 0 nfs 164072 0 fan 2308 0 button 3856 0 ac 2308 0 battery 6020 0 fuse 26260 1 snd_seq_oss 19968 0 snd_seq_midi_event 3456 1 snd_seq_oss snd_seq 29392 4 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event snd_seq_device 3852 2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq sbp2 14212 0 loop 8712 0 eth1394 11780 0 usbhid 10628 0 snd_hda_intel 10008 6 snd_hda_codec 165376 1 snd_hda_intel snd_pcm_oss 27552 0 snd_mixer_oss 10240 1 snd_pcm_oss pcmcia 20884 0 snd_pcm 40708 4 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_pcm_oss ipw3945 177956 0 snd_timer 12292 3 snd_seq,snd_pcm ehci_hcd 22028 0 snd 26980 19 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_timer uhci_hcd 16140 0 ohci1394 25520 0 usbcore 78856 4 usbhid,ehci_hcd,uhci_hcd tg3 88836 0 yenta_socket 14476 1 rsrc_nonstatic 5888 1 yenta_socket pcmcia_core 20372 3 pcmcia,yenta_socket,rsrc_nonstatic ieee1394 55992 3 sbp2,eth1394,ohci1394 ieee80211 23368 1 ipw3945 ieee80211_crypt 2304 1 ieee80211 snd_page_alloc 4744 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
If you have any further questions, feel free to email me (see top of page).