Acer Timeline 4810TG on Jaunty - ATI Driver

[hotwax]

thanks for the reply f4lkon but when i try to save

sudo gedit modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

and add following string at the end
blacklist radeon

"could not find the file /home/manuel/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
please type the file location correctly and try again"

[f4lkon]

the file blacklist.conf is in /etc/modprobe.d/

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

you are lookin in your home folder

[hotwax]

thanks f4lkon,finally got it to work

[smokyink]

Just wanted to check what minimal power usage do you guys get from powertop..

I have timelinex 3820tg and the lowest I ever get is 13 till 14W.

I have the descrete gpu off, usb ports, wifi and sound to powersave, hdd to powersave, bluetooth disabled, camera disabled, cpu governer on "on demand"... yet the 14W consumption yelds 4.5h of battery...

Is there any way to find out what is sucking the juice out of my battery ?

Any help is greatly appreciated

[fhusexxx]

Hello,

I tried to make the modules but I took this:

make -C /lib/modules/2.6.35-23-generic-pae/build M=/home/kex modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.35-23-generic-pae'
make[2]: *** No rule to make target `/home/kex/timelinex_acpi.c', needed by `/home/kex/timelinex_acpi.o'. Stop.
make[1]: *** [_module_/home/kex] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.35-23-generic-pae'
make: *** [default] Error 2

How can I solve this?

Thanks.

[fhusexxx]

Hello,

I tried to make the modules but I took this:

make -C /lib/modules/2.6.35-23-generic-pae/build M=/home/kex modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.35-23-generic-pae'
make[2]: *** No rule to make target `/home/kex/timelinex_acpi.c', needed by `/home/kex/timelinex_acpi.o'. Stop.
make[1]: *** [_module_/home/kex] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.35-23-generic-pae'
make: *** [default] Error 2

How can I solve this?

Thanks.

Sorry! It was my fault misspelled the filename.

[Korken]

@mylan4:

paste this into the terminal

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

and add following string at the end


blacklist radeon

reboot.

@hotwax

its really easy. do this

open up terminal and type

gedit timelinex_acpi.c

past following code inside and save.

/* 
 * timelinex_acpi.c
 * 
 * Linux kernel module that disables the discrete graphics board for Acer
 * Aspire TimelineX 3820TG (Core i5). Other TimelineX laptops could work, but I don't know.
 *
 * Based on the original lenovo_acpi.c by Sylvain Joyeux <sylvain.joyeux@m4x.org>, 2009
 */
#include <acpi/acpi.h>

MODULE_LICENSE("GPL");

static acpi_handle root_handle;

static int __init kill_ati(void)
{
    int i;
    acpi_status status;
    // The device handle
    acpi_handle handle;
    // The package elements
    union acpi_object package_elements[3];
    // The arguments to ATPX
    union acpi_object atpx_arg_elements[2];
    struct acpi_object_list atpx_arg;
    // For the return value of ATPX
    struct acpi_buffer buffer = { ACPI_ALLOCATE_BUFFER, NULL };

    status = acpi_get_handle(root_handle, "\\_SB.PCI0.P0P2.PEGP._OFF", &handle); //     status = acpi_get_handle(root_handle, "\\_SB_.PCI0.OVGA.ATPX", &handle);
    if (ACPI_FAILURE(status))
    {
        status = acpi_get_handle(root_handle, "\\_SB_.PCI0.OVGA.XTPX", &handle);
        if (ACPI_FAILURE(status))
        {
            printk("timelinex_acpi: cannot get ACPI handle: %s\n", acpi_format_exception(status));
            return -ENOSYS;
        }
        printk("timelinex_acpi: in discrete graphics mode\n");
        return 0;
    }

    for (i = 0; i < 3; ++i)
    {
        package_elements[i].type = ACPI_TYPE_INTEGER;
        package_elements[i].integer.value = 0;
    }

    atpx_arg.count = 0; //     atpx_arg.count = 2;
    atpx_arg.pointer = &atpx_arg_elements[0];

    atpx_arg_elements[0].type = ACPI_TYPE_INTEGER;
    atpx_arg_elements[0].integer.value = 2;

    atpx_arg_elements[1].type = ACPI_TYPE_PACKAGE;
    atpx_arg_elements[1].package.count = 3;
    atpx_arg_elements[1].package.elements = &package_elements[0];
    
    status = acpi_evaluate_object(handle, NULL, &atpx_arg, &buffer);
    if (ACPI_FAILURE(status))
    {
        printk("timelinex_acpi: ATPX method call failed: %s\n", acpi_format_exception(status));
        return -ENOSYS;
    }
    kfree(buffer.pointer);

    printk("timelinex_acpi: disabled the discrete graphics card\n");
    return 0;
}

static void dummy(void)
{
}

module_init(kill_ati);
module_exit(dummy);

then type in terminal

gedit Makefile

and paste following code inside

ifneq ($(KERNELRELEASE),)
  obj-m := timelinex_acpi.o
else
  KERNELDIR ?= /lib/modules/$(shell uname -r)/build
  PWD := $(shell pwd)

default:
	$(MAKE) -C $(KERNELDIR) M=$(PWD) $(EXTRA_FLAGS) modules

clean:
	$(MAKE) -C $(KERNELDIR) M=$(PWD) $(EXTRA_FLAGS) clean

endif

save and paste in terminal

make
sudo cp timelinex_acpi.ko /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/
sudo depmod
echo timelinex_acpi | sudo tee -a /etc/modules > /dev/null

done.

dont forget to

paste this into the terminal

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

and add following string at the end

When I do this my screen goes black after reboot. I have a Acer TimelineX 3820TG wth i5 M430 CPU and Radeon HD 5470.
What am I doing wrong?

[Marc128000]

Hello,
Thought I'd drop in and share some info. My laptop is an HP Envy 14. However it has the same graphics issues. You will NOT be able to use the ATI Catalyst drivers as of right now. They are simply not compatible with the switchable ('hybrid') graphics right now.

The switchable graphics were designed to give a nice balance of power and battery life. The way its supposed to work is that during normal desktop browsing or when the GPU (discrete) graphics are not needed the higher powered graphics card is turned off. Once you start a game or other graphics intensive application the higher powered video card turns on and turns off the integrated (low power) card. This type of design currently only works well in windows. While using linux or Apple's OS x you must turn the card on, tell the system to switch then restart (log in/log out) the xserver.

Hope that was helpful.

On my blog I've got a tutorial on how to set this system up to work well under linux. The setup right now is mostly just to optimize battery life. I also have a post showing the power savings. It can easily make a 20w to 30w difference in power usage.

http://linuxenvy.blogspot.com/

[mino.sk]

Well, I have Acer 3820TG (U 10.10 Maverick Meerkat) and have used this code: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...3&postcount=65 as well as have blacklisted radeon - http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...7&postcount=90 and now everything works fine unless I hibernate - after restore, the Radeon graphics heats again - why? What keeps it turning on?

[mino.sk]

I have solved my problem by creating a file radeon in /etc/pm/sleep.d which contains this:

#!/bin/sh

case "$1" in
    thaw)
        modprobe -r lenovo_acpi
        modprobe lenovo_acpi      #restartuje modul lenovo_acpi => opat sa vykonaju prikazy vypinajuce Radeon
        ;;
esac

This file is executed after wakeup from hibernation (S4). The module lenovo_acpi is "restarted" which means that commands powering the ATI card off contained in the module are executed again therefore solving the problem with heating!

Now I have only problem with duration of getting to and from hibernation - it takes about 3 minutes! (but has nothing to do with ATI imho)
//Solved too: TuxOnIce - https://launchpad.net/~tuxonice/+archive/ppa - increased speed of hibernating rapidly! However, I needed to include lenovo_acpi in kernel again. But now, STR, hibernation etc. works, ATI is down... GREAT!