ubuntu 7.04 "feisty fawn" on an acer aspire 5570ANWXCi

Warning: Uber-geek post coming up! It's mainly for my own uses (tracking bugs and functionality), but it can also be of great use to those who want to plunge into the world that is Ubuntu. Especially if you have a similar laptop as I do. (Click here to find out more about this laptop). It's also useful if you want to learn a bit about the opensource world and how far it has progressed.

Laptop Specs:

• ACER 5570ANWXCi
  
• Intel Core Solo T1350 1.86GHz
• ICH7 Chipset
  
• 14.1 WXGA LCD
• Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950
• Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG
  
• 80GB HDD (IDE)
• DVD/CD-RW Combo drive
• 1GB of ram (originally 512MB but I upped it to 1GB)
• Texas Instruments 5-in-1 Multimedia Card Reader
  

Preliminaries

For this guide, I used an Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn Live CD. Note that this live cd, besides being able to run completely from the cd, could also be used to install the complete Ubuntu GNU/Linux system on a PC or in this case a laptop. I've read some reviews however that the Ubuntu Alternate CD (just the installer, not live) resulted in a cleaner and faster system. I never noticed this however with feisty so I went ahead and did the install from the live cd.

The laptop has an 80gb harddisk that's NTFS (winxp) formatted. The goal is to dual-boot or run both WinXP and Ubuntu on the same laptop.

Unlike a desktop system, there are usually more issues when installing Linux on laptops. It's usually due to the fact that they are less modular/standardized than desktops. You can find some more of these issues and some guides on installing Linux on particular machines on Linux on Laptops and TuxMobil.

What works out of the box (OTB)?

It's great that a lot of the stuff works without any installation. Especially 3d effects :D

• LAN (Wired Network)
• Edit: WiFi works OTB
  
• GUI/Display (but with weird resolution)
• Function keys (help, contrast, mute, kill touchpad, sleep, media control keys)
• WiFi kill switch
  
• DVD/CD-Writer
• Sleep (Suspend to Ram)
• Hibernate (Suspend to Disk)
• CPU Frequency Stepping (800MHz, 1.07GHz, 1.33Ghz, 1.6Ghz, 1.87Ghz)
• add the CPU Frequency Monitor Applet to the panel
• then - sudo chmod +s /usr/bin/cpufreq-selector
• this allows you to manually control the frequency
  
• Beryl (3D Desktop Effects)
• QuickLaunch buttons (Acer) for email and browser
• Battery Meter
• Touchpad (no scrolling yet - see below for solution)
• Headphones work but with slight problem (see below)
• Mic (both built-in and external) works out of the box. Just tweak around with the recording tab in the volume control settings
  

Doesn't work OTB, but eventually fixed

• Weird screen resolution
  
• This is common in ubuntu when you have an Intel 800/900 Series Graphics Chipset and a WXGA (Wide-aspect) screen
• Solved by installing 915resolution and then reboot
• Got it working at 1280x800 (max resolution)
• Touchpad acts weird (too sensitive) + 4-way scroll doesn't work
• Solved by adding a synaptics section to xorg.conf based on this guide.
• No sound from front speakers
• Solved by alsamixer command in console
• Unmute the surround bar
• Or add the surround section to the volume control GUI (in the system tray)
• Double-click volume control icon
• Edit -> Preferences -> Check surround
• VGA-out port
• So far I've only been able to make this work by rebooting the system while the monitor or projector is connected
• I'll find a faster way (function key fn-F5 doesn't work OTB)
• Edit: Found a great guide in the ubuntu forums to do exactly this. What's more they've created a script to automate it! It allows you to switch from:
• lcd only
• lcd + monitor (cloned desktop)
• lcd + monitor (dual head, like having to separate desktops)
• lcd + svideo (tv-out) or lcd + svideo dual head
• Edit: I've also tried installing the xserver-xorg-video-intel driver and it works fine
• sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-intel
  
• no dual head support
• crashes movies when using beryl
• but, the great thing is, you don't need 915resolution anymore. It properly detects the resolution. Even the switch script above isn't needed.
• this is my preferred driver because everything just works great, especially vga-out
• it also makes the s-video work. Just plug an s-video cable in and restart X (alt-backspace). The TV/projector is detected automatically.
  
• Some resolutions unavailable form System -> Preferences -> Screen Resolution
• Solved by editing xorg.conf and adding the desired resolutions (ex. 1024x768)
• Suspend and Hibernate work OTB but it's great to automate them when the lid closes and when the battery is critical
• Just go to system -> preference -> powermanagement to change these

Not working yet... but I'll find a way soon!

• Inserted MemStick in the Card Reader isn't detected, much less mounted
• SD and MMC cards work OTB but Memory Stick, SmartMedia and XD don't
• Texas Instruments drivers for MS/SM and XD are not yet available as of this writing
  
• After waking up from hibernate, the battery light blinks amber (it's supposed to be green or amber and not blinking). Blinking stops after a reboot. (Note: The laptop works fine after waking up, it's just the blinking that's annoying me)
  
• Front speaker volume can't be controlled through keyboard. You need to go to the volume control gui to mute or adjust it
• Solved by going to System > Preferences > Sound > Default Mixer Tracks
• Choose PCM as the output controlled by the volume keys
  
• Inserting earphones in the jack makes them work but doesn't mute the front speakers (you have to mute them manually)
  

Untested

• S-Video (TV-out) - I don't have a connector yet to test this
• Modem - dsl at home, so this is still untested
• 5-in-1 Card Reader (Texas Instruments) - Except for MemoryStick (tested, but not working)
• Wireless - No wireless network at home, will test in school. It's very likely that it's gonna work, since it's an Intel Wireless device
• PCMCIA - I don't have anything to test it with
• Mic untested
• however, if the mic bar in the volume control is adjusted, it generates feedback
• so i think it's working

Additional Tweaks

Watch out here for a guide of all the cool tweaks I've managed to do in order to maximize the use of this laptop in Ubuntu 7.04. Such as:

• Battery saving with laptop-mode
• Battery saving with intel3945 wifi (using powermanagement flag)
• Enabling the additional launch keys to suite your needs
  

Any help you might have on how to solve these issues will be much appreciated. Just drop a comment :D

Linux-on-Laptops Listed

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