Acer Aspire Timeline 4810T

[crinisuilla]

The other Acer Aspire Timeline thread is getting big, so I wanted to start a slightly different one for my laptop, the Acer Aspire 4810T (specifically the AS4810T-8480). I installed Jaunty 64bit on it and it worked out of the box!

Specs at a glance: C2D (U3500 @ 1.40 GHz), 4Gb RAM, 320 Gb HD, 13" panel.

I upgraded to 2.6.30.3 (the latest kernel as of this writing), then to get the wired ethernet working, I did the following:
1. Downloaded the latest driver for AR813X from Atheros's website
(1.0.0.9 as of this writing)
2. Untar and change to the src directoy
3. make
4. sudo make install
5. sudo modprobe atl1e (or restart)

For the 2.6.30.3 kernel I needed to do this. change kcompat.h in the src directory:

208,209c208,209
< #define IRQ_HANDLED
< #define IRQ_NONE
---
> #define IRQ_HANDLED 1
> #define IRQ_NONE 0

Suspend and hibernate also worked after the kernel upgrade. Though I found hibernate to be insanely slow. Suspend worked well seemingly without a hitch.

Camera driver was also correctly detected. I could run cheese without having to do a modprobe.

The biggest bummer right now is that the toggle button on the mouse touchpad only turns OFF the keypad. I can fudge mousepad toggle like so by adding the following to /usr/share/hal/fdi/policy/20thirdparty/11-x11-synaptics.fdi ::

  <device>
    ...
    ...
    <match key="info.product" contains="Synaptics TouchPad">
        <merge key="input.x11_options.SHMConfig" type="string">On</merge>
    </match>
    ...
  </device>

Then after restarting, I can toggle the mouse with

synclient TouchpadOff=0 
synclient TouchpadOff=1

I am loving this laptop with Linux (despite a button I never had before not working). Screen is crisp, the "chiclet" keyboard is trendy and easy for a touch typist. The brushed aluminum is slick. Also, Acer rather cleverly moved the CDROM eject to the top of the keyboard so I can't accidentally open it just by carrying it (which happened far too frequently with my previous laptop). Acer also removed the panel latch (another useless feature of my previous laptop). Combine all that with the size, cool running, and slim profile, and I'm one satisfied laptop buyer and Linux user.

[networm]

This is just wonderful. Exactly what I've been looking for. Thank you a million time.

[crinisuilla]

I've recently been interested in getting Bluetooth to work. lsusb does not report the presence of bluetooth, but the acer-wmi module is loading. Has anyone had success getting the internal bluetooth on an Acer Aspire Timeline working?

[Sashin]

What do you get in the way of battery life?

[miguellocsin]

Hi,
Can anyone help my kid with her problem? Its a new acer timeline 4810T it keeps on hanging when she's researching or using the office 2007 programs. Thanks in advance.

[stoner_di]

The other Acer Aspire Timeline thread is getting big, so I wanted to start a slightly different one for my laptop, the Acer Aspire 4810T (specifically the AS4810T-8480). I installed Jaunty 64bit on it and it worked out of the box!

Specs at a glance: C2D (U3500 @ 1.40 GHz), 4Gb RAM, 320 Gb HD, 13" panel.

I upgraded to 2.6.30.3 (the latest kernel as of this writing), then to get the wired ethernet working, I did the following:
1. Downloaded the latest driver for AR813X from Atheros's website
(1.0.0.9 as of this writing)
2. Untar and change to the src directoy
3. make
4. sudo make install
5. sudo modprobe atl1e (or restart)

For the 2.6.30.3 kernel I needed to do this. change kcompat.h in the src directory:

208,209c208,209
< #define IRQ_HANDLED
< #define IRQ_NONE
---
> #define IRQ_HANDLED 1
> #define IRQ_NONE 0

Suspend and hibernate also worked after the kernel upgrade. Though I found hibernate to be insanely slow. Suspend worked well seemingly without a hitch.

Camera driver was also correctly detected. I could run cheese without having to do a modprobe.

The biggest bummer right now is that the toggle button on the mouse touchpad only turns OFF the keypad. I can fudge mousepad toggle like so by adding the following to /usr/share/hal/fdi/policy/20thirdparty/11-x11-synaptics.fdi ::

  <device>
    ...
    ...
    <match key="info.product" contains="Synaptics TouchPad">
        <merge key="input.x11_options.SHMConfig" type="string">On</merge>
    </match>
    ...
  </device>

Then after restarting, I can toggle the mouse with

synclient TouchpadOff=0 
synclient TouchpadOff=1

I am loving this laptop with Linux (despite a button I never had before not working). Screen is crisp, the "chiclet" keyboard is trendy and easy for a touch typist. The brushed aluminum is slick. Also, Acer rather cleverly moved the CDROM eject to the top of the keyboard so I can't accidentally open it just by carrying it (which happened far too frequently with my previous laptop). Acer also removed the panel latch (another useless feature of my previous laptop). Combine all that with the size, cool running, and slim profile, and I'm one satisfied laptop buyer and Linux user.

Would you published ". config" file using the kernel compilation? How do you go apparmour?

I'll be very grateful!

[balagosa]

I have a problem with my wireless connection.

I already did the correct setup for my wired Ethernet but then my wireless is not present.

Only a) localhost, and b) eth0 show up when i do

ifconfig

[zelhar]

I have a problem shutting down this notebook. I see a message that some sort of unmount failed and I must press CTRL-ALT-Del for it to restart.

[Arlanthir]

Thanks for all the information!
I'm planning on buying a 4810T myself and I had to check if it ran Ubuntu well enough

After reading most of the topics about the Timeline series, I'm under the impression it will be better to wait for Karmic (or risk installing the alpha6 now), as it fixes most of the bugs.

However, I have to ask: should I get the 32 or the 64 bits version? I reckon the 32 version doesn't recognize all the RAM, and has more problems suspending and hibernating, while the 64bits version has problems too for some people :S

[Sashin]

I haven't tried the 32 bit version, but I'm running it on the 64bit version and it seems to be running really smoothly.