ACER TravelMate B113: Howto get everything to work

[nexero]

Hey there!
As I bought a new Acer TravelMate B113 for my girlfriend and I ran into some issues, here is what I figured out:

Issues after a clean install:
1) Fn-Brightness and Ubuntu internal brightness do not work
2) No powersaving optimizations
3) No proper right click support for clickpad and no proper palm detection
4) No external support microphone or combined headset-plugs

Solutions:

1) Fn-Brightness and Ubuntu internal brightness do not work:

Add

acpi_backlight=vendor

to /etc/default/grub in the section GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi_backlight=vendor" and execute

sudo update-grub && sudo reboot

.

2) No powersaving optimizations:

Again, edit /etc/default/grub and add

pcie_aspm=force i915.i915_enable_fbc=1 drm.vblankoffdelay=1 i915.semaphores=1 i915.lvds_downclock=1 nmi_watchdog=0 acpi_backlight=vendor

in the section GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash pcie_aspm=force i915.i915_enable_fbc=1 drm.vblankoffdelay=1 i915.semaphores=1 i915.lvds_downclock=1 nmi_watchdog=0 acpi_backlight=vendor" and execute this:

sudo update-grub && sudo reboot

Execute this to get ALPM to work:

echo SATA_ALPM_ENABLE=true | sudo tee /etc/pm/config.d/sata_alpm

Create /etc/udev/rules.d/10-runtime-pm.rules with root permission:

SUBSYSTEM!="pci", GOTO="power_runtime_rules_end"
ACTION!="add", GOTO="power_runtime_rules_end"

KERNEL=="????:??:??.?"
PROGRAM="/bin/sleep 0.1"

ATTR{power/control}=="*", ATTR{power/control}="auto"

LABEL="power_runtime_rules_end"

3) No proper right click support for clickpad:

Create a a new folder and a new file:

sudo mkdir /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ && sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/51-clickpad.conf

Paste this into your new file:

Section "InputClass
Identifier "Default clickpad buttons"
MatchDriver "synaptics"
Option "SoftButtonAreas" "50% 0 82% 0 0 0 0 0"

EndSection

Execute this in a terminal once and never enable the setting "System Settings > Mouse & Touchpad > Touchpad > Disable touchpad while typing" again:

gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.peripherals.touchpad disable-while-typing false

Add a new entry to your startup programs, on Unity desktop it can be done this way:
Run "System Settings > Startup Applications > Add" and add

syndaemon -i 1.7 -d -t -K

You might want to edit the value -i 1.7, as it defines how long tapping would be disabled after stopping typing in seconds.
Needs a reboot to take effect.

4) No external support microphone or combined headset-plugs:

Type this into a terminal:

echo options snd-hda-intel model=laptop-dmic | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf

Thats it!
Everything else seems to works out of the box.

[nexero]

Created a wiki page:

Acer TravelMate B113

Feel free to improve it!

[johambros]

Hello nexero
Thanks for your help this far.

I installed Xubuntu on Travelmate B113.
I can add two informations concerning Xubuntu:

1) Clickpad corners to senitive:
Solution under: http://www.theorangenotebook.com/201...-clickpad.html (only step 1 and step 2)

2) Set Display to less brightness at startup. Solution under http://forum.ubuntuusers.de/topic/bi.../#post-3338502 (Install tool "xbacklight")


But I encounter 2 problems I cannot solve, although I am searching for a solution since about 2 weeks now.

1) Bluetooth does not work.
Blueman showes up in the taskbar but "adapter" and "devices" are greyed out. Installed blueZ:
lspci | grep -i bluetooth gives no result
hcitool dev gives o result
hcitool scan gives "no device"
lsusb | grep Bluetooth gives no result
lsmod | grep bluetooth gives "bluetooth 180153 10 bnep,rfcomm"

2) External Mic: I followed your advice but the result is that afterwards the internal mic input only captures white noise at a very high level.
I tried every thinkable setting in alsa and pulse. Also deleting all settings in pulse and re-installing alsa. When removing the line "options snd-hda-intel model=laptop-dmic" the internal mic works fine again.


Maybe you can help? I would be very thankful.
And sorry for my bad english
Johannes

[johambros]

Ok, now I found out why bluetooth didn't work for me.
It's the Fn+F3 switch. This switch does not only switch wlan but also bluetooth!

Unfortunately the on/off-state of bluetooth is not displayed so it took several days of research for me to figure that out.
Fn+F3 toggles between the following states: wlan on, bt off / wlan on, bt on / wlan off, bt on / wlan off, bt off

Does anyone need the bluetooth-dongle I ordered?